Shadow Rites

I didn’t react to the change in his scent except to say, “How’d you handle it?”

“Small group at the front. Small group at the back. Fast entry, quick clear. The targets didn’t have time to draw weapons.” He hesitated. “Wasn’t supposed to be action, just recon. We had a female with us. When the stairs were cleared, she went up. Came back with the woman.”

“And?”

Something that could never have been called a smile ghosted across his face. “Two casualties of war. One female rescued and taken to Uncle Sam’s finest medics. Last I heard she was studying to be a nurse.”

“Repercussions?”

“Not everything made it into the reports that night. Let’s be smart,” Eli said. “Let me clear the area.”

I raised my head and sniffed the air. With Beast-hearing, I heard the girl whimper. Her scent was human. Broken. Sick. I growled when I heard her whimper. From inside a man shouted, “Shut up, bitch, or I’ll give you something to cry about.” I heard the laughter of two men. And the sound of soft sobs from upstairs, all loud enough that even Eli could hear. “She isn’t here of her own free will,” I growled. “I know what rape smells like.”

“Not disagreeing. Just saying let’s be smart. One minute more. Two at the most. The men are downstairs. Not hurting her right now.” Even more soft, he repeated. “Let me clear the area.”

I jerked my chin at him and said, “No explosive smell here,” my voice an octave lower, rumbling.

He nodded and said, “When I’m done, ready to enter, I’ll give a whippoorwill bird call. You know it?” I jerked my head down to say yes and Eli asked, “Can you get the door open fast?”

I showed blunt human teeth, attached the M4’s shoulder strap, and slung the shotgun back. I reached out and inserted my clawed, knobby fingers under the edge of the plywood. Instead of my having to pull it, making an ungodly noise, it simply opened about two inches. The plywood had been secured to the shutter and to the door, making it all one single piece, held on by a simple door chain on the inside. I grinned at Eli and showed my teeth again. “Stupid humans.”

Using his mini flash, he cleared the door of physical, mechanical, and explosive booby traps, then cleared the front porch, making sure there were no booby traps there. Even nonexplosive traps could be deadly and I had raced up here without a plan. Stupid Jane/Beast.

Eli leaped off the porch; I followed his progress by the slight swish of his legs through the unmown weeds and grasses. I waited. Looked at the SUV. Growled softly, though Alex couldn’t hear me.

And realized two things. I hadn’t told Eli who the two men were. And I had half shifted on the way across the street. I gazed at my feet. They still fit in the boots. I scrunched my toes, which curled in the toes of the Luccheses. Human-shaped still. Yet another new half form. Now that I was thinking clearer, I pushed the shotgun farther around back and repositioned two vamp-killers for easy access, unseating the weapons from their new hard-plastic holsters. The blades were shorter, but they had really stout tangs and hilts and rounded pommels, good for use as weapons themselves.

A whippoorwill called, the sound lonely. I ripped the plywood, the shutter, and the door off its hinges. The chain popped free, the stench of fire, unwashed male, and fainter, the fading, ancient scents of Tau and Marlene, roiling out. Before the assemblage fell to the porch, I was inside. Weapons drawn, blades back, against my lower arms. Moving Beast-fast.

The man in front of me caught sight of me. Started to scream. Began to pull a gun from his pants. I brought my right arm up from my hip. Caught him under the jaw with the pommel. An uppercut. Easy to dodge, easy to just fall away from. But his jaw crunched, blood flew. I stepped over him as he dropped.

The man behind him was holding a weapon in a street-style grip, out to the side. Stupid. I whirled. The other pommel took him in the cheek. Roundhouse. I/Beast whipped inside the gun hand, which went wide. Whirled. Caught him a backhanded fist to the jaw on the same side. Whipped my blade. Instead of killing him, I slammed the blade down through his lower arm, slicing between the arm bones with a killing claw, slashing down, cutting nerves and tendons as he fell.

He was out cold, so I performed the same treatment on his other arm. Predator can no longer hurt human girls. I/we ignored Eli, standing in the darkened doorway, the scent of shock leaching from his skin. I went back to the first man. Beast guiding my hand, I cut down his arms the same way.

Sounding far too casual, Eli said, “They’ll bleed out if you leave them that way. Cops might get involved.”

I snorted, looking the men over. I blinked. Seeing what I had done. Arterial blood was pumping from both men, wide pools of blood forming beneath them, splattering on the fire-blackened walls with each pulse. My own heart raced. My breath came too fast, uneven, hurting my chest with each inhalation. “Oh . . . crap.” The words were still Beast-deep, rough and grating.

There were shoes nearby, two pair of work boots, long laces on each. With the bloody blade, I cut the laces free, and wiped and sheathed the vamp-killer on a cloth nearby. Working fast, I created makeshift tourniquets with the laces and dirty spoons lying on the scorched table nearby. The bleeding stopped, but not before I got it all over myself.

I rose and looked at Eli, still standing in the doorway. Too relaxed, too nonchalant. But he smelled of uncertainty, doubt. I inspected at the men on the floor. My voice still deep, half Beast, half human, I said, “In my tribe, rape was very rare. Women held the power and the land. Men were warriors and hunters. When they . . . misbehaved . . . they were given to War Women. Who meted out judgment.” I toed the hand nearest. “I’ll . . . I’ll see if some willing fanghead will offer them blood. But no matter what, they won’t will be able to hurt a woman again. Ever.”