Shadow didn’t know it, but this time, I had another plan to enact while we were on Earth. Of course, step one was to save humans from the creature, but step two was to figure out if I could sneak away from him. I needed to know exactly how long it would take him to find me, and when he did, I might even learn the means he used to track me.
This would help me cover my trail when Angel’s plan went into effect.
A dangerous little experiment that I’d probably be soundly punished for, but it would be worth it for whatever knowledge I might gain. I didn’t think he would kill me, at least not yet. He wanted to see if I could unlock the door to the Shadow Realm—I was coming to understand that was his ultimate goal. He didn’t really care about returning the creatures, since they could obviously remain in the prisons indefinitely.
He needed that door open, for whatever personal reasons he was not sharing with me, so I was reasonably sure he wouldn’t kill me. Yet. And now seemed like as good a time as ever for a trial run of the great escape.
“Hurry up,” Shadow snapped, seemingly in a worse mood than usual.
“What’s up your ass?” I asked him.
He seemed to be trying to decide between sighing or smiting me, but with a much greater strength of character than I had, managed to refrain from both. “Nothing is up my ass. I’m just sick of cleaning up your messes and having no reward for it.”
For a beat, I wondered what reward he was talking about. Was I supposed to suck his dick or something? I mean, I sure as fuck didn’t remember there being any talk of reward… Oh, wait.
The Shadow Realm.
He wanted me to unlock the Shadow Realm. Frankly speaking, it seemed like he needed his dick sucked more, to be honest. Dude was a tad wound up.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you need to stop now.”
I jerked my head up, wondering if he could read minds as well.
“Your scent changes when you’re aroused,” he said bluntly. “Not to mention the rapid breathing and pupil dilation. Classic signs that you either can’t or don’t bother to hide.”
“Why should I hide it?” I asked with a little jerk of my shoulders. “Natural response to stimuli, and a normal shifter need. Don’t you have needs?”
He bared his teeth at me. “My needs are being met.”
A piercing hot emotion hit me, almost sending me stumbling. I refused to believe it was jealousy, since Shadow was nothing more than my temporary jailer, whom I would hopefully be free of soon. No way was I Stockholming over here and falling for him.
All we had was a physical attraction, or more accurately, that was all I had. Shadow Beast might have treated me a little better than his other prisoners, but we both knew I was just a means to an end. I had to step into reality and stop creating false bonds between us before I started scribbling love hearts with our initials in them.
Time for a subject change. “Where are we on Earth this time?”
His eyes narrowed. “You don’t recognize this area?”
I took another look around. “No, I don’t think so…”
The early morning sun was weak and there was a chill in the air, which told me we’d once again skipped into the next season. “Wait… It smells like California.”
“It is,” he said.
“Torma, California?” I guessed.
“And they call humans slow,” he drawled. “Yes, we’re on the very Eastern point of your pack’s territory, to be exact. A mass of shadow creatures have gathered here, and I’m sure even you can figure out why that might be.”
“Because of me,” I whispered, looking around for the mass.
Shadow nodded. “That’s my theory. This was where you released them and your energy is strong in these lands. They’re seeking you out, for some reason.”
No doubt the strength of my energy was due to the twenty-two years I’d lived, breathed, and bled in Torma. It was my family home. My pack grounds. The one place I almost wished to never return, except to let my friends know I was safe.
Maybe I’d get a chance to see them today.
My wolf poked her head up, glancing around her lands, and I felt her urge to see Torin. Or at least his wolf. We hadn’t been this close to him in almost a year—judging by the weather—and the pull to cross the lands toward him was strong.
I needed a distraction. “What creatures are we dealing with?”
Shadow didn’t call me out on my frantic tone. “There’s an abervoq, a falaster, and two grekins, from what I can tell.”
Finally, a solid distraction. New shadow creatures. “The first one I know, but you’re going to have to explain the other two.”
He gestured for me to step ahead, directing me across the field. “A falaster is a mix between a giant centipede and an anaconda,” he said, and I wrinkled my nose at the image that brought to mind. “They have no mouths or eyes but can smell a drop of blood from a mile away. They like to crush their victims, wrapping tighter and tighter, until eventually, they consume them through skin absorption.”
“That sounds… delightful,” I said, employing as much sarcasm as I could muster. “And the grekin?”
He grimaced. “I think they’re my least favorite. Tricksters, their minute and diminutive stature lulls beings into a false sense of security. But if you turn your back, the two of them will tear you to pieces, laughing madly about it the entire time.”
“Two of them? Is that how they always roll?”
Shadow nodded. “Yeah, they like to move in pairs. It makes for an easier job to initiate their tricks.”
Simply fantastic news. “Is there anything normal in your world? Any creature that isn’t trying to kill everything around it?”
Shadow paused, and I crashed into his back, not expecting him to stop so suddenly. “Oomph, sorry!”
He didn’t comment on my clumsiness, and we both knew I hadn’t hurt him, so it was immediately forgotten. “My world is the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen,” he told me, his voice lifting as tendrils of memories stole into them. “I miss it every single day, and it grates at me that my legacy there is unfulfilled. But life hasn’t always worked out the way it should for me.” As he stepped closer, my hand twitched to reach out and touch him. The memory of the pain stopped me, and that was when I realized it hadn’t hurt when I ran into him.
Weird…
“I promise, Mera,” he said, distracting me, “that if you help me with what I need, I’ll ensure the rest of your life is filled with every gift, power, and possession you could hope for.”
“I knew you didn’t care about the creatures,” I murmured. “You just need the realm opened.” Because he had an unfulfilled legacy there, apparently. Not that anyone would be surprised by that. Shadow oozed power and importance, both of which would be wasted without a legacy.
“It’s been a priority of mine for a long time,” he said, still in a sharing mood. “Returning to the Shadow Realm.”
“Why did you come here in the first place?” I asked, expecting his response to be something blasé like… I wanted an adventure or It was a dare.
Then he shocked me.
“I was betrayed.” His voice hardened and once again, I was staring at scary Shadow. “By one I trusted above all others. But with your help, I might finally right many wrongs. Their time is coming, and when I return to my realm, I’ll scatter what remains of them across the many worlds.”
Yikes. “Remind me not to betray you,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
Shadow was having none of that, though. “You won’t live long enough to worry about it if you do.”
“Fair enough.”
I jumped then as a massive crashing of trees and branches rang out above us. Shadow spun to crouch in front of me, and a second later my wolf rose to the surface, lending me her senses as we prepared for an attack.
