Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,57

silent. Completely eerie.

I still couldn’t hear whatever had caught his attention.

Even when he turned his back, standing on two massive legs, more than double the width they’d been only minutes earlier and prowled forward, I couldn’t hear anything.

Dark golden fur, almost the same gold as his skin, spread across his body. There were spots of deep, dark gray, nearly the same shade as his eyes, all across his arms, shoulders and legs.

He almost looked like a wereleopard I’d seen once, but that didn’t seen quite right.

Cat. I could only think cat.

As he disappeared into the trees, I dealt with the bags. I managed to shove them into the branches of the tree, hooking the straps around another branch to keep them from tumbling out of place. Out of the way, off the ground, and I didn’t have to worry about tripping over them.

That done, I gathered up his clothes and wedged them on top of the bags. Once I’d done that, I drew my blade and faded.

There was no way I was standing here in this hot, oppressive forest for anybody to find me.

Especially when I didn’t know just what had sent him prowling off into the silence alone.

A breeze kicked up and that’s when I heard them.

Dogs. Baying.

Voices…

Backing up against the tree, I held my breath.

I could climb the damn tree if I had to get away from the dogs but then I could end up trapped. I didn’t know if they were coming—

So focused on the dogs, I didn’t notice the bigger, quieter problem.

She tore through the trees, naked and trembling, young and terrified. I can see the mantle of her energy hovering over her—an overgrown housecat, I thought, spine arched, hair on end, swiping out at anything that moved. Too terrified to fight well.

I dropped the invisibility and moved forward.

She saw me—briefly, I realized that something about her face seemed familiar. Very familiar…blue van, I thought dumbly.

Oh, shit—

This was the girl that had gone missing from Atlanta, I realized. A month ago. Son of a bitch—

But even as my brain processed that, she started to scream.

“Shhh.” I struck out and grabbed her wrist, whirling her around and slamming her against the tree. I caught her off guard, just enough to stun her, the only reason it worked. Mind whirling, I grabbed the shirt Damon had shed from the pile of clothing and shoved it at her.

It fell to her feet.

She just stood there. Trembling. Abruptly, she just collapsed, curled in on herself and moaning like a cornered animal. I guessed that wasn’t too far off.

And all the while, the baying of the dogs got closer.

This was bad.

Very bad…

When Damon sprang through the trees, I had never been so glad to see him. Glad enough to see him that I just might forgive him almost anything. He saw the girl, saw my sword. In his half-form, a weird look that might have been a smile split his monstrous face.

“Foolish enough to fight,” he rumbled.

I lifted a brow and then looked to the girl.

He picked her up, hefted her over his shoulder. “Just humans. The dogs are a problem, though. You hide,” he said shortly. “And be here when I come back.”

Just humans…nothing I couldn’t handle, I figured. But yeah, dogs are a problem. While I could outrun any human on earth, dogs were a different story. Sighing, I glanced up into the limbs spread out over my head. “Can you boost me?”

I’d barely gotten the question out before I was scrambling up through the branches. I hauled the bags as I went, stashing his as best as I could in foliage and slinging mine back into place. As long as I was wearing it, it would fade away when I did.

He stared at me for a long, hard moment and even after I faded from sight, he lingered for a moment. Then he was gone.

I calculated two minutes before the dogs burst into the clearing.

They paused, sniffing at the tree and tipping back their heads to howl like the devil.

Shoo, I thought, glaring down at them.

A couple of them were staring right at me, but they couldn’t see me. They could smell me, yes, and hear me, most certainly, but they couldn’t see me.

When the humans stumbled out behind them, I clenched the blade even more tightly. Two, three, four…five.

I waited with bated breath for another one, but that was it.

They all gathered around the dogs, peering up at the tree. “What the hell’s the matter with them?”

Tall