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My footsteps were silent as I navigated by scent. I could smell my enemies close by, though I couldn't remember exactly who they were or why I was following them. But it was my task to hunt them down, to destroy and purge, to cleanse and send them to the waiting arms of my master.
The plants swayed as I brushed against them, alive in their own right. I could almost hear them whispering in some arcane language used only by the nature devas. But their souls were dark, and I did not stop to listen or intrude. Unlike the trees of the northern forests and the wildflowers of the meadows, the flytraps and corpse flowers would eat you alive if you stopped in their shelter.
And there it was—the turnoff leading to their lair. I veered to the right, pushing my way through the undergrowth, which opened into a shimmering field of light. As I passed through the brilliant barrier, the jungle disappeared behind me, and I found myself standing near a crystalline waterfall that cascaded over the face of a rock wall. The trees here were cedar and fir and maple.
The falls were roaring to the river below, a white sheet of water that glistened like ice, and the rocky shores on either side of the ravine were covered with a light dusting of snow. I paused, wondering where to go from here. As I sniffed the air, my lungs reverberated with the chill, and then I caught it, faint, on the wind. The scent of my prey, leading beyond the falls onto a paved road that wound through the woods.
I took off, looking this way and that, but there was no one in sight. As I loped along, I began to notice side roads leading into the forest. The snow was cold against my feet, and I shivered as each paw hit the asphalt.
After roaming for what seemed like hours, the smells grew so strong I could taste them. I opened my mouth, letting the breeze kiss my tongue with the flavor of blood, metallic and sweet. Fresh blood. They'd made a kill recently.
I turned onto one of the side roads, but something stopped me. I glanced up at a metal signpost, above which the image of a golden staff appeared.
The urge to hurry was stronger now, and I raced on, following the twists and turns of the road as it wound through firs heavy with snow.
A fork in the road beckoned, and I veered onto it. The path rose steadily, one side flanked by a dirt slope, the other by a ravine. I peered over the side. Below, a stream tumbled along, white-water caps raging at such a clip that they reminded me of spring thaws along the Tygerian River when the ice sheets in the mountains would melt and flood the bottomlands below.
Brambles covered the sides of the ravine, which were sharp and steep. With leaves stripped bare for the winter, their thorns stood out against the snow, promising a quick and painful landing for anyone so unfortunate as to trip and fall. My nose twitched, and I turned my attention back to the road and the scent I was following.
As I trotted along, the snowstorm tapered off, and the clouds parted, letting the moon shine through. A voice, unbidden and unfamiliar, whispered, "Our people used to live in these lands. We were the people of the moon."
Startled, I looked around and saw a shimmering figure. He was not tall, but he was muscular and fit and wore his hair in two long black braids that fell to his waist. He was dressed in a robe of some sort, and I recognized him as Native American. He was also a spirit.
"Good friend, where are you going?" he asked me.
I could not speak—not in words—but I formed a mental impression of the scent and the urge to hunt and thrust them at him. He seemed to understand, because he nodded and pointed to my left, to a cleft in the hillside.
"You'll find them in there, but you can't go alone, not like this. These abominations are defiling our land, so we welcome your help, but you must come back when you're in body. Do you understand, girl? You can't possibly face them like this."
He looked worried, and I thought about it for a moment. I must be on the astral, roaming far from my body. I seldom journeyed out—that was more for the likes of Camille than for me—but for some reason I'd been brought here, and I needed to see whatever there was to see. I decided to continue.
Sending him a thank-you, to which he nodded, I hurried toward the cleft. It was tall enough for a man and wide enough for three to walk abreast. I hesitated for moment. The scent of blood was strong here, and my instincts said, "Follow it, follow it!"
The opening appeared to lead into a cave.
I paused, trying to gauge how safe I was. Then slowly I padded forward, keeping every sense open and aware. As I approached the opening, a hundred eyes, red and gleaming, stared at me from the trees on either side. I paused, one paw still in the air. Something was coming out of the cave.
A man appeared. He looked human, and yet deep in my bones, I knew this was no ordinary man. He was tall and gangly, with gleaming eyes, and when he moved, he scuttled forward. As he said something in a blur of clicks and whistles, his voice stirred an alarm within me that said, Evil. This man is evil.
The red eyes gazing forth from the trees began to edge forward, twinkling like fireflies. Grateful I was in the astral realm, I shifted back a step, but as I did, the man looked in my direction. With a slow smile, he moved toward me.
Oh shit! He could see me! What the fuck was I going to do now?
"We have a visitor," he said, and this time his voice rang too loud.
Damn it, he wasn't fully in the physical realm; he was partially in the astral! I backed up again, wondering if I could take him, but right then I saw the first of what seemed like a hundred long, spindly legs emerge from the forest, and I knew that, whatever they were, they were on the astral plane, too. The spirit guide had warned me, and I hadn't understood.
"Why don't we have ourselves a feast, boys?" the man said, and there was sudden movement as at least a dozen shadowy shapes emerged from between the firs. Their bodies the shape of bloated brown spiders, their torsos were those of men—thin and sickly looking. Their jointed legs crooked ominously as they started forward.
I let out a roar and turned, racing back the way I'd come. Ahead, I saw the spirit guide, and he motioned for me to hurry past, then set a blinding light free to blaze behind me. I raced down the road as fast as my four legs could carry me. The shouts behind me told me the spiders weren't enjoying the light show, but I didn't stop to look back. I ran until I reached the sign with the golden rod hovering above it. Panting, I skidded to a halt and looked behind me.
Nothing. Yet. But my intuition told me that I didn't have a lot of time left until the creatures hunted me down. As I hurried back toward the waterfall, the ground below me quaked, and the sky became jet black.
"Delilah! Delilah! Wake up, babe. Delilah?"
Chase's voice cut through me fog holding my thoughts hostage, and I struggled to open my eyes. As I blinked, I saw him hovering over me, the light on behind him. I struggled with the blankets, and he helped me, holding my back as I scrambled to sit up.
"Are you okay? That must have been one hell of a nightmare." He reached across me to the nightstand for the bottle of water I always kept there. "Here, drink."
