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“How far?” she asked.
“A few blocks up. Five minutes or so at this pace.”
She picked up speed, passing just far enough ahead of me for my competitive streak to kick in, but I caught myself before I got carried away.
“I need to be able to breathe when I get there,” I called ahead. She ignored me, naturally. “Do you even know where we’re going?”
Lily proceeded to flip me the bird.
Yeah, I deserved that.She’d been in the city as long as I had, and she’d spent plenty of time wandering the streets. It didn’t really matter that she’d done it as a dog, aside from the likelihood that it had given her a different perspective compared to mine.
Both she and Leo had said there was still a wildness in them when they were shifted. If a shifter didn’t learn how to control that wildness early on, they could become feral in their animal form. It was rare, supposedly, but I could help wondering what decades trapped in her animal form, the wrong animal form, might have done to Lily.
Something about the human world had twisted her magic. That or Wendy had done something to her to lock her in that form. After what she’d told me about my family, I wouldn’t put it past her. Lily had seen it all, literally. From my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my own flighty ass mom; she’d been there.
It was strange to think about just how much she’d seen in her life, including things I probably wouldn’t have let another human see. She’d seen me at my lowest. Comforted me when I was in tears.
A few weeks wasn’t even close to enough time to reconcile all of that with the woman I was dealing with now.
“Lily, could you slow down?” It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to be completely winded when I got there. I also didn’t know what to expect. Would Matty even recognize me at this point?
She must have heard the concern in my voice, because she fell back until we were keeping pace. Yes, I wanted to sprint. I wanted to be there already, but I had to be realistic. I’d already charged into a half-dozen situations where I expected to find my brother, only to be met with destruction and bloodshed. No brother in sight.
The constant failures were wearing on me.
We rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. My hand moved automatically to where the pendant hung from a chain around my neck. I tucked it inside my shirt, but it wasn’t like the demon wouldn’t know what was dangling at the end of that chain.
I’d taken the thing off once, and the pull to put it back on had clawed so strongly at me that I’d caved halfway through the night.
“Matty?” His name was out of my mouth before my brain had enough time to come up with a plan for dealing with the situation. Or before it even had a chance to really assess the situation.
It was the first time I’d seen my brother in the flesh in weeks, but when he turned at the sound of my voice, I wasn’t dealing with Matty.
“You.” The thing all but hissed the word at me.
“Me.” I nodded. This would have been the time for some clever, snarky remark, but I had nothing. Just seeing my brother with those ink black eyes stole the air from my lungs.
How the hell was I going to get that thing out of him? Would my brother still be there, even if I somehow managed that feat?
Lily moved away from me, not-so-subtly lining up to flank him. He didn’t seem to care. Those black eyes zeroed in on me, then slid down to my chest. He took a slow, predatory step forward, and that was when I saw the blood coating his hands.
A quick glance behind him showed me at least three bodies on the ground. It might have been more, but it was hard to tell with all the pieces scattered here and there.
My stomach rolled. Not because of the sight or the death, but because if Matty was still alive, and awake in his own body, he’d seen himself doing all of... that.
My brother was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a killer.
“What is your deal, shadow? What the hell are you looking for?” I asked, unable to bear even a second more of the staring contest.
“Give. It.” He reached out with one red-streaked hand, opening and closing his fingers.
A shiver rippled across the back of my neck. “Come and get it.” It took every ounce of my focus to keep my eyes on Matty when I caught Lily moving in my periphery.
With the demon’s shadow attention on me, maybe we could—
“Stop.” The thing shot a glare at Lily.
Lily stilled, keeping her eyes trained on my brother.
