Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

handful of markers.
    As she stepped away, Adam said grudgingly, “I’ll check the tapes. Flying wraiths could be a problem.”
    The trees and growth around her required some clambering and skin scratches before she got the few yards away she needed to feel comfortable calling for Khan to take her back.
    â€œKhan?” She waited like a dummy for him to pick her up in his whoosh of darkness, but that didn’t happen. Was he there, and not answering? Or had he gone? Either way, she’d have to walk the whole way back to Segue. Great. His mysterioso business was getting to her. Yet another thing to talk about.
    A pop above had her whirling, her gaze searching the branches. A resounding crack , and she whipped to aim the gun overhead. Wrong move. A great, black branch hurtled downward, and she threw herself into the prickly thatches to escape its strike. Got the skin scraped off her calf and ankle. Lost her shoe.
    She panted in shock as the men nearby crashed through the growth toward her.
    Her heart wouldn’t stop pounding, even as she felt strong hands lifting her and placing her on the cold earth. An army jacket was thrown over her shoulders, warm, while some guy took a look at her leg.
    â€œDamn it, I forgot. . . . By violence or by accident ,” Adam was saying.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œNothing,” he bit back. “I just fucked up, that’s all.”
    â€œI’ll live,” Layla assured him, though the scrapes stung pretty bad. Whatever spray that soldier guy was using numbed the pain a little. No need to get upset. Just a branch.
    Adam scowled, his face going red, so she figured she’d better shut up.
    â€œI guess Khan’s gone,” she offered.
    â€œYeah. I wish he’d told me first.” Adam gestured to a couple of men—one of whom had been her ruddy-faced escort, Kev, on the day of her ill-planned Segue photo op. “Get her back to Segue. Make sure Patel looks at that leg. She’s prone to life-threatening infection, I just know it.”
    â€œNo, I’m not,” Layla interjected. Now he was really going overboard.
    Adam lasered her with his gaze.
    She put her hands up in surrender. “Fine. I’ll see Dr. Patel again. But I’m fine.”
    â€œAnd watch for bears,” Adam said to Kev. “If there are any left on the mountain, they’re sure to come out of hibernation to be in these woods today with Layla around.” To her, he said, “You stay inside, take stairs very carefully, and chew your food well. Talia’s not losing you a second time if I can help it.”
    Chew my food? What?
    Layla went very still, the blood in her veins rushing to a stop. Would these people never stop speaking in riddles? “What’s going on?”
    Adam’s frown deepened. He closed his eyes, shook his head. “Never mind.”
    â€œWhat did Khan tell you?” And how convenient for him that he wasn’t there to answer the question himself.
    Kev and his partner looked confused.
    Branch. Infection. Bears. Chew her freaking food? Her stomach turned as she mentally added to the list: assault, car accident, gunfire.
    â€œI’m going to die, right?” That had to be it.
    Adam went still and looked at her with those tortured gray eyes of his. Finally, he exhaled. “Not if we can help it. Not again.”
    There was a resignation in Adam’s gaze, a sad kind of premature “You’ve finally got it.” So Layla worked fast to parse the riddle.
    She was Kathleen, who had died. . . . Yeah, around Layla’s age.
    But she was still young. Healthy. She should have years ahead of her. This was nonsense. She wasn’t going to believe it at all.
    Layla looked up at Adam. “How much time do I have?”
    His nostrils flared. His jaw twitched. “As far as I know, you’ve been borrowing time for the past twenty-four hours.”
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    Khan hung in the air like a crow, dark wings stretched over the wood, his eyes keen for signs of the living malice, called wraiths, or their even hungrier brothers, the wights.
    Wights. They were bound to emerge, for one kind of monster would always beget another. Starve a wraith for long enough so that all humanity is eroded, its body self-consumed with its unforgiving hunger, and you have a wight. Adam’s tight boxes wouldn’t hold them. Gravity couldn’t hold them. They had too little substance to mind mundane restrictions.