Kade twisted around and fired blindly. The shot scoured the creature's side and she screamed - a high sound of fury that made my ears ache.
Then she was on him, her sheer weight and speed flinging them both backward, until all I could see was a fighting ball of black and brown.
I swore and raced across the room. They were still rolling, tumbling, across the filthy concrete floor, but Kade had somehow managed to get his hands around the creature's neck. The corded muscles in his arms were evidence enough of the strength he was using to try to strangle her, but he seemed to be achieving little more than holding her wickedly sharp teeth away from his throat. And all the while, her claws were ripping at him everywhere else.
I couldn't risk a shot. Like before, I could kill Kade as easily as I could kill the bakeneko. So I reached out and grabbed her tail instead.
"Hey, bitch, try tackling someone in your own species group for a change."
I hauled back as hard as I could, and ripped her away from Kade. But she came away fighting, twisting around and slashing with her claws. I ducked the blows and flung her sideways with all my might. Then I fired the laser.
This time, I hit the bitch.
The bright beam scoured another trench down her side then flung itself toward a rear leg, slicing through flesh and sinew. The burnt smell of fur and skin tainted the air, but even as I pressed the trigger to fire again, the bakeneko was on the move, her speed seemingly un-hampered by the wound.
Kade, bleeding from a dozen different wounds, scrambled to his feet and ran to the left. He swooped up his laser and pressed the trigger, but with the creature running at full speed, neither of us were having much luck. She crashed through the door at the far end of the room and disappeared.
"She's playing hide-and-seek," he said. Blood poured down his arm and both legs, and his stomach had several deep slashes. When combined with the still-raw - but no longer bleeding - wound he'd received in the apartment, he wasn't a pretty sight.
"You'd better shift shape to stop the bleeding," I said, "Iktar should be here by now. Go find him while I track the creature."
"Fuck that." He snorted softly. "You think I'm going to let you go after that thing alone? You've got rocks in your head, sweetheart."
I might have rocks, but I was swifter and faster than he was. I was also less injured. "Kade, we need help to bring her down."
"Iktar can track emotions as well as I can. He'll find us quick enough. Move, Riley."
There was no point in arguing. That was obvious not only in his tone, but in the anger in his eyes. He wanted to bring this creature down bad.
I ran forward, following the scent of cat and burned flesh. Power shimmered across my senses as Kade shifted shape to stop the bleeding, then the sound of his footsteps echoed as he followed.
We crashed into the next room. The bakeneko was nowhere to be seen, but there were several shimmers of life crouching in the corners.
"The bitch is playing rats again."
I raised the laser and fired at the nearest nest. High-pitched squeals met the assault, and those rats I didn't kill went scattering.
One of them was faster than the rest, and it was running - changing and growing, until it once more resembled a big cat. And she was running straight at Kade again. We fired, the twin beams of blue cutting across the grimy shadows, missing the bakeneko but cleaning up everything else. Windows, walls, rats.
She launched herself in the air, her body little more than a blur of black.
"Kade!" I screamed, a warning he didn't really need.
He threw himself sideways, but the giant cat's paw hit him mid-leap, sending him flying straight at one of the grimy windows. Glass shattered, then Kade was gone.
I swore and fired the weapon, keeping my finger on the trigger and sending a continuous beam the bakeneko's way. The laser grew hotter in my hands, until it was almost impossible to hold, but it didn't do much good. The bitch was moving faster than any vampire, and while I left a trail of burned and smoking brick, plaster, and debris, the bakeneko remained whole.
As the red light began to flash on the weapon, warning that its charge was failing, I backed toward a wall and looked around for another weapon.
Unless I wanted to slap her senseless with a dead rat, there wasn't much here.
The laser finally gave out, the bright beam dying with little fanfare. I shoved the overheated weapon away and flexed my fingers. It looked like I'd have to do this the hard way - at least until Kade and Iktar got here.
The bakeneko finally stopped moving, her form shifting as she took on human shape again. But it seemed to take her longer than before. Maybe the energy she was expending was finally taking a toll.
"You," she said. "I shall eat. Your flesh smells sweet."
Her voice was low and oddly scratchy - the voice of someone not used to controlling vocal cords. It made me wonder how she'd kept up the facade of being Alana Burns for a whole night. But there again, maybe there'd been no need for her to say much. She'd been with a politician, after all, and they were notorious for loving the sound of their own voices.
I shifted my stance a little, my weight on my toes so I could move fast if needed. Although I was more than happy to keep her talking until the cavalry came to the rescue - in fact, I had to. I couldn't risk letting her escape. There'd been too many deaths - and too many souls lost - already.
Besides, I'd rather fight with words than fists. I had enough scars as it was.
"So why me?" I said, watching her eyes and ignoring the satisfied smile teasing her lips. "Why not the man you threw out the window? He tastes a whole lot better than me, trust me on that."
"He is not a pale one. It is the pale ones I must kill." She began to walk toward me, the lazy smile on her lips growing. A cat playing with its prey.
I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the tension winding through my muscles. "Why only us pale types? That hardly seems fair."
"Pale women killed my mistress. She hated them, and they killed her."
"Your mistress was killed by a vampire out for revenge. Her death had nothing to do with any of the other people."
Or me. But I don't think the bakeneko cared. Her quest for vengeance had slipped into outright lust for murder.
She was halfway across the room now, her strides long and rolling. There was no tension in her shoulders, no sign that she expected any sort of fight - like she expected me to be a quick and easy kill. And maybe I would be - this bitch might not be stronger than a god of death, but she was certainly faster.
"No," she said. "They took everything from her. They stole her life, so I steal theirs."
"And the men you killed?"
"She hated them. Hated what they did to her." A languid smile drifted across her lips. "I used them like they used her."
Like a cat should talk about behavior when they treated the whole world as underlings. "She was a Trollop. How else would they treat her?"
The bakeneko frowned. "I don't know this word."
"It means she was little better than a filthy cat in heat, and she was treated as such."
The bakeneko's eyes darkened. "For that, I rip you apart slow - "
The words were barely out of her mouth when I leapt at her. I had to - catching her by surprise was my only real hope of doing some serious damage. I had time to see her eyes widen slightly, then I hit her head-on, knocking her down and sideways. We both hit the ground hard, but I rolled to my feet quickly and hit her again, one foot smashing her in the face and mashing her nose flat, the other catching her in the throat. She staggered back, making a gurgling sound, the smirk disappearing under a cloud of anger and pain. I hit the concrete and again pushed upward. The bakeneko's shape was shifting again, becoming a cat from the feet up. But the shapeshift wasn't as fast as before, so maybe the constant fighting and the wounds I'd inflicted on her were beginning to take their toll. Even so, I didn't want to see her in cat shape. Paws that could become the size of buckets held no appeal at all. Not when I had to fight against them, anyway.
I swore and lunged forward, grabbing her arm and twisting it with all my might. She snarled, a sound that came out only half human, then slashed at me with a hand that was partially clawed, ripping through my coat and down into skin. I gritted my teeth against the scream that careened up my throat, but held on to her arm and gave it another twist. Bone shattered and suddenly her left arm was hanging useless. One less weapon to worry about.
She hit me again, knocking me sideways. I staggered several steps before I caught my balance. But by then, she'd attained her full cat shape. And she was leaping straight for my throat.
I dove out of reach and rolled to my feet, then twisted around, lashing out with one booted foot, smashing the heel across her mouth. Flesh and bone gave way under the force of the blow and blood flew.
She snarled again and lashed out with her claws, scraping down my leg and deep into flesh. Pain flared, thick and hot, but I ignored it, spinning again and smashing another blow into her mouth, this time dislodging teeth.
She screamed in fury and launched at me. I had no time to run and met her leap head-on, grabbing her throat with one hand and clawing at her eyes with the other. The breath whooshed from my lungs, leaving me gasping as the bakeneko's back legs clawed at my flesh and her fetid breath washed across my face.
We rolled across the cold concrete, my grunts mingling with her snarls as we punched and clawed at each other. My thumb found her eye socket and I dug deep, desperately trying to blind her. She screamed, the sound deafening, and shook her head from side to side, desperately trying to dislodge my grip. I dug deeper and deeper, until fluid gushed over my thumb and I hit bone. With a quick sideways flick, I tore the eyeball from the socket.
She roared and suddenly her broken teeth were in my flesh, gnawing at my arm. Sweat rolled down my face and white-hot pokers of pain began burning up my arm and into my brain. I drew my legs up, desperately trying to get my feet under her belly before she bit down into bone.
She ripped her head sideways, out of my grip, taking a chunk of flesh with her. A scream burned up my throat, but with it came anger and a desperate strength. My feet found purchase underneath her and I heaved with everything I had, sending her flying up and over my head.
I scrambled to my feet once again and backed away, blood dripping from my fingertips and splashing across the concrete.
The bakeneko hit the far wall and righted herself, her weight on three legs and the right side of her face bloodied and battered. There were strips of flesh - my flesh - hanging from her mouth, and her tongue came out, gathering them inward, before she swallowed.
A bizarre sort of smile stretched her broken features, then her form was shifting once again. Only this time she didn't become a blonde.
This time, she became me.
And she was perfect.
Perfect.
Aside from the fact that she had a broken arm rather than shredded legs and a chunk out of her arm, I might have been staring at a perfectly clothed reflection. Obviously, whatever magic allowed her to change could hide bloodied clothes or a gouged eye, but it couldn't heal a broken limb. It was nice to know that some shifting magic remained constant across species.
"I will walk out of here, guardian. I will walk away with no one being the wiser."
I flexed bloodied fingers and shifted my feet. "Like hell you will."
And with that, I leapt at her. If she remained in human form, I had a chance. But it wasn't my only chance.
Iktar and Kade had to be close.
She sidestepped fast, but her speed seemed to be restricted by either her human shape or her wounds, and I hit her hard, my boot sinking deep into her side and sending her flying.
I swung round. The bakeneko had regained her balance, but rather than attack, she ran backward. I ran after her, wondering why the fuck she was suddenly retreating when the bitch was so confident of a win.
A second later, I had my answer.
The door behind her was torn off its hinges and two figures appeared, one little more than a shadow and the other blood covered and battered.
"Shoot her!" the bakeneko screamed, her voice my voice. "Blow her fucking brains out!"
Neither man hesitated.
They both raised their guns and fired.
Chapter 13
Only they didn't fire at me.
They fired at the creature wearing my face.
One bright laser beam sliced through her legs, the other through her neck. There was a brief moment when shock registered, then her head parted company from her body and all three bits plopped to the floor.
I stared at her for a moment, unable to believe it was over so suddenly, then wiped a trembling hand across my face and met Kade's gaze as he limped toward me. "How did you know?"
He gave me a smile that was all aching weariness. "She's not missing her left little pinky. You are."
"Then you're both more observant than me, thank God." I hadn't even fucking noticed.
He wrapped a bloody arm around me and dragged me into a hug that was so damn fierce and comforting I felt like crying.
"You're a mess," he said, after a while.
"Now there's a case of the pot calling the kettle black."
"You both should go to the hospital," Iktar commented.
I looked around Kade's arm and saw him lightly toeing the bakeneko's body. As he did, smoke began to rise, twisting and curling skyward. It swirled around its human remains, finding shape and solidarity. Briefly gaining the form of a cat.
She turned, and her ghostly gaze met mine. She didn't say anything, simply bowed, then her form broke apart and began drifting skyward before disappearing completely.
"She's gone," I said, and wondered what sort of afterlife things like her went to.