The Den of Shadows Quartet (53 page)

The weapon wrapped around her wrist, tearing open the skin; he yanked her forward, and her shoulder screamed in pain, probably dislocated
.

Breathing tightly past pain that seemed to pulse from her fingers to her shoulder, down her back and through her gut, she tried to move the arm, then nearly blacked out.
No, we won’t be trying that again
. In all her years as a vampire hunter, she had yet to break a bone, but there was a first time for everything.

Again came the crack. This time the whip cut open a line above her left collarbone
.

Desperately, she dove with the knife. Lord Daryl didn’t react quickly enough to avoid the blade, but she could not reach his heart. Instead, the weapon cut into his stomach
.

Lord Daryl growled a curse, and shoved her away, toward Nathaniel. She couldn’t get up again. Everything was bleeding, bruised, in pain. She barely remembered hearing him order Nathaniel, “Get her out of here
.”

She had been lucky then to have Nathaniel to save her. This time, she had only training and her wits to help her.

Her knife was still in her hand, held by a death grip, but only because instincts died hard. Turquoise was lucky it had not sliced her open when she fell.

Daryl was already standing above her, expression unconcerned. “You can’t fight me, Catherine,” he said calmly, and the words ignited her rage. “I am your master, and I will be for as long as you live. Did you honestly think you were better than I am?”

“You’re Catherine Miriam Minate,” her father had said, after she first met Daryl, as if that explained everything. “You’re proud, and you have every right to be. And no one — no one — can take that away from you unless you let them
.”

Turquoise answered with a single word: “Yes.”

She started fighting again, this time a series of lightning thrusts and dodges that left him off guard. The knife sliced along his arm as he fumbled a block. She barely managed to dodge his blade, by stepping in closer. Her knife cut along the back of his hand, and he dropped his weapon with a hiss of pain.

“Some people only care about themselves. They use things; they destroy,” Mr. Minate told his daughter. “You’re … you’re a creator, a builder. A healer, not a user
.”

Cathy shook her dad’s words of wisdom off as hokey
.

Some people use things — people, objects. They destroy
. Some creatures needed to abuse others in order to thrive. This one had picked the wrong life to try to steal.

“I might never have come back here,” Turquoise stated, as she fought. She moved closer, and then dodged back as Daryl tried to retaliate. “But you did something very dumb.” Another series of attacks, and another quick retreat. “You threatened —” She blocked a blow; the effort sent a series of black waves through her vision. “— Eric. And you tried —” He caught her around the waist, and pulled her forward. “— to ruin the life I had just barely created again.” She slammed a
knee up, and Daryl shoved her away with a sound of pain.

He was expecting her to fall, or at least be delayed. Instead, she instantly swung her weapon arm up, at the same time throwing her weight forward to add power to the blow.

Finally the knife found its mark, and the creature collapsed, as a marionette will when the puppeteer cuts the strings.

Turquoise nearly fell with him, but somehow managed to lean back against the wall and grit her teeth against another wave of dizziness.

“You’ll do something amazing with your future,” her father stated with surety. “You’ve got so much passion, so much talent… you’ll be something incredible, I’m sure
.”

He hadn’t been talking about hunting vampires.

Funny, that wasn’t what she was thinking about, either. She had two worlds to pick her future from: human and vampiric. Or both.

First, she was going to need to see a doctor. She had no illusions about what she was at the moment — human — or about how much damage she could do to herself if she didn’t get to a hospital soon to get the arm set. After that …

You’re a creator, a builder
. Who knew? Maybe she could try to find that part of herself again.

Maybe she would take Jaguar’s job for long enough to decide she was bored with it, and then ask Nathaniel to change her; maybe she would salvage what Daryl
had tried to destroy, and realize she was content in human life.

She had choices, and if she didn’t have all of eternity, she had some time. She also had freedom.

Wryly, she mused,
In the end, my father was right
.