Night World : Witchlight Chapter 1

The mall was so peaceful. There was no hint of the terrible amour that was rough to happen. It looked give care any other shopping mall in magnetic north Carolina on a Sunday afternoon in December. Modern. B rightfulnessly decorated. Crowded with customers who knew there were still ten shopping days until Christmas. Warm, despite the chilly hoar skies outside. Safe.Not the kind of place where a monster would appear.Keller walked past a divulge of Santa Claus Through the Ages with all her senses alert and open. And that meant a lot of senses. The glimpses she caught of herself in darkened store windows showed a high-school-aged girl in a sly jumpsuit, with straight black hair that uncivilized past her hips and cool rusty eyeball. however she knew that anybody who watched her closely was same(p)ly to see something else-a sort of prowling grace in the way she walked and an inner glow when the gray eyes focused on anything.Raksha Keller didnt look quite gentle. Which was u nassailablely surprising, because she wasnt. She was a shapeshifter, and if people looking at her got the impression of a half-tamed panther on the loose, they were enchantting it exactly right.Okay, everybody. Keller fey the pin on her collar, then pressed a finger to the well invisible receiver in her ear, trying to tune out the Christmas euphony that filled the mall. Report in.Winnie here. The congressman that spoke through the receiver was light, most lilting, solely professional. Im over by Sears. Havent seen anything yet. Maybe shes not here.Maybe, Keller said shortly into the pin-which wasnt a pin at all but an extremely high-ticket(prenominal) transmission dev nut case. exclusively shes supposed to love shopping, and her parents said she was headed this way. Its the best stretch out weve got. Keep looking.Nissa here. This repre directative was cooler and softer, emotionless. Im in the parking lot, driving by theBingham Street entrance. Nothing to report- wait. A p ause, then the ghostly persona came bed with a new tension Keller, weve got trouble. A black limo nevertheless pulled up outside Brodys. They know shes here.Kellers stomach tightened, but she kept her voice level. Youre sure its them?Im sure. Theyre inviteting out-a couple of vampires and something else. A young guy, fair a boy really. Maybe a shapeshifter. I dont know for sure he isnt like anything Ive seen before. The voice was troubled, and that troubled Keller. Nissa Johnson was a vampire with a principal like the library of Congress. Something she didnt recognize?Should I park and come military service you? Nissa asked.No, Keller said sharply. Stay with the car were going to indispensability it for a close allow absent. Winnie and I will take care of it. Right, Winnie?Oh, right, Boss. In fact, I fucking take em all on myself you just watch.You watch your mouth, girl. But Keller had to skin the grim smile that was tugging at her lips. Winfrith Arlin was Nissas opposi te-a witch and inclined to be emotional. Her one(a) sense of humor had lightened some black moments.Both of you stay alert, Keller said, whole serious now. You know whats at stake.Right, Boss. This time, both voices were subdued.They did know.The world.The girl they were looking for could give birth the world-or destroy it. Not that she knew that yet Her name was Iliana Harman, and she had grown up as a human child. She didnt realize that she had the blood of witches in her and that she was one of the four-spot Wild Powers destined to fight against the time of darkness that was coming.Shes about to get quite a surprise when we tell her, Keller thought That was assuming that Kellers team got to her before the bad guys did. But they would. They had to. There was a reason theyd been chosen to come here, when every agent of Circle Daybreak in North America would have been glad to do this job.They were the best. It was that simple.They were an odd team-vampire, witch, and shapeshift er-but they were unbeatable. And Keller was only seventeen, but she already had a reputation for never losing.And Im not about to fellate that now, she thought. This is it, kiddies, she said. No more talking until we ID the girl. Good luck. Their transmissions were scrambled, of course, but there was no point in taking chances. The bad guys were extremely well organized.Doesnt matter. intumesce still win, Keller thought, and she paused in her walking long enough really to boom her senses.It was like stepping into a different world. They were senses that a human couldnt even imagine. Infrared. She cut body heat. Smell. Humans didnt have any sense of smell, not really. Keller could espy Coke from Pepsi from across a room. Touch. As a panther, Keller had exquisitely painful hairs all over her body, especially on her face. Even in human form, she could olfaction things with ten times the intensity of a real human. She could feel her way in total darkness by the air drag on her s kin. Hearing. She could hear both higher and lower pitches than a human, and she could nail an individual cough in a crowd. Sight. She had night vision like-well, like a cats.Not to mention more than five hundred muscles that she could excise voluntarily.And just now, all her resources were attuned to finding one teenage girl in this swarming mall. Her eyes roved over faces her ears pricked at the sound of every young voice her nose sorted through thousands of smells for the one that would match the T-shirt shed interpreted from Ilianas room.Then, just as she froze, catching a whiff of something familiar, the receiver in her ear came to life. Keller-I spotted her authentication, second floor. But theyre here, too.Theyd found her first.Keller cursed soundlessly. Aloud, she said, Nissa, crop the car most to the west side of the mall. Winnie, dont do anything. Im coming.The nearest moving staircase was at the end of the mall. But from the map in her hand, she could see that Hallm ark was directly above her on the upper level. And she couldnt waste time. Keller gathered her legs to a lower place her and jumped.One leap, straight up. She neglected the gasps- and a few shrieks-of the people around her as she sprang. At the top of her jump, she caught the railing that fenced off the upper-level walkway. She hung for a second by her hands, then pulled herself up smoothly.More people were staring. Keller ignored them. They got out of her way as she headed for the Hallmark store.Winnie was standing with her back up to the display window of the store beside it. She was short, with a froth of strawberry curls and a pixy face. Keller edged up to her, careful to keep out of the line of business deal of the Hallmark.Whats up?Theres terzetto of them, Winnie murmured in a barely audible voice. comely like Nissa said. I saw them go in-and then I saw her. Theyve got her surrounded, but so far theyre just talking to her. She glanced sideways at Keller with dancing gr een eyes. Only three-we can take them easy.Yeah, and thats what worries me. Why would they only send three?Winnie shrugged slightly. Maybe theyre like us-the best.Keller only acknowledged that with a flicker of her eyebrows. She was edging forward centimeter by centimeter, trying to get a glimpse of the interior of the Hallmark shop between the stockings and stuffed animals in the display window.There. Two guys in dark clothing almost like uniforms-vampire thugs. Another guy Keller could see only as a fond(p) silhouette through a rack of Christmas ornaments.And her. Iliana. The girl everybody wanted.She was beautiful, almost impossibly so. Keller had seen a picture, and it had been beautiful, but now she saw that it hadnt come within miles of conveyance the real girl. She had the silvery-fair hair and violet eyes that showed her Harman blood. She also had an extraordinary airiness of features and grace of movement that made her as pretty to watch as a white kitten on the grass. A lthough Keller knew she was seventeen, she seemed slight and childlike. Almost fairylike. And right now, she was listening with wide, trusting eyes to whatever the silhouette guy was saying.To Kellers fury, she couldnt practice it out. He must be whispering.Its really her, Winnie breathed from beside Keller, awed. The Witch Child. She looks just like the legends said, just like I imagined. Her voice turned indignant. I cant stand to watch them talk to her. Its like-blasphemy.Keep your hair on, Keller murmured, still probing with her eyes. You witches get so emotional about your legends.Well, we should. Shes not just a Wild Power, shes a pure soul. Winfriths voice was softly awed.She must be so wise, so gentle, so farsighted. I cant wait to talk to her. Her voice sharpened. And those thugs shouldnt be allowed to talk to her. Come on, Keller, we can take-them fast. Lets go.Winnie, dont-It was too late. Winnie was already moving, heading straight into the shop without any attempt at concealment.Keller cursed again. But she didnt have any choice now. Nissa, stand by. Things are going to get exciting, she snapped, touching her pin, and then she followed.Winnie was walking directly toward the little group of three guys and Iliana as Keller reached the door. The guys were looking up, instantly alert. Keller saw their faces and gathered herself for a leap.But it never happened. Before she could get all her muscles ready, the silhouette guy turned-and everything changed. snip went into slow motion. Keller saw his face clearly, as if shed had a year to submit it. He wasnt bad-looking-quite handsome, actually. He didnt look much older than she was, and he had clean, nicely molded features. He had a small, compact body with what looked like hard muscles under his clothes.His hair was black, shaggy but shiny, almost like fur. It fell over his forehead in an odd way, a way that looked by choice disarrayed and was at odds with the neatness of the rest of him.And he had eyes of obsidian.Totally opaque.Shiny silver-black, with nothing clear or transparent about them. They revealed nothing they simply threw light back at anyone who looked into them. They were the eyes of a monster, and every one of Kellers five hundred voluntary muscles froze in fear.She didnt need to hear the roar that was far below the pitch that human ears could hustle up. She didnt need to see the swirl of dark energy that flared like a red-tinged black aura around him. She knew already, instinctively, and she tried to get the breath to predict a warning to Winnie.There was no time.She could only watch as the boys face turned toward Winnie and power exploded out of him. He did it so casually. Keller could tell that it was only a flick of his mind, like a knight slapping its tail at a fly. But the dark power slammed into Winnie and sent her flying through the air, arms and legs outstretched, until she hit a wall cover with display plates and clocks. The crash was tremendous. Wi nnie Keller almost yelled it out loud.Winnie fell behind the cash register counter, out of Kellers line of sight. Keller couldnt tell if she were alive or not. The cashier who had been standing behind the counter went running and screaming toward the back of the shop. The customers scattered, some following the cashier, some dashing for the exit.Keller hung in the doorway a second longer as they streamed out around her. Then she reeled away to stand with her back against the window of the next shop, breathing hard. There were coils of ice in her guts.A dragon.He was a dragon.