I felt my tail swish briefly across the floor and I yawned at him. “I believe I will make my voice heard before that matter is decided.”
My Shadow bared his fangs and advanced a step, growling out a darkness that frothed and bubbled from his chops like black foam. “Hear me. Because you are my blood, I will give you one more chance. Leave these feeble mortals and come with me. There is great work that needs must be done. Your power could make the task much simpler.”
“Needs must be done?” I asked. “Who talks like that? Honestly.”
“Do not mock me,” My Shadow snarled.
“An acquired habit. I can’t imagine where I learned it,” I replied. I rose slowly to my feet. “I meant only to be amusing. No disrespect was intended. I apologize for the confusion.”
My Shadow glared at me, as if he could not quite decide how to reply.
I think perhaps that no one had ever apologized to him for anything before.
“Now hear me, brother,” I said gently. “Cease your attempts to harm my humans. Depart this city. Do not come back.”
“Or else?” he asked.
“There is nothing else,” I replied calmly. “You will do these things. The only question is whether you will do them of your own will or if I must teach you how.”
My Shadow considered that in stillness for a few heartbeats, staring. There was something rather unnerving about that. I suddenly remembered how I had never outwrestled my brother when we were small.
Of course, I was no longer small.
I steadied my breath, gathering power, muscles growing tenser.
Just then, there was a thump of magical energies colliding somewhere nearby. A fraction of a second later, there was a second thump, and instantly after a third, coming so fast and so close together that a human might only have sensed a single instance of colliding energy.
“I’ve been working energy on that warlock for days, brother,” My Shadow said, his voice filled with satisfaction. “The demons attracted to his aura aren’t particularly impressive. But, as it happens, the ground where your master is standing is precisely the wrong sort to allow him to manage them all. Fortune does not favor him this day.”
I came to my feet, snarling, tongue lashing out between my teeth as I spoke to him. “What have you to do with My Friend?”
“Please,” My Shadow said, contempt thick in his voice. “You are like the others, after all. His slave. I don’t deal in such trivial matters. I care nothing for your broken wizard.”
I narrowed my eyes. “The child.”
“I find her future interesting,” My Shadow said. “As do my associates.”
“I won’t let you hurt them.”
“You cannot stop me,” My Shadow said. “Choose, slave. Lose the wizard or lose the girl.”
I tilted my head to one side and said, “I assume you never saw The Dark Knight.”
That gave him pause. He tilted his head and said, “What?”
I lowered my head and let the growl billow up out of my chest. “You don’t want to destroy one of them. You want both. You want me to run after one instead of doing what needs to be done.”
“And what is that?” My Shadow asked, sneering.
I roared, breath and energy filling me, and shot forward and up the stairs toward him, the darkness of the hallway suddenly full of azure starlight.
My Shadow was not the sort to drop his guard, but he genuinely hadn’t expected the fight to begin when it did. Which is not exactly the most honest way to approach a conflict. But, then, I was raised by a wizard. When it comes to fighting, I tend to cheat wherever possible.
I struck My Shadow’s shoulder with my own. He was too quick to be overborne, but he slammed into the concrete wall behind him, sending a web of fine cracks out from the point of impact. The blow stunned him for part of a second, and I sank my fangs into the ruff of his mane. He twisted, and I didn’t get hold of his throat—just fur and loose skin. But that was enough to let me clamp down and fling him into the door leading outside.
My Shadow hit the ground rolling, emerging into a sunken stairwell that led up to the ground level of the zoo. I flung myself at him again, but he slipped beneath me, and I slammed into the concrete of the stairwell wall. His claws raked my chest and belly and drew blood as he scrambled away and bounded up, hitting the vertical wall of the building once and then flinging himself out of the sunken stairwell entirely, his paws leaving traces of dark energy on the wall that quickly began to fade.
I summoned energy with my breath and left paw prints of azure starlight behind when I hit the wall at the same place and bounded after him.
I missed the leap, and my tummy hit the top of the concrete wall. I had to sink my claws into the ground outside and haul myself up with only my front paws, the back ones scrambling to get me out, and by the time I was, My Shadow was fifty yards away and accelerating.
Well. He was quite a bit, ah, sleeker than me. I told you, everyone says I am a Good Dog and that means treats. But perhaps I would make more time to exercise when this was settled.
I set out after him, and My Shadow darted off the paths and into the greenery of the park. There was precious little cover to hide him, but somehow there always seemed to be just enough of it to keep him all but invisible. Even as we ran, I could feel him begin to fade from my senses, and I redoubled my efforts, working energy to pour on speed and close the distance before he could lose me a second time.
I was soon on his heels, frustrating his efforts to conceal himself. I was about to seize his tail in my teeth when he gave up his energy work to hide himself and instead used it to fling himself up the trunk of a tree and out of reach, then bounded to the next trunk, zigzagging forward into more greenery. I followed him relentlessly, relying on the solid earth and the power of my breath to fuel my speed, and crashed into him again in the thicker brush, truly out of sight of anyone at the zoo.
It was, in fact, an excellent spot for a trap.
I had been so intent on the pursuit that I almost didn’t sense the warlock’s demons before their claws and fangs reached me. They were not large creatures, being perhaps a third my size—but they were equipped with hideously wide jaws and ripping claws, coupled with a squat and extremely powerful body. The nearest struck at my spine just above my tail with its jaws, and only a desperate roll kept it from getting hold of me. Instead, its teeth raked my haunch, slicing and burning with hot, bright pain.
The second demon simply clamped its wide jaws down on my right foreleg, all serrated sharpness and horrible pressure. I roared with pain and whirled to seek its throat—only to have My Shadow slam into my shoulder with his and send me sprawling.
The demons seized the opportunity with unearthly hunger, leaping onto me, fangs and claws tearing while I desperately tried to fend them off.
Worse, a third demon, driven by dark energy, bounded off into the brush.
“Good-bye, brother,” My Shadow said, his voice thick with satisfaction. “Three demons would certainly have ended your wizard, but I suppose one will do—as long as fortune is on its side.”
And he turned and vanished into the brush, already fading from my senses.
I roared, a sound not too unlike the roar the lion had made for us earlier in the day, except that my roar was full of bright energy. That energy, focused all in one place, smashed into the demons’ false flesh like a sandblaster, stripping away the outer layers of the bodies they’d built from energy in order to walk in the mortal world. The impact shoved them back, and I used the brief opening to seize one by the throat and shake it in the ancient technique of my kind. I whipped it back and forth, once, twice, thrice. There was a satisfying sensation as I felt the demon’s neck snap, and then suddenly the demon was gone and my mouth was full of transparent, flavorless gelatin—the ectoplasm the demon had used to build its mortal shell.