materials of choice.”
“Ah,” Paige sighed. “That makes sense.”
But Tristan wasn’t put off by Paige’s sarcasm. “A lot of mythology and folklore came about as people’s way of explaining their world, so this legend could very well have been inspired by a jungle tribe stricken with an early form of Mud Flu. At the very least, that means Pestilence has been around for a very long time. Something that old rarely dies without a fight.”
“We’re ready for a fight,” Paige assured her. “And I swear to you, if there’s any way for us to find those other women and free them, any way at all, we’ll do it. That may not be exactly what you want to hear, but we’re the only ones who stand a chance against this guy.”
The Dryad nodded again. This time there was conviction in the gesture instead of merely resignation. “You’ve already proven to be good to your word.” Pulling in a deep breath, Tristan straightened her back and lifted her chin. While she hadn’t been slouching before, she seemed to have cast aside her other posture like a dirty coat. Her beauty remained, but there was now something else in her aura. Something regal. “It takes a lot of energy to send a human from one temple to another,” she said. “Even more is needed to make a bridge without an active temple on either end. Since we’ve gotten set up here, we’ve been dancing for days and have drawn quite a crowd.”
“This room isn’t exactly as nice as the other one,” Paige said.
“Our new hosts have been accommodating, but we’ll return to Christov when he’s back on his feet again. Let me spread the word for my sisters to prepare for your trip.” Striding past the spot where Daniels had set down all of his cases, but stopping with her hand on the door, Tristan said, “There’s something else you need to know about the man you’re after.”
“Now’s the time to tell us,” Rico said.
“When he first arrived, he wasn’t fully shielded by the Mind Singer. Being in our temple allowed us to see more of him than he would have shown. He’s more than a Skinner. He is a torturer. He is a murderer. And he is more than three hundred years old.”
Chapter 24
It didn’t take long for Daniels to get his cases open and prepare the equipment. Grinning at Cole in a way that made him look more like a vampire than usual, he said, “Roll up your sleeve, tough guy. Time to get inked.”
“Wh-What?” Cole sputtered. Hearing the grating whine of the electric tattooing machine in Daniels’s hand didn’t calm him down in the slightest. While it had been modified for portable use and fitted with tubes of ink that slipped in and out like smaller versions of printer cartridges, the equipment still sounded like something from a sadistic dentist’s wet dream. “Screw that! No offense, but one backfire with that stuff is enough, don’t ya think?”
Rico stepped up beside him and dropped a hand upon Cole’s shoulder that felt more like a hammer. “C’mon, boy! All the bugs were worked out. Stop whining and pick your design. I’m thinking of something in the snake or shark territory.”
“And if anything goes wrong, I’ll be there to help,” Daniels said as he took hold of Cole’s wrist while revving the machine to get the ink flowing into the needle. “I already have a design in mind. Just hold still or you’ll ruin it.”
“Where did you learn to tattoo anyone?” Cole asked.
“From a book,” Daniels replied. “And I’ve been practicing on cuts of meat.”
“Shouldn’t you sterilize that thing first?”
“Listen to this one,” Rico said while slapping Cole’s back hard enough to shake him and Daniels like rag dolls. “He’s about to get shapeshifter blood and exotic metals injected under his skin and he wants to be swabbed first.”
Before Cole could request a shot of something from the bar, the electric needle dug into his forearm. It hurt, but not as badly as he’d expected. After the initial sting wore off, it became more of a scraping sensation. “So what’s this deal you worked out with Tristan?” he asked as a way to distract himself.
Rico’s posture straightened into the pose of an old-fashioned mayor holding onto the lapels of his leather jacket while modeling for a portrait as he proudly declared, “After this job, we’ll get to take full advantage of the Strip Club Express.”
“We’ll be able to teleport to strip bars all across the country, huh?” Paige asked. “Do we still have to pay the cover charge?”
“Laugh all you want, Bloodhound. From what Tristan told me, there are temples all over the world, and we’ll be able to go back and forth between them when we want. We hear about some Full Blood in Alaska, and we can get there! Even if there ain’t a club in the exact city we need, we’ll get close enough to save a hell of a lot of time and travel expenses. We just need to let ’em know we’re coming and they’ll be ready to zap us where we want to go.”
“And I suppose all nymphs get a free pass to go along with it, huh?” Paige grumbled.
“Not nymphs,” Cole said. “Dryads.”
“Yeah,” she said while rooting through one of the cases. “That one bugs me. Nymphs are one thing. They dance around, tempt men into acting like idiots, nothing too bad. The whole invisible touching thing is a neat trick, but that’s about it. Dryads are different. They’re…”
Cole twitched as the needle was dragged through a sensitive spot in his flesh. “They’re what?” he grunted. “Magical?”
“Try elemental and ancient. I don’t like the thought of something that powerful being under my nose without being able to sniff it out.”
“Rico seems to think we can work with them.”
Looking directly at the big man’s ugly face, Paige said, “Rico thinks a lot of stuff. When we first met, he was still carrying holy water just in case we met something from a crappy movie.”
“I got my methods and you got yours,” Rico said. “But this deal ain’t just good for us. It’ll hold up for all Skinners. Let’s hear you bitch about that.” When Paige focused even more intently on finding the supplies she was after, he growled, “Didn’t think so.”
Drops of sweat began trickling down Cole’s face, so Paige walked over to him and ran her hand along his forehead. When she said, “Look at me,” he was more than happy to comply. Her face was directly in front of him, framed by strands of hair that had come loose from the band she’d used to tie it back. She looked into his eyes and then set them on fire.
“All done,” Daniels said.
Cole pulled his arm away from the Nymar and went to rub his burning eyes. Grabbing his wrists before he could, Paige said, “Those are the drops that Ned made. Remember me telling you about them?”
“Yeah, but I don’t remember you telling me you were gonna squirt them into my eyes!”
“Just relax. It’s hot at first, but cools down. After that you’ll be able to see scents given off by Nymar and other things.”
Since his eyes had indeed cooled off, Cole stopped trying to rub them. He thought he was blinded at first, but quickly realized the room was filled with a neon fog of light green mist. The rest of the room slowly came into focus, but the green remained. Soon it became apparent the fog was emanating from the symbols etched into the walls and floor. When he looked at Paige again, she was surrounded by the mist and following it with her eyes.
“Cool, isn’t it?”
Eventually, Cole admitted, “Yeah. It is.”
“Here,” she said as she tossed the bottle to Rico, “you know what to do.”
“Looks like there’s something coming off of you, Paige,” Cole said.
“That’s Skinner scent,” she explained. “Probably a mix of the Nymar and shapeshifter blood in our serum and weapon varnish. Lancroft is a Skinner too, so if Tristan can get us close to him, we should be able to track him down.”
“See why we call her Bloodhound?” Rico declared proudly while applying the drops.
The thick green fog and hints of crimson had put Cole into a holiday frame of mind, but Daniels shot it to hell with a splash of alcohol on his arm to ignite a solid jolt of pain that started at his fresh tattoo and lanced all the way into his shoulder.
