“Didn’t you learn last time you tried that crap?” I cocked my head, returning my brother’s smirk. “You have no power over me.”
Valin did another sweeping arc, keeping his back to the rock columns I’d spotted in the main chamber. His eyes narrowed, a bit of fire lighting their depths, and the sulfurous scent of his intensifying magic crept across to tickle my nose. He was going for flash, hoping to cow me into some kind of submission with a bit of light and crackle, but most of that was for show. I’d felt the real thing, seen and felt it worked on me with little more than a crook of Tanic’s fingernail into a part of my body, my bones tearing out of my flesh inch by inch until I screamed myself raw.
“Why haven’t you gone crawling back to Tanic?” I studied his expression, wondering if I wore my anger as openly as he did. “Or tried to have an alliance with Bannon? You didn’t mind being second-in-command to Tanic, so why not her? Or won’t she let you feed her people to your ainmhi dubh?”
“Your mouth’s gotten smart. I can’t wait to break you of that.” He cocked his head, studying me much like Newt did right before he tried to bite my nose off. “I think I liked you better when you could only mewl and whine like a dog. Maybe that’s the first thing I’ll do with you. Cut out your tongue.”
“I’d say one of you should grow a beard so I know which side of the mirror you’re from, but since both of you are pieces of crap, it wouldn’t do any good.” Kenny’s voice—Dempsey’s voice—rang out through the caverns, the crenulated walls catching his words and echoing them back at me. “I got him here. Now pay up.”
“As soon as I’m done here,” Valin murmured, shooting me an unreadable look. “Your wants aren’t as important as my needs.”
“Pick this shit up later. Right now, I want to know where my money is.” Kenny limped out from behind one of the columns. I brought my Glock up, steadying my aim to his center mass. Startled, he took a step back, hiding behind one of the larger rocks, but I could still see his head. “Can’t believe my brother ruined his life for you. Jesus, if you weren’t worth a hell of a lot of cash, I’d pop you myself, but your brother here wants to skin you himself. Waste of meat, that’s what you are.”
“Humans.” Valin strolled closer to Kenny, putting himself between me and the man I’d followed down the rabbit hole. “They bleat and squeal so much. Almost makes you wish you could turn them off.” He turned slowly, laying his hand on Kenny’s shoulder, squeezing down hard. “But then again, I can.”
I couldn’t have stopped him if I tried, and I knew better. I’d seen what the Unsidhe flesh shapers could do to their own, what they could do to a human, and I’d still let him get close to Kenny. Pulling my aim off of Dempsey’s brother, I angled it toward mine. Kenny’s eyes went blank, staring out into nothing, and he slumped under Valin’s touch, weaving back and forth on his feet.
“Get your hand off of him, Valin,” I warned. “This is between you and me.”
“Nothing is just between us, brother.” His smile returned my warning, a threat woven heavy with pain and agony. “This one needs to be shoved aside for now, because I think it’s going to take a long time to break you, Ciméara, because you have forgotten where you belong—beneath my foot and writhing on the floor.”
Valin’s fingers twitched, and Kenny began to topple forward, the skin around his mouth stretching and moving to cover his lips. The sheath rippled, shifting quickly, and by the time Kenny hit the ground, his mouth was buried beneath a thin layer of skin, his lips forming an obscene bulge beneath the shaped flesh. His nostrils flared and fought to suck in air, and I took a step forward, intending on slicing apart the suffocating skin. But Valin’s hands came up in a sharp warning.
“He can breathe, little brother, and he’s out of the way.” Valin stalked closer, keeping his body angled slightly away from me, minimizing my target. “If he’s really lucky, I’ll still pay him once I’m done breaking you. Or I might just kill him. No sense in paying for something I’ve already gotten my money’s worth from. Now, are you ready to come home with me, Ciméara, or are you going to make this hard on both of us?”
“Probably hard on you, at least,” I conceded, sighting on Valin’s shoulder. “Because I’d rather eat a whole bitter melon pulled out of the devil’s ass after he’s eaten bad Chinese food than hand myself over to you and Tanic. Now, get away from him and call it a day.”
For a brief moment, I thought Valin was considering his options. I should have known better. Instead, the asshole was laughing at me, a chuckle building up inside of his chest, rusty and creaky from lack of use. Shaking his head, my brother finally let a whimper of a chortle escape, breaking the thin set of his lips.
“You don’t want me to hurt this one, because he’s your dead master’s brother, is that it?” Valin spared Kenny a glance, not bothering to mask his disgust. “Does he look like him? Is that why you want him alive? So you can hand your leash over to him?”
“Don’t try that shit with me. We both know the real reason you need to drag me back to Tanic is because you’re afraid he’ll decide it doesn’t matter which brother he has on the slab. What does it matter to him if it’s you or me? We’re all alike in the dark and bloodied.” I returned Valin’s laugh, watching his eyes narrow. “Last chance, Valin. Walk away. Take your daddy issues and find another rock to crawl under so he can’t find you. I don’t want to shoot you, but I’m also not really all that against it. I owe you a hell of a lot of payback.”
“If you were going to shoot me, you would have already. Instead, you—”
I shot him.
Grazed his right upper arm really, but that was on purpose, taking a good chunk of meat off his muscle and drilling it into the rock behind him.
The boom of the Glock seemed to shock Valin the most, but then his face rippled with a blend of anger and pain, a tart sour smoothie of emotion he couldn’t quite swallow. Staggering back, he ended up against a broad jut of rock rising up from the cavern floor, its spire dotted with various peeks of vintage holiday lights on a string poking up out of its surface.
He grunted in Unsidhe, a string of hot molten words I didn’t know, but he sure as hell wasn’t wishing me a happy birthday. Leaving a smear of blood behind on the spire, Valin staggered to the right, using the rock to brace himself.
“Never been shot before?” I bared my teeth, shoving as much contempt as I could into my voice. “Never bring magic to a gunfight, brother. You’ve got to touch me to hurt me now, and if there’s one thing you will never do, it is lay hands on my flesh again.”
“I have other magics, Ciméara.” Valin stumbled again, distancing himself from Kenny’s twitching body. It was getting difficult to keep an eye on them both, so I shifted, drawing closer to Dempsey’s brother while holding my aim steady on Valin. “While you spent your time being skinned and peeled, I had centuries of learning how to craft the ainmhi dubh.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen your black dogs.” Shrugging, I shifted closer still. “They’re crappy pieces of work, brother. Held together by the shittiest of spells and fall apart pretty easily. You wasted your time. Maybe basket weaving is more your style. Or flower arranging. Better yet, maybe you should take those flesh-shaping skills you’re so proud of and become a dentist. Lots of money in braces. Humans like straight teeth.”