Devil's Eye (Mirus 1.2)

Sophie made a lunge for the door just as an enormous figure separated itself from the wall. Its huge jaws gaped with a roar that shook the earth above, and it lashed out at her with one vicious swipe. Mick threw himself forward, his momentum knocking the claw away, just inches from Sophie’s back. He slid down the smooth bone, crying out as the claws raked his side.

“Mick!”

But he disengaged and rolled, coming up to face the creature, blood streaming from his side.

A Karu. Had to be. Only a bear shifter would be that huge.

It reared up with another roar, empty eye sockets tracking Mick as he moved warily from one side to the other. He feinted left and lunged right, coming up fast to bite through one clawed arm at the elbow.

Sophie whirled for the vault door. The wheel of the lock was cold in her hands, reluctant to move. “Come on!” she snarled, yanking hard. With a screech the lock gave way and began to spin.

She glanced over her shoulder at Mick. With impossible speed, the creature knocked him back into a wall. She heard his breath woosh out. But he was up, dodging in seconds.

The clang of the releasing lock echoed in the tunnel. Sophie tugged the door open and shouted, “Mick, hurry!”

He dove for the open door, rolling into the dark.

Outraged, the creature roared and charged. Sophie slammed the door shut and latched it just as the Karu thudded against the heavy metal.

Then all was suddenly quiet.

“Mick?” Witchlight sprang up around the room, a faint green glow responding to the presence of the living.

“Here,” he rasped.

Sophie scrambled over and knelt before him, searching his bare side for the wound. It had healed on his shift back to human.

“Are you okay?” she demanded.

His face was gray, but he nodded. “Let’s just get the damned Eye and be done with this.”

A voice echoed against the walls of the chamber. “At last. I thought you’d never get here.”

Chapter 4

Sophie whirled, lifting her hand rather than the gun as she sought the source of the voice that was at once liquid smooth and ancient.

A trap, she thought.

For a fleeting moment she wondered if it was the voice from the ransom call, and she found herself scanning the room for evidence of Liza. But no. That voice had been distorted, but still undeniably human. This voice was something else. Lightning sparked in her palm, but it lit nothing other than the raised dais upon which the Devil’s Eye lay in an open, titanium case.

“Stand down little goddess. Your powers can do nothing against me.”

Behind her, Mick scrambled to his feet, automatically moving to block her from the source of the voice.

“I’ll take my chances,” she said, eyes darting around the space. There was simply nowhere for someone to hide. “Who are you?”

“I have been many things over the centuries. Almost all of them have been faces of death.”

What. The. Hell. This was so not good.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

The voice chuckled. “That is not a question I am accustomed to hearing. No one asks what they can do for the devil, only what the Devil in the Eye can do for them.”

Smoke boiled out of the darkness, out of the Eye, coalescing into a form in front of the dais. It was vaguely human shaped. Two arms, two legs, nearly seven feet tall and blue. It was the deep blue of the edge of twilight, accented with swirling silver runes over every inch. Ropy muscle corded its limbs, but that wasn’t what gave the impression of power. No, that was its eyes—wholly black with a pinpoint of red wh

ere the pupil should be, like a tiny, burning coal.