It was time to get up completely, and I did it without taking my eyes off the Shadow Elf. I took a deep breath and centered myself. That was the thing about me, though. I wasn’t the same girl I had been even a year ago. I was different. Harder. Stronger. Losing the person you loved could do that to a girl. So if this Shadow Elf was intent on scaring me, it was going to have its work cut out for it. Especially if it was going to use my best friend’s skin to do it.
“Don’t you find that way of thinking to be a little narrow-minded?” she asked, holding the tray of cookies up higher as if to offer them to me again. “After all, just because I am what I am, it doesn’t make me a bad person.”
“It doesn’t make you a person at all,” I clarified and glanced over my shoulder at the shut door. “But if it did, I would say that the fact you’re holding me captive in this building makes you a bad person more than anything else.” I shook my head. “And you can keep the damn cookies. To be honest with you, they don’t taste a thing like the real you would make. You’re obviously missing the secret ingredient.”
Shadow-Lulu chuckled bitterly, dropping the cookies and all sense of pretense along with it. The tray slammed hard against the floor, clattering and spilling cookies everywhere as it did. Then, the cookies disappeared as though they had never been there in the first place.
Shame. The cookies were the best thing Shadow-Lulu had going for it. Plus, I was still hungry.
“As if anyone could trap the legendary Charisse Bellamy,” she said. “It would be easier to draw blood from a stone. At least, that’s the word on the street.” Shadow-Lulu looked around like she couldn’t believe her luck, and that’s when I knew something was up.
I tilted my head to the side. “And what street would that be exactly?”
“The only one that matters, of course,” she answered. “The street of wonder.”
Okay. So this Shadow Elf was going to hit me with a lot of fortune cookie bullshit that didn’t really mean anything. I didn’t have time for this. I was losing my patience.
“You should tell the people on that street that you did it, then,” I said, stepping forward. “I’m sure they’d be very impressed.”
“Not nearly as impressed as they are by you,” said the thing wearing Lulu’s face with a smirk that looked like it belonged on a demented clown.
It was weird, hearing all this crap come at me with the voice of my best friend. I had always been close to Lulu. It wasn’t like our friendship had ever been contentious. I wasn’t used to that sweet, good-natured voice being this combative with me. Well, except for the one time that I almost lost her son. That had been an accident, though.
Still, if this Shadow Elf thought this was all it was going to take to break me, then it didn’t know me very well, regardless of whether it could get into my head or not.
If this thing wanted to waste all its time spouting off some nonsense about an imaginary road just to make a metaphorical point, then I was more than happy to do that. After all, this sort of stalling only served to allow me to pool my powers enough to come at this thing with the kind of blast that would knock an elephant on its ass, let alone something that looked like a one-hundred-and-ten-pound woman.
Lulu had always been the tiny one in our friend circle, and I could only hope that the Shadow Elf taking on her form would work in my favor for that reason. But the truth was, I had no idea how any of this would work. Looks could be deceiving in more ways than one. Plus, my magic hadn’t been reliable since I entered the decrepit building.
“You’re selling yourself short, Charisse Bellamy,” the Shadow Elf said. She shook her head and pursed her lips at me. It was a face I’d never seen Lulu make herself, and the off-look only helped me to separate the illusion from the monster. “Would The Brothers really be so interested in someone who wasn’t impressive? Something tells me that you’re worth every bit of fuss that’s come at you.”
I startled a little. This thing knew about The Brothers? Maybe there was something to all of this after all.
That was when common sense caught up with me. Of course it knew about The Brothers. It was in my head, and given that The Brothers were immortal, super powerful beings who were seemingly hellbent on my destruction, they naturally took up a lot of my headspace.
While I kept pooling my power, I knew that I needed to let Shadow-Lulu keep talking. Once I had enough that I was sure I could not only take this thing out but bust a hole into the building I now found myself trapped in, I’d take action. Judging by the way I could feel the magic building, it would only be a few more seconds. Until then, I just needed to keep this thing talking.
“You’re going to have to go deeper into my psyche than that if you want to scare me,” I said, still letting the energy inside of me form a base in my gut.
“How much deeper would you like me to go?”asked the thing that looked like Lulu, tilting her head to the side. “Should I go to the part of your brain that is, at this moment, actively trying to destroy me? Or would you prefer that I went deeper still? Would you prefer that I ventured into the broken part? The part not even your mage knows about? I took this guise out of respect to you, to show you that I wasn’t here to fight. I can take another if you’d like. I can take the one that would hurt you the most. The one that would decimate you.”
The air seemed to shift and, as it did, Lulu morphed in front of me. She grew taller, broader. Her light hair was replaced with dark, and her face twisted into the face I wanted to see more than any other in my life. The face that haunted every single one of my nightmares.
“Abram,” I muttered before I could stop myself.
I knew it wasn’t him. I knew the man I loved was gone forever, that he was never coming back. Still, the sight of him was enough to pull all the air out of the room. It was enough to break through my defense and rip apart the concentration that I was using to mount an offense. Just the sight of him. That was all it took. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t really there, that I hadn’t seen him in a year.
“I could be,” the Shadow Elf said. “You see, we get a bad reputation, us Shadow Elves, but the truth is we can be anything you’d like. We don’t have to focus on your fears.” The thing that looked like Abram walked toward me, biting his lower lip and grinning at me in a way that sent me back into the sweetest moments of my life, the ones where he held me through the night. As he neared me, the sensations got even stronger. It was insane. This thing even smelled like Abram, his musty sweet scent filling me and lighting me up inside. “We can also be your fantasy,” he said, reaching out to brush his fingers across my face.
I wanted more than anything to let him, to fall into the lie that the man standing before me right now actually was the love of my life. I wanted to believe that the last year hadn’t happened, and that every bit of heartache I’d experienced was nothing more than a fever dream. I wanted it to be something I could shrug off as I went on with building the life I wanted with the man I thought I’d have forever with.
I couldn’t, though. I wasn’t the type of woman who could lie to herself anymore. I wasn’t the sort of person who could allow herself to be deceived, even by her own will. Maybe once upon a time I could have done that, but I wasn’t that little girl anymore.
I froze under his hand, a shudder of ice-cold energy run through me. My body stiffened, my face tightened, and my soul steeled over. What was happening here wasn’t a fantasy. It was a mockery, and I’d be damned if I was going to let the love of my life be picked apart and manipulated by something that didn’t deserve to lick the soles of his boots.
“Touch me again, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” I growled, tossing the thing’s hand aside and staring daggers into its face. “You don’t want to frighten me? Fine. That’s smart. I’m a big girl. You probably couldn’t anyway, if we’re being honest.” I lifted my hand and let a bit of the energy I had been storing come out, crackling along my fingertips and sending loud pops through the air. “Something’s got you scared,
though. Right? That’s why you’re here. That’s why you were waiting for me. It’s why you want me. You want me to drive a stake in whatever creature is out there keeping the monsters up at night. Am I right?”
The thing that looked like Abram took a deep breath. Unblinking, it answered, “You don’t understand. If it gets out, then it’ll mean hell for all of us. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill demon. Even the Brothers couldn’t handle it. Why do you think—”
“Shut up.” I thrust my hand toward the thing. It scuttled backward, folding in a way the real Abram never would. “Stop wearing his face,” I commanded. “You don’t deserve it.”
Again, the air shifted, and Abram’s body changed. In seconds, I was no longer looking at the man I loved. Hell, I wasn’t even looking at a man. The thing that stood before me was a living shadow. It had eyes and teeth, but nothing else of merit. It was a blob of darkness floating in front of me that didn’t have a body.
“My God,” I muttered without thinking.
“You’re not exactly my type, either,” the Shadow Elf snapped, darting about in the air. “But that’s beside the point. You were brought here because of a magic powerful enough to send ripples through the entire city in a way that no one could control. That was real. It wasn’t anything I made up. I knew you would come for it. Given all the work you and that mage have done to keep this place safe, I figured, sooner or later, you’d find your way here. Once you did, I’d convince you to kill him. I didn’t expect you to be so hard-headed or unwilling to do the right thing.”
“I get that a lot,” I admitted, my voice still a stern thing. “And I don’t kill anything that doesn’t deserve it. So, if you—”
“You won’t want to,” the Shadow Elf said. “You’ll think you have a choice, but there is no choice. There’s nothing that can be done. It’s too powerful. It’s too much, and he has to die before this thing gets out of hand.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped. “Now, unless you want me to turn you into a dark puddle on the floor, I suggest you turn the lights back on and let me see exactly what it is you want me to kill so badly.”
“Charisse,” the Shadow Elf said quickly. “It’s not what it looks like. If you’d just—”
“Now!” I commanded, the power around my hands sparking even more.
The Shadow Elf grimaced, turning into a blob of darkness in front of me, all teeth and eyes.
But the lights in the building came on, revealing a man on the floor, tied up and unconscious. The man the Shadow Elf had been telling me needed to die.
And he was no stranger at all.
In fact, I knew him quite well.
“Jesus,” I muttered, rushing toward him. “My God.” My eyes went wide as I looked at the Shadow Elf, anger rushing up in me like a wave. “What the hell have you done to Huntsman?”
Chapter 3
“Charisse!” yelled the Shadow Elf behind me in a disgusting display of desperation. “You don’t understand!”
Flipping around, I thrust a fist toward him. My anger rushed out of me in the form of a blast of golden energy. It slammed against the shadow thing, sizzling as it sent him spiraling back toward the wall. There was a part of me that yelled for caution, but my friend was chained up like an animal, and I needed to do something. Now.
The creature hit the wall hard, screaming as it slid down and rested on the scarred concrete floor. As I turned back to Huntsman, it occurred to me I had threatened to turn that thing into a dark puddle on the floor, and that was exactly what I had just done. It wouldn’t be enough to kill it, but it would keep it at bay for a while, and it definitely hurt like hell.
“Cha-Charisse,” the Shadow Elf said from its place on the floor. I was surprised it was still able to speak, that it was still conscious, or whatever passed as conscious for a shadow.
“Shut the hell up, monster!” I said, leaning down beside Huntsman to examine his wounds.
His long dark hair splayed against the concrete, a bruise marred his cheek, and blood matted along his hairline by his left temple. Even beaten and broken, Huntsman was a handsome man with his Roman nose, square jaw, and hulking, muscular form.
But not as handsome as Abram.
My heart panged at the memory, and I had to push the distraction away. It was hard, though. Abram was always there. Always taking his place in my heart and mind that I couldn’t erase. Every step I took, even though it took me further away from him, he was there by my side. But I didn’t have time for Abram. Not now. My friend needed help, and I needed to find a way to help him.
I placed my ear against Huntsman’s chest, listening for the heartbeat that would tell me if he was still alive. When I heard the telltale signs of life, I almost cried in relief. His breaths were coming slow and soft, his heartbeat faint, but he was still alive.
My guess was this thing couldn’t kill him, which was why it was trying to get me to do it. Just the same, I needed to get my friend out of here, because being trapped like this was nearly as bad as being dead anyway.
I reached for the ropes tying Huntsman’s hands and feet, hoping I might be able to loosen the knots, but when my fingers grazed the twisted fibers, red energy snapped at me, sending me flying backward on my ass.
“Damn it!” I yelled, making a fist and then almost collapsing from the pain. The ropes had seared right through my fingertips with their magic. “What did you do? What kind of spell is holding those ropes?”
I expected the Shadow Elf to reply to me, maybe offer a weak verbal sparring or try to give me information that had nothing to do with what was holding Huntsman here. I expected the Shadow Elf to try and manipulate me. I was prepared, too.
Instead, a much more familiar and soothing voice entered my head and pulled me out of the murderous rage that had taken over my body.
Charisse, are you okay? Ramsey asked, more than a little concern tracing his voice as it trickled through my mind.
“Ramsey?” I swallowed hard and rubbed my fingertips against the inside of my palms, trying to make them feel better. “I’m okay. I’m fine. The Shadow Elf tried to screw with my head, but I put him on his ass.”
The Shadow Elf, still a shapeless orb on the floor, spoke. “I’m just trying to make you see what’s happening. I didn’t mean you any harm.”
Ramsey hissed. Luring you into an abandoned building with the illusion of a magical imprint of an artifact and then cutting you off from the outside world is a weird way of showing that.
Because our connection had been reestablished, he could hear what I heard and see what I saw. The Elf couldn’t hear Ramsey, though. Not that it mattered. We had much more pressing issues to deal with.
Is that Huntsman? Ramsey asked as I turned back to the man on the floor.
“It is.” I stepped closer so Ramsey could get a better sight through my eyes of Huntsman’s current condition. “The Shadow Elf tried to convince me to kill him. He’s got him tied up with ropes that have been spelled or something. I can’t get them off.”
I’ll deal with it, Ramsey said. You’re not by the door, are you?
“No,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Why?”
Because I’m coming in, he called through my mind. And I’m doing it the hard way.
As the words left his mouth, a loud banging reverberated through the room. The metal door under the glowing red exit sign flung open, and on the other side of it, Ramsey stood with a pistol in his hand. The damn thing was basically smoking as he stepped through, allowing the door to clang shut behind him.
Ramsey wasn’t a powerful man. Not in size, stature, or magical ability. He couldn’t even kill someone, thanks to the limit on abilities bestowed to mages that prevented them from using their magic to take a life. Still, he was the best friend I had these days, and he served as a steadying and wise presence in my life. Having him in my head meant the world, but having him by my side meant even more. Especially when I was up against something I’d never encountered before.
“You’re he
re?” I asked, standing as a rush of relief ran through me. He was a welcome sight, to say the least.
“Of course I’m here,” Ramsey said, holstering his firearm that was really only any good for show, or, well, blowing down doors apparently. “I couldn’t hear you anymore. I wasn’t about to sit there while you dealt with the fight of your life. I had to come. Even if it was just to pick up the pieces of whoever you blew apart.” He winked at me and then turned to face the Shadow Elf.
Warmth ran through me as I nodded at the man who had come to be as much of a friend as I had ever had in the year I had spent without Abram. He was a shoulder for me to cry on, and a mentor for me to learn from, even if we weren’t of quite the same species.
There was something decidedly Sherlock Holmes-like about the man, which often made me wonder what Briar saw in him. Not that he wasn’t handsome, but Briar had always been more the type to date jocks. Or, well, whoever I was dating at the time. That was water at the end of the runway now, and ever since the events on Grimoult Island, we were all friends.
The Shadow Elf eyed Ramsey from the floor. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said. His voice sounded stronger now, more potent and capable. “If Charisse Bellamy will not do as I ask, then I must do more to inspire her. I will give you ten seconds to leave here, mage. Her stubbornness has sealed her fate. It would be a shame to see you die alongside her.”
Ramsey looked at me through his rectangular wire-framed glasses, neither breaking stride nor looking at the shadow creature as it spoke.
“He’s got a big mouth, doesn’t he?” he asked, coming up to greet me.
I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea.”
“I don’t need ten seconds, my man,” Ramsey said, settling beside me and pushing me with his shoulder. “This girl and me, we’re kind of ride or die.”
“Die it is, then,” the Shadow Elf said.
With that, the lights went out and left us once again in the dark.
Ramsey wrapped his hand around my own, and I could tell immediately that the mental connection between us had been blocked again, probably by the Shadow Elf and its magic. We were going to have to talk to each other by more natural means, which meant there would be no advantage of keeping our planned actions a secret from our attacker.
Granted by the Beast: A Steamy Paranormal Romance Spin on Beauty and the Beast (Conduit Series Book 4) Page 2