The Shadow Paradox: The Shadow Enforcer Series Book Three

by N M Thorn

  As the lion leaped in the air again, the boom of a gunshot echoed through the house. Like in a slow-motion video, Damian watched a silver bullet fly through the lion’s head, exiting through its eye with a splatter of blood. The animal yelped and fell dead to the floor in front of him, slowly turning into a man. The remaining three shifters assumed their human forms and froze in place, their faces contorted with fear.

  Damian searched the room and saw Jamie lying on the floor, his Glock in his hands, his sword on the floor by his side. With a groan of pain, the young wizard threw the body of another dead shifter off his legs and got up, his blood-smeared left arm dangling powerlessly by his side, four deep claw marks running across his bicep.

  “A goddamn lion?” he yelled, blood mixed with sweat dripping down his face. “A lion? What the fuck?”

  Cole winked at Jamie and snapped his fingers at the wolf. Before Damian had a chance to say anything, the remaining shifters fell dead to the floor, beheaded and torn apart by the mighty jaws of the purebred werewolf.

  With a loud roar, the black wolf shifted, taking his human form, and a heartbeat later, Atticus stood next to them, his wide chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. His clothes were torn and soaked with blood and sweat. His body was covered in bite marks and lacerations. Red and brown splatters coated his face and arms, and Damian had no doubt some of this blood was his.

  “Damian, we should go upstairs,” said Cole, approaching him. He frowned, and a muscle twitched in his tightly pressed jaw. “Atticus and I dealt with a few vampires and demons in the family room. He pointed toward the dark hallway on his right. “There is a staircase to the second floor, and they were willing to do anything to stop us from going there.” He raked his fingers through his blood-soaked hair, throwing it off his face. “Whatever they’re hiding there must be important.”

  “Let’s go.” Damian headed toward the hallway, gesturing for Jamie and Atticus to follow them. “Cole, were the vampires yours? Did you manage to capture them?”

  “No,” replied Cole. “Not mine. I wish I could’ve asked them a few questions, but unfortunately, I couldn’t capture any of them alive.”

  Stopping in front of a wide staircase leading to the second floor, Damian glanced over his shoulder and pointed up, gesturing for his friends to follow, remaining behind him. Cole frowned but didn’t object.

  Damian channeled his magic and opened his second sight, but just like before, he could see nothing. It seemed as though the walls of this strange house were soaked through with some magic that blocked his magical sight. Shaking his head, he slowly moved up, all his senses stretched to the maximum. As he reached the last step, he found himself in front of a doorway leading into a narrow hallway. He was about to move forward when the same tiny, high-pitched voice he’d heard before sounded in his mind again, making him flinch.

  “Commander, be careful! Above you!”

  Damian raised his eyes but could see nothing. Holding his breath, he approached the threshold, but instead of crossing it straight, he stepped slightly to the right, summoning one of his daggers. A dark figure dropped from above, aiming to crush him with their weight, but Damian was ready. In one fluid motion, he jumped to the side and spun around, catching the man, his fingers wrapping around the attacker’s throat in a deadly grip.

  A low growl rumbled in Damian’s chest as he slammed the man against the wall and pinned him with his dagger. The assailant hissed, his eyes glowing with a menacing scarlet light, and his dangerous fangs expanded, betraying his vampiric nature. He grabbed the blade, trying to pull it out of his chest, but cried out and let go, the palm of his shaking hands covered in blisters of burns.

  “Hey, Cole,” Damian reached out to his brother. “You wanted to capture a vamp? Here, I got you one, little bro. Don’t ever say I don’t get you any presents.”

  Cole walked inside and stopped by his side, his glowing eyes narrowing into angry, scarlet slits. The vampire’s jaw dropped as he stared at Cole, his face contorted with fear.

  Damian gestured for Jamie to come in and whispered in his ear, “Do you have the silver cuffs with the runes that I made for you? I can’t leave my dagger stuck in this moron.”

  The wizard nodded and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, offering them to him. Damian took the cuffs and restrained the vampire, ignoring his groans of pain. The few runes engraved into the cuffs lit up with a brilliant white light as soon as the lock clicked, and the vampire cried out, his head dropping powerlessly to his chest. Then he grabbed Jamie’s sword and thrust it into the vampire’s chest before pulling his dagger out. Cole leaned forward slightly and seized the vamp’s hair, yanking his head back.

  “Don’t go anywhere, asshole,” he hissed, his voice shaking with barely contained fury. “The King wants to have a word with you.”

  Damian touched his brother’s shoulder to attract his attention. “Cole, my other sight is still blocked. Can you detect any human or supernatural presence?”

  Cole straightened and turned around, staring into the long, dark hallway lined up with closed doors on either side.

  “Four heartbeats,” he projected. “Yes... three heartbeats behind the first door on the left and one heartbeat behind the door at the very end of this hallway.”

  Damian approached the first door on the left and halted, listening intently. He had no idea what the little voice in his head was, but at this moment he wasn’t sure he cared. Whoever it was, it had saved him twice in one day. Since the voice remained silent, he assumed it was safe to open the door.

  “It is safe,” peeped the tiny voice in his mind. “I would tell you if it wasn’t.”

  What the hell? Damian gasped, his hand reaching up to his head.

  “Hello, Commander—”

  Who the hell is talking in my head?

  “Don’t you know?”

  No, goddammit!

  “Ew… Language, please—”

  What the fuck???

  “Damian, are you okay?” whispered Jamie, touching his hand. “You look like you saw a ghost, and your tattoo is glowing a little, by the way.”

  Damian flinched and glanced at his arm. Under the layer of dirt and dried out blood, the runes and the words in Dragon tongue entwined with the intricate lines of the tattoo were glowing with a soft bluish light. Yakov had given him this tattoo six months ago, but he had never explained what it was and how it was supposed to work. Now it was glowing, and a strange voice was tormenting his mind, yet he had no idea how to deal with it.

  I’ll kill Yakov when he shows up again… Damian swallowed hard. The time now wasn’t right for all that.

  “I’m fine,” he replied to Jamie and added for the pesky, little voice in his head, “Shut the hell up. I still have work to do here. So, unless you have something important to tell me, keep your goddamn mouth shut. I’ll figure out what you are and how you’re able to invade my mind later when I get home.”

  “Yes, my lord, Commander. I’m as silent as a mouse.”

  Grrrr…

  Damian pushed on the handle, but the door was locked. Without thinking twice, he pulled his leg back and kicked it, placing all his aggravation into a single push kick. The door flew off its hinges and crashed to the floor with a loud bang.

  The air conditioner wasn’t working, but because he was either too preoccupied with the fight or got used to the smoldering heat outside, he didn’t notice it until now. The thick odor of unwashed human bodies and excrements assailed his senses as a hot wave of stuffy air unfit for breathing hit him in the face like a sledgehammer. He staggered back, burying his nose and mouth into the crook of his elbow.

  A large bedroom with a boarded window was dimly lit by the light of a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling in the place where a ceiling fan used to be. Three mattresses were thrown on the tiled floor, and three young women lay motionless on top of them. Their eyes were closed, and they appeared to be sleeping, their chests moving up and down with shallow breaths. While they wer
en’t restrained, it didn’t appear as if they had tried to escape at any time.

  Damian sucked in a deep breath and walked inside, taking a knee next to the woman closest to him. Her face was pale, and deep, dark shadows lay under her eyes. Her long dark hair covered part of her face and chest, but as Damian moved it to the side, his heart gave a painful jolt. Multiple puncture wounds on her neck told him all he needed to know.

  He got up, pressing his hand over his mouth, and his gut twisted with the realization of what had transpired in this dirty room with unbreathable air.

  “Are they drugged?” asked Jamie, his hoarse voice breaking.

  “No,” Damian managed to say, his eyes darting to the other two women. He couldn’t see their necks, but their arms were covered in the distinctive puncture wounds of vampire bites.

  “Vampires,” whispered Cole. “They’re not drugged, Jamie, but they are addicted.” He bit his lip, shaking his head. “To the pleasure of a vampire bite. It’s worse than any drugs.” Then he punched the air with his fist, a haunted expression hiding in his eyes. “Goddammit! How could I miss it? Arizona is my territory! I’m responsible for all this.” He pointed at the women.

  “We’ll figure it out, brother.” Damian moved past Cole and walked out of the room, pulling Jamie and Atticus with him. “Let’s check who is in the last room, and then we need to call River. These three women are human. They lost a lot of blood and need medical attention and memory adjustments… not necessarily in that order. Cole can take care of the latter. The vampire’s glamor will be safer for them than my memory modification spell.”

  He walked through the dark hallway, everything inside him shaking with suppressed fury. As he reached the last door, he didn’t slow down but kicked it open right away. The door flew off its hinges, revealing a large, dark room behind it. Unlike the previous room, there were no mattresses on the floor, and the window wasn’t boarded. In the silvery light of the moon, he saw a woman chained to a metal chair with iron chains so thick, they could hold a cruise ship moored during a hurricane.

  She was dressed in a black shirt and jeans. Her clothes were partially ripped, exposing ugly welts and bruises on her arms, chest and stomach. Her head was bowed low to her chest, and her short, golden hair was covered in brown stains of dried blood. Slowly, she lifted her head. Her emerald eyes swept from one face to the next, and her full lips twitched slightly.

  “A vampire, a werewolf, a wizard and… a Destiny Enforcer,” she rasped, her voice too deep for a woman. A short burst of laughter escaped her lips, but her eyes remained cold and angry. “It does sound like the beginning of a bad joke.”

  Chapter 2

  ~ Damian Blake ~

  “Who the hell are you?” growled Damian, fighting his exasperation.

  She took a deep breath and snapped her fingers before Damian could say anything else. The iron chains fell off, crashing to the floor with a loud clatter. She rolled her head from left to right and stretched her arms.

  “Well, boys, I must say—your timing couldn’t be any worse.” The woman crossed her legs at the knee and folded her arms, cocking her head. “I’ve been tailing these assholes for the last few days, trying to figure out what they were up to. I was almost done interrogating them when you and your Merry Men showed up and spoiled the whole cha-cha for me.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Damian.

  The woman got up with ease, as if she hadn’t been tied up to a chair for God knows how long, and that raised a warning flag in Damian’s mind. He opened his other sight, quickly scanning her with it. Even though she had a glow similar to that of a human soul surrounding her, he was positive she was at least a witch and a powerful one at that. However, she was concealing her energy signature so skillfully that he couldn’t detect it.

  While her face wasn’t beautiful by the publicly accepted standards, there was something fascinating about her sharp, angled features that were a bit too hard for a woman. But it was her eyes—bright green and large, framed with long, black eyelashes—that made up for everything else, giving her an exotic and striking appearance.

  She approached him, her eyes gliding up and down his body as if sizing him up, and one corner of her mouth lifted ever so slightly. Being an average height for a woman, she barely reached to his shoulder, but the way she moved and spoke projected a vibe of self-assurance bordering on arrogance.

  “I’m talking about a bunch of assholes who are trafficking witches all over the country,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “For a Destiny Enforcer, you sure are uninformed.” She moved around Damian and walked out the door, heading toward the first room where she halted in the doorway and threw her hands up. “It’s not only that you interrupted my interrogation, but you were also too late to help these poor souls.”

  “What are you talking about?” Damian repeated through gritted teeth. “These women are not witches. They have no magic.”

  “And you are not a Destiny Enforcer just because I can’t detect your energy signature?” she retorted, not without a fair load of sarcasm in her words. Dismissing him with a light flick of her wrist, she walked into the room and squatted next to one of the victims, shaking her head. “But you’re right. They have no magic. Not anymore.” She got up and turned to Damian. “But just a week ago, they used to be powerful witches. Good witches, too. Now the entire Superstition Mountains covenant is gone. Ten witches—all drained and dead.”

  Damian stilled, staring at the woman in shock, his heart pounding against his rib cage. About a couple of months ago, a new case had landed on River’s desk—a Missing Persons Report. A young woman went to work in Phoenix and never returned. Soon after, her car was found abandoned on the side of a highway leading to Blue Creek. No damage, no signs of struggle. Everything inside the vehicle was in perfect order, but the owner was nowhere to be found.

  A few days later, another woman disappeared under similar circumstances. The police department doubled their efforts, but no matter what they did, they couldn’t discover anything that would help them find the missing women.

  When two more Missing Persons Reports had been filed at the Blue Creek police precinct just a week later, the Police Captain started to consider the necessity of contacting the FBI, suspecting a serial killer on the loose.

  River spent all her time at work, coming back home for a few short hours to get some sleep and change. While she agreed with the Captain that all these disappearances were linked to the same person or a group of people, she wasn’t convinced they were dealing with a serial killer or a human trafficking organization. On the contrary, she was positive the perpetrator wasn’t human. She had no idea what made her think that the World of Magic was somehow involved, but she was sure all these abductions had a supernatural origin.

  So, when she received a report about a violent incident involving a young woman on the west side of Blue Creek, before sending her team there, she had called Damian, asking him to check the neighborhood and the address in question for any supernatural presence.

  “Perun almighty,” whispered Damian, wiping cold sweat off his forehead. “River was right…”

  “Who is River?” asked the woman, staring at him with curiosity. “And what was she right about?”

  “How about you tell us who you are first?” Damian snapped, seizing her elbow and pulling her out of the room.

  She yanked her arm out of Damian’s grip, placing her hands on her hips. “My name is Zabava,” she announced with a look of superiority on her face, as if her name was common knowledge, and they were supposed to know it without asking. “I’m a supernatural PI, hired to investigate this situation.”

  “No, seriously?” Cole turned to her, a bemused grin on his face. “Are you saying your name literally means ‘fun’ in old Russian?”

  She measured him with her cold, green eyes and tapped her index finger against her lips. “Let me see,” she mused. “A tall, blond vamp who speaks Russian and fights on the side of the Light. Your hair is not long
enough, so you’re not Yaroslav Potemkin. Then you must be Cole Adams, also known as Nikolai Chernov, ancient Slavic warrior, turned sometime in the tenth century, and now the reigning King of the Arizona Vampire Court.”

  Cole’s jaw dropped, and he gaped at her, unable to say a word. She flicked her eyebrows at him and turned to Damian.

  “If I was right about the vampire, then it would make you”—she pushed Damian in his chest with her finger—“Dmitri Chernov, his overprotective, helicopter older brother. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information on you, giant. The only thing I’m certain of is that you’re a Destiny Enforcer.”

  Without waiting for Damian’s response, she walked up to Jamie and Atticus and gave them a quick once-over. Lifting her hand, she brushed her fingers over Atticus’ cheek, tracing the shape of his chiseled jawline, her eyes getting foggy for a moment. A low growl rumbled in Atticus’ throat as he threw her hand off. She laughed, amused, and glanced back at Damian, her eyes turning icy.

  “What were you thinking, Enforcer? A baby wolf and an inexperienced wizard?” she asked, shaking her head. “You and your brother—two ancient giants—brought these two kids into this mess? Where were your brains? You could have gotten them killed!”

  “We can hold our own,” muttered Jamie indignantly. “I don’t need anyone’s permission—”

  “I’ve had enough,” growled Damian, interrupting him. “I don’t have time for your bullshit, Zabava. How do you know who we are, anyway?”

  “I’m a supernatural PI, jackass,” she replied, her deep voice filled with sarcasm. “Knowing things is a part of my job.”

  Damian took a deep breath to get his aggravation under control. “Fine, Zabava, you had your fun—no pun intended,” he said, mirroring her sarcasm. “Now, let’s take care of this situation, and then we’ll go somewhere we can speak uninterrupted.”

  She held his steady gaze for a few seconds and then just nodded, her smugness gone.