Cover
Night Shadows Saga
B.J. Priestley
Copyright © 2021 Billiejo Priestley
All rights reserved.
ISBN:
DEDICATION
To those readers who asked over and over for a fantasy book. Who waited patiently while I wrote it, knowing that it would not be easy as it is a genre I have never attempted before.
1 SEARCHING FOR HIM
Standing alone, she looks out into the expanse of trees. Her body shakes slightly from the nerves she is trying to ignore, her mind telling her to run while her heart tells her to continue. The young woman begins to walk forward hesitantly, the cold air wrapping itself around her like a shroud of ice. Her eyes linger on the rows of graves she passes, until eventually she reaches the edge of the forest. She should run; she knows she should run, but her body won’t allow her to. Someone is following her.
Soon, soon, she will tell them that she knows they are there. She continues into the trees, branches outstretched and welcoming her into the shadows. A few moments later the thundering sound of a wolf’s paws hitting the ground as it bounds into the trees causes her to turn around sharply. She watches something disappear into the forest.
This is hopeless, she thinks, and she abandons the twisted branches for the open grey sky. She will not discover anything today.
Back home she drops backwards onto the sofa, feeling annoyed that yet another trip has ended and she still knows nothing. Why would they run from her? She looks down at the news articles, each one etched in her mind with indelible ink: she knows she has to live with these images until she gets answers.
The next morning she awakens, her body aching from spending the night stretched out on the sofa cushions. She goes to work mindlessly, ignoring everything as she always does, completely focused on the answers she hopes to uncover tonight. She works because she has to, not because she wants to. She could be using this time to search, to find proof, to find anything which might help her find him.
5pm finally comes and she leaves work quickly, her feet carrying her to the cemetery without much thought needed. When she arrives she can feel a presence again. She will get the answers she needs today and nothing will stop her. In the distance she hears the snap of a twig breaking; her head jolting to face the direction of the noise in the hope that he will come out of the shadows. Although she doesn’t know the identity of her mystery follower, something is telling her it’s a man. Nothing happens.
“I know you’re following me,” she says as her eyes narrow, waiting for him to reveal himself. “You may as well come out and tell me why you’re following me.” Despite knowing that this person could be dangerous she remains defiant and unafraid. She hears movement and the man – definitely a man – starts walking towards her. He is nothing like what she expected. An involuntary smile spreads across her face as her eyes take in the figure before her: His dark hair matches his hazel eyes, and the thin t-shirt he wears outlines his well-defined muscles. How isn’t he cold?
“You shouldn’t be out here, it’s dangerous. You don’t know who you could meet in these woods.”
She laughs, too loudly to sound normal in the calm of the trees, but she’s been coming here for months and never had any problems. Inside, though, she knows he’s right. There’s something strange happening here, just never to her.
“Then what are you doing here? Why are you following me?” She looks at him expectantly but he just shakes his head.
“I’m just making sure you get out of here safe, that’s all.”
She nods, knowing he’s hiding something. That isn’t all he’s doing here and they both know it. Why is he here so late? She has a reason to be here; is he here for the same thing? Is he trying to find something? Someone?
“I can get home safe all by myself, thanks. Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself than me?”
“Look, I don’t know why you keep walking through here or what you’re hoping to find, but maybe from now on you can walk around somewhere else?” He is praying that she listens.
“No thanks. I have to say, I’m surprised we’re both still alive, here or wherever else.” She is; she shouldn’t still be here. He looks at her surprised, her eyes seeing it clearly, so she continues. He obviously knows something and so he must be able to give her some sort of answer.
“I’ve read enough to know that something’s going on here. People disappear from this place; bodies show up with no cause of death. I thought it was all rubbish at first, just something invented by some journalist, but then it happened. Then he happened. He went missing from this exact spot, seen walking in but never seen leaving. This isn’t the only place in this town it happens, either. So why do I get out unscathed every time?”
She doesn’t understand. She’s been coming here for months and the only constant thing seems to be this man. What if he’s the reason these people go missing or die mysteriously?
“Look, I’m just trying to make sure no-one else gets hurt or goes missing. Promise me you won’t come back here at night: it isn’t safe, and you’re making my job a lot harder.”
She nods. Something is telling her he’s right, it’s been telling her the same thing since before she even spoke to him, since Dan went missing. Every day she’s been here his presence has screamed at her to run, to get out, but she never did, despite the persistent soundtrack of low growls and footsteps which admittedly terrified her a little. She had to keep coming back; she had to find out what was really happening.
“Okay, I won’t,” she lies, knowing she will return to find the answers she needs about Dan. There’s no way she can give up on him so easily, she owes him more than that.
January turns to February, and not much changes. The only difference is that the mysterious man stays in the shadows, watching her from a distance and rushing off every now and then to God knows where. She forces herself to keep a safe distance away from him. After all, she has no idea if he’s the reason Dan is missing.
Every night she returns and every night she feels safer, constantly growing more convinced that something big is being covered up here, that the newspapers and the police were holding something back. How is it possible that so many people can disappear or die, yet she visits every night and leaves untouched? She thinks back to the man in the shadows. It has to be something to do with him. She’s considered it before but now, walking through the graveyard, she can’t help but think about it more. Every night he follows her, and every night she returns home safe. He’s behind this somehow, but she doesn’t know exactly why he follows her. He’s either the one causing it or he’s protecting her for some reason, but why her? What’s so special about her that means she needs protecting more than Dan and the others?
She’s snapped out of her thoughts by a figure that drops from the trees above her. She feels a sharp pain in her shoulder and screams, stumbling backwards, staring into the menacing silver irises of her foe, unable to move.
Run, Olivia, run. The words in her mind are barely a whisper. She wishes she’d never stepped foot in this place, how could she have been so stupid? Her body threatens to explode with the fear she’s kept inside, almost knocking her to her knees. Her eyes glance down at the crimson spreading slowly on her shirt, her breath stuck in her throat as she fights desperately to scream or to run or to do something, anything.
The man crowds closer, a yell pulled from her mouth as his body is suddenly thrown to the side by something which then begins to drag him away. She’s unable to see what it is – maybe a bear – but surely a bear wouldn’t be in a cemetery. There’s a sharp pain on her arm and she cries out, her eyes glancing down to see blood dripping onto the floor; she pulls her sleeve up roughly to expose the cut, which doesn’t act
ually look like a cut, it’s- is it a bite mark? Has she been bitten?
Growls echo around her, surrounding the girl now almost blind with pain. She continues to stare at her arm, shocked. Something isn’t right. Everything begins to spin and she collapses to the floor, her whole body trembling.
“Olivia!” The man runs over to her, lifting her up with one strong arm firmly under her knees and the other around her shoulders, carrying her with his eyes fixed on the gaping gash on her arm. He knows he was too late, he should have been quicker, but he was so taken in by her that he forgot to stay on guard.
He takes her back to his house, placing her carefully on the sofa and kneeling on the rough carpet to clean up her cut. He winces. It’s nasty; if he’d have been a moment later it would have been too late. His eyes notice the bite on her arm; he’d only seen the vampire’s nails cutting into her shoulder as it dropped in front of her, he hadn’t realised she was bitten. He sits and watches, waiting for her to wake. He knows that when she does wake up she will have questions, and he doesn’t know if he’s prepared to answer them. No mortal should know the answers to those questions. He muses the issue for a while – he doesn’t know how long, he loses track – and by the time he stirs again the sun is beginning to rise, bathing the room in a beautiful golden light. Olivia’s eyes flicker open and she tries in vain to sit upright. He offers a hand and she gladly takes it, although there’s still fear present in her eyes. She should have listened to him; she should never have gone back to that graveyard. She looks around confused, no memory of how she got here. Her mind replays the last moments she remembers, jumping up in panic as she realizes. She sways slightly, still wobbly on her feet.
“What the hell was that? Where am I?” Olivia stares at him but he just shakes his head. He can’t tell her; how can he?
“I’m Cayson. You’re at my place, you passed out.”
“Someone bit me, right? Something was there; I saw something drag that man away from me.” She’s starting to remember. She’s sure there was an ear-piercing scream from the man’s mouth as he was dragged away from her.
“No one bit you,” he says, calmly.
“I think they did.”
Cayson laughs, shaking his head. “No one bit you, Olivia. You tripped and hit your head; you’re just imagining things. A fox ran past you and you completely freaked out.”
Does he think she’s stupid? She saw the bite mark; she felt the pain, but when she looks down at her arm now she realises there’s nothing there. She’s so sure it happened; there are huge dark bloodstains on her top to prove it. She didn’t imagine it, and there was no fox either. What is he trying to hide?
“I saw it! It was on my arm, that’s why there’s blood everywhere, it was really bad!” She knows what she saw, but how could it have been so bad if it didn’t leave the slightest mark? She hates to consider it, but maybe… maybe he’s right, maybe she did just fall and hit her head. She doesn’t know what to believe any more, this whole thing gets stranger every day. Her eyes narrow, flickering up to him accusatorily.
“You- you know that- that thing! You’re trying to cover this up! That’s why you’re out there every night, you- you watch it hurt people and then you clean up its mess!” She needs to get out of this place now. She has an uneasy feeling about being here; what if he’s been watching her for someone else? Going and telling this other person about everything she’s doing?
“I need to leave.”
“Olivia, you can leave any time you want. The door is right there and it isn’t locked. I’m not forcing you to stay and anyway, I am not trying to protect him.” Cayson’s eyes close and he takes a deep breath, realising his mistake.
“‘Him’? I knew it, I was bitten! I never mentioned a man or woman, so the only way you’d know it was a man is if I was right!” She waits, staring incredulously at the man. She would – and probably should – be running right now, but she needs answers. Cayson stares back, his steely green eyes boring deep into hers. After all this, she can tell he’s still not ready to tell her the truth.
“Fine then, I’ll just go to the police and tell them everything; I’ll give them this address and tell them I woke up here with no memory of how I got here.” She starts towards the door, Cayson merely nodding behind her.
“Off you go then, Olivia. The police know me well. They’ll know you were wandering around that place and just tripped and hurt yourself. Tell them whatever you want, just stay the hell away from now on.”
Olivia rolls her eyes and nods before leaving the apartment, giving the door a satisfying slam as she goes. On the way home she can’t stop thinking about the little flashes of memory she has from last night. It was real; she knows it was, she saw the bite mark right there on her arm. Her eyes glance down automatically but there’s still nothing. A laugh bursts out of her lips, slightly hysterical. None of this seems real. The last few days have been crazy, but she isn’t giving up. Not yet.
Olivia finds the next week very much the same. As soon as she finishes work she goes back there, part of her hoping that Cayson will come out of the shadows and speak to her, and the other part of her hoping she finds the answers she needs about Dan. She feels like she’s going crazy. There have been no other issues since then. Had the man even been real? She could have sworn she was bitten, but maybe she wasn’t after all. Each day she hears Cayson following her, and while it’s a comfort to know he’s there, she wishes he would come into view so she could see him again.
She finds herself giving in slightly, sitting on the wide trunk of a fallen tree. She has a plan, and if she can get him to believe her she’ll get the answers she needs. If not, well, she’ll just have to keep trying. She glances around, waiting to see if he’ll appear now that she’s sat down.
“You should leave this place.”
Cayson’s voice startles her, even though she was waiting for it. She turns around to face him, watching him scan the area.
“Why? Like you said, it was just a fox. I got freaked out and fell and hit my head. No damage, no danger. I’m perfectly safe, aren’t I?” She looks at him, waiting.
“How did it go with the police?” He smirks at her, Olivia shaking her head in response.
“I decided against it. If I am going to go to the police, I’m going to make sure I have evidence.”
Cayson laughs quietly. “Evidence of what, Olivia? How do you plan to get this evidence of whatever you think is happening here?” He watches as she moves, slowly pulling out her phone.
“Well for one, sound is recorded from the moment I walk in until the moment I leave. My phone automatically uploads the recordings to the cloud every hour. So even if I go missing and my phone goes missing with me, there's proof.” She waves her phone in front of his shocked expression before pocketing it with a smug grin. Cayson can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. Why the hell is she doing this?
“Voices aren’t evidence; we could be here during the day.” He shrugs his shoulders. He knows she can’t do much with the sounds of growls and movement amongst the trees; it’s nothing particularly suspicious or extraordinary.
“I’m not stupid. Besides, we haven’t gotten to the best part yet.”
Cayson looks at her expectantly.
“This,” she says as she taps the pin on her coat. He raises an eyebrow amusedly.
“Nice butterfly.” Laughing, he shakes his head and turns to walk away.
“Actually, I saved up all my wages to afford this. There’s a tiny camera inside which is filming everything and instantly going to my phone, which is uploading straight to the cloud just like the sound. All I need is one small thing; one flicker of something strange and I’ll be able to go to the police.”
Cayson stops dead, his eyes widening in horror. Olivia smirks.
“Finally, you realise I mean it. You want me to forget this place, forget that I was bitten, but I’m telling you it’s not happening. I will get proof, even if it kills me. At least then the world will know what you are!�
�� Cayson stares at her open-mouthed.
“You seem worried, Cayson. I’ll tell you what. You tell me who that man is, who you really are and what’s happening here, and you can take everything and destroy all the evidence. Don’t, and well, this video alone will make the police wonder why you look so guilty right now and why you’re so worried about me filming in here at night.” Cayson wants to call her bluff. He wants to tell her to just go to the police; that he knows the butterfly pin is just that, not a camera, but he can’t risk it just in case she’s telling the truth.
“Fine,” he sighs dejectedly. “Okay, I’ll tell you. Just- not here. As much as I don’t want anyone else hearing this, I’d prefer we were somewhere public considering the lengths you’re going to to incriminate me.”
Olivia follows Cayson to a local bar where they order drinks – a whiskey sour and a margarita – before sitting down in a cosy booth, tucked away in a quiet corner.
“What I am going to tell you is going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen to me. Don’t laugh, don’t run away, and don’t say anything too loud. I’m only telling you this because you’ve left me no choice.”
She nods her agreement and he begins to talk.
“The deaths and disappearances are not as straightforward as the papers and police claim they are. Something is causing them, but even if the police knew what it was, it’s not something that could be broadcasted. No-one has the power to stop it. There’s no good that could come out of anything being publicised.”
She listens attentively. This could be her way of finding Dan, of bringing him home. After all, his body had never been found, so there must still be a chance he’s alive.
“So who was it that bit me?”
Cayson looks around furtively, leaning forward and gesturing for her to do the same. He can’t afford any questions about why she was taken back to his place, or why he was wandering around the graveyard at night, or why he looked so worried when she mentioned it.
Night Shadows Page 1