Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  "Okay, I got spooked."

  "Spooked how?"

  "I woke up tonight to pee, which I'm starting to do at an uncommon frequency, might I add, and I sensed something in the house with Sebastian and me."

  "Something or someone?"

  "I don't know, both I guess. I feel like it used to be a someone, a woman, and now it's..."

  "Dead?"

  "Maybe, but it felt very much alive and it knew that I could feel it. What's more, it was in the nursery."

  "You already have a nursery?"

  "Well, not technically, no, but I knew it would be that before we even bought the house."

  "Have you told anyone else that?"

  "Yes. Sebastian. We talked about it yesterday."

  "So, this thing may have overheard you rather than getting in your head?"

  Abby shivered and scanned the room for a blanket. She found one and wrapped it around her, sinking lower into the couch.

  "Maybe."

  "Do you think it was Kanti?"

  "I don't know. I saw a woman, maybe Kanti, but it was so dark and she seemed to be dying. The presence, the spirit, was not good."

  "Not good, meaning evil?"

  "I think so, yes."

  Victor was silent for a moment.

  "Kendra and I are coming your way in a couple of days. I'd like to get a feel for the area, energetically and all."

  "For Trager?"

  "Yes, I haven't been there in years. The curse obviously originated there so we'd like to do some research. I also want to visit the Ebony Woods. What I'm thinking is we could shack up with you guys and perhaps you and I could have ourselves a little ghost hunt?"

  "Oh, that sounds like a fabulous time. After our last adventure into the Vepar's lair, I'm not sure we make the best team."

  Victor laughed, but Abby wondered if she'd struck a nerve with that memory.

  "No repeats of that disaster, Abby. I promise."

  ****

  "Any news on Dafne?" Oliver asked, walking into the Vault.

  Julian and Faustine sat at computers. Oliver bit back a laugh at Faustine's laborious, single-finger typing.

  "No news," Faustine grumbled, clearly frustrated by the task at hand.

  "Not entirely true," Julian quipped. "Select the Dafne File up there." Julian pointed at the giant touch-screen.

  Oliver touched the corner of the screen and it filled with manila folders, each labeled with names. He looked past the files labeled Tobias and Sebastian, The Curse, The Lourdes of Warning, Ebony Woods and dozens more. He clicked the file for Dafne and grimaced when a larger-than-life picture of the witch appeared on the screen.

  He knew the picture. It showed Dafne as a young woman at the Coven of Ula. Her black hair hung long and shiny and her gaunt body was hidden beneath a heavy dark cloak. She stood on the stone slab near the second lagoon, and a dazzling ball of fire erupted from the ends of her fingertips.

  "She was a force to be reckoned with in those days," Julian said, standing up from his computer and moving beside Oliver.

  Faustine continued to stare fiercely at his computer, and Oliver sensed that he could not stand to look at the picture. Not out of anger at the witch, but fear of what had become of her.

  "I would have liked to have known her then," Oliver said.

  "Ha," Julian laughed. "She was mean as hell. Now, at least, I understand why." Julian shook his head sadly. "If only she'd have told us. What difference a hundred years could have made in figuring all this out."

  "She was traumatized," Faustine said sharply. "I almost wonder if she didn't block it all out for a couple of decades."

  "She did a lot of good here," Oliver added, hoping to ease the tension between the two elder witches. "She was a brilliant hunter and she taught me a lot."

  Julian ran his finger across the screen and a list of topics appeared. He clicked on Present Day.

  "We know that she and Indra appeared in France right after we rescued Sebastian. We probably missed them by hours, if not minutes."

  "And Sebastian said that he saw Isabelle's body in the charnel ground," Oliver added.

  "Yes. We've been able to trace Dafne's journey to France. She flew first class, chose not to use any magic, which seems odd. She rented a car and we haven't found a record for any stops, so we're assuming she went straight to Isabelle's apartment. We think that she and Indra had planned to take Sebastian to another location to perform additional magic, likely because Isabelle alerted them that his memory was returning."

  "Was it?"

  "Not exactly," Julian explained. "But he had met an American woman who owned a store and who also happened to be a very good friend of mine."

  "A witch?" Oliver asked.

  Julian shook his head.

  "No, but the daughter of a witch. Her mother lives in a coven in Italy, and she is quite adept in the ways of the magical world. When she saw Sebastian's ring, she knew instantly that it contained a spell of some sort and as luck would have it, she called me."

  "That is lucky."

  "Luck has nothing to do with it," Faustine said crisply. "Our world does not rely on luck. Dafne went against the laws of nature, and nature merely set things right."

  "We know that Dafne and Indra stopped into the coffee shop where Isabelle last saw Sebastian. We wonder now if that's where the Vepar Alva intercepted them."

  "Because Sebastian was speaking with Alva when you guys found him?" Oliver asked Julian.

  "Yes, when Adora and Rod found him. We don't know how he tracked Sebastian down. We're speculating a link between Dafne and Tobias. You see in 1908, when Dafne originally came to us, she was somehow still open energetically to Tobias. That is how he made it into Ula. Either the curse closed on its own or Dafne shut it down, but we think the connection disappeared. However, we wonder if triggering the curse again reopened it."

  "How do we find that out?"

  "By sifting through this material, for starters," Julian said.

  "And by speaking with the Lourdes of Warning," Faustine added, still not looking up from his screen.

  "Why the Lourdes? What does she have to do with this?" Oliver asked, knowing that the Lourdes of Warning was not a witch to meddle with. Only months earlier, she had attempted to send Abby directly into the hands of Vepars waiting to consume her.

  "She's in this material. She was clearly the witch afflicted by the curse before Dafne."

  "That doesn't make sense. I thought the Lourdes was in love with another witch who turned bad, not a mortal man."

  "Well so did we," Faustine answered. "But it's not as though we have an accurate history book somewhere. These stories are word-of-mouth, they're passed through generations and like all things, they get distorted."

  "Yes," Julian said thoughtfully. "Look at any of the great religions or histories for that matter. What story isn't rewritten to serve some other agenda-be it money or power or control? I doubt anyone got much of the story from the Lourdes herself anyway. She'd clearly gone mad by the time she knew the truth about her love, whatever that truth might have been."

  "We also don't know that two witches can't be involved in this curse. We assume that it is a human man and a witch based on Dafne and Tobias, but perhaps not," Faustine finished.

  "Who will go see her?" Oliver asked, eager to volunteer.

  "I will," Faustine said shortly. "It has been many years, but I have had dealings with the afflicted witch before and she cannot deceive me. I can sense her lies."

  Oliver didn't argue. He had far less experience than the elder witches and virtually no practice dealing with witches who had turned toward darkness.

  "We feel sure that Dafne and Indra were not in the cavern with the other bodies," Julian continued, returning to their original discussion. "Partially because Galla from Sorciére can still sense that they are both alive. She cannot track them or even get any inklings to their state of being, but she knows that they live. We have all taken turns visiting the caves astrally, and none of us have
been pulled to the Pool of Truth. We're confident that Dafne's death would trigger an unveiling for one of us."

  "Maybe I should go too," Oliver said quickly, desperate to be of use. In the previous weeks with Abby, he had felt so involved, so alive, and back at Ula, he felt isolated and, honestly, useless.

  "That is a wise choice," Faustine said. "I believe that Helena is guiding Lydie toward that very end this afternoon if you want to join them."

  "Lydie, is that a good idea? What about Max?" Oliver asked.

  "Lydie witnessed Max's death. The Pool only reveals that which is unknown."

  "How did they do it? Indra and Dafne? How did they manipulate The Pool of Truth?"

  "It's been done," Julian answered. "It's old magic and the kind with heavy repercussions. When you manipulate the energy of such a powerful entity, you repay threefold and it was not borrowed, but stolen for ill intent, regardless of what they believed when they did it. I fear for both of them having dabbled in such dark magic."

  "As do I," Faustine agreed.

  "But how they did it," Julian continued, "I couldn't say. I'm sure they exhausted a lot of texts to discover that kind of magic, and not likely the stuff on Ula's library shelves."

  "Where would they get those books?"

  "We think they likely visited the L'Obscurite."

  "In New Orleans?" Oliver asked.

  He knew little of the witch community in New Orleans, though he'd heard talk of them over the years. Mostly complaints by Helena, who loved the city, but several run-ins with witches of the L'Obscurite had scared her away. She referred to them as lost souls and rarely offered more detail than that.

  "Why would they go to them?"

  "Their books," replied Julian. "They're collectors of the macabre and they're fascinated with dark magic."

  "Is it only a fascination?"

  "Not likely," Faustine answered simply.

  "How do you know that Dafne went there?"

  "Elda found Dafne's personal articles disturbed at the warehouse. While she was picking through, she stumbled across a little notebook that Dafne left behind. Most of the pages had been ripped out, but the L'Obscurite quarters were written down. We're sure that it's recent. Bridget recognized the notebook from the room of elixirs."

  Oliver considered the warehouse and suddenly felt tempted to dig around there as well.

  "Did she find anything else?"

  "Not much. When we found Dafne, one hundred years ago, she had no possessions. Later, she did go to retrieve her things, though we realize now that is when she disappeared to have the baby," Faustine continued.

  "And no one had a clue?"

  "No, Oliver. I know it seems hard to believe, but Dafne was very secretive and clearly traumatized. We treaded carefully around her. We wanted her to feel welcome at Ula, so we didn't examine her too closely. You also must realize that we experienced an enormous tragedy during that period of time. When she disappeared for several months, it nearly went unnoticed in our state of grief."

  "She just took off?"

  "No, no," Julian corrected. "She offered an elaborate story about tying up loose ends at home and saying goodbye to her family. Some of us thought that she would not be back. The fear at Ula was palpable and it was easy to see why she would want to run away. I wanted to run away. The last thing on my mind during that time was where she had gone and why." Julian's tone had grown bitter.

  "But then she returned," Faustine finished, trying to steer the conversation back to a less emotional space. "A little over two months and she was back with a few boxes of stuff and a new hardness. She was no longer weak; she was strong and fierce and wanted to be a hunter of Vepars."

  ****

  "I have a question for you," Sebastian said.

  Abby looked up. Sebastian was making their morning French press of coffee. Their first morning French press, anyway; sometimes they drank two or three. He stared at her curiously.

  "What's up?" she asked.

  "Why didn't you want to tell the witches at Ula about the baby?"

  Sebastian added milk to his coffee and set hers down, black and steaming hot. She watched the pattern of oils on the surface of the dark liquid, searching for any images, a form of divination that Helena had briefly taught her. She saw nothing curious.

  "I'm just not ready for all of the excitement. With everything that's been happening, I thought it'd be nice to keep it between us at first."

  "Doesn't it seem strange that they couldn't tell though?" Sebastian continued. "Several of them can read minds."

  Abby sensed this was the real question that he wanted to ask.

  "I've been performing magic to hide the baby," she told him calmly, fighting the urge to lie.

  "For how long?"

  "Sebastian." Abby stood and walked around the counter. She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked into his questioning blue eyes. "I love you so much and when I realized that I was pregnant, I sort of freaked. I got scared because the Vepar that attacked me tore open my stomach and honestly, because it's scary as hell just to think of pregnancy and motherhood and then being a witch on top of that. I wanted time to think and come to terms with everything."

  He continued to look at her, waiting for an answer to his question.

  "I knew I was pregnant the day of the attack in the Vepar's Lair. I felt the child inside of me."

  "How is that possible? To know the day after we made love?"

  Abby shrugged.

  "A witch thing, I guess."

  Sebastian unwrapped her arms and sat on one of the stools at the counter. He looked troubled, but seemed to come to a conclusion.

  "Okay, it concerns me that you didn't tell me, but I trust you and I know that you had your reasons. What kind of magic conceals a pregnancy?"

  Abby sighed, relieved that he didn't probe further.

  "Nothing too complex. Herbs, a few rituals. I've been drinking some pretty bitter-tasting tonics for the last couple of weeks, but don't worry, they're actually good for the baby. They cloud the body so that once the nutrients are dispersed through the blood and across the placenta, the baby is basically undetectable. Some witches use it if they get a terminal illness. It's healthy for the body to consume, but it also hides what's going on inside."

  "So that's the fungi-smelling stuff in the jar at the back of the refrigerator?"

  Abby laughed. "Yes, it's pretty wicked."

  "I'd say so. I nearly passed out when I opened it the other day."

  "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Sebastian. I should have."

  He stood and pulled her into a rough hug and then loosened immediately, looking at her belly.

  "Sorry, I didn't...?"

  "Nope, the baby's pretty well protected in there."

  He kissed her and smoothed a curl away from her face.

  "I love you, Abby. You've given me life again."

  ****

  Sebastian rolled over and reached for Abby. His hand struck something hard and cold and he grunted in pain. Blinking in the darkness, he realized that he was not in his bed. He felt blindly. Concrete beneath him and his hands closed on something sharp. A screwdriver, he thought.

  He shifted onto hands and knees and then struggled to standing. He stood in the garden shed. He could see the vague outline of a lawn mower and the wall of power tools. He touched his head, but felt no lump or blood. If he had fallen, he hadn't struck anything.

  He realized that something must have attacked them. He ran out of the shed, leaving the door wide, and raced across snowy drifts to the porch. Inside the house, silence and more darkness greeted him. He ran up the stairs, three at a time, and burst into their bedroom.

  Abby sat up, startled. She held the comforter bunched in her fists and blinked across the room at him.

  "Sebastian?" she asked sleepily.

  He stood in the doorway. His breath came in ragged gulps and his eyes swam with spots of light and dark. Too relieved to speak, he watched her for another moment.

  "W
hat is it?" she asked. She stepped out of bed, her nightgown ghostly pale in the moonlight.

  She looked like an apparition with wild curls flying and her milky skin aglow.

  He swallowed hard and moved into the room. Taking her in his arms, he lifted her and buried his face in her neck.

  "You're so cold," she murmured, her voice thick.

  "I went outside, and I thought I heard something. I came running back."

  He told the lie easily and did not consider offering her the truth.

  "Come to bed," she urged as he laid her down. He tucked her into the covers and kissed her mouth.

  "I will soon," he promised.

  Downstairs, he found a flashlight and returned to the shed. He scanned the floor and walls, but could find nothing amiss. How had he gotten there? Had he sleepwalked?

  Outside, he found a set of his footprints that led from the house into the woods. He had not taken a walk in the woods in days, and any prints should have been long buried by the heavy snowfall. He followed them.

  The trees groaned and whispered in the eerie night. They made a human sound, like mournful cries, and he wondered how many legends of forest creatures originated from the calling of the trees. He shivered and wondered why he had not thought to put on his heavy winter coat and scarf. He considered turning back, but knew if he returned to the house a second time, the call of Abby's warm body beneath the blankets would be too tempting to ignore.

  He followed the path further into largely unexplored forest. Though he and Abby had walked the woods before they bought the property, they had mostly traveled the shoreline without probing too deeply into the dense forest.

  He came to a crumbling rock wall, only a few feet high. Shining his light along the rocks, he searched for anything out of the ordinary. He scanned the snow around the wall and a spot of color caught his eye. It barely registered and had it not lay on a bed of stark white, he never would have noticed it. He bent down and plucked a long black hair from the snowy ground.

  Chapter 5