Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1)

by Emma L. Adams

  “Don’t blow him up until I’ve made him tell us why he wants to destroy my coven.” It was time to finally clear up the question of why the vampire was so interested in the Hemlock witches.

  “Word of advice,” whispered a voice in my ears. “Don’t look down.”

  And the ground gave way beneath my feet.

  9

  I fell into the darkness, dropping both the candle and the witch spell, then tumbled headfirst down a slope. Wincing, I rolled onto my back. The street was barely visible through a sliver of light above, but I saw no way to climb out of this hole. A tunnel extended to my right, disappearing into the gloom.

  I’d known Edinburgh was once riddled with underground tunnels and catacombs, but they were considered the domain of the ancient dead, not vampires. That’s what I got for not watching my step.

  “Wonderful.” I climbed to my feet and grabbed the candle and the explosive spell. If that dick of a vampire was hiding in this hole, he’d be sorry he ever met me.

  A bone-chilling screech echoed through the tunnel ahead of me, turning by blood to water. Uh… or maybe not a vampire.

  Magic sprang to my fingertips, and my hands glowed with white light. Not necromancy. Evelyn Hemlock really didn’t like whatever had made that noise. My heart thundered in the silence following the cry, then came the faint sound of movement. Someone else stood in the dark, just a few feet away.

  Gotcha.

  My candle light shone on handsome features and a sharp jawline—the mirror image of the sketch I’d drawn.

  “Nice to see you in the flesh, creep,” I said. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t use this spell to blast a hole in you.”

  “Get out,” hissed the vampire. “Get out, or it’ll follow you.”

  “I’d need to be able to fly to get up there.” I pointed at the slither of light with the hand holding the candle. “I expected you to be hanging out in a luxury apartment, not a hole in the ground. Guess setting zombies on people for kicks doesn’t pay well, huh.”

  “I’m not hiding,” he said. “Put that candle away.”

  “How else am I supposed to see how to get out?” I dropped my voice. “You have some nerve giving me orders after your undead tried to kill me.”

  “Do I look like I’m in a position to send zombies after anyone?” He shifted to his other foot, and I glimpsed blood streaking his face and a sharp knife clenched in his hand. “I’m flattered that you have so much faith in my multi-tasking skills, but whatever attacked you didn’t belong to me.”

  “Nice try, but your zombie brought me here itself.”

  He swore under his breath. “I knew I should have left them somewhere else. Thieving scum.”

  “What, you’re saying someone else hijacked your zombie?” I snorted. “Nice try, creep.”

  “I’ve been a little preoccupied.” He raised his knife. “I’d advise you to stand back.”

  Before I could throw a spell at him, the vampire disappeared in a flurry of sharp claws.

  I gaped at the spot where the vampire had vanished. My candle’s light reflected off glassy scales, sharp teeth, and claws longer than my forearms. The vampire, pinned beneath the creature attacking him, stabbed wildly, his knife sinking between two of its scales.

  I slipped the candle into my pocket and drew my own knife. I wasn’t above leaving him alone with whatever ghastly monster he’d brought after him, but the monster was between me and the way out. Flashes of light revealed red wings edged in black, feathers of the same hue, and eyes as dark as the shadows of Death itself.

  Holy shit. I bloody well hoped it was an unknown fae monster and not a new zombie nightmare, because I’d never seen anything like that walk out of a summoning circle before.

  The vampire’s knife flashed. The beast screeched but kept lashing out at its target. Those talons looked sharp enough to gut a human, but its attention was on the vampire, not me.

  I gripped my knife tight, advancing on it from behind. Not that I cared for the vampire’s well-being, but it’d be a fine thing if the guy I needed to talk to got mutilated before I could find out who his allies were, and if the person who’d tried to poison me was still out there. He must know. Unless I’d read the situation all wrong, but the one lesson Lady Harper had drilled into me was that it was always best to strike first.

  With a quick lunge, I stabbed the creature in the spine. On most other fae, it’d have been an instant kill, but the beast merely shook me off, loosing another horrible cry. My back hit the wall, knocking the breath from my lungs. What the hell’s it made out of, concrete?

  The vampire swore, freeing his own knife from its chest. “Didn’t I tell you to run?”

  “You’re welcome.” I stabbed the creature again, slicing down its back and side as it whirled on me. Its eyes locked with mine—dark and shimmering. I’d have backed up if I had anywhere to go, but its gaze held mine captive. A horrible kind of intelligence shone from within. This was no wild faerie beast, but a creature as smart as a human.

  The vampire struck from behind, his blade protruding from the beast’s ribs. As its gaze snapped away from mine, I grabbed for my knife, which had remained stuck in its side. “How many times do you have to stab this thing before it dies?” Fae could be resilient, but not like this.

  “Don’t look it in the eyes,” the vampire responded.

  The creature whirled on me, emitting another horrible screech. With my knife still stuck in its side, I had no weapons, so I blasted it with kinetic power. The beast didn’t even flinch.

  “Necromancy doesn’t work,” the vampire said, giving it another swift stab. He’d brought a spare knife, and I wished I’d had the foresight to do the same. What the hell was immune to necromancy? More to the point, while the injuries would have been fatal on any other beast, it either had incredible pain resistance or was too set on killing both of us to notice it was bleeding out.

  I lunged forwards to retrieve my knife, and its eyes locked with mine once more.

  Magic sprang to life in my hands, lighting them in a cool silver glow. I swayed, mesmerised by the power within those pit-like eyes… a power that resonated with mine—

  A thread of silver light snapped from my hand like a whip, severing the monster’s head.

  The vampire stared, mouth half-open, as the monster crumpled. Neither of us spoke for a moment, while I forced my arms to drop to my sides. Moving my body was like wading through mud—sluggish, distant, as though the person who’d momentarily taken control was reluctant to give up—and my legs gave out against the wall.

  “You’re immune to fury magic?” the vampire asked.

  “What magic?” To my relief, the voice that came from my mouth was my own. My head pounded, and dampness from the wall soaked into my jacket.

  “Fury magic,” he said, reaching a hand out to help me.

  Against my better judgement, I let him pull me to my feet. “Thanks,” I said. Then it hit me… I was thanking the guy who’d tried to kill me, who’d been driving me out of my skull for the past few days. “So this is what you really look like?” The gloom hid most of his appearance, but I could make out that he was several inches taller than me, with longish dark hair and the sort of muscles one did not develop while sitting around using the dead as puppets.

  “You sound disappointed,” he remarked, turning the fury’s body over with his foot, yanking my knife from its side. I tensed, but he held it out to me, handle-first.

  I took the blade warily, ready for any sudden movements, but he made no motion to attack me. In the flesh, he sure as hell didn’t look like a shadow. Or a necromancer.

  “You aren’t like the vampires in the stories,” I said to him. “Pointed teeth. Bursting into flames in sunlight. Unless that’s why you’re hiding in this hole?”

  “I told you I’m not hiding,” he said. “These creatures have been leading me around the sewers all day. And most of the stories about us are human nonsense.”

  I pulled out the candle, and its
pale light illuminated his blood-streaked face. No signs of any teeth or claws, but he was easily as dangerous as one of those monsters on his own. After all, he’d nearly sucked out my soul without being anywhere near me.

  I shone the candle down the path ahead, which forked into three tunnels. “Care to tell me the way out?”

  “This one.” He indicated the path on the left. When I didn’t move, he shrugged and took the lead. “I wasn’t responsible for the zombies that attacked you. I’d like to know which vampire thought it was necessary to steal my vessels. We’ll have words.”

  “Meaning you’ll suck out his soul.” I walked after him, leaving the fury’s rotting carcass behind. “Whether you sent those zombies after me or not, you’re still a walking crime against nature.”

  “Didn’t you pilot a zombie yourself, to find me?” he asked, his eyes cutting. “You’re two souls in one body, Jas. By all definitions, we’re the same.”

  “We are not the same,” I snapped.

  I was possessed. He was the one doing the possessing. Same creepy factor, but he’d chosen to spend his days piloting the dead. Nobody had given me a choice in this at all.

  “No need to shout.”

  “Considering you lured me into a monster’s nest, I’d say I have good reason.” I walked on through the gloom, wondering if it wasn’t worth just leaving him down here to rot. Apparently, he wasn’t too concerned I’d attack him from behind, but then again, he was so tuned into the spirit realm, he’d be able to see anything coming.

  “I seem to remember warning you not to follow me. I’m very interested in hearing how you were able to track me down.”

  “You know how I found you. I tried using a tracking spell on your zombie, and when that didn’t work, I followed the trace you left behind on another zombie when you raised it.”

  “So casual,” he said, his voice soft. “You do realise how few necromancers could attempt such a feat, much less successfully?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t care how rare the ability was, I cared that the person it was attached to wasn’t me at all. Evelyn’s magic—raw and untamed—had sliced through that unbreakable monster’s skin like it was nothing.

  “Modesty? You’re full of surprises, Jas.”

  “No, I’m wondering when you’re going to cut the crap and tell me why you tried to kill me.”

  “I’ve been tracking the furies all day,” he said. “I can show you their bodies, if you don’t believe me. I left my zombies on the surface while I was dealing with this little pest problem, and I assume another vampire took them from me and used them to attack you.”

  “Why would another vampire want me dead?” I queried.

  “Power, I would guess.” He glanced back at me, his brief gaze penetrating. “Two souls in one would satiate a vampire for quite some time.”

  “Don’t get any ideas.” If he’d been a normal necromancer, overpowering him wouldn’t be an issue, but who knew what other tricks he might be hiding? He’d nearly sucked out my soul using someone else as a proxy, even if I believed he hadn’t been responsible for today’s zombie swarm. “Is that why you tried to drain my soul out?”

  “I wouldn’t have killed you,” he said. “To most people, the sensation of being touched by a vampire is… not unpleasant. To your other soul, probably less so.”

  I nearly stopped walking. Had he been trying to suck out her soul, not mine? Surely not. If he had, she’d have retaliated. “She’s not mine.”

  “My mistake,” he said. “At first I assumed you were one and the same.”

  “Your vessel still tried to murder me, you scumbag.”

  Relief flooded me when the tunnel widened into a cave, and a ladder lay against a back wall at a crooked angle. It didn’t look sturdy, but I wasn’t about to stay down in the dark with the vampire a moment longer.

  “After you,” he said.

  “Why, so you can pull me off the ladder when my back is turned?”

  “You think so little of me?”

  Well, yes.

  He chuckled a little as though he’d heard the words I hadn’t spoken aloud. “Fine. Better hope there’s nothing else on our tail.”

  And he gripped the ladder’s rungs, pulling himself up. I waited until he was too high up to kick me in the face, then climbed after him. While he was swift and athletic, he moved with neither the quiet grace of a faerie nor the brute force of a shifter. Vampire or not, he looked human.

  “Your name?” I asked, climbing into the street behind him. “You know mine.”

  “Keir,” he said.

  He might be lying or using an alias. Who knew. In the daylight, against the grey sky and pale stone buildings, he looked less… supernatural. You wouldn’t pick him out of a crowd. He wore grey jeans, a plain T-shirt, and had no apparent concern for the cold air or the drops of rain beginning to fall.

  “So you can possess any dead body,” I said to him. “Can’t you just grab your zombies back from the other vampire’s control, if there really is one?”

  “That’s not exactly how it works.” He walked back to the hole and grabbed the top of the ladder. “To be more accurate, I can detach parts of my spirit and use them to control others.” He pulled the ladder out, folding it in two. “The ability drains my own spirit essence, which I must replenish by draining others. Hence the name… vampire.”

  Sounds almost as much fun as being permanently possessed. “So there’s no limit? You can control as many as you like, no matter how far away they are?” I tapped an impatient foot as he folded the ladder again. “Come on, you might as well answer my questions. I did save your life.”

  “Are you implying you’re interested in learning from me?” He finished folding the ladder and straightened upright, his voice dropping suggestively. “If you’d like to embrace your full potential, I can help.”

  “No, thanks. What would I even do with an army of zombies? I’m not really into that whole world domination thing. Not my style. I prefer chilling out and watching zombie flicks to controlling an army of them.”

  He picked up the ladder again, balancing it on one shoulder. “A necromancer who likes zombie movies?”

  “My friend likes taking them to pieces. The movies, not the zombies—okay, both, but that’s not the point.”

  “No, the point is that you have two souls.”

  “Says who?” He knew what I was. Never mind whether he wanted me dead or not—all he’d need to do was drop a hint to a necromancer who couldn’t keep a secret and the boss would find out. Then I could wave goodbye to my apprenticeship and freedom all in one go. “If you tell anyone, I swear—”

  “Relax. I can keep a secret.” A smile played on his mouth. “I’m quite good at it, believe it or not. I might even be able to help you. I can’t say I’ve ever mentored a shade before, but I like a challenge.”

  “I have a mentor. She’s the one your zombies tried to kill.”

  “They’re not my zombies.” His eyes glazed over for an instant, the vacant expression of someone tapping into the spirit world. “They’re gone. I assume your friends destroyed them.”

  “Well, that’s one piece of good news.” I took a few steps down the cobbled street. “Aren’t you coming to get them?”

  “Vessels are no use to me if they’re in pieces. As you know well.”

  “Don’t berate me for destroying your pet,” I said. “I seem to remember you tried to use him to suck out my soul.”

  “Not your soul.” The light came back into his eyes again. “That’s what you want, right? Nobody wants a shade. I might just have a way for you to be rid of it.”

  “An… exorcism?” Crap. I did not need this. He was the person I should least trust with the tricky matter of extracting an extra soul, to say nothing of the fact that the witch’s magic had killed that fury without exerting any effort at all.

  “As it happens, I may know someone,” he said. “I didn’t lie when I said I needed something from you. Just take me to your coven, and I’ll deal w
ith this… spirit of yours. That’s what you need, right? You want your body and soul to be yours again.”

  Some choice. Sell out my coven or spend an eternity walking around with an evil spirit attached to my own.

  An evil spirit who’d saved my life.

  “You know,” I said, “I’m actually not interested in working with you at all. Have a nice life.”

  I turned and walked away, hoping I remembered the route. Lloyd and Isabel might think I was dead. Or buried underground. I really hoped they hadn’t followed me, but I’d have seen if they had. What the hell was he doing down there in the first place?

  “Jas,” Keir called after me.

  I whirled on him. “Did I not tell you to go away?”

  “I can help you,” he said, catching up to me. “But I need something from you first.”

  “I’m not letting you get within a mile of the Hemlock Coven, you wannabe assassin creep.”

  “Assassin?” he echoed. “I can only possess the dead, not the living, and I can’t say I’ve ever assassinated anyone. Nobody living, anyway.”

  “You want to kill the Hemlock witches. I’d say that fits the definition.” What the hell. I was too curious not to give him a grilling at this point.

  “No,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I don’t want them dead. I want to ask them a question.”

  “What?” I folded my arms across my chest. “You stalked me with your creepy vampire vessel so you could ask my coven a question? Is that why you poisoned me, too?”

  “I’m not the one who poisoned you, Jas,” he said. “At first, I thought you and the shade were the same person, but I was wrong.”

  “Do you want me to thank you?” I turned the corner at the street’s end, and he followed.

  “I was told shades were unequivocally evil and depraved. But you’re clearly neither of those things.”

  “Oh, I’m so flattered,” I said, with an eye-roll. “I barely qualify as a Hemlock witch, so if you want any magic tricks from me, forget it. I’m not part of their coven.”