Hunting Shadows

by Rain Oxford

  I heard a strange sound and the temperature dropped again. “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “The lights are flickering,” Logan said.

  Deimos growled. “Point the light at the spot where he’s growling.” I could feel the heat of the lights move off of me and tentatively opened my eyes. Deimos was snapping his jaws in warning at the far corner of the room. Suddenly, the chill vanished and he stopped growling, but the lights were still flickering.

  Micah was hiding under a metal exam table and using the light post as a shield. Just like with the waitress, I saw something very wrong with his face. This was worse, though; his skin was covered in boils, his eyes were dried and shriveled, and his lips were sewn shut. I blinked automatically and his face was back to normal.

  There was a window in the wall to my right for watching the surgery. It occurred to me that the viewing room was the closest spot without light. “Logan, get the kid out. I’m going to try to trap it,” I said, taking the bag from him.

  “What?”

  “Just get the kid out.” I handed him back two of the flares.

  “I am against this,” he said before reaching under the table and dragging the boy out by his arm. He left without arguing. Despite his suspicious behavior, I respected him a little more for that.

  I turned the light away from the window and entered the viewing room. Deimos followed me. “We’re setting a trap, so be quiet,” I said. Deimos grumbled and rolled his eyes.

  The temperature dropped almost immediately. A moment later, the window frosted over and cracked. I pulled a flare out, set the bag down, and waited. The smell of rotten blood filled the room, which was a new trick. Deimos snarled silently.

  I was startled by a loud sound right behind me and turned to see cracks in the wall, as if something had smashed into it, trying to break through. I took off the cap of the flare and got ready to strike it… when a dark blur appeared in the middle of the room. It wasn’t that the entity was moving, it was just… unfocused. It was almost like an out-of-focus shadow, except it had depth. The dark form seemed to be about the size of Deimos, but it could have been quite a bit larger or smaller.

  Before I could make out the shape of the creature, an unseen force slammed me into the wall and the flare was knocked out of my hand. I didn’t feel a grip, only general pressure on my body, as if the creature was pinning me to the wall with magic alone. I struggled, unsuccessfully. Magic was the only explanation, for I’d never faced anything stronger than a vampire. The more I struggled, the greater the pressure increased.

  Deimos tried to attack the dark shape, but it either moved too fast, or he passed right through it. Honestly, I couldn’t tell, which was bewildering since my vision was designed to focus on movement. Then the darkness advanced on him and he was thrown through the window.

  If I were human, I probably would have been panicking, but instead I was just angry that the creature hurt Deimos. The paranormal bastard was going to bleed for that. I didn’t know if it had blood and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of this, but it was going to bleed.

  I was not expecting the creature to break off a piece of the wooden molding from the broken window and aim it at me like a fucking stake. The “hand” that wrapped around the wood was a dark, shapeless, half-solid, half-incorporeal mass. The creature moved as fast as a bullet, so there was no way anyone but a vampire should have been able to stop it.

  But then Logan was there, practically materializing in front of me, and the wooden stake smashed into the wall beside him. The room dimmed for an instant and when it returned to normal, the dark blur was gone.

  Deimos limped into the room and licked my hand. I knelt and hugged him. “I’m okay, Deimos. Are you hurt?” He shook his head. “Why the hell did you step in between me and a wooden stake?” I asked Logan.

  In answer, he undid some of the buttons of his shirt and pulled it open enough for me to see a tattoo over his heart. It was a complex symbol inside a circle. “This is a sigil for protection. It’s on my back as well. With this tattoo, nothing can pierce my heart.”

  I saw the edge of another tattoo lower on his chest. “What else do you have on there?”

  He smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Where is the kid?”

  “I left him in his room with some flares.”

  “I don’t think this is over.” We went back to the kid’s room to find him pinned against the wall just like I had been.

  “Help!” he begged.

  I managed one step towards Micah before Logan and I were both slammed against the wall. Logan’s arms were free, possibly because the creature didn’t see Logan as a threat, so he pulled out his gun and shot the dark blur. Unfortunately, it had absolutely no effect; the bullet went right through the creature and penetrated the wall. Growling fiercely, Deimos stood in front of me. “Deimos, help Micah.” Deimos ignored me, thinking he knew best as usual.

  The teenager screamed again. For a moment, I thought I could see the creature more clearly, and it looked as if the creature was getting very close to him. I fully expected it to eat him, yet Deimos was more concerned with protecting me. Darkness seemed to be swirling around the creature to conceal it. Then, suddenly, the creature vanished and all three of us were released.

  “What happened?” Micah asked, shaking with fear.

  “It let you go,” Logan answered, harnessing his gun.

  “How do you know?”

  “You saw the same thing I did; it had you, and then it left.”

  I agreed with Logan; the creature could have killed Micah easily. I crouched in front of the boy and made him look into my eyes. “Why did the creature let you go?”

  His expression went blank as my power engulfed his mind. “I don’t know.”

  “You lied to me last time I was here. Why?”

  “I said that the flare wasn’t in my room because I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

  “Why would you get in trouble for having a flare in your room, and why would you have one in your room in the first place?”

  “I like playing with fire. I like burning things like buildings.”

  “Does your mother know that?”

  “She knows about the buildings I burned, but not the hobo.”

  “You killed a man?”

  “He was homeless and jobless. Nobody missed him. I only did it once.”

  I turned and left the room, followed by Logan and Deimos. “Everyone in the paranormal world is so afraid of humans finding out about us, and I always thought it was kind of stupid. I mean, I was captured and tortured by paranormal hunters, and I still didn’t think we should be in hiding. Now I’m starting to realize they might have a point; there are some crazy ass humans.”

  “Yes, there are, but I suspect there are just as many crazy paranormals.”

  “So, Micah is a pyromaniac. That could be a clue. Maybe the creature is going after people who have secrets. Do you know if Lilly had any skeletons in her closet?”

  “Everyone has secrets.”

  “Are we sure it’s not just going to come back?”

  “No. I will check on Micah tomorrow. In the meantime, I have an idea. Drop me back off at my car. I’m going to try to track down the creature.”

  * * *

  Although it was somewhat suspicious that Logan suddenly wanted to go at it alone, I wanted to check out my own lead. As soon as I dropped Logan off at the motel, Phobos got in my car and I drove to Lilly’s house.

  When I knocked on the door, a thin woman with dirty blond hair answered. I wasn’t even surprised to see a horrific vision over her face. Expecting it didn’t make it any less disturbing, however. Her face was like a porcelain doll, except there were cracks all over her face and down her throat. Her eyes were milky white, almost pearlescent, while the skin around them was frozen over with ice. Her deep red lips were clearly painted with blood, as the blood dripped down the sides into the cracks on her chin.

  For a few seconds, I
could only stare, because the vision didn’t immediately disappear like it had the previous two times.

  “Do you have any idea what time it is?” she asked coldly. Only then did the vision fade.

  She was probably in her fifties, but years of smoking aged her and she had as many wrinkles as she had cracks in the hallucination. Her blue eyes somehow looked even colder.

  Before she could say another word, I had her mind under my control. “Go back to bed. Whatever you hear or see until the sun rises in the morning, it’s just a dream, which you will forget as soon as you wake.”

  Without a word, she turned and walked back to her room.

  “Deimos, watch the house. Phobos, guard the mother.” They both growled quietly. “Stop arguing.” They did as I ordered, albeit reluctantly. I knew they would do the jobs I assigned them.

  I searched Lilly’s room again, this time focusing on hiding spots. If Lilly did know something was after kids, and that no one would believe her, then she probably hid any evidence she had to show Astrid. I checked under the mattress, in the drawers, and in the carpet. The drawers didn’t have any false bottoms. I found a hole in the closet, but the only thing hidden in it was a change jar full of pennies and nickels.

  When I checked behind her desk, I noticed something very odd; the carpet was ruffled. I knew it could have been nothing, but it was worth checking. It was easy to move the desk, not so much to lift the carpet without damaging it. Underneath were floorboards like one would find in any old house. I stepped on each board carefully until I found one that wiggled. There weren’t any nicks in it to pull the board up, so I pushed down on the opposite end. Part of the board popped up and I lifted it.

  “For fuck’s sake.” There was a book, a vial of blood, several bones, a dark brown jar, a few half-formed dolls, and several pouches of herbs.

  Lilly was a witch.

  No wonder she knew the case had to do with magic. With a sigh, I picked up the book, immediately recognizing it for a grimoire, and started reading it. All serious witches had grimoires, which were like diaries they wrote their knowledge of magic in.

  I learned three things from her book; she wasn’t a paranormal, she only did light magic, and the stuff I found in Dr. Brian’s office belonged to her. Kenneth and Andrea had told her about some of the “nightmares” they had been having, so when they disappeared, she was suspicious. Jeana started having the same fears and drew pictures that scared her teachers.

  The school found the witchcraft stuff in Lilly’s locker during a routine search and they sent her to the counselor. From the questions the counselor asked her, she figured out he was involved with the disappearance of Kenneth and Andrea. Then Jeana went missing and Rome told her it was happening to her as well.

  Lilly attempted to steal her stuff back so that she could do a spell on Dr. Brian to make him confess, only to find the coin instead. Recognizing it had something to do with magic, she took it. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to figure out what it was. A few days after the counselor met with her, she started seeing things. The last entry said that she was going to ask another witch for help, who she was supposed to meet at the water tower north of town… on the night she vanished.

  I opened the jar and dumped out a rag with dried blood on it. Phobos entered just then and I pointed to the rag. “Is that Lilly’s blood?”

  He sniffed the bloody cloth, stuck his nose in Lilly’s blankets, and then nodded.

  I packed everything but the grimoire back under the floorboard. “Let’s go.” We joined Deimos outside and got in the car. Right before I could start the engine, I got a text. Once again, Logan wanted to know where I was. With a sigh, I texted back that I was at the motel, set the phone aside, and pulled out of the driveway. I didn’t feel like dealing with Logan at the moment, especially since I had a sneaking suspicion he knew about Lilly’s witchcraft. He had been very eager to divert my attention away from her house. Of course, it could have been that he was trying to keep me away from her mother.

  The phone vibrated a moment later with another text, but I never used my phone while driving. Contrary to popular human belief, vampires weren’t magic behind the wheel. Yes, we had superior reflexes and supernatural speed, but that did me no good if my eyes were on my cell phone.

  * * *

  Instead of driving back to the motel, I decided to go find the water tower. Maybe Lilly left a clue behind. It only took about ten minutes to get out of town. My phone vibrated with another text, which I also ignored.

  Then my car started to stall. It never gave me issues. Deimos and Phobos growled, but it was too cramped in the car for them to do anything. The headlights flickered, the temperature dropped about ten degrees, and after a few choppy jerks, my car died in the middle of the road.

  “Great.”

  When Deimos growled at something through the passenger window, his breath instantly fogged the glass. He pawed at the window controls, but they didn’t work.

  I reached for the door handle just as the radio turned on. Only static came through. “Just great.” I tried to turn the radio off, but the button did nothing. I took the key out, which also failed to stop the radio, and pulled on the door handle. The door locks didn’t release.

  Just as I raised my fist to break the window, a new sound broke up the static. “Help me,” a voice said through the radio. It only took a second for me to recognize it.

  “Lilly, can you hear me?”

  The static grew louder. “I’m hurt. Please, someone, help me.”

  “Where are you?” The radio flickered off. “Damn it.” I stuck the key back in and tried to start the car again. It didn’t even turn over, but I heard the door locks disengaged. “It looks like we’re walking,” I said, opening my door. The boys stopped growling. As soon as I opened Deimos’s door, he took off into the forest. “Deimos!” He ignored me. “Phobos, go.” The smaller wolf slammed the seat forward and ran after his brother.

  I raced after them, knowing they were on a scent trail. Soon, we came to a stream, where the boys stopped, sniffed in circles, and whined. “Did you lose it?”

  Deimos nodded.

  “Is the trail old?”

  He shook his head.

  Even though they weren’t any more trained for this kind of work than I was, their sense of smell was better than mine and they shouldn’t have lost a scent that easily. “Alright. We need to find out if Logan has---” I stopped when I smelled blood. “Do you smell that?” I asked.

  Phobos cocked his head and Deimos sniffed the air. I tracked it downstream until I found something sticking halfway out of the water, tangled in some branches. The half-frozen mud bordering the creek was rather treacherous, despite my excellent night vision. I expected the shapeless, supernatural creature to attack at any moment.

  There wasn’t anything to brace myself against, so I got into the creek. The frigid water soaked through my clothes and came up to my chest. If the creature is going to attack, it’s not going to get a better chance than right now. My boots sunk into the muddy bed of the creek.

  In order to withstand a vampire’s immense strength, our bodies were denser than a human’s, which meant none of us could swim. Without solid footing, we would sink to the bottom of any body of water. In order to even reach the tangled mess, I had to brace myself on some rocks embedded in the creek.

  I unraveled the rubbish, not at all surprised to discover it was a small body with whitish-blue skin and long, tangled hair. She wore red heart pajamas that were torn and stained almost beyond identification.

  Although her dirty face was almost unrecognizable, I had no doubt that this was Lilly. Most importantly, she had a heartbeat. It was slow, sickly, and barely sounded human, but it was definitely a heartbeat.

  There were just enough rocks on the bed of the creek for me to reach the ledge and push her out onto the ground, but none on the bank for me to climb out myself. Deimos found a long branch and held it out for me to take. Once I did, he pulled me out.

 
When I was on solid ground, Phobos licked my face until I had to push him away just to breathe. “Thanks, boys,” I said, laughing. “That wasn’t fun.”

  Deimos turned away, pretending he didn’t care. He preferred to think I was never in trouble in the first place. In fact, he probably felt responsible for letting me get in the water. He knew I couldn’t swim because I’d told them my weaknesses. After all, I trusted them more than anyone.

  Deimos growled and stepped on Lilly’s chest. Nothing happened, so he stepped on her again. This time, she gasped, choked, and coughed up water. I went to her side immediately, but she had already passed out again. She wasn’t shivering, which was a very bad sign, and her skin was dangerously cold.

  “Was hers the scent you tracked here?” I asked. Deimos and Phobos sniffed her lightly and nodded. My first priority was to get her somewhere warm.

  Before I could do anything, Logan practically appeared beside me. “We need to get her back to your motel room,” he said as he picked her up carefully.

  “What about your motel room?”

  “I still don’t have one.” He walked away without another word.

  That was really starting to get on my nerves. I easily kept up with him, but he wouldn’t tell me how he found me. We emerged from the woods to find his car parked off the road. Maneuvering the girl gently with one arm, he unlocked his door and settled her in the passenger seat.

  “I’ll meet you there. Give me your key.”

  If the girl wasn’t so close to death, I would have argued. Instead, I just gave it him. He got in his car and drove off.

  I took off my clothes and wrapped myself in the blanket I kept in my trunk. I would have lent it to Lilly, but Logan hadn’t given me a chance. My car started right up this time, so I cranked up the heat and drove back to the motel

  * * *

  By the time Deimos, Phobos, and I made it back to the motel, Logan had put the girl in the bathtub. What was so strange was that he was in the bathtub with her, clothes and all, cradling her like his own child while warm water rained down on them. “Wake up, Lilly,” he whispered.