Shadows Fall (Totem Book 7)

by Christine Rains

  “I don’t think it works that way, babe.” Lucky gave her side a small squeeze. “How about we all get some rest and figure it out later? I don’t think we can do anything about it until the totem comes to us.”

  If it did come to them.

  As much as Ametta hated to think that, it was the dark truth about the situation.

  Ametta took a deep breath and concentrated on the lovely colors of the sunrise out her living room window. It was only nine-thirty in the morning, and she could not sit in the house with everyone any longer. While sometimes the quiet at Lucky’s house on Kodiak Island got to her too, she craved it right now.

  She’d take the next best thing. “I just need to go to the office for a little bit and then to the store. The cupboards are nearly bare. I hadn’t thought to buy so much food. And Lucky will be with me. I’ll be perfectly fine.”

  “We all go together.” Saskia headed to the front door.

  “Do you even know where our office is?” Ametta tugged on her coat and yanked the sleeves straight.

  “I know where… about it is.” Saskia shrugged and threw Ametta a sour look.

  Her sister had never been at their downtown office. Only Ametta used it regularly as Kinley preferred to work from home and Saskia did her work from her workshop or on site.

  “I’ll have Lucky with me.” Ametta repeated. “And we’ll be downtown in the daylight with tons of people around. The Shadowmen don’t have as much power under the sun, right? We’ll be fine.”

  Several faces hardened, but they didn’t say anything.

  “I do have to go into my office for a bit too.” Ransom hedged, testing out the room.

  “Perhaps if we split into two groups…” Kinley started, giving them a nod.

  “Yes, that’s fine.” At least Ametta would be rid of half of them.

  Sedge huffed and then nodded too. “Saskia can go with Ransom and Kinley. Since Ametta seems to be targeted, Kunik and I will accompany her and Lucky.”

  Great. Her dad and Sedge. Two grumpy bears. At least they’d be less chatty than Ransom and Saskia. Why did she suddenly feel like she was an overprotected princess never allowed to do anything on her own?

  No one argued with Bear. Boots and coats were thrown on, and Ametta locked the door behind them. Saskia, Ransom, and Kinley left in Saskia’s truck. Her dad, Sedge, and Lucky climbed into her new car, and it sank low to the ground. Perhaps she should have gotten something larger after her SUV was wrecked when she hit that moose in the summer, but the car and its luxury interior had been for her. Not for playing taxi to men the size of refrigerators.

  Work first. Which was near impossible with three men brooding in the same room. Lucky would have been fine, but when one man was with another, and that other started to ruminate, every man nearby had to do the same thing.

  When all three of them glared at someone who glanced in through the window, Ametta shut off her computer and stood. She’d had enough. There was only one thing that would make her feel better: shopping.

  “I need to go to the mall.” She didn’t wait for them to reply. Plucking her coat off the rack near the front door, she marched outside as she put it on. Once the men were out, she locked the door and walked toward the mall, which was one block to the north of her office.

  “I thought you needed groceries.” Her dad grumbled. The mall was one of his least favorite places on the planet. Ametta could only recall him being in one once with her, and he was miserable.

  “You can wait outside or go sit on a bench under the dome.” She didn’t slow her steps.

  “We won’t leave you by yourself.” Her father’s grumble was resigned.

  Sedge didn’t sigh or huff. “We should not be going to the mall. We need to get some food and go back to the condo.”

  Did he think he could tell her what to do? She’d had enough of all this. She wanted to shop and feel normal for just one minute. “Look. Why do we all need to huddle together in my house all day? We have lives. We have stuff to do besides waiting around for a totem to show up. The other totems came to us when we were busy with other tasks. So let’s stay busy.”

  Sedge’s jaw tightened, and his dark eyes grew even blacker.

  “I think she has a point.” Lucky slipped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “In the condo, we’re sitting ducks. The Shadowmen could lay siege to us, even during the day.”

  “And it may be safer to have the totem approach us elsewhere,” her dad added.

  Thank God they were on her side. She held her breath as she waited for Sedge to reply. She didn’t doubt he was a man who was used to getting his way. Well, most of the time. He was in a relationship with Saskia, after all.

  Finally Sedge grunted. “All right. Let’s go.”

  As Ametta turned from them, she couldn’t help but smile a little. Perhaps the day would be tolerable. A new pair of boots, ones suited for running in the snow, would be a good idea. Of course, they’d have to be fashionable. No bulky rubber or puffs of faux fur.

  Before she could try on her fifth pair of boots, Ametta sucked in a breath at the feeling of a familiar tug in her chest. Another totem.

  Excusing herself from the shop, she motioned the men to follow her and whispered, “The totem’s outside!”

  Ametta walked swiftly. It would do no good to run through a crowded mall. With it being around lunch hour, it seemed the majority of the city’s population was there.

  She led them out the nearest side door and jogged along the walkway in the direction she felt the tug. The ice rink in the back. All she could think was there were too many people for this. They couldn’t attempt to get a totem with an audience.

  Glancing at the three men surrounding her, she didn’t see any hesitation on their faces. Did they trust it would all work out with no harm to innocents? No. She didn’t believe it. Her dad was no optimist, and Sedge seemed to be the same way. Lucky had seen his share of innocent folks hurt or killed in his duties as a firefighter.

  She weaved between families and couples heading toward the rear of the rink. Birds huddled in the bare trees. Opportunists waiting for people to drop food.

  A half dozen ravens sat to her right. No. Not any of them. Farther back.

  A woman bumped Ametta’s arm and apologized as she hurried after her two rambunctious children.

  There. Ametta didn’t say anything as she pointed to a pair of ravens perched at the top of the last tree, farthest away from the mall. Neither of the black birds looked different from the other. As a token bearer, wouldn’t one stand out over the other for her?

  Stopping ten feet away from the tree, Ametta craned her neck and narrowed her eyes. The magical pull drew her to the birds. Though they sat about two feet apart, she couldn’t determine which one was the totem. Which one?

  “I can’t tell which one it is. Ametta?” Sedge loomed over her to her right without even trying to loom.

  “I don’t know.” Should she know? She couldn’t let them down. This was too important. If the hunter or Shadowmen got a hold of the totem, it could mean doom for all of them. “Both of them. I feel… both of them.”

  One of the ravens hopped closer to the other. The second bird puffed out its chest feathers and cawed in a warning manner.

  “It could be a test, or a trick.” Her dad huffed out a puff of misty air.

  “Might be,” Lucky agreed, placing a hand on Ametta’s shoulder.

  “Doesn’t matter.” Sedge leapt and snagged a branch ten feet off the ground. He hefted himself up, moving so much quicker than a man his size should move.

  Ametta peered around, hoping they weren’t attracting too much attention. Yes, a giant of a man with the body of Superman wearing a pristine white coat was climbing a tree like a monkey. Totally not going to attract attention.

  Both ravens took to the air. God, they looked so big. Ametta pressed herself backward against Lucky. The birds likely weren’t bigger than usual ravens, but with wings stretched out, they were huge. No, it w
asn’t their size. She could feel them. Their immense size was in their power.

  One bird suddenly dove at the other, but it dodged with several frantic wing flaps. With a round of angry caws, it flew upward and away from the mall. The attacker gave chase, but the first one became a black dot and then disappeared in the clouds as it headed toward the mountains.

  Why did one charge the other? Part of the trick?

  Sedge jumped down from the tree. “To the car. We’ll follow.”

  Ametta shook her head. “They’re gone.” She nipped her lower lip and let out a long breath. “Why were there two of them?”

  “Could it be split into two parts?” Lucky asked.

  “No. Totem animals cannot be split and still be the animals they are.” Sedge glanced at the spot in the sky where the ravens had disappeared. “They were different ravens. The markings weren’t the same.”

  Markings? The birds were all black. Not a single white or gray feather or scar on their beaks or legs. She felt the tug from both of them. “They can’t be different birds. Both were totems.”

  “They weren’t the same bird.” Her father stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and sighed.

  Even her dad was against her? Ametta knew what she felt. There was no other sensation like it.

  “Why did the one attack the other?” Lucky’s hand remained on her shoulder, the weight reassuring. “I’ve never seen ravens do that except over food. Maybe over a mate?”

  Sedge shook his head. “There were no competitors around.”

  “I’m not wrong. They’re both totems.” Ametta looked from one man to the other and neither her dad nor Sedge nodded or gave her any support. “I’m not wrong.”

  She didn’t care if they were Black Shamans; they wouldn’t convince her she had been mistaken. They wouldn’t have doubted Saskia or even Ransom. But because she was the youngest or had no magic or whatever, they didn’t take her word for it.

  Ametta raised her chin. Let them doubt. She’d figure this whole thing out by herself if she had to. She wasn’t going to let them or the golden eagle hunter or the Shadowmen scare her off the hunt.

  She turned to head back to the mall and wrapped an arm around Lucky. She’d take him with her, though. She wasn’t stupid.

  Everyone went out to dinner again. Thankfully to a restaurant with less sticky chairs and a good selection of wine. No other time in her life had Ametta needed a drink more than this night.

  Several theories about the two ravens were thrown across the table. Again, the split totem, the good side and the bad side of it. Kinley mentioned that Odin had two ravens, and Saskia stated ravens were associated with Death. But Ransom put forth a possible idea which made them all pause to think.

  “What if the totem has split itself in several pieces? It knows it’s being hunted. What better way to throw off the scent than by having doubles everywhere? Several false trails, each with a tiny bit of its magic. Hunters spread out everywhere.” Ransom skittered his fingers across the table in a bunch of directions. “That way, the central piece of the totem can choose who it wants to have it. If it wants anyone to have it.”

  “It will want to be with the other totems.” Sedge’s statement was emphasized with his stabbing his steak with a fork. As he cut it, the juices from the meat oozed onto his plate.

  Ametta kept her gaze away from his meal. Her stomach was tight enough as it was. After working with the Meyers earlier in the year, a large family who were cattle shifters and who had lost a son to the hunters, she didn’t have much of an appetite for red meat.

  “So it will come to us who are bearers.” Saskia ate her steak with fervor equal to Sedge’s.

  Sedge swallowed the bite he had just taken. “You are not to take on two tokens.” He looked to Ransom and then Ametta. “None of you.”

  “We can’t dictate who the totem picks.” Ransom leaned back in his chair and waited for anyone to argue that. No one could.

  “I think it will be Mett.” All heads turned to Kinley as she spoke. She smiled a little. “Well, you’ve all felt it, and Mett saw it first last night. Then today it was at the mall where she was.”

  “We were at the mall too.” Sedge huffed. “Could be me, Kunik, or Lucky.”

  “But you keep saying it wants to be with other totems.” Kinley quieted at the narrow-eyed look Sedge gave her.

  “I don’t think we should worry right now who the totem picks.” Lucky lifted his glass of beer and took a sip. “Besides, if we can’t tell which one is the actual totem, then we have to wait for it to do something.”

  “I’ll be able to tell.” Saskia nodded as she took another big bite.

  Ametta waggled her fork at her. “No, you won’t be able to tell. I felt the pull to both of them, equally as strong.”

  “I’m more finely tuned than you are.” Saskia didn’t even look up from her plate as she said it.

  Ametta gnashed her teeth. Just because she didn’t have any Black Shaman training or heard whispers in her head, it did not mean she had no clue what she was talking about. They had left her out of the hunt before, and if they could do so again, she’d have no doubt they would. She’d earned the elk token. Not only had Kinley lost the owl, but Saskia and Sedge lost the fox. The legendary Bear who in his original incarnation created the damn totem pole couldn’t acquire one of its pieces.

  Screw them all. She could just get up and walk away.

  But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. It was a good idea to be together to attract the remaining totems. Better than running all over Alaska trying to find them.

  And they were family. Not that it had ever stopped her from telling Saskia off before.

  Sighing, Ametta dropped the topic and returned to her meal. Lucky reached over and rubbed her back. The man was perfect. Not only did he look scrumptious in his Leonardo Manu designer sweater, but he had a huge heart, immense courage, and a big…

  Her gaze had drifted down, and she steered it back to the table. God, she loved that man.

  Lucky gave her a little squeeze as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

  That made it easier to get through the rest of dinner. When it was finished, Lucky offered to pay the bill before anyone could grab it. Her man.

  They’d come in two vehicles and parked in the nearest garage on sixth. None of them wanted to walk again.

  Sedge and Saskia agreed it wouldn’t be safe to take the elevators because they’d be trapped if anything happened. Yes, because being in a shut in stairwell wasn’t like being trapped either. But no one protested as they trudged up three flights of stairs to get to where they’d parked.

  Ametta held Lucky’s hand as they walked. People got in and out of cars and drove by to find a spot for their own night out. Most folks were off work the day before Thanksgiving, and the city was lively for a Wednesday night.

  One older man and his wife stopped to say hello to her dad. The fluorescent lights flickered overhead. They had a brief chat about the weather, family, and fishing, of course.

  Ametta waited by the rear of her car beside Lucky as Kinley and Ransom climbed into the backseat. Standing between her truck and the open driver’s side door, Sedge and Saskia talked quietly. Her dad shook hands with his friend and waved before hurrying to catch the elevator as it opened. Scratching at his beard, her dad started toward them and stopped as he spotted something on the ground and bent to pick it up.

  A black blur zipped between the cars behind him.

  “Dad!” Ametta broke into a run. No. Kinley’s whisper. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. “Look out behind you!”

  Her father stood just in time to get punched by a Shadowman in the face. He stumbled back and shifted. Roaring, he lunged at his attacker.

  He shifted in the city. In a parking garage!

  Ametta could hear Lucky running behind her and Sedge and Saskia coming up the other side of the line of cars. Her legs couldn’t move fast enough.

  Kinley screamed behind them. She skidded to a stop and t
urned to see another Shadowman dragging a thrashing Ransom from her car. Ransom shifted and bit down on the arm around him to free himself, but the Shadowman didn’t flee. A second flowed out of the shadows of the truck next to them.

  “Help Ransom!” Sedge already turned back in that direction with Saskia pulling ahead of him. “Kunik can take care of himself!”

  Lucky took off back to the car and the two other Shadowmen who appeared. Her father, while a bear, was still being assaulted by an incredibly brave or stupid Shadowman. Its fists were larger than they should be, the size of grapefruits, and it bashed her dad over and over in the head.

  Ametta’s feet didn’t move. She knew Sedge was right. The Shadowmen wanted the totems, and Ransom was a bearer.

  But her father…

  Another roar, and she turned her head to see a polar bear on the hood of her car tearing at one of the Shadowmen who had Ransom. Her jaw went slack. Kinley?

  Snarling, her dad tried to nab his attacker and missed.

  Kinley’s whisper said for him to beware. It didn’t say he was going to die, but it didn’t have to spell it out. He needed her. The others could save Ransom.

  Ametta darted to her dad and screamed for him. As she did so, she shifted into her bear form. Fine clothes shredded and strength surged through her veins. While she was much smaller than her father’s bear, her teeth and claws were just as effective.

  From behind her, another bear bellowed. She recognized it as Lucky.

  Someone screamed from the elevator. Please don’t let anyone with a gun come upon them.

  Ametta dove at the Shadowman and flew over him as he melted into the shadows on the floor. Her father cried out and spun away from her to face yet another behind him. Or the same one?

  Fear threatened to make her panic, but the need to protect those she loved pushed her through it.

  Blood matted her dad’s fur on his right hindquarter. The Shadowmen had weapons. Knives? Swords? She couldn’t tell. Could they have guns?

  Her heart hammered. It was hard to breathe. Shifters with guns were bad enough, but beings who could meld with the shadows. How could they catch them? There’d be no way to stop them.