3.0 - Shadows In The Garden Hotel

by Krista Walsh

  The draugr darted out the back door into the garden, and Allegra leaped into the grass after it. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still dark. Heat warmed her eyes as her vision adjusted to the light spilling out from the hotel windows. The draugr was moving to her left. She closed the distance between them by a few feet. A few more and she would pounce.

  The monster disappeared into the shadows of a hedge.

  Allegra drew to a sharp halt and released a growl of frustration. Her breath came quick and heavy, her heart pounding against her ribs. A stitch pinched her side, but she ignored it. The pain was nothing compared to her raging bloodlust. She pictured herself leaping on the draugr’s back and sinking her teeth into its neck before she tore off its head. The strength of her desire to kill fended off the chill from the lingering dampness in the air, and she tasted blood. She stalked forward through the mud, her bare feet sinking into the ice-touched dirt.

  Before she reached the first hedge, she stopped, tilting her head to pick up any sound beyond the wind tearing through the asters and the hedges, beyond the rain and hail pelting against the stones.

  Nothing.

  She sniffed the air and picked up the smell of mud and flowers. There was a faint trace of decay, but nothing that gave away which direction the draugr had gone.

  Her muscles longed to keep running, to chase until she caught her prey, but her rational mind awoke and shouted at her to think logically. The struggle between her body and mind — instinct against reason — grew to a head-pounding crescendo. Finally, she growled and headed back to the door. She would stand guard and wait for it to come to her.

  Her bare feet squelched through the wet grass and mud as she crossed the front lawn. She would not follow the draugr’s trail into the hedges. She didn’t think the creature was smart enough to set a trap for her, but in the maze of the garden, it could hide until it wanted to be found, and she suspected that if she dropped her guard from the open doorway, it would sneak around her and return to its own hunt. She was a threat, but its prey was still inside, waiting. She took up her post outside the door and scanned the garden for any sign of movement.

  A crash echoed behind her, and she jumped around to stare into the hotel, the warm yellow glow of the ceiling lights pouring out into the darkness of the garden. For a moment she was confused about the noise, but as her instincts faded back into her subconscious, she realized she’d been so caught up in the chase that she’d forgotten about the other draugr upstairs. Now she remembered she had pitted a human being against a monster to protect another human life. She hoped Cody had armed himself. She hoped Lee had kept the other draugr away from her room.

  But a niggling serpent of concern rose within her, and she called toward the stairs, “Lee? Cody?”

  No answer floated down to her.

  Her heart jostled in her chest, and she swung her head between the garden and the hallway, torn between going inside to make sure they were all right and keeping up her pursuit of the second monster. Cody wouldn’t be safe until both of them were dead.

  The draugr stripped the choice away from her. As she faced the hallway, a hand closed on her shoulder from behind and squeezed. Pointed nails pierced her flesh, and she clenched her teeth to bite down on a scream.

  A burning agony cut through her throat as a sharp sting pressed deep into the muscles of her neck. The pain shot down her back and threatened to take her legs out from under her, but she tensed her muscles, bracing herself for escape. Life tugged at her veins as the draugr sucked it out of her.

  She released a cry and swung her right arm back over her shoulder, making contact with the draugr’s thin-skinned head. The strength of her blow staggered it. The monster loosened its bite and she wrenched away, its stinger tearing her skin.

  It jumped at her, but she met it mid-air, and they crashed into the grass with a spray of mud, the draugr trapped on its back beneath her. It closed its hands around her wrists as it stared up at her with its coal-black eyes, but the burn in her blood that fueled her struggling limbs prevented it from keeping a solid hold. Its graying gums opened and closed, revealing four rows of sharp, pointed fangs and a bloodstained stinger protruding from its narrow tongue. Her blood dribbled over its chin.

  Allegra jerked her arm free and delivered a blow with her fist across the draugr’s cheek. Its head snapped to the side, slamming against the ground, but Lee had been correct — a boxing match would not bring these creatures down. It recovered quickly and returned the strike with a cold wrinkled hand. Stars of black and gold burst through Allegra’s vision, momentarily blinding her. The force of the hit threw her off its body, and she landed on her side. Her elbow struck the stone path, and pain vibrated up her arm and into her head.

  The draugr threw its leg over her waist and pinned her to the ground. Despite the fragile appearance of its wasted shape, the grip of its long, bony fingers restrained Allegra’s struggles to free herself. It opened its mouth, and her blood leaked through its fangs to drip onto her chest. Her stomach heaved at the sight of the decayed tongue within, no more than a stump. It waggled like a headless snake, the stinger stretching outward like a second tongue.

  Another cry from inside the hotel jolted Allegra into action. The heat of her succubus strength washed through her and she pushed against the draugr, using its grip on her wrists to lift it away from her. It tipped off balance, and when it moved to readjust, she slammed her head against its nose. The bone crunched under her forehead and two of its teeth tumbled onto her chest. With one leg free, Allegra twisted her hips to roll it over and jerked her hands to its neck.

  She took no time to plan her attack and gave the monster no time to retaliate. Hissing through her teeth, she squeezed its throat and wrenched its head to the side. Her nails tore into its flesh, breaking through the decomposed tissue as though through paper. Pressing her fingers deeper into the gap she’d created, she used both hands to grip the edges. With her knees holding its shoulders steady, she yanked her arms wide. The head ripped from the body with a sickening crack as the spine snapped.

  Beneath her, the corpse crumbled into dust.

  Panting and buzzing with the rush of victory, Allegra leaped to her feet and bolted inside. She ran up the back stairs and down the hallway toward her room. She passed no one on her way back and no sounds drifted toward her from the lobby, for which she sent up a silent prayer of thanks.

  In the hallway in front of her room, Lee and the draugr were nowhere in sight, and her heartbeat shifted into her ears at finding the glow from the ceiling light streaming out from the open doorway.

  She drew herself to a halt outside her room, and her breath caught. She stared in horror at the shattered doorjamb and the cracked wooden door, at the shards of wood scattered across the dark blue carpet.

  Something moved within the room, and she brought her hands up in front of her, ready to fight. A man stepped into view. Mid-forties, sandy blond hair and wire-rimmed glasses — no one she knew. She sucked in a breath, working fast to find her calm and hide the signs of her demon, biting her pointed teeth into the inside of her lip and curling her elongated talons into the folds of her skirt.

  The man’s beige cargo pants and white polo shirt were a sharp contrast of normalcy against the chaos of her evening, and he seemed to know as well as she did that he didn’t belong here in the middle of it. His hands trembled as he passed his fingers over his brow, and his face was pale.

  “I — I heard something going on in here,” he said. His gaze jumped around the room. “I came to tell them to keep it down, but…” He trailed off, then stepped around her into the hallway. “I’d better go tell the manager or something. Get them to call the police.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “You might not want to go in there.”

  He rushed down the stairs, but Allegra ignored his warning, taking a step into the room. Her bloodlust evaporated, leaving her cold, and her fingers went numb. Her head was still whirling with the fight, and she needed a moment to put together the
scene in front of her.

  The wardrobe had toppled over and now blocked the bathroom doorway. Lee’s ax was wedged deep into the wood, the handle sticking out toward the bed. The post on the bottom-left corner of her bed had been snapped in two, and the broken half was lying across the rumpled bedspread. One of her suitcases had been thrown across the room, leaving her clothes strewn over the floor. The television that had sat on the corner of the desk lay on its side against the wall with a cracked screen. Mixed in with the wood shards from the door were teabags, the decorative box lying open in the opposite corner.

  Allegra’s brain picked out the details one at a time, as though it was unable to process everything at once and had to put it together like a jigsaw puzzle, beginning with the most irrelevant edges.

  What did she care about tea when Lee sat slumped against the wall with his eyes closed? Blood trickled down the side of his face from a gash in his forehead, and more blood smeared his white apron. His blue ball cap lay on the floor at his feet, blood staining the brim.

  Beside it was a pile of dust. The hint of bone in it was catching the glow of the bedside table lamp, which had survived by some miracle, although it had toppled onto its side.

  Allegra drew in a breath, and the scent of grease from the kitchens and the blood from Lee’s injuries drifted over her taste buds, waking her from the numbness that had settled over her.

  She shook off the sense of standing outside herself and rushed toward the cook. Kneeling at his side, she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Lee?”

  For a moment, nothing happened, and she feared the worst, but then there was a quiet moan, and she rolled her eyes skyward in relief.

  “Open your eyes now, Lee. Wake up and tell me if you’re all right.”

  He groaned, his throat bobbing with the effort of the noise, but he made no other sound or movement.

  Allegra’s stomach tightened and her skin crawled, and she closed her eyes to slow the dizziness that had come over her. When it subsided, she cast another glance around the room to figure out what had triggered her discomfort, shifting her feet to lean her back against the wall.

  Was there yet another draugr? Had a third creature come to stalk them after the other two were killed? She closed her eyes and cast her mind into the room, but sensed nothing from the doorway, detected nothing watching her from the shadows.

  So why the sudden overwhelming apprehension that made it so difficult to breathe, leaving her skin prickling with panic?

  When the answer settled in her mind, she squeezed her eyes shut tighter.

  Her fear came from the silence.

  The dust pile on the floor told her Lee had won in the end, but had he killed the beast in time? Where was Cody?

  Allegra braced her hand against the wall and eased to her feet. Her knees screamed and her arms ached, injuries she would have to tend later, but for now she focused on taking one step toward the bathroom door, then another.

  When her toes reached the edge of the wardrobe, she stopped. She tried to count her heartbeats, but they came too quickly and too erratically to track.

  She didn’t want to look, but she knew that if she walked away, she would never find the courage, so she forced her eyes open.

  Cody’s prone form came into view. He lay on his stomach, his legs spread out on either side of his torso as though he’d been crawling, one arm extended toward the door.

  Allegra’s bathroom bag lay on its side, the contents scattered across the marble countertop. He must have grabbed the bag from the suitcase after it had fallen open. Her pair of nail scissors lay on the floor, just out of reach of his outstretched fingers.

  Her heart stopped and the pain in her chest prevented her from moving any closer. She stared at his back, hoping to see some sign of life, some proof that he’d been attacked as Lee had, and had also survived. Unconscious. Just asleep.

  The need to know pushed her into action. She scrambled over the wardrobe and tripped as the hem of her dress caught and tore on a broken slat of wood. Allegra hissed in pain as she spilled across the cold bathroom tiles, but she kept moving forward.

  She crawled toward him and rested her hand on his back, then gave him a gentle shake.

  “Cody,” she crooned.

  Never mind the stillness beneath her palm, the lack of energy coming off of him — that cheerful, excited energy that had drawn her to him from the first. There was still a chance he had pulled through this battle.

  He couldn’t have been lost. The light in his eyes couldn’t have been extinguished because she’d been too selfish to go to him after Tim had frightened her with his threats. This couldn’t be her fault.

  Allegra gripped Cody’s shoulders and rolled him onto his back. Her lungs pinched with the sharp intake of breath as she took in the gauntness of his face. His shining hair had gone dull, his cheeks hollowed out, his firm muscles soft.

  As though he’d wasted away overnight. As though his handsomeness had been nothing more than an illusion.

  The cry that erupted from her lips sprang from a place so deep inside her, she hadn’t realized it existed. And it ached. It hurt so much she couldn’t breathe. She pulled Cody into her lap and wrapped her arms around him.

  She didn’t understand what she felt, but she hated it. All she wanted was to hear him laugh. She wanted to tease him and watch his cheeks flush red with the innocence of his desire.

  All of that had been stolen because she hadn’t acted quickly enough. She hadn’t paid attention.

  Another cry erupted from her lips, and now noises came to her from the hallway. Voices and cries and questions. She held Cody tighter and turned her face away from the doorway.

  She didn’t want to see or speak with anyone.

  Guilt had claimed her. Shame had swept over her mind and turned her face to the twisted monster that lived beneath her flawless features.

  In truth, she was no better than the draugrs that had killed Cody.

  They had been out for his blood, but her own desires had come before his life, and as she pressed his wasted eyelids closed, she had no idea how she would forgive herself.

  18

  Allegra sat at the end of the bed, staring at nothing. When the first emergency responders had arrived, they’d taken her across the hall to an empty room to await police questions. It was a mirror copy of her old room, with everything red instead of blue, but she couldn’t bring herself to look down on the lack of creativity.

  She wished they could have taken her to a room down the hall or on a different floor — somewhere she couldn’t watch the crime scene technicians going in and out of her old room, pawing over her scattered belongings and the broken furniture.

  She’d wanted to check out and go home where she could berate herself for her failure as loudly and as violently as she needed to, but she’d been told in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t go anywhere until the police had completed their initial investigation.

  The crime scene search team moved in and out of the room. She imagined them photographing the damage to the door frame, the toppled lamp, and the flipped-over wardrobe. Allegra wondered if the testing of the draugr dust they collected would show the remains to have been, at some point in their past, human, or if they would show as something inexplicable. Completely otherworldly.

  She’d spotted Detectives Avery and Kealey standing beside the vanity table and murmuring inaudible comments to each other. They were no doubt curious about Lee’s ravings that he’d killed the creature that had killed Cody.

  Before she had faded out of the goings on of the room, Allegra had noticed the glance the two detectives exchanged. It was the same expression of exhausted resignation that they’d shared following Cody’s explanation of the events in the garden.

  As if they knew that Lee’s confession wasn’t the gibbering of a mad man, but a statement of truth.

  The memory of how disturbed Cody had been at finding Penny’s body shoved its way into her mind — how she’d pushed him to stay and add
his voice to the banishment spell. He’d wanted nothing to do with her world. He’d enjoyed thinking of Lee’s ghost stories as just tales to spook the guests. He’d felt safe in a world where his greatest stress was earning money to go back to school.

  Allegra had torn that away from him. She had opened his eyes to the true dimensions of his world, and he hadn’t been able to close them again in time. He’d seen the draugr, and she hadn’t been able to give him the information he needed to protect himself.

  She had brought him into her world and it had destroyed him.

  A knock sounded at the door, and she looked up to see Courtney and Katie standing in the doorway. Katie held a large tumbler of scotch in her hand.

  “We wanted to make sure you were all right,” Courtney said.

  They came into the room together, walking slowly, as though they expected Allegra to lash out. Courtney settled on the end of the bed beside her. She extended her hand toward Allegra’s shoulder, then changed her mind and rested it on the bed between them.

  “I’ve discussed the situation with Matthew,” she said. “He agreed to give you time off if you need it.”

  The mention of Matthew added a fresh wave of emotions to Allegra’s overburdened mind. The pain she’d felt on him walking away was now replaced by a bone-deep relief. He had looked into the darkness with her and hadn’t broken, but how long would it have taken before she’d destroyed him as well? As much as she longed to have him with her now, his strong arms around her to hold her together, she appreciated the decision she’d made to push him away. It was the only way to be sure he was safe.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled, barely aware of what she was saying.

  She pressed her fingers against her cheeks to brush away the tears that stubbornly ignored her determined efforts to make them stop. Then she counted her breaths to slow her heartbeat and brushed her damp hands against her legs, grimacing at the bloodstains her fingers left behind. She didn’t remember them being so filthy. She wondered if the blood belonged to her or Lee.