Born of Shadow (Shadow Walkers Book 1)

by Richard Murray

  After one look at Patrik’s dazed expression, Marie had announced that the evening's hunt would be postponed until the next night and that we would all benefit from some rest. She’d left the other two in the cellar and shown me to a room on the top floor of the house.

  Left to my own devices, I’d tried to sleep but my mind wouldn’t stop racing which is why I found myself, sometime past midnight, alone in the dark as I tried to sort out my whirling emotions.

  I’d picked Patrik up and thrown him around as though he weighed nothing. Not only that, I’d felt incredibly powerful for a short time and it was only after I’d released my hold on those powers, that I’d considered that he might be hurt. That scared me almost as much as having the powers did.

  My crappy phone vibrated on the nightstand and I looked at the glowing display. Another attempted call from Evie. She was worried and I was being an ass not responding and letting her know I was ok. But was I really? What the hell could I tell her if I did call her back?

  The worst thing was that I’d wanted this. I’d wanted to know that what I’d seen all those years ago had been real and that something truly monstrous had killed my parents. I’d wanted to have the strength, the power to fight back against the horrors of the world. Now I had and I was terrified.

  I wished Abe was with me. He’d at least offered me some answers and I desperately wanted to know why the name ‘Sephtis’ had caused such fear.

  A burst of laughter sounded from somewhere in the house, high pitched and sharp as glass. Delilah I guessed, having fun with Jo in their room. It’d been a long time since anyone had laughed like that with me. A long time since anyone had shared my bed.

  Patrik, seemed to show some interest at least until I’d thrown him against the wall. Even if he was still interested, I couldn’t get the image of him striking me out of my head. It had been for a purpose, but still, it wouldn’t go away anytime soon.

  I ached for a drink too. Something to keep away the nightmares and help me to sleep. I’d become so used to having that drink, that became two or more, before bed, that without it I just couldn’t sleep.

  My head hit the pillow and I closed my eyes once again. I will sleep, I will sleep, running through my head on endless repeat. It didn’t help. After five minutes, I threw back the thick duvet and climbed out of bed.

  Making as little noise as possible, I opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hall. Delilah had wine earlier and I figured, there must be something in the house to take the edge off and help me fall asleep.

  Down two flights of stairs and into the kitchen. The night time air was chill on my bare arms and legs, the simple nightgown I’d been given was virginal white and far too short. Barely covering my ass and revealing more of my limited cleavage than I preferred.

  “Can’t sleep?” Patrik asked as I stepped into the kitchen and I let out a startled yelp as I spun round to face him.

  “What the hell are you doing lurking by the door in the dark?” I snapped. He was naked aside from a too tight pair of shorts and his sculpted body was far too perfect for my liking. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him and a clearly defined set of abs that I suspected would be rock solid.

  “I have headache,” he replied. “The lights, they hurt my eyes.”

  “Oh,” damn. “Sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” he said slowly and I realised he was trying to avoid slurring his words. A half empty bottle of bourbon sat on the counter beside him and he lifted an empty glass from the shelf above him and placed it down. “Join me?”

  “Sure,” I said and he poured a generous measure and shoved it across the counter top towards me.

  I lifted the glass to my lips and took a tentative sip. It warmed my throat nicely as it went down and I could imagine a glow forming in my belly from the heat. “Not bad,” I said and he smiled and raised his glass to me. It was then that I realised something.

  “How is it I can see you?” I asked. His head tilted to one side as he looked at me and I realised that it was pitch black in the house but I could see the stupid grin that crossed his face quite clearly.

  “Another gift from our fathers,” he said. “Once you start accessing your power, you’ll find a few other little benefits. Excellent night vision is just one of them.”

  “What are the others?”

  “Different for everyone, you’ll figure them out on your own.”

  “Great,” I said and his grin widened. I realised that he was staring at me appreciatively and his words hit me. “Crap! You can see me too!”

  “Sure,” he said as I crossed one arm over my all too low cut nightgown and pulled on the hem with the other hand.

  “Dammit! You could have said.”

  “Don’t sweat it.” His laughter was genuine though kept low so as not to disturb the others in the house. “Figured you’d not mentioned you could see me, so weren’t bothered.”

  The heat that surged up to my cheeks wasn’t from the bourbon and I hoped he couldn’t see well enough to notice that. God! I was such a freak at times. My habit of blushing at every little thing had been just another thing for the kids at school to torment me about. I’d hoped by the time I’d left my teens that it would have stopped. No such luck.

  Another peal of laughter sounded from above us and Patrik shook his head. “What’s wrong?” I asked and he chuckled.

  “Delilah,” he replied. “She set’s my teeth on edge.”

  “She and Jo have been together a while?” I asked as I gave up on trying to yank the hem of my gown lower. Every time I pulled it down, more of my cleavage was revealed. I was just glad I was wearing underwear.

  “Ja, a couple of years on and off.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  “What?”

  “That word, ‘Ja.’ It means ‘yes’ right?”

  “Ja,” he said and laughed. “I’ve been here for many years but still, sometimes, old habits you know?”

  “Where’re you from originally? I can’t place the accent.”

  “Norway,” he said and his voice was flat as his face changed, a look of sorrow passing over it.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Didn’t mean to pry.”

  “Is fine. Was a long time ago.”

  “Never been to Norway or even out of England,” I said. “I’ve heard it’s beautiful there though.”

  “Ja,” he said as his eyes took on a distant look. “Much beauty but many supernaturals.”

  “Really? Like vampires and werewolves?”

  “Nei,” he said as he shook his head. “They are there as they are everywhere, but the worst are the Jotun.”

  “What are they?”

  “Trolls. Fearsome creatures my people have fought since the time before Wotan.”

  “Wotan?”

  “Hmm, you would perhaps know him as Odin,” he said and grinned when I nodded. “Old religion still practised today.”

  “So you’ve fought these Jotun?”

  “Them and Nökken too,” he said and saw my blank look. “Shapeshifter that hides in the water and drowns young women.”

  “That’s horrible!”

  “There’s little about the supernatural world that isn’t,” he said.

  “Even us?”

  “Ja, even us.”

  I swallowed the last of my drink and placed the glass down. He poured another without hesitation and raised his own glass in salute. I followed suit and downed it in one, enjoying the way the fiery liquid burned as it went down my throat. He poured a third glass.

  “Hope you’re not trying to get me drunk,” I said. “Cause it’d take more than that bottle.”

  “Nei,” he said. “I remember when I first found out about all this. A few drinks help, trust me.”

  “Thanks.”

  He smiled and we drank in silence for a short time. The sounds of movement from above was accompanied by the squeak of a mattress and the thud of a headboard against a wall and Pa
trik grinned as he caught me staring upwards.

  “You want to join them? You can, they won’t mind.”

  “Ah, no thanks,” I said with that blush heating my cheeks once more.

  “Not problem,” he said with a knowing smile. “They are very welcoming.”

  “Have you...”

  “Once,” he admitted. “But too many people for me. I’m old fashioned.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “You should go sleep. We train tomorrow and then we hunt.”

  “Hunt what?”

  “Vampire,” he said and his eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness. Anticipation mixed with something darker that I shied away from.

  I swallowed the last of my drink and placed the glass down on the counter before I said, “perhaps I should get some rest then.”

  “Goodnight,” he said with a nod as he poured the last of the bourbon into his glass. “Sleep well.”

  “You too,” I said as I stepped from the room, backwards so that he didn’t get to stare at my ass peeking out from beneath the gown.

  The thought of a hunt filled me with equal parts excitement and fear. A vampire and perhaps one that was like Sephtis, who had murdered my parents and left me orphaned with a life full of sorrow and loneliness.

  It would be a good start.

  Chapter 10

  The car came to a stop outside a rectangular building that seemed to be squatting between a coffee place and a shoe store. It was set back from the road with a wide, gravel covered car park acting as a buffer.

  It had been altered from its original purpose in such a way that the side of the building facing the street had been covered over. The outline of windows and doors showing still, but bricked up and scrawled over with graffiti.

  Around the side, above the entranceway, it was all glass. Flashing lights and people dancing enthusiastically amidst smoke and thumping music could be seen. There wasn’t much of a queue, just a few groups of men and women working their way inside, past the two large men in dark jackets.

  “What is this place?” I asked Jo.

  She was seated in the passenger seat beside Patrik who had driven. I’d been told quite firmly that as the newcomer, I got to ride in the back seat. It wasn’t too bad, sandwiched between the bag of weapons and the junk food cartons, though the smell was horrendous and the seat was sticky. I tried not to think about why.

  “Called the Night House,” Patrik said as Jo ignored me. “Fun place for kids to dance and take drugs.”

  “Vamps run it,” Jo chimed in finally deigning to speak. She hadn’t taken her eyes from the place since we’d arrived. “When the kids get nice and wasted, they feed off of them.”

  “Doesn’t someone notice the bodies or that people are missing?”

  “They don’t kill them,” Jo said and I didn’t need to see her face, I could hear the sneer in her voice.

  “Ja, catch and release,” Patrik said. He was oblivious to the tension in the car, or at least acted like he was. “They take a little bit of blood, the kids come back, nightclub stays open and they make money too.”

  “So what’s the plan? They won’t let us in like this.”

  We were all wearing plain t-shirts and jeans in dark colours. Patrik and Jo each had a harness like I’d seen Abe wear and their knives and assorted weaponry hung from it. They’d both dropped a thick coat onto the back seat so that they could cover their weapons at least, but bouncers would notice.

  “Someone needs to go in and open the emergency exit,” Jo said as she twisted around in her seat to look at me. “That’d be you.”

  “I’ve never been in there before! How will I know where it is?”

  “You’ll figure it out,” she said. “Consider it part of your training.”

  She narrowed her eyes as she said it and I could see how resolute she was. It seemed pointless arguing and besides, I wanted to make a good impression.

  “Okay, fine. They still won’t let me in like this though.”

  “Some clothes in the bag,” Patrik said. “Should be your size.”

  “Great,” I muttered as I unzipped the large duffel on the seat beside me. “You’ve gotta be kidding!”

  “Wear that and they won’t even look twice,” Jo said. “They’ll just wave you through.”

  “Some shoes in there too,” Patrik said.

  “You’ll need to take off your bra,” Jo added as I pulled a face at the dress.

  It was a perfect example of the little black dress I’d heard people talk about. It was mini length with an all-black body, spaghetti straps and wrap plunge style. It had lace detailing along the hem that would leave little to the imagination. Nothing at all to the imagination if I didn’t wear underwear.

  “Don’t you dare look!” I said to Patrik as I pulled the t-shirt off and reached behind my back to unclip my bra. With heat colouring my cheeks, I pulled the dress over my head and down over my body. It fit, barely, so long as I didn’t try and actually breathe out. It also revealed far too much of my breasts.

  “Looks good,” Jo said grudgingly. “Though you’re far too pale to wear black well. We should have brought fake tan too, but pale works for us here.”

  I ignored their laughter as I kicked off my trainers and wriggled out of my jeans. Jo climbed out of her side of the car and pulled open the door next to me. “Turn your face to me,” she said as she reached across and pulled a small case from the duffel.

  She flicked open the lid to reveal an assortment of makeup and I swallowed back what I was about to say. It wasn’t that I’d never worn makeup before, but I’d fallen out of the habit during that last stint in the nut house. Hadn’t seen much point afterwards.

  “Don’t need to apply much,” Jo was saying. “Just enough to get you past the bouncers.”

  With a surprisingly gentle touch, she applied eyeliner and mascara, a little shadow around my eyes and some crimson lip gloss that tasted of cherry. “Am I supposed to look like a hooker?”

  “Vamps like red, reminds them of blood,” she said. “I don’t have a foundation that’ll match your skin tone but it’s not a problem. The paler the skin, the clearer the veins and that’ll give them a raging hard on for you. You want to see?”

  “I’m good,” I said as I turned my eyes away from the compact mirror she held up before me.

  She looked at me curiously but shrugged and finished with the makeup. I fished out the shoes and held back a sigh. Barely there heels with a strap across the toes and another above the ankle to hold them in place. The heel though was about four and a half inches, which was probably four inches taller than anything I’d walked in recently.

  “Take this,” Jo said and passed a light grey clutch bag to me. It was slim and not very wide, but long enough to fit my knife. Which she picked up from beside me and slipped into the bag. “They won’t search you.”

  “Sexist,” Patrik said. “I always get searched.”

  “That’s because you’re the size of a bloody tank,” she shot back and he subsided, grumbling. She flashed a smile at me and winked. “There’s a little cash in the purse but you won’t need it. They’ll just wave you straight through. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine and we’ll be waiting outside the back door.”

  “What about alarms?”

  “They don’t bother with them,” Patrik said. “Too many of their… less human customers like to exit discreetly.”

  “Great!” I repeated and climbed from the car.

  “One more thing,” Jo said and I turned to her.

  “What?”

  “Don’t use your powers where you can be seen.”

  “I wasn’t intending to,” I said and she nodded.

  “Good. Most people can’t grasp this reality that’s all around them so they make up excuses for what they see. Something blatant with all kinds of cameras around is not going to help us though.”

  “Fine, I get it. No powers,” I turned to go but stopped and look
ed back at her. “How will I know which ones are vampires? I can’t see their faces change unless I’m touching them.”

  “Leave that to us for now,” she assured me. “Now go.”

  I exhaled softly and tugged at the hem of my dress. It barely reached mid-thigh and I was just glad that Evie had insisted I wax my legs with her, the last time she’d visited. Didn’t think I’d get far if I looked like a Sasquatch. Hardly a sexy look.

  After a few minutes tottering on my heels as I crossed the car park, the gravel crunching with each step and certainly not helping my balance. I joined the back of the queue of perhaps fifteen people waiting to enter, and crossed my arms over my body.

  To say I was out of my comfort zone was an understatement. Even as a rebellious and somewhat adventurous teen, I’d never been one for high heels and short dresses. Jeans and a t-shirt were usually good enough to get the attention of the local boys.

  Still, if I did a good job, then I’d finally have the chance at some small measure of revenge. A vampire had killed my parents and while he wasn’t likely to be here, others were and they deserved to be put down. It was a minor hardship to wear a dress even if it did feel like everyone was watching me.

  The bouncer leered as he waved me through but didn’t say anything and I stepped through the open doors sound washing over me, the thumping beat that was loud enough that I could feel the vibration in my body.

  A smell of too strong perfume mixed with the faint odour of bleach filled the place. Considering the number of people jammed inside, sweating as they danced frenetically to the music, the bleach was likely a necessity to clean the place.

  Heat from too many people in a far too small space caused my skin to prickle and I knew right away that it wasn’t for me. Evie was the clubber, while I avoided contact with crowds of people whenever possible.

  I bypassed the bar, too many people crowding it and I wasn’t there to drink no matter how much I needed one. People watched me, heads turning and eyes following me. I hated it. It was overwhelming and entirely too claustrophobic.

  A hand touched my ass, and I whirled but whoever’d grabbed me was gone, lost in the crowd. I kept the scowl from my face, determined to seem like any other girl on a night out. Don’t stand out, be part of the crowd.