Shadow Chaser (Undeadly Secrets Book 3)

by Aaron L Speer

  Alex clenched her eyes and sobbed. She was helpless. “Help me…”

  “No one is coming. No one cares about you. But you care, don’t you, filth? You enjoyed his cock the other night. I know you did. You don’t believe you have power? How else would his flaccid, dead member thicken without blood? You. Your influence over the dead. One of many gifts in your repertoire, but it is this above all I will use to accomplish my mission. When you are mine.”

  “I will never be yours!”

  “Oh no?”

  Alex screeched, her arm ached and her skin was rubbed red raw. “Please…stop!” her arm stopped and she held on to the sink with both hands.

  “Submit to me. Give in. Give me control over this repugnant frame of skin and flesh.”

  Alex tried to catch her breath. Oxygen flooded her brain. “I don’t know what you want with me. But I’ll tell you something.” Alex lifted her head and looked again into the mirror. “I’ll die before I let you use me. I meant what I said. Fuck you! If it’s not me, someone will split your smoky head open, you piece of rapist shit.”

  For a moment, there was silence. But then, the room was filled with an amused snigger. “Ah yes. This is what you call defiance, is it? I have encountered it before. Most of them were less powerful than you, but they were far more advanced in their training. You think this—” Alex gasped and hissed as her hand and fingers cupped her vagina hard. “—is the only means I have at my disposal with which to break you? Then you are more fool than I took you for.”

  Alex felt her hand move from her groin to the top drawer of the bathroom cabinet, and then showed herself what she had pulled out. A pair of scissors. Alex felt her throat clench.

  “What are you...what are you gonna do?”

  As an answer, her left arm rose, bent at the elbow so that her forearm and hand rested behind her head. Alex looked at her left breast, her breath coming rapidly.

  “Oh, I would not deprive you of the little tits you have. That would just be cruel.”

  The scissors came together ever so slowly, and then parted. “But that is a filthy mark upon your skin.”

  “What?”

  Alex saw herself bring the blades across her chest and stop at the beginning of her tattoo. Suddenly the intent was clear.

  “No, I won’t let you!”

  “Oh?”

  Alex scrunched her face and bit her lip, trying to quell the scream as she felt the tip of the blades penetrate her skin and begin dragging across the name. “Please! Don’t...not him. Don’t take this away from me.”

  “What use is it to you? A reminder of pain? Why remind yourself? I will make you live it.”

  Alex’s tears dropped with a rapid flow as did her blood. She clenched her teeth and the screams came out as muffled groans. She could do nothing but stand and feel the slicing of her own skin. Again and again the blades crossed over the tattoo and it was as if every slice of pain drained her will.

  It was only a few moments—less than a minute, probably—but it felt like years. Finally the scissors fell with a clatter into the sink. She didn’t want to look, but her face made the movements. Seeing it was worse than feeling it. Her hacked skin. The cuts had completely obliterated the name. It was like losing Nick all over again.

  Alex took a huge breath as the shadow behind her rushed forward, injecting an icy blast into her spine. When her eyes opened, they were no longer blue and she was not behind them. The expression she wore was one of intense menace. A hateful and unfamiliar yellow-green gaze peered back at her, and the smile she wore had never previously infected her face.

  “Your friends and their foolish endeavours cannot protect you from me. The longer you try to resist me, the more time I must endure wallowing in this cesspool of a body. I will kill. And you will watch. Unable to stop yourself. It is up to you to choose how you will be broken. Quickly or slowly. Once you submit, that last delicious light you cling to, that light that was meant to bring hope to so many, will be gone and your power will be mine to use as I see fit. Either way, all you know will burn.”

  Chapter 37

  A School?

  “I don’t get it, why would a demon attack a school?” Matt sat in the darkness beside Koha, opposite the school car park. There was a chill in the air, but everything was otherwise calm. The odd light shone in a few windows here and there around the building.

  “It’s the light, the goodness, whatever. Schools always have traces of it, what with all the innocent kids. The Night Mother said something about the ultimate power, though. It’s here somewhere. One of the students or the staff. That’s who the demon’s targeting.”

  “So it’s trying to possess one of them, not kill them?”

  “Yeah. I don’t think it can kill ’em, not as long as whatever they have inside ’em can be used for evil. But I suspect it’s one of the teachers, ’cause it’s gone around from woman to woman, trying to find this special one.”

  “What if it’s got her, already?”

  “Then we are fucked.” Koha was tired of this conversation. Tired of babysitting Matt. But the Night Mother had insisted.

  “So, what are we meant to be doing here? Waiting?”

  Koha checked his watch. “We got two hours left of our shift. It attacks at night. Maybe it’ll come, maybe it won’t. But we got people all over the city. If it’s not here, at least that’s one spot we can mark off. Even just tonight.”

  “But the fights against the vampires still go on. They don’t give a shit about anyone. Why would they? They probably work with this thing.”

  “It’s possible. But not the king.”

  “What about him?”

  “Guess you didn’t hear. He stopped a fight earlier tonight. Got both sides to back down. You might not like him, but that woulda took some doin’.”

  The fact that Matt didn’t immediately retort, proved he had nothing to say. Which meant Koha was right. There was no such a thing as a good vampire, but there might be a decent king. Koha touched Matt on the shoulder, indicating he should stay silent. Matt nodded when he saw. A woman crossing from the building to the car park.

  “She’s being followed,” Matt whispered.

  Koha didn’t have time to be impressed that Matt had figured that out as quickly as he had. Koha felt it in the air. Something was coming, closing in on the woman. She didn’t look like the kind of person who held ultimate power, but Koha knew looks could be deceiving. He unlatched the boomerang marked with the V. They wouldn’t be able to kill the beast, but if they could protect the woman, that would do for now.

  As the woman approached her car, another woman, smaller, with a slighter build leapt over the car from the passenger side and landed behind her before the first one knew what had happened.

  Koha and Matt sprinted across to the scene. The smaller woman had her arm around the other one’s throat, pulling back hard. Koha was too far away to guarantee a good strike, but if he waited any longer, the victim’s spine might snap. Koha lunged forward and flung his weapon as hard as he could. It sailed through the air and dug itself into the smaller woman’s arm. She dropped her intended victim as Matt raised his gun.

  She fell back against the car, her arm burning and sizzling. Koha slid to the victim’s side. “Matt, shoot!”

  Koha crouched and checked the woman. She wasn’t breathing. Even as he was about to administer mouth-to-mouth, he registered the silence. He glanced up. Matt had frozen, staring at the woman, who smiled back at him. She tried to pull the boomerang away, but her fingers smoked from the contact against the V.

  “What are you doing? Shoot!” Koha said, then pinched the woman’s nose and breathed into her mouth.

  But Matt didn’t move. The woman in front of him shivered and twitched from the pain in her arm, but still…that smile and those sickening eyes continued staring back at Matt. She smacked her arm violently against the car boot, finally breaking the boomerang away.

  “You’re too late,” the woman said, though it was like no female
voice Koha had heard.

  The woman in front of Koha suddenly began to cough as air rushed into her lungs.

  Koha blinked and could’ve sworn he saw her eyes change for an instant, the yellow disappearing. “Matt…” she said. “Help me…”

  The yellow glow returned instantly, and the smug expression from before had turned to fury. Koha grabbed his pistol and pointed it directly at her. When she started forward, he fired two quick shots.

  “No!” Matt screamed.

  The woman ducked, but one bullet struck her upper arm, and she took off into the night with superhuman speed.

  Koha cursed. “Matt! What’s wrong with you? What the hell was that? You know her?”

  Matt did not move for the longest time, and when he made to, he crumpled to his knees.

  “Matt, you gotta fucking pull yourself together.”

  Matt didn’t appear to have heard him. He stared at the ground, unmoving. Koha might as well never have spoken.

  Chapter 38

  Unexpected Twist

  Alex had no idea how far away from the school she was, but she found herself in control of herself once more, hunched over and sucking in breaths, yet so relieved. She hadn’t killed Peggy.

  “You are only delaying the inevitable.”

  “Matt’s seen me now. He knows something is wrong. He’ll help me. All my friends will. You won’t win.”

  “You’re a little fool. I have all I need. Possession of you. You will be broken before long.”

  “You’ll never break me. I have people who love me. That’s what you don’t understand.”

  The thing snorted inside her head. “Nor do I care. You think your vampire will help you? He is the reason you are finally mine.”

  Alex could not believe what she heard as she repeated them in her head. “What? That’s not possible. What do you mean?”

  Alex felt her hand grip the top of her cheek and dug her nails in, bringing them down slowly, feeling the skin tear.

  “Listen to my words, whore. You will hear the truth. Feel the sting now in your hand from the cut. That gave me access to you. But I could not touch you. Could not attack. Your protection was absolute. Until you opened your legs for the dead thing. That warm sticky feeling as he erupted inside you. You accepted the death that he gave you. Welcomed it. Needed it. And that lowered your defences. You didn’t care the cost, you just wanted to feel useful that he valued your slit, didn’t you?”

  “Go to hell,” she winced, the rents on her cheek getting worse.

  “Oh, you silly little bitch. I have already been. I’ve saved a seat for you.”

  Her phone gave a beep inside her leg pocket, signalling a voice mail message. “Let us see who has tried to contact you, shall we?”

  Michelle’s voice echoed through the phone. “Hi, hun. I don’t know what happened but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to meet up or not? I’ll be at home if you wanted to chat. Love ya.”

  Alex felt her fingers drop. “Loves you, does she? Well, well. Let us go and see her tonight, shall we? We cannot make an example of the hunter, as he is male. But this one. Oh yes, she will do nicely.”

  *

  Alex moved with stiffened limbs, though her vision was like a red haze. As was her memory. She just had to make it here, yet why? She had to get the door to open and receive satisfaction. She ran her tongue over slightly cracked lips. How she wanted another tongue over them, to taste saliva.

  She didn’t strike the door with her knuckles; she gave sharp, steady slaps with an open palm. Alex’s mouth was half open, eyes searching left to right, yet no one was in sight. When she refocused on the door, it opened. Michelle answered in a t-shirt and pyjama shorts.

  Upon seeing Alex, she broke into a smile. “Hey!” Her smile changed to concern as she looked at Alex’s face. “What ha—”

  Alex closed the distance between them and clasped Michelle’s face with both hands. Alex pressed her lips against hers, drowning out the rest of her words.

  Michelle gently eased them apart, partially giggling yet clearly shocked. “What are you do—”

  Again, Alex kissed her. Michelle’s back met the wall of her corridor as Alex pinned her there with her body. Alex moved her mouth from Michelle’s cinnamon-glossed lips to the tanned throat.

  “Alex…” Michelle breathed in a huff and fisted her hair as Alex continued to kiss her supple skin.

  “Say it again,” Alex growled, running her teeth and tongue along Michelle’s neck, breathing out over it. When Michelle obeyed and whispered her name once more, Alex lifted her and with a gasp, Michelle wrapped her legs around Alex’s waist. Michelle returned her kiss with fire, their tongues dancing together.

  Alex flung them both to the floor, her mouth and face going down Michelle’s chest as her hands were removing her shirt, flinging it away. “Is this really happening…?”

  Alex pressed Michelle’s breasts together and took each into her mouth. Michelle opened her legs as she moaned from Alex’s work, and Alex pushed their groins together, moving her hips back and forth, deeply. Slowly. Alex reached under Michelle’s shorts and encircled her. When she removed her glistening fingers, Alex tasted them. Then, she reached into her own underwear. She removed them and delicately ran them across Michelle’s mouth, who took a deep inhale and flicked her tongue over them. Michelle gripped Alex by the shirt and bit her lip as if trying not to cry out.

  “Good. Good… The knife.”

  Alex felt flushed in her cheeks. Sliding Michelle’s shorts off from under her arse, rolling back over her. She left slow, wet kisses at the top of her groin, pressing her flat tongue lovingly along her clit.

  “The knife. Take it.”

  Michelle held Alex’s head gently with both hands, her breathing rapid. Michelle had just stepped out of the shower, she could tell. The skin of her hands carried a rosewater scent like that of body lotion. She tasted it too, as Michelle rocked her hips in time with Alex’s tongue. It was this thought she concentrated on, trying to keep her focus there instead of on reaching into her back pocket for a switch blade. Her arm did not obey her. She found the knife in her hand.

  “Keep licking. Slice the top of her thigh. Her groin. Bleed her out.”

  Alex inserted two fingers into Michelle, causing her to raise her hips momentarily.

  “Cut her. Do it. Hold your hand over her mouth. I want her to scream into your hand.”

  Alex felt the hand she used between Michelle’s legs back out of her. It slid up her chest and gripped Michelle’s chin, her fingers sliding up past her lips, which Michelle kissed.

  “Don’t stop.”

  Alex did though. She stopped running her tongue along Michelle and sat up. She looked down at her face and heaving chest. Michelle looked so resplendent, so in awe of what was happening. She still hadn’t looked at Alex. She was too happy, overjoyed at what she was experiencing.

  “Kill her.”

  Alex felt a warmth in her chest. A surge from within as she looked at Michelle, her expression all aglow. It was then Alex realised what that glow on Michelle’s face was. The same feeling that brought that surge from within. The reason they both let this happen and it wasn’t strange, it wasn’t weird. They wanted it.

  “Kill her. Your suffering will be tenfold if you do not. Do it!”

  Alex looked at the switchblade. She could never hurt Michelle. Because…

  “You will suffer, you stupid bitch.”

  Alex loved her.

  She quickly threw the blade across the room and tripped over herself getting up. She sprinted out through the still-open door and put as much distance between her and Michelle as possible.

  Chapter 39

  Alex’s Last Stand

  Alex retreated to the only place she felt safe. Dante’s apartment. The only place that still made sense to her. She hadn’t heard the voice since running from Michelle’s apartment. She remembered now. All of it. Peggy, how she almost killed her. The challenge from the beast. She needed to tell Dante. She wa
s terrified and had no idea what to do. Maybe even he couldn’t help her. She was certain she didn’t have any powers. Wasn’t she? If Dante knew, he had never mentioned anything.

  But she’d almost killed her… Michelle. Her Mish. What the hell was this thing? Her body wasn’t her own. Yet even through her crippling fear and confusion, even now she remembered Michelle’s lips. How wonderful it felt to hold her. To touch her.

  She had always thought tenderly of Michelle. But the free-flowing way their tongues toyed with each other, the breathless way they both kept kissing. That wasn’t the shadow. Not all of it. She had liked it. She had wanted more. To keep going. But she was in love with Dante. She knew had never been more sure of anything. And…she had only put the knife away at the last minute. What the hell did this mean?

  She rattled the door with her knuckles repeatedly.

  “Dante!” she sobbed. “Dante, please! Hurry!”

  But it was a very small person that addressed her. “Hello, girl with a boy’s name.”

  Alex pushed past Nathaniel and collapsed inside. “Quick, close the door.”

  Nathaniel knelt beside her as she tried to control her breathing.

  Alex looked frantically around. “Where is Dante? Is he here?”

  Nathaniel shook his head. “The boy.” He scowled at the word. “The one with the glasses needed help with somethin’ I think. Somethin’ about the Forgotten people. Melina is out too, I think. Yeah. She’s out. Dante should be back soon.”

  Oh no. Alex put her head down.

  “Are you ok, girl with a boy’s name?”

  “No sweetheart. I’m in trouble… I’m scared.”