Born in the Shadows (In the Shadows Series Book 1)

by Courtney McPhail

  “Good boy.”

  Armand stepped back, cradling the girl in his arms and Remy noticed that she had passed out at some point. She was like a rag doll in his arms, head lolling on her shoulders. Remy wanted to cry at the part he had played in desecrating her tonight.

  Armand pushed back the girl’s hair, tracing his fingers over the bite mark Remy had left on her, before cradling her head in his hands. Remy saw the muscles in his arms tense a moment before the sickening crack of her neck snapping echoed through the room.

  “No!”

  Remy howled, straining against his bonds, pain be damned. He felt strong and he knew it was from the blood, her blood. How could Armand do this? Why would he do this? She was an innocent in all of this.

  Armand laughed at him. “Did you really think I would let her live? Are you that stupid? I have much bigger plans for her.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. “Now I don’t want you thinking you can get out of here just because you’ve gotten a little taste.”

  Remy tried in vain to avoid the needle but he felt that familiar prick in his neck and then the world started to get those familiar soft edges again.

  As his head lolled on his shoulders, he saw Armand toss the woman’s body over his shoulder and head towards the door.

  “It’s time to deliver this gift to your clan,” he called back. “Don’t worry though, I’ll be seeing you soon.”

  As the door shut, Remy finally understood what Armand had planned. He would leave the body somewhere that she would be found. With Remy’s scent marked on her, he would be accused of slaying a human. In his absence, his clan would be called before the High Council and Nicky would have no choice but to disown him and declare him rogue.

  His last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was that all hope was gone. No one would be coming for him now.

  Chapter 16

  The glow of the computer monitor bathed Demetri’s face as he clicked through the digital information that scrolled down the screen. He typed quickly, the keys clicking away as he sorted through the various reports that had arrived in his inbox.

  He had started to do some freelance work for Isaac when the world had entered the digital era. Originally, he had set up a computer system for Isaac, assuming that he would put it to good use but it turned out the Enforcer was technologically impaired. So it was up to Demetri to go through the info and bring anything pertinent to Isaac’s attention.

  One of the most useful hacks Demetri had done had been to the police force database. Demetri had set up a code that flagged police reports that had any signs of Shadow Walker activity. Puncture wounds, massive blood loss, that sort of thing. Any of them showed up in the system and a copy was delivered automatically to him as encrypted email.

  Tonight he was going through the files specifically looking for anything that would give them an idea of where Armand was holed up. There had been rumours that Armand was recruiting young Shadow Walkers to join him but there had been no solid leads. It was hard to tell if the rumour had a grain of truth or if it was just the typical rumour that spread when someone was publicly declared rogue.

  He supposed he should be thankful that the rumours had yet to be confirmed. The absence of any news had made the healing in the manor easier. They were starting to smile again and there was even laughter heard every once in a while. The only problem was that now that the grief was more manageable, everyone was getting antsy being confined to the manor.

  Except for Cordy and Gabe. No one saw much of them anymore, always holed up in their room. He couldn’t fault them for indulging in the more carnal pleasures of life but he still really wished his bedroom didn’t share a wall with theirs. He had taken to wearing his iPod turned up to full volume anytime he was in his bedroom.

  His computer chimed as a new file was delivered. It was a homicide, the body of a young woman found in a dumpster in an alley. A broken neck was the COD but what caught his attention were the dual puncture wounds on her neck that were caused peri-mortem.

  Well, that sure as hell read like a Shadow Walker attack.

  He hit speed dial on his cell without taking his eyes off the screen. “Hey Isaac. A suspicious body popped up on the radar. Looks like a promising lead. Mind if I tag along? I’m going stir crazy here…All right, I’ll meet you there in five.”

  Looked like he was getting a chance to get the hell out of this place for a little while. Lockdown didn’t apply to Enforcer business. It was a little disturbing that he was this happy to go look at a dead body but what could he expect with a severe case of cabin fever.

  He let Nicky know his plans and soon found himself in the shadows of the tall trees on the edge of the manor property, well beyond the boundary line of the shroud. In the blink of an eye, he was standing in a narrow alley just behind the city morgue.

  His eyes swept the area settling on a dark form nestled deep in the shadows at the end of the alley. Demetri stepped into the light cast down from the streetlamp overhead and the dark form stepped forward, Isaac’s harsh features coming into light.

  “How’s it going, big guy?” Demetri said jovially. All he got in response was a solemn nod of the head. Demetri always found himself overly happy when he was around Isaac, as if he was trying to compensate from the darkness the male seemed to exude. Plus it really annoyed him and Demetri found that to be a lot of fun.

  They made their way to the loading dock of the morgue in silence and Isaac made quick work of the locks. It was familiar territory for the both of them as they made their way down the halls that led to the morgue.

  The two of them had been slipping into the city morgue for years, inspecting the bodies that were kept there for any traces of a Shadow Walker attack. They had the routine down pat, the minds of the human staff having been rewired to ignore their passage as if they were completely invisible.

  The stainless steel gurneys in morgue were empty and Demetri walked over to the wall of drawers that held the bodies. He checked the information cards on each drawer, finding a Jane Doe in the second row. He pulled the drawer from the wall and Isaac joined him on the other side of the slab.

  Demetri pulled back the sheet that covered the woman and Isaac tilted her head to the side so that they could study the puncture wounds. Two small, perfectly round holes, only a little over an inch apart and directly over the jugular. There was no question about this being a Shadow Walker attack. It was too perfect to have been done by anything but a set of fangs.

  “The mark,” Isaac said, before leaning down to study the body more closely, sniffing at the scent that emanated from her. “There’s something familiar about it.”

  Demetri leaned over and was hit with the more than familiar scent. His good mood disappeared as a chill rushed over him. That mark was one that would be hard to forget. He had spent more than a century going out with his uncle to feed and knew his mark almost as well as he knew his own.

  “It’s Remy’s mark.”

  Isaac stared up at him, his face even more serious than normal, which Demetri didn’t think was possible. “Are you positive?”

  “I’d know it anywhere. But it’s not possible, it can’t be. Not only would Remy never kill a human, he’s not even on this continent.”

  “When was the last time you spoke with him?”

  Demetri couldn’t draw his eyes away from the dead woman. The implications of what this meant distracted him and he answered absently. “I don’t know. He left for Paris a month ago, so just before he left I guess.”

  “Has anyone in your clan spoken with him recently?”

  “Nicky, probably. Remy usually checks in with him every once in a while. This just isn’t possible. Remy wouldn’t do this. He would never kill a human.”

  “We need to tell Nicky what has happened.”

  Demetri was surprised to hear that. He knew that Isaac’s first loyalty was to the High Council, even above his own clan. He had sworn his life to serve them and uphold their laws. In
the event of a possible rogue, it was his duty to report his suspicions to the Council and let them decide the course of action.

  “I have known your clan for centuries. I owe it to Nicky to give him a chance to deal with this privately.”

  Which meant find Remy and discover if he had truly gone rogue. And if he had, it would give Nicky the opportunity to put Remy out of his misery before the Council could punish him. The truth was death was preferable than the punishment the Council would deal out.

  The Council had millennia to perfect the art of castigation and voluntary homicide was a crime they took seriously. It risked exposure of the race to humans and the Council would not tolerate it, even from the oldest progeny of a member.

  As Demetri slid the drawer home and followed Isaac out of the morgue, he prayed silently that he was wrong. He prayed to any higher power that would listen that when he reached the manor, they would discover that Remy was still in Paris with no knowledge of this girl.

  Yet the scent of the mark remained burned into his nose and dread curled in his belly telling him that he wasn’t mistaken and that there was more pain waiting on the horizon for his clan.

  ***

  As they entered day eight of house arrest, Cordelia realized that despite the manor’s large size and many rooms, there was only so much entertainment to be found within its walls. There were only so many games of pool or Xbox they could play before that grew stale.

  And so it was everyone’s general boredom that had Cordelia pulling out her collection of DVDs that she had brought with her from her apartment. The group had prowled through them and when they came across her collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and she discovered that none of them had ever seen the program, she insisted they watch it.

  “This program is very upsetting,” Nicky commented as the heroine dusted a vamp in the graveyard. “This girl goes around staking vampires without any regard for whether they are good or evil. But I do enjoy the British man with the glasses. He puts up with the teenagers antics with aplomb.”

  “That’s because he reminds you of yourself putting up with our antics,” Mary quipped and the others laughed. The general merriment of the household was comforting and Cordelia could almost forget that the reason they were all here was because they were hiding from a homicidal maniac. Even Marcus, who had been a walking zombie since Olivia’s death, was smiling.

  Cordelia cuddled deeper into Gabe’s embrace, resting her head on his shoulder. He began to play with her hair, a habit he had developed over the last week. Not that she minded really. She liked his hands on her, even in an innocent way. Of course, she especially liked his hands on her in a naughty way, which was another habit he had developed.

  And so had she. She felt like she was addicted to him. She couldn’t go long without touching him in some way. Which was doing nothing to help her whole Don’t Fall For Him plan.

  Except she was beginning to think the plan wasn’t so good after all. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad falling in love with Gabe. He seemed to be fitting in here and he hadn’t once said anything about missing his old life. Maybe it wasn’t so out of the realm of possibility that things could work between them. When she was with Gabe, she wasn’t bothered by doubts and fears. He made her feel safe and content.

  Unfortunately, her high spirits came crashing down when Demetri walked into the room followed by Isaac, both their faces grim. They didn’t need to say a word, the aura of foreboding strong enough to have everyone in the room giving them their full attention. Cordelia hit the pause button on the remote as Nicky rose from the couch to question the two males.

  “What is it?”

  “A woman was brought into the morgue tonight. She had been fed on before her neck was snapped,” Demetri explained.

  “Was it Armand?”

  Isaac shook his head. “The marking on her belonged to Remy.”

  Nicky looked completely taken aback, as if the earth under his feet had shifted. “That’s impossible. You must have made a mistake.”

  “I saw it with my own eyes. I didn’t want to believe it but it was his,” Demetri said. “And I’ve tried to reach out to him but he isn’t answering me.”

  “When was the last time you had any communication with him?” Isaac asked Nicky.

  “I spoke with him the night Olivia was murdered. He was fine. Rather, as fine as one could be upon hearing of a loved one’s death. I did not think to contact him again. Remy was never one for funerals or talking. Any time he was upset, he preferred to work through it on his own. I thought that was what was going on now.”

  “Maybe Olivia’s death was a stressor that sent him over the edge.”

  Cordelia was surprised by the tenderness in Isaac’s voice. It was at odds with the dark and dangerous aura surrounding him. As tough as he appeared, he seemed to have great respect and admiration for Nicky. She had the feeling that if Isaac had been questioning any other sire, he would not go this easy on them.

  “No, it’s not possible. Remy would never hurt a human,” Nicky repeated, shaking his head back and forth, his eyes wide. For the first time Cordelia saw the reins slip from Nicky’s hand. He was at a complete loss and looked very much like the young boy he was in body.

  “Nicky, you need to reach out to him. Maybe he will answer you. He could have a perfectly reasonable explanation for this,” Mary said but her words rang hollow. How could Remy explain a dead girl?

  Nicky closed his eyes, his brow wrinkling as he concentrated. After a few moments, his eyes opened again and he shook his head. “He is not answering me.”

  “I am sorry Nicky,” Isaac said with complete sincerity, “But I will have to inform the High Council of what has happened.”

  “No.”

  Isaac frowned, the compassion from before fading away. “You know I have to follow protocol.”

  “No, I mean Remy is not answering me, even when I compel him to do so,” Nicky explained. “I am getting nothing from him. That should only happen if he is dead but I would have known if that had happened. His mind has been completely cut off from all psychic connections. Something is very wrong.”

  The hair on the back of Cordelia’s neck stood up as she remembered her altercation with Armand in the bedroom. Even the ones who never met you will curse your name.

  “It’s Armand,” she said, drawing everyone’s attention. “It has to be. When he was here, he said something that didn’t make sense until now. He said that even the clan members who didn’t know me would curse me. He was talking about Remy.”

  Nicky paled at her words. “He was in my study. I had Remy’s travel information in there. He would have known exactly where to find him.”

  “And that would explain why we can’t reach him psychically. Armand must be blocking him,” Demetri said.

  “How could someone like Armand keep a Shadow Walker of Remy’s strength captive?” Anne said.

  Nicky shook his head. “I don’t know and that is what worries me. It means he is more dangerous than we thought. We need to find Remy as soon as possible.”

  “Any ideas on how we can do that?” Mary asked.

  Demetri looked to Isaac. “We have some contacts that might be of some help. If there are any rumours out there about a Shadow Walker being held captive, they will find out.”

  “Armand wouldn’t be stupid enough to let that information slip. He would know that would have the Enforcer gunning for him even more. We need to draw him out. Make him come to us,” Nicky said.

  “And how do you propose to do that?” Isaac asked.

  Nicky looked to Cordelia. “We bait him.”

  “Wait a minute,” Gabe said, speaking up for the first time since Demetri and Isaac had come in. “This guy wants to kill Cordy and you want to use her as bait?”

  “It’s got to be something he wants, that’s the point of bait,” Mary pointed out, her voice sarcastic.

  “I don’t want to hear shit from you right now,” Gabe growled, glaring at the her which got Mary’s back
up.

  “Remember who you are talking to, boy.”

  “I don’t give a damn. You aren’t going to risk her life, I won’t let it happen.”

  “We are her family, you are just some guy she is fucking,” Mary spat at him.

  Gabe stood up, his eyes blazing in anger. “You don’t know anything about what’s between us!”

  “Both of you shut up!” Cordelia yelled at them and, thankfully, their mouths snapped shut. “The only one making choices for me is me. And I’m choosing to be the bait. I have a lot to atone for and it starts now.”

  “Are you fucking crazy?” Gabe cried, thankfully missing Mary’s satisfied smirk as his anger turned to Cordelia.

  “No, I’m not ‘fucking crazy.’ I’m doing what is right. Besides, I’ve already tangled with Armand once before and if I recall correctly, he ended up a bloody mess.”

  Nicky stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You have such strength, child. I am sorry that I brought you into this world at a time when so much would be asked of you.”

  “You are not asking me to do anything I wouldn’t volunteer to do of my own choice,” Cordelia said, wanting to reassure him. So much devastation had been brought to his doorstep; she did not want Nicky worrying about her being resentful of her duty to the clan.

  Nicky smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Thank you.”

  Isaac went into Enforcer mode, turning to Demetri. “Do you think Zeke would be willing to help us without questions?”

  Demetri nodded his head. “He’ll keep things on the down low.”

  “All right, I want you to tell him to spread the word that he will be bringing Cordelia to Roxy tomorrow night. Have him play it up as the conquering heroine returning to the battleground. Make it look like she’s got a big head now, that she’s dropped her guard. If the rumours don’t draw out Armand himself, he will definitely send someone to watch her. The rest of us will be watching from the shadows for anything suspicious. Either we’ll flush Armand out from hiding or we’ll be able to follow one of his crew back to wherever he is holed up.”