Brush of Shade ((YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy) The Whisperer's Chronicles)

by Jan Harman

  “Your aunt and the elders will get the situation resolved long before you’re warden,” Shade responded, joining us on the landing, his silken drawl for once barely touching my raw emotions. “Perhaps some good has come out of this evening. The snow twisters were a declaration of intent. This was a first strike. Now the council will be forced to acknowledge the larger threat. Do you understand why it’s imperative that you follow my orders? You can’t continue to treat our warden’s safety and our valley’s future so lightly.”

  “Do you get that they were my classmates? That I had to do something.”

  “They aren’t responsible for the survival of an entire race,” he shot back.

  I sucked in a shocked breath. “What a monstrous thing to say. Their lives are important, too.” I turned to climb the set of stairs leading to the upper patio. Heated air flowed like a second skin across my body, holding me there for a beat, reminding me of his greater understanding of this place and other things I didn’t want to consider.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Shade demanded.

  “I doubt you’ll be interested,” I answered frostily. “I’m going to find Trent and his friends, because unlike you, I care if they’re alright.” Rippling air pressed against my body. I couldn’t believe we were fighting after he’d just saved my life. But there was something about his aggression that made me want to respond in kind.

  “Shade, notch it down,” Shadow ordered, coming to my defense.

  “I’m just explaining to Olivia that she’s not going anywhere tonight unless one of us,” Shade pointed the mini flashlight on his key ring at his coughing brother and then back at himself, “goes with her.”

  “Fine,” I said, “Shadow, are you coming?”

  Shadow groaned.

  “This isn’t a game,” Shade snapped. “The elders are going to want an accounting of what happened here tonight. I’m going to escort you to the meeting room while Shad makes sure no one disturbs the body. At least that way, I can make sure you stay out of harm’s way.”

  “I’d prefer to go with, Shadow, because when you’re like this, you’re scary and not in the least bit understanding,” I said.

  “I’m not upset with you,” he retorted.

  “Really? Because you sound like you’d like to throttle me. My throat hurts too much already.” I sniffed, but the tears I’d been holding back started to spill.

  “Everyone is safe. Don’t cry,” he said loudly, making it sound like an order.

  I hiccupped. “Stop yelling. It makes me cry more.”

  “Please stop. I hate it when girl’s cry,” Shadow said, sounding amused. “Argue about this later. I’ll take her inside.”

  “No, I need to make this right,” Shade replied.

  “That’s fine by me. It’s your shirt that’s going to get all damp,” Shadow said, sounding winded. He put a hand on Shade’s back and doubled over with a hacking cough.

  I pushed past Shade and crouched at Shadow’s side. “Shad, you’re wheezing. I’m going to walk with you up front, so you can get checked out by the paramedics.”

  Shade gripped each of us by an elbow and drew us up onto our feet. “Olivia, procedures require that I escort you to safety. So could you please not give them another reason to fire my ass? Don’t worry about, Shad. As soon as the police arrive, He’s going to get that cough checked out, right, Shad?”

  “I’ll get right on that.”

  “Sure you will. Now I know how Mom felt all those years. I’ve got to get inside. Anxious parents and worked up elders will be arriving soon.”

  “Tread carefully. This isn’t the night to challenge,” Shadow called out after us.

  Challenge who? The elders? The purist? I wanted to demand an answer, but I was afraid of reigniting Shade’s temper. Once we were alone, I tried to feel his emotions, but all it did was make my head pound harder. He guided me through an arched entrance I was unfamiliar with to a door hidden behind an evergreen screen. He rapped a lion head knocker against its metal plate. We waited in silence with his vibrating hand pressed against the small of my back. My heart clenched when a string of cheery holiday lights flipped on above the door, revealing glaciers massing and a stone-cold expression that I couldn’t reconcile with the man I knew.

  Chapter 22

  “Warming up?” Shade asked as he lowered himself onto the floor next to the loveseat he’d dragged in front of the hearth. “I got you more tea.”

  “I’m going to float away,” I replied still sounding quite hoarse.

  He frowned and handed me the chamomile tea that smelled of lemons. “Sip.”

  I did and tasted something sweet. “You put honey in it? It feels good on my throat. Of course it could be the pain pill Dr. Long gave me.” I yawned. “Darn fire is making me sleepy.”

  “We’re still waiting on two more parents. Go ahead, close your eyes. I’ll wake you up.”

  “Where’s my aunt?”

  “In the hall talking to Mayor McCowan. She’ll be right in.”

  “Olivia?” he said quietly a moment later. “Sorry I made you cry.”

  “You’re mean,” I replied, drifting off to the soothing crackling of the fire.

  “I’m sorry about that, too.”

  “It’s okay,” I mumbled.

  “Olivia?”

  I pried one heavy lid open and waited not even trying to respond.

  “You were right to go for the patio doors. Even though we got the maintenance room fire under control, its noxious fumes had seeped into the dressing rooms. During the time it would’ve taken to file the kids past the smoldering piles of towels and trash by the lockers, the fumes could’ve made them and us quite sick. Right, Shad?”

  “I don’t need to go to the clinic,” Shadow replied once he’d stopped coughing.

  “They were glad Trent was locked in the pool room. It amused them to think of the pain his death would cause me personally,” I said, clutching my arms to my chest. “They were hoping I’d be watching from one of the upstairs windows.”

  The fire roared and crackled. Sparks battered against the screen.

  After a quick look towards the door, Shade stood to tend the fire. “Easy, Shad,” he cautioned in a low voice.

  “I don’t think so. A couple years ago it would’ve been our friends locked in there to die.”

  “I’m well aware of that.”

  “Maybe the council will finally grow a spine.”

  Shade stabbed the poker into a log. “And do what? Round up every purist including children for daring to think differently.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying. Outside you were the one talking about the council finally seeing the larger threat. Now you’re back to appeasing?”

  “Dare I not? I killed a man tonight. I’ll have to answer to both sides.”

  “He gave you no choice. It wasn’t like he cared about those kids’ lives or Olivia’s.”

  A soft cry croaked out of my swollen throat. Shade’s jaw stretched taut. I swear I heard it crack. He locked eyes of spiraling white bands that had split and frayed onto his brother.

  After an extended silence, Shad thumped his armrest. “You plan on softening this blow for Olivia, too? I get it; you had to kill someone. It’s a terrible thing, but it wasn’t like you didn’t anticipate this scenario when you took those darn oaths.”

  “I can’t believe you think I should stoop to their level.”

  “Don’t twist my words. They started this war. They had to know we wouldn’t sit still. Let the purist cry foul. We saved a group of kids tonight. Their parents won’t be arguing your actions. I suggest you get your emotions under control before the council decides you’re too emotionally charged to handle our warden’s security.”

  Shade swung away and began prowling restlessly between the hearth and the windows. Finally, his gaze settled upon my heavy lids. “Rest.”

  I pushed aside the pile of blankets and sat up slowly, feeling twinges from my latest round of bruises. Toasty air
stroked my face. The cold that had settled deep in my chest refused to be vanquished or maybe it was the nauseating feelings gnawing away at my insides that made me shiver and stammer. “What sort of people are they? What did I ever do to them? I’m filled with all this hate: theirs, mine, yours for what they’ve tried. I don’t want to feel like this towards people I don’t know. I don’t want to be like them. How do I make it stop?”

  Shadow had come to his feet, his palms outstretched to his twin. In a soothing beat that reminded me of Sister Willow’s calming technique he said, “Let me give you ease.”

  “No, I must be reminded to control my fuse. The evening should’ve ended differently,” Shade retorted. His eyes scrunched briefly as he rolled his shoulders ending with a vibration that traveled down the length of his body. “Olivia, I didn’t mean for you to catch my emotions. You’re nothing like them. Get back under the blankets,” he ordered, shoving them into place.

  I grabbed his hand before he could turn away. “I’m so sorry. If only I’d stayed home. I’m Roland’s heir. I’m supposed to unite the clans. Instead you had to . . . to kill someone.”

  He squatted next to me and began massaging my left leg. “I’ll get to the bottom of whoever was behind this. Your job is to finish high school and get into college. You’ve a right to be scared. Just don’t let fear beat you. That’s taking the easy way out. That’s not you. This past year’s girl had grit to spare. You’ve just got to find that again. But that’s for tomorrow. Right now I’m more concerned that you’re hurting and chilled to the bone. Take a big sip of that tea. Now give your eyes a quick rest while I help get you warm.”

  He’d put on a brave front, but I knew him pretty well by now. Through lowered lashes, I caught his tight-lipped expression reflected in the glass of a landscape painting of the valley and Shadow’s furrowed brow look of concern.

  ***

  “What happened to his partner?” Mayor McCowan asked once everyone had taken a seat and been given a brief overview of the evening by my aunt.

  “He was gone by the time we got there,” Shadow answered. “They probably had a meeting place. By now he’s got to suspect that something went very wrong.”

  Dr. Long looked up from his notes. “Warden Claire and I are in agreement. The morning paper will list electrocution as the cause of death.”

  “Since we can’t risk the attention of outsiders, we need to come up with a version of the truth for the police blotter that doesn’t say this was an attempted mass murder of innocent children,” Mr. Cassidy interrupted in a loud, angry voice.

  “Mark, I’ve taken care of it,” Aunt Claire spoke up, coming forward now to stand alongside the mahogany desk at the front of the room. “The paper will report that a fire broke out during the perpetrators failed attempt to bypass the alarm system. I will make sure the paper mentions that children were trapped by smoke, and the perpetrators made no attempt to help them escape. People need to know how close we came to a tragedy here tonight.”

  “Can we afford to stir things up more? We risk discovery,” a gentleman I didn’t recognize asked.

  “Roquet, I understand your concern. Every precaution will be taken,” Aunt Claire said, projecting an unruffled front. “The purist have gotten bolder while we’ve hoped to appease. If not now, then after what action on their part do we say enough? Amongst their membership they harbor criminals. These individuals must be rooted out.”

  “My son could’ve died tonight, Roguet,” Mrs. Cassidy said in a shrill voice that bordered on hysterical. “Were it not for Olivia’s quick thinking, I’d be planning his funeral. How dare you think of only yourself? Everyone knows your voting record. Is it because you want those people to continue shopping in your store or because you’re pure blood?”

  Roquet downed the last of his brandy. “I’m offended you would think that way.”

  “Enough,” Aunt Claire said, raising her voice. “We’re here to sort out the facts.”

  “We’d have more facts if Shade hadn’t been so overzealous in the performance of his duties,” a woman accused from the back of the room.

  “Olivia was being strangled,” Shadow argued, defending his brother’s actions.

  “Ever heard of negotiating?”

  “Oh sure, you people let this situation get out of control, then when Shade is forced to do his duty, he’s the one you come after.” Shadow’s disrespectful voice swept the room, sending the flames in the hearth licking higher and the fire popping. “Face the ugly facts. A male Whisperer was crushing a human’s windpipe, Olivia’s to be exact. In cold blood he’d locked kids in a burning building and was waiting around to watch them die. In what reality was he going to negotiate when he was happily squeezing the life out of his sworn enemy?”

  “Shad, enough!” Shade snapped, his narrowed eyes riveted upon my face.

  Aunt Claire looked at me and then pointed at the door. “This is no place for Olivia. Shadow, take her home.”

  “Why? What else is there that I haven’t heard or experienced?” I argued. Several people, including my aunt, cringed at my rough voice.

  Mr. Cassidy straightened from speaking low in his wife’s ear. He smoothed his shirt and stepped to the front of the room. “This valley isn’t that big. How hard can it be to find out who the dead man called friend? It’s high time these people remember they live in this valley and are subject to the rules set down by their ancestors.”

  “Elder Cassidy is right. We need to take a firm stand. I say drag the lot of them before the elders and force them to speak,” shouted the father of one of the football players.

  “I want everyone to keep a cool head,” my aunt said in an uncompromising tone. “I refuse to believe these unsavory events were condoned by everyone in the purist community.”

  “Send Olivia back east. Her coming here is what stirred up the purist,” Roguet suggested.

  Mayor McCowan leveled a look upon Shade that made my innards twist. He eased over to Roquet’s side and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’m afraid sending Olivia away won’t be enough. One of their people is dead.”

  Shadow shot to his feet. “You want to give them my brother?”

  “That isn’t what I said. Regrettably, the first death was not by purist hands.”

  “Not from lack of trying.”

  Over the rumble of voices Mayor McCowan addressed the room. “We’re missing an opportunity. I believe the purist leadership will come to the bargaining table once Shade turns himself in to the Enforcers. If we express interest in their concerns, things might settle down.”

  “I can’t believe you’d sell my brother out for votes,” Shadow shouted, getting into the mayor’s face. Shade grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the hearth, but not before several empty glasses toppled over from the sudden burst of air.

  Several individuals instantly vibed. A few demanded Warden Claire call the Enforcers.

  “We should be thanking Shade for saving our children not offering him up to placate monsters,” Mr. Cassidy said, talking over people. “I refuse to bargain with would be murderers. I say we test Olivia tonight. If she proves acceptable, make her take up the warden’s duties. No offense, Claire, but we need a full range warden. It’s time we ferreted out those who would undermine our way of life. What say you?” Mr. Cassidy demanded, turning to those elders assembled in his private study.

  My mouth went dry as he rallied support. The deep, plush cushions molded about my body, holding me in the room just like the mountain ridges marked the boundaries of my shrinking world. Shade shifted closer. While I appreciated his solid presence, he was committed to the valley and in the end would abide by the decisions of his elders.

  “Everyone calm down,” Aunt Claire said in a loud, authoritative voice, causing several heads to swivel in her direction. She waited for the room to settle before continuing in a tone that left no debate as to who was in charge. “I won’t risk innocent lives on either side. I most certainly won’t agree to any action that woul
d force my unprepared niece to take up duties beyond her years. Need I remind you, Mark,” she said, piercing Mr. Cassidy with a hard stare, reminding him of his place, “that Olivia is Trent’s age? Need I remind all of you of Warden Ethan Wagoner Pepperdine’s preparations that were agreed to by the governing council?”

  “The council agreed before things got out of hand,” Mark Cassidy said less forcefully than before.

  “The girl is too young and inexperienced. Leave her be,” a woman said off to my right.

  “Test her at least,” a voice called out. Several others shouted their support.

  “Don’t force me to act to protect the heir,” my aunt warned.

  “My son almost died tonight. A leader has to put the good of the whole ahead of their own desires,” the football player’s father said, pushing his way closer to my aunt.

  “I see. It’s alright if someone else’s kid gets hurt. Ethan’s child is as much a child of this valley as your son, Dillon,” Shade said, his low voice the rumble of an approaching storm.

  “I didn’t mean . . .” The man’s face turned beet red. He cleared his throat and spoke in the general direction of the loveseat. “Ethan and I played football together. I never meant to imply that Olivia’s life was any less important than my own son’s.”

  Several angry voices debated in the far corner of the room. I couldn’t make out which side they were for. I swallowed hard. My life, my future had become something to be appropriated. My gaze flicked from person to person, scanning the room in search of support. I tried to make eye contact with my aunt, but she was engaged in a heated debate with Mr. Cassidy whose face mottled over as he gestured animatedly. All the hate and anger boiling over in the room turned my stomach. I drew the pillow to my chest, clenching it close, my chin buried against the velvety suede. A hot hand dropped onto my left shoulder. I could feel the steady vibrations through my shirt. The empty cushion next to me dipped down. I turned to find Shadow looking past me at the arguing elders. Before I could fully digest that unexpected kindness, Sadie Cassidy’s voice cut through the din.