Night Whispers: ShadowLands, Book 1

by Alisha Rai

  Even if a tracker was in that sucker, nothing could be done about it right this minute, she supposed. Surely Compound would be able to figure out how to get the thing off him when they arrived. “Fine. Want me to drive?”

  He arched a brow. “No.”

  Good, because the thought of losing consciousness at the wheel and plowing into a tree wasn’t really an idea she was keen on either. “’Kay.”

  They both climbed into the van. She was proud of herself for not flinching when he reached over and fastened her seat belt for her. Look at her, tough chick that she was.

  She saw that he had appropriated her spare sunglasses from the back. Luckily, she had always liked too-large frames. The pair fit his face without looking too absurd.

  He noticed her watching him. “You understand,” he said softly, “why you are sick, don’t you?”

  No, she wasn’t a tough chick at all. She had to swallow the bile in her throat. “Instead of going to California, do you think we can maybe go to Raven Rock?” She leaned forward and pressed the button for her dashboard GPS. Raven Rock’s location was programmed in. With a few pushes, she was able to set it. It was a difficult task because her hands were shaking.

  Erik appeared to study the console. Behind those glasses, she couldn’t tell what was going on. “We won’t go to California.”

  She leaned against her seat back, reassured. “Good.”

  The van rumbled as it started, and she let her old friend take control.

  James didn’t know what was going on with Jules’s tracker. For a while, she’d gone northwest, giving him the slight hope she was taking a circuitous route home. But then she’d turned, and backtracked east, only to head north now, as if she were preparing to cross over the border to Canada.

  Each time, he had readjusted his route to match hers.

  He glanced at his handheld, now docked in the console of his vehicle, as if to reassure himself that they were both headed toward some sort of merger.

  His first day out hadn’t been so bad. His car was nice and secure, and it made a comfortable cocoon for him. He’d had to stop a few times to relieve himself, but he’d made the stops as fast as possible. The feel of the air on his too-sensitive skin had been almost painful.

  No, barring the oppressive silence of his own thoughts spinning round and round in his mind, the day hadn’t been so bad.

  James watched the sun sinking far off into the horizon. The true test would be the night.

  Bad things happened at night. He knew that all too well.

  He could call Gabriel on the sat phone for company, but he’d checked in a couple of hours ago. No need to worry the man or confirm fears that he couldn’t handle this alone.

  Since it made him feel better, he pressed the button on his handheld that would normally have tapped into Jules. There was dead air there now, but he would keep the line open. A more depressing variation on road-trip music.

  “Jules,” he said to the silence. “I hope you’re okay.”

  “Jules. I hope you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine,” she murmured automatically, caught in the light doze she’d slipped into.

  “What?”

  “Huh?” She lifted her head and looked at Erik.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “Oh.” She could have sworn… She laid her hot forehead against the window. The scenery rushed past her, the sun-faded sky highlighting the flat, empty road on either side of the highway. Now she was hearing things. Great.

  Chapter Ten

  When James was young, he and his mother would head out to the grocery store in the evenings, after she came home from work. He would sit in the front seat, even though he knew now he had been far too small to do so, and would peer over the too-high dashboard. The night seemed endless during those short rides.

  It seemed even more endless now that it was full dark and he was out in it.

  The road was abandoned, as expected. If the moon had been out, perhaps it would have minimized the barrenness of the setting, but a strong cloud cover had rolled in, hiding the light.

  His eyes were tired, but he barely blinked. So much adrenaline was pumping through him, he doubted he would accidentally sleep, but he refused to take any chances. It was well past midnight and his bedtime.

  It freaks me the fuck out when they walk on the side of the road like that. The way they stumble around, I can’t tell if I’m tired and hallucinating, or they’re real. And if they’re real, it’s like they’re just waiting for me to wreck so they can munch on me.

  Jules’d told him that once. Since then, he’d done his best to make sure she had some sort of shelter during the night, though that was more in her control than his.

  He forced himself to relax his hands. The knuckles were starting to hurt with all the clenching he was doing.

  Jules had called them phantom hitchhikers. He’d tapped into her during that ride, worried over her as usual.

  The visual she’d painted had creeped him out too. Since night had fallen, he’d been alert for any sign of Shadows lurching along, but his high-powered beams hadn’t picked anyone up. Occasionally, he jerked his head this way and that, but he figured the movement he saw was simply figments of his tired imagination.

  What if they weren’t, though? What if danger was just out there, in the woods surrounding either side of this small country road?

  You’re safe in the car. It’s like your office. Or the bunker. You’re so safe. Can’t get hurt. Keep driving.

  He checked his handheld for the millionth time, making sure that his and Jules’s route were calibrated properly. She’d continued to make progress toward Canada.

  That fact worried the hell out of him. His mind had automatically spun out the three scenarios most likely to result from this set of facts: 1) she wasn’t in the van or 2) she was in the van but somehow not in control of it or 3) she was in the van and had a very good reason for heading out of the country.

  “I’m trying to keep positive here, Jules,” he murmured. “But it’s hard.”

  “I’m trying to keep positive here, Jules.”

  Jules jerked. She’d woken from her nap long ago but had simply been resting with her eyes closed.

  She hadn’t imagined that.

  “But it’s hard.”

  James? But how was this…

  God damn, but she’d forgotten about her earpiece. She couldn’t speak with him, but she was able to hear him. The thin piece of plastic worked independently of her collar, as long as the battery remained charged.

  “I know in my gut you’re still alive. I’m praying you’re in that van of yours on your own.”

  Excitement rose in her belly. He was tracking her GPS! He knew she was on her way to him! She turned to Erik, already smiling, ready to tell him the good news, when James spoke again.

  “You better have a damn good reason for heading for the border, though.”

  The border? Wait. The border of what?

  Slowly, she raised her head and looked, really looked, at the console for the first time since she’d punched in Raven Rock’s coordinates and fallen asleep, trusting Erik to get her to safety.

  The screen was blank. The route had been canceled out.

  Erik’s rough profile was stubborn and unyielding. A granite man who could move mountains. Who could crush insignificant girls who got in his way. “Where are we?”

  He glanced at her. He’d tossed her sunglasses off somewhere, leaving his silver eyes free to assess her. “You’re awake. Do you feel better?”

  “Yes,” she half-lied. That awful lassitude had diminished somewhat, but her head and stomach were still churning, more so now that she had to consider where her old friend was taking her. “Where are we?” Without waiting for a reply, she leaned forward despite the resulting pain in her arm and shoulder and reached out to press the button for the GPS.

  His hand was there before hers, covering the dial. “Don’t do that,” he said.

  A warning. Perhaps
even a threat.

  She licked her lips, suddenly cold. Their eyes met for a brief moment before he turned back to the road. His hand remained over the control of the GPS.

  She leaned back in her seat. “Trying to hide the fact that we’re headed toward the border?”

  A long beat passed. He removed his hand. “How did you know?”

  She didn’t. For all she knew, they could be headed to the border of Canada, Mexico or North Dakota.

  However, now she could find out. Quick, she pressed the button for the GPS. The map popped up, showing her what border James had been talking about. “Funny,” she said, not bothering to disguise the acid in her tone. “Pretty sure you’re going the wrong way.”

  His sigh was soundless. “This seemed like the best choice.”

  The best choice for whom? “What’s in Canada?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Yes. You’re right. Nothing but animals and Bigfoot and maybe some survivalists who made bomb shelters out of recycled soda cans and ice. What the fuck, Erik.”

  “Nothing,” he repeated, and shot her a cool glance. “Which is excellent for disappearing from the very angry group of people who could be searching for us. Nothing is exactly what I require.”

  “What about what I require? What about what Carrie requires?”

  “What is it you require?”

  “Um, I would say not being dragged into a no-man’s land would be a good start.”

  “Certainly. I would be happy to let you out wherever you’d like. I would have no problem with that.” His voice wrapped around her, a silken threat.

  Yeah, right. They were pretty close to Canada, which meant they’d passed through a couple of no-man’s-land states from where they’d started out. The way she was feeling, there was no way she’d be able to find her way back through them. Not by herself, and definitely not with the kid. “Asswipe. This is my ride. You can’t just take it.”

  “No? You don’t look like you’re in any shape to drive us.”

  “If I was up to strength, I would kick your ass.”

  “Come now. We’re old friends. No need to be uncivil.”

  “Friends don’t screw each other over, Erik.”

  In the dim light from the dashboard, she saw his jaw clench, hard. “In my experience, that’s exactly what friends do.”

  “I told you, I searched for you.” Frustrated and angry, she leaned back in her seat, arms crossed over her chest. “You can believe it or not, but quit being such a bastard about no one coming for you. No one knew where you were.”

  “Liar. Tim knew.” He slammed his fist down on the wheel, startling her. “He knew. He knew I was going to Cheyenne for help.”

  She eyed him, gauging his level of anger. It didn’t appear to be directed at her, in particular, so she took a chance. “Tim’s dead.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t want to upset you before. He died a couple months ago. Flu.”

  Erik laughed, but the sound was without amusement. “Flu. How anticlimactic.”

  “He might have known,” she admitted quietly. No might about it, going by what Tim had mumbled on his deathbed, but there was no point in exacerbating Erik’s anger right now. “And if so, I’m not sure why he didn’t tell anyone. But he may have had a good reason. You don’t know what it’s like now that Raven joined up with us, Erik, but we’re so much more organized. We were too haphazard and untrained back then. Maybe he thought you were dead and didn’t want to send someone else in on a suicide mission.”

  “Or maybe my disappearance was precisely what he planned.”

  “Conspiracy theories are tempting,” she said dryly. “But why would that be plausible?”

  “The man was jealous of me. Perhaps he wished to get rid of me. Perhaps I was simply expendable. Perhaps he was secretly a racist asshole who hated that I was born in a country which had once been an enemy of his. Who knows?”

  “Exactly. You don’t know.”

  “I know that there is no point in trusting any government to help me. I refuse to put myself in anyone’s power again. Me or Carrie. I made a promise that I would see her to safety, and I will.” His eyes were fixed somewhere far down the road as he continued to mutter. “Lock me up, will they? Needles, always one needle or another. Keeping me hungry…”

  Jules winced. “We’re not like that.”

  “We?”

  “Compound. They’re your people too.”

  “No one is my people. And I know you don’t wish to face it, but they are not your people any longer,” he bit off, and nodded at her arm. “Like it or not, you are no longer what you were. The only reason they will welcome you is to put you in a cage and run tests on you.”

  She swallowed. He was right, she didn’t want to face it. But she had no choice now. “Do you know what’s wrong with me, then?”

  “They injected me with many formulas before I turned into what I am now. After the last one, I sprouted a rash around the injection site, as you have, and immediately fell ill.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “My reaction fell somewhere between yours and Carrie’s. Fever, weakness, vomiting, fainting and finally a coma. I woke up in a few days as I am now.”

  “Sort of like an accelerated version of the actual Illness.”

  “Yes. With no prior incubation period.”

  “Are we going to turn into you, then?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what the doctors gave either of you. And the bite that Carrie sustained is also a wild card.”

  “Son of a bitch.” She wished she was back in that lab. Had she known what the consequences were, she might have tortured the truth out of that doctor before killing her. It would have gone against the nature of the new and reformed Jules, but with survival on the line, she would have done it.

  There had been vials upon vials of liquids in that lab. Even if she could go back there, she would never be able to figure out, on her own, what she’d been given. And since Erik had eaten the other doctor…

  “Fuckity fuck.”

  “If you’re lucky, you will not change.”

  “And I’ll die? You’re a comforting machine, Erik.”

  “I meant, perhaps you will recover from this with no side effects.” He shrugged. “Though you might prefer death. I’ll be running for the rest of my life.”

  She thought of that woman whose cage she’d briefly occupied. “Could I— Could I turn into a Shadow?”

  “Some of their experiments did. But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll kill you if you do.”

  Oddly enough…that kind of did make her feel better. She had skills. Her blood ran cold to think of how those skills would be utilized by her turned self.

  She could hurt people.

  “You see now, don’t you? That you can’t go back?”

  She saw that she couldn’t go back right now. Not until she figured out what her fate would be, and not until she was strong enough to go back. If she did turn hybrid, she didn’t think that Compound would, as he claimed, lock her up. But caution told her it might be best to wait and see what happened to her first.

  Still, she wouldn’t be telling Erik that James was tracking their movements. The guy would instantly ditch the van. Maybe even her. And as much as she hated to admit it, she needed Erik right now, if only to get them farther away from Colorado and the mystery group there.

  Even if she wanted to wail and scream, she didn’t much have the energy for it. She cradled her hand over her right ear, where her earpiece was lodged, almost invisible, and leaned her hot forehead against the blessedly cool window. The last thing she would do was tell Erik about James. He was hers.

  Maybe if she remained very, very quiet, James would speak to her again. Now that her whole world had changed, she’d like to hold on to at least that.

  It appeared just when James was certain he would never have to see a Shadow.

  It was loping along the side of the road, shuffling in that uneven, frightful way they had. His headlights pi
cked up its naked, white body, the red striations of the veins traversing an ugly map over its skin, and James gave a highly unmanly yelp.

  Unable to help his rubbernecking fascination, he slowed down the car to gawk. The thing turned its head to look at him, first flinching back and throwing up its arm at the bright glare of the headlights. Then, realizing it was not sunlight, it lowered the arm.

  Silver eyes seemed to meet his beneath stringy, ragged white hair.

  Step. Drag. Step.

  Its body turned, as if it was getting ready to chase him down.

  With a shudder, James increased his speed, thanking God again that he was safe in his car. “Christ, sweetheart, that’s a scary thing. I don’t know how you managed to get close enough to actually kill these Shadows.”

  Jules frowned. Why on earth would James be talking about that?

  “It’s hard enough to be separated from them by my car. But I can kind of pretend I’m still in my bunker. I can’t even imagine what it must be like when they’re really in your face. And you’ve had to face that so many times.”

  By his car.

  Her heart stopped. No. He couldn’t be in his car because he was coming after her, could he?

  “I think I might wet myself if they were actually near me.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Some rescuer you have, huh?”

  Oh God. He was coming after her.

  Fear, dismay and delight warred within her. On the one hand, the last thing she wanted was for James and Erik to come face-to-face, mainly because Erik would destroy him the way a tortured animal would kick any new potential owner. She had no idea what James’s fighting capabilities were, but the other man’s hybrid physiology and horrible distrust of organized government would not bode well for James in a fight.

  Plus, if she did turn hybrid like Erik, or turned Shadow, the last thing she wanted was for James to be around to witness it. She didn’t know if she could bear it if he turned away from her in disgust.