Shadow's Messenger: An Aileen Travers Novel

by T. A. White

  I continued past the house, circling the block and heading towards the next name on my list. This house was situated on a road right next to the cemetery. Whoever owned it now would probably have a hell of a time trying to sell it as people convinced themselves it was haunted.

  I parked two houses down and looked at the house. The windows were all dark. No one seemed to be home. Nobody was on the streets either. If I wanted to take a look around, this was as good a time as any.

  I shouldered open the door and jogged across the street. Sticking my hands in the pockets of my jacket, I walked by the house and called in a soft voice. “Rufus. Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”

  I crossed the street, repeating the same words, confirming that I was the only one dumb enough to be out this close to midnight with a murderer on the loose.

  I crossed back, walking up to the house as if I had every right to be there. I tested the front door. Locked. Of course. Made sense. The lock on this house was much better than the cheap one on mine. The credit card trick wouldn’t work on this one.

  I looked around for one of those handy rocks people used to hide their keys. Having locked myself out of my apartment several times since moving in, I could attest to how convenient, if unsafe, it would be to have one of those lying about.

  Looked like this family had erred on the side of safety because I didn’t find anything that could house a key. And I tried several rocks, banging them against the ground in vain hope. That option exhausted, I headed around back, testing the windows I could reach. All of them were locked. So was the back door.

  No hope for it. I picked up a rock and broke the back door window, reaching inside to unlock it. Hopefully, I had the right house with no one here to notice my breaking and entering. Glass crunched under my shoes as I walked through the kitchen.

  Nobody came running.

  Looked like I was right; the place was empty.

  The kitchen looked undisturbed. I stopped by the fridge, drawn to a picture of a happy family. Two parents and a toddler. I wanted to believe that what went down had happened when the toddler was out of the house, but knowing what I did of the world, that was unlikely. Shitty things happened to good people, without sparing the young.

  The living room was in shambles. There were books on the floor, family photos tossed around, and a chair on its side. I couldn’t tell if a struggle had taken place here, or if the police had been really thorough in their search.

  I headed upstairs, pausing at a red stain on the wooden rail. I continued, not finding anything in the first bedroom, a child’s by the look of it. The smell of old blood lingered in the air outside the bathroom.

  I opened the door and staggered back at the stench that struck me across the face. Someone had suffered in there. Fear and pain saturated the air until I could taste it on my tongue. I forced myself inside, feeling a tight feeling in my stomach at the amount of blood in the tub and drain. A little yellow duck sat on the side of the tub, its side freckled with red.

  Mother and child surprised in the bath. They never had a chance.

  I stumbled out of the room, not able to bear the image my mind created. Panting, I hugged the wall next to the bathroom and counted backwards from 100.

  The scene wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever seen, not even in the top five. There hadn’t been any bodies, just blood leftover from a crime that happened weeks ago.

  The murder scenes from the supernatural community had been much less grim. All but the most recent had been washed clean of any sign of violence.

  I stepped back into the bathroom. Why hadn’t this place been cleaned? The police would have released the crime scene weeks ago. Someone should have cleaned up the blood even if their only goal was to sell the house.

  Something didn’t add up.

  The blood. It wasn’t right. It was too new. Not fresh, but also not months old.

  Shit. I didn’t think this place was empty after all.

  There was a sound on the first floor, like something had been pushed across the room. I darted out of the bathroom, keeping as quiet as possible. I found a hall closet and stepped inside, fumbling for my phone and gun.

  Footsteps thundered up the stairs and into the hall outside.

  The bathroom door creaked as it was pushed open and something thudded. I shifted to the side, trying to see through the crack between the wall and the door. I got the slim image of a body being dragged into the bathroom.

  Oh God. Why was he taking one of his victims in there?

  I didn’t want to know. I didn’t even want to hazard a guess.

  The sharp crack of bone followed by a loud slurp and then smacking lips answered the question. I cringed back, jerking when something brushed against my shoulder. It was a linen. The draugr wasn’t behind me. No reason to have a meltdown or scream loud enough to draw him here.

  I hit the contacts button on my phone. Time for back up. Sorcerer, vampire or wolf. I didn’t care which as long as they got here in the next thirty seconds. Being eaten alive had just made it into my top three worst deaths possible.

  I held the phone up to my ear as it rang. Please answer.

  “You missed your last check in. I told you what would happen if you missed your check in,” Liam’s irate voice said in my ear.

  Thank you, God.

  “Liam,” I whispered, covering both the phone and my mouth with my hand. “5536 Chesterfield Road.”

  “What? Where?” Liam’s voice changed to one of anger as he hissed, “You went after the draugr didn’t you.”

  “5536 Chesterfield Road,” I said again, my whisper turning urgent as the sound of chewing stopped. “You need to come now.”

  “We are going to have another talk about your inability to follow simple instructions.”

  I looked forward to it. If he made it in time, I would gladly listen no matter how long the lecture.

  A shape walked into the hallway, its head cocking this way and that. It was human. At least mostly.

  “Hello, little vampire.” Its voice wrapped around me, brushing against my thoughts, leaving me with the feeling that maggots were crawling inside my mind. “I had hoped to find you tonight. It’s so good of you to come to me. Why do you hide in that closet?”

  That was not good. The call was still live. I could hear Liam snapping orders. I just needed to buy time. I could do that.

  Either way, staying in the closet was getting less appealing by the second.

  I tucked the phone into my pocket and dropped the hand with the gun to my side before I pushed open the door.

  The creature watched with black eyes tinged with a cloudy white as I stepped out of the closet. Gaunt and gray, the flesh hung from its bones in ribbons. Its lips parted in a macabre smile revealing sharp fangs with flesh still caught in them. It was hunched over slightly, its limbs thin and gangly. It was tempting to misjudge it as weak until you noticed its eyes, mad and filled with a darkness that threatened to spill into your psyche at any moment.

  “Who are you?” I asked, my voice surprising me with its calmness. Yes, I interrogated monsters on a regular basis.

  “Does it matter?”

  This thing was much more coherent than it had been in my previous two encounters. Was this the creature’s real body, or was it possible that I had the wrong monster? There was the smallest of possibilities that the human and supernatural community’s crimes were unrelated.

  “I’d like to know the name of the person who’s been making such a splash lately.”

  He tittered, his laugh high pitched and grating on the ears.

  “Yes. Yes. Everyone should know my name.”

  He sounded crazy. If he’d been human, I would have said he was high or clinically insane.

  “You should tell me so I can share it with the rest of the city. It’ll let them know who they should fear. Give you some credit for all your hard work.”

  “I deserve it. Yes, I do. They didn’t even give me my name in death.”

  “Right.” Looked
like he was one of the soldiers in the prison camp as I’d thought. He could be buried in an unmarked grave. It might be what kept him clinging to this world long after death.

  “Eric Miller,” he said abruptly, the person he used to be showing through for a moment with all the vulnerability and sorrow I’d expect in someone who suddenly found themselves back in the land of the living. “Or was it Jackson Baker.”

  He gave me a sly smile.

  “Charlie Flannagan. Victor Dubeaux. I just can’t bring myself to remember.”

  He crept forward a few steps. I edged back. Shit, looked like my attempt to build rapport with him had failed.

  “I remember you, little vampire. They said you have my treasures.”

  “Who said?”

  “Filthy little thief, taking what’s not yours. They’re mine. Didn’t you take enough from me during life? They were the only things I had left. Give them back.”

  He was frothing at the mouth and screaming by the end.

  I held up my hands. “Wait. Wait. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Liar,” he roared.

  He was working himself into a state and would attack at any moment. I needed to keep him calm.

  “Tell me what you’re looking for and maybe I can help you.”

  He paused, his head swinging back and forth.

  “A watch.”

  “Good. What does it look like?”

  I held my breath. How long had it been since I’d called Liam? I didn’t know how much longer I could hold this line of questioning until he exploded.

  “My grandfather gave it to me. It’s gold, which you know since you took it from my grave. You also took my locket. It held my love’s photo. I want it back.”

  I was losing him. “Okay, okay. We’re going to get you the watch and locket back. I didn’t take it but I can find them. I have contacts who will help me. Just tell me who told you I had it.”

  His tongue flicked out to lick his lips. It was black and swollen.

  “Or I could just eat you. What use are you if you don’t have my keepsakes? Not much.” He grinned, the darkness of his mind rushing towards mine, bringing madness in its wake.

  Without thinking, I pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. It recoiled in my hand, again and again until it clicked. Empty.

  The creature fell, its head half gone. I darted toward him. Already, its head was regenerating, bone and brain growing back. It staggered to its feet, its bony fingers clutching at my shirt and tearing it.

  Ki… you… Kill… you.

  The words weren’t something heard with my ears, instead inserting themselves into my mind. Panic rose, sharp and hot. I burst through the master bedroom’s window, glass shattering around me and sharp pain lashing my arms and legs. Then I was falling, falling, landing with an abrupt jolt, my knee cracking hard against the ground.

  I lay stunned. No time to cry. Feel the pain later. Get to the car. He’s coming.

  I staggered to my feet, ignoring the sharp twinge in my ankles and knees. My car wasn’t far. I needed to get out of there.

  An ululating wail chased me as I ran for my car, fumbling for my keys as I moved.

  I was out of time. The draugr was chasing me, and I didn’t think I could survive the coming fight without any weapons.

  My hand touched cool metal. Got it. I pulled the keys out, my hands shaking as I turned it in the lock. I flung open the door and slid inside, not bothering with the seatbelt.

  The wheels squealed as I pulled away from the curb. My eyes widened at the sight in the rearview mirror of the draugr chasing after me on all fours.

  “Shit. You have to be kidding me.”

  I floored the gas pedal, taking the next turn at the highest speed possible. I was not going to die here— and I wouldn’t wreck this car. For a tense few minutes, I kept above fifty watching anxiously in the mirror for any sign of the draugr. Only when I was satisfied it wasn’t chasing me anymore did I let the car slow to the speed limit.

  Holy shit. That was scary.

  I knew a lot more about what we were facing. The sorcerer was right. The thing was a draugr, and it was after something that had been stolen from it. I knew why its attack pattern was so random now. I was betting whoever had pointed the draugr in my direction had also been the one to steal its stuff. Whoever it was had been guiding the draugr to its victims. I was betting that there was an end target and the rest had just been collateral damage to hide the real motive. Either way, it was time for research.

  I pointed the car toward the university. The best place to find information about a human war was a human historian. It just so happened I knew one of those.

  Chapter Eleven

  You’d be surprised at how many people are still working hard at a university long after eleven p.m. All of those graduate students high on caffeine, diligently hacking away at their thesis. Some of these kids kept odder hours than me. You had to be a little crazy to spend night after long night in a basement cubby or library.

  The Ohio State University’s campus was among the largest in the world. As a teenager considering my options for college, its campus had intimidated the hell out of me. It was big and confusing, interwoven throughout Columbus in a sprawling maze of buildings, parks and paths. With roots going all the way back to 1870, OSU walked a fine line between the historical charm in some of its architecture and cutting edge science in modern, state of the art, new buildings.

  The person I was looking for would either be in the library or the building that housed all of the history classes.

  I parked in one of the many garages and headed downstairs. The library and history department were in opposite directions. If I was a history graduate student on the cusp of finishing my dissertation, where would I be?

  Probably the library archives. It fit with what I knew of her. She’d always been a bookworm, more content to bury her head in a make believe world than come out and play with me.

  OSU’s library was a four floor beast of glass and metal. It was quiet as a grave, with students tucked inside books or hunched over desks. And they said books were dead. Looked like students still had to do their research the old fashioned way here, with musty old books and notepads.

  I headed down to the archives, getting turned around a few times. I’d only been there once and that was several years ago. No one challenged me as I meandered through the stacks. To them I was just another procrastinating student, intent on doing some last minute research before a test or paper was due.

  It felt weird being back in a college library. Familiar, but weird. This was the life Mom wanted me to embrace. Staying up late, ruining my eyes as I struggled to meet a professor’s unrealistic expectations. Somehow I didn’t regret getting out when I did. As weird as the path my life had taken, it was at least interesting.

  The archive section was under lock and key. I expected that. Some of the manuscripts they kept in the climate controlled rooms were hundreds of years old and priceless. Not something you let just anybody off the street come in to handle.

  I headed to the empty library desk and tapped the bell. A sleepy looking college kid peered around the corner. I smiled as the early twenty something boy walked up to me, rubbing his curls, causing them to stick straight up. He looked so young, though he couldn’t have been more than five years younger than me.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, I’m looking for Caroline Bradley.”

  As long as this wasn’t his first day, he’d know who I was talking about. She was hard to miss and was here enough that it could be considered her second home.

  “Uh, she doesn’t like to be disturbed when she’s back there.”

  Yup. That was my friend.

  “Don’t worry. I can handle it.”

  “I’m not really supposed to bother her.”

  “Either go get her or let me back there. Trust me, she’ll want to know I’m here.”

  He gave the door leading to the archives a wor
ried look. “I’ll buzz you back. Just don’t tell anybody.”

  I snorted. What had she done to this poor guy that he was willing to let a complete stranger into the archives unsupervised?

  “There are cameras. We’ll prosecute to the fullest extent of the law if you touch or damage anything.”

  The door buzzed.

  “Consider me warned.”

  I shivered. The air was cooler than in the rest of the library.

  It was easy to find Caroline. She was hunched over a book as long as my arm and almost as thick as my torso. She handled the pages with white gloves, flipping them with the utmost of care. Her curly blond hair was scraped back from her face into a messy bun.

  “I really don’t understand what you find so interesting in those things.”

  Her shoulders tensed.

  I waited.

  She slid her hands out from under the page she was handling and sat back in her chair. Moving efficiently, she stripped off her gloves and pulled a pair of black rimmed glasses from her face, setting them onto the table next to her.

  I fidgeted in the silence.

  She made me wait as she tidied up her workspace. Only when everything was in its exact spot and perfectly lined up did she turn.

  Her face was calm as she regarded me, her girl-next-door looks making her appear the same as she had the day I’d signed up for the Army. I’d always envied her everyday beauty, the kind that was just there and looked good at any age. Even when we’d been in middle school, she’d been the one all the boys had liked. I wasn’t insecure about my looks now, but I had been back then. It’d taken over a decade to grow into all my angles.

  “I’m waiting,” she said.

  I stuck my hands in my pocket. “Don’t know what for.”

  She arched one eyebrow and gave me a cool smile. “Then you can let yourself out, and I can get back to examining this fifteenth century manuscript.”

  She started to turn back to her work.

  “I’m not apologizing,” I snapped. “I did nothing wrong. It’s my life and joining the military was the best decision I could make at that time.”