The Forest of Shadow and Bones

by Jessica Sorensen

  His smile expands, and his green eyes illuminate the cab. “You know what? I think I changed my mind. Maybe you should stay here with me.” He reaches over the seat and grazes his fingers across my forearm.

  Blinding heat blazes across my skin, and I jerk back, terrified. No longer questioning the sketchiness of the club, but of the cab driver, I scramble out of the car and slam the door.

  “Have fun, ladies.” The driver laughs as he floors the engine and peels out of the alley, leaving the darkness to smother us.

  “Um, okay, that was creepy and weird.” I turn to Eve, gripping the arm the cab driver touched. “He touched me, and it felt like I got burned.”

  Eve has already walked away from me and is rapping her knuckles against the rusty metal door of a warehouse.

  “Open up,” she singsongs, knocking on the door again. “Right now!”

  I rush toward her, my platforms splashing in the murky puddles that cover the asphalt. “Eve, I really think we should go. The cab driver seemed really strange.” My arm ignites with heat again, and I swear I see black, inky lines slithering across my pale flesh, forming strange, curvy marks. But when I blink, the ink vanishes.

  Eve steps back as the flap on the door glides open. “We’ll be fine.”

  A set of eyes appear from the hole. “What’s the password?” a deep, male voice asks.

  Eve snatches my arm, yanks me forward, and shoves my forearm into the guy’s line of vision. His eyes sweep over my flesh, and then the flap glides shut. I hear the clicking of locks being undone before the door swings open.

  Instead of a hefty, muscled bouncer, a short, bony man dressed in black jeans and a leather jacket appears in the doorway. His black hair is so greasy against the moonlight that the strands look oily, and across his neck are several hieroglyphic tattoos that resemble the marks I thought I saw on my arm.

  I scratch at my arm. What is going on? Why does it feel like I’m on a very weird acid trip?

  The man slants against the doorframe with his arms crossed. “You two look lost.”

  Eve smiles sweetly as she coils a strand of hair around her finger. “We’re not, though.”

  “Are you sure about that?” he questions. “You don’t look like our kind.”

  Huh? Our kind?

  “What do you—”

  “Well, we are.” Eve marches forward and pokes him in the chest. “We showed you the password, so move out of our way and let us in.”

  I expect him to tell her to get lost, but a grin creeps across his face as he steps aside and bows. “If that’s what you want, then by all means, go in,” he says, his eyes bouncing back and forth between Eve and me.

  I reach for Eve to pull her back, but she slips through the doorway and into the darkness.

  “Goddammit, Eve. What are you doing?” Frustrated and nervous, I hurry after her.

  The door slams shut behind me, taking away any light.

  “Eve,” I hiss with my arms out in front of me. “Where are you?”

  Nothing. I can’t even hear her breathing.

  “Eve,” I whisper in a panic. “Please, just answer me. You know how much I hate the dark.”

  Because ghosts can hide in the dark.

  As if sensing my terror, cold fingers trace up the side of my arm.

  I let out a blood-curdling scream.

  Eve laughs. “I’m right here.” Her hand finds mine, and she pulls me closer to her. “Relax and breathe it in.”

  “That wasn’t funny, Eve,” I breath out, my heart racing. “Something isn’t right.” A warm sensation swims down my throat and fills my lungs, as if breathing in vapor.

  Suddenly, I no longer feel panicky. I feel calm. Drunkenly, stupidly, stoned out of my mind calm.

  “Ready?” Eve whispers, squeezing my hand.

  I bob my head up and down, even though I have no idea what I’m supposed to be ready for.

  She gives my hand another squeeze, then we make our way through the darkness until we reach a dimly lit hallway. Lanterns hanging from the stone walls illuminate a path from where we stand to a door at the end of the hall.

  We head for the door, and I notice marks on the wall that resemble the tattoo the bouncer had. What do the marks mean? And why did I think I saw them on my arm? What is going on?

  All worries evacuate my thoughts when I breathe in another deep inhale.

  Relaxed. The air is so relaxing here.

  “Ready for this?” Eve asks as we stop in front of the door.

  I sigh contently. “I’m ready for anything right now.”

  Throwing me a grin from over her shoulder, she flattens her palm to the door and shoves it open, revealing a spacious room crammed wall to wall with people of all ages and sizes. Lanterns dangle from the beamed ceiling, lights shimmer all over the walls and marble floor, and a spiral staircase coils up to a balcony. Filling the corners of the room are life-sized, iron-rod birdcages where beautiful women wearing leather corset dresses dance hypnotically.

  “I feel like it’s Halloween!” I shout over the music as I note the feathery wings on the women and the abundance of body glitter covering most of the people.

  Eve says nothing, just offers me a tight smile and steers me toward the dance floor. “Let’s have fun tonight,” she says, shimmying her hips and laughing.

  Nodding, I start to dance with her.

  Song after song, we never break rhythm as thoughts of the creepy cab driver and the goth ghost drift further and further away. The only thing I care about is that I’m at a club that appears to be ghost-free, and I feel fantastic, more relaxed than I have been in a long time.

  “Wanna get another drink?” Eve shouts over the booming music, fanning her hand in front of her damp face.

  “Yeah! Let’s get a drink!” I spin around and laugh when I bump into a large, bulky guy with skin lathered in pink body glitter. “Oops. Sorry.” When he glares at me, I offer him my best sexy smile. “Nice body glitter. I really like how it brings out the color in your eyes.”

  He grins at that and wets his lips with his tongue. “Nice neck. I really like how it brings out the veins underneath your skin.”

  I cup my neck, blinking. “Um … thanks?”

  I’d be freaked out, but everything about this club is freakishly odd, from the abundance of glitter all over everything—and I mean everything, including the toilets—to the smoky air that makes my head feel foggy. If I had to guess, I’d say the air is laced with some kind of drug. I guess I should be worried about that, but I feel too subdued to worry.

  “Come on. Let’s get a drink.” Eve yanks me away from the guy with a neck fetish and squeezes past people, shoving her way toward the bar. “I wish Will would get here soon,” she says from over her shoulder. “It’s getting late.”

  “Maybe something came up, and he couldn’t make it,” I tell her, curling my shoulders in as the mob of people grows thicker. “Have you tried calling him?”

  She fishes out her phone from her bra. “Yeah, a few times, but he won’t respond.” She taps her finger against the screen and frowns. “It’s so weird. I mean, he texts me and tells me to come here, and then he just stops all contact with me.”

  “That is pretty strange.” About as weird as this club, something I should care about. I know I should.

  For a wild instant, panic manages to burst through the doped up feeling in my body. But the smoke funnels around me, and just like that, I’m back to mind-numbingly calm again.

  Keeping my lips sealed, I stagger after Eve to the bar. Several people are lined up to buy drinks, but Eve waltzes right past them and strolls up to the bartender.

  Letting go of my hand, she flattens her palms on the countertop and leans in so her cleavage nearly pops out of her dress. “My friend and I will have two rum and Cokes.”

  The twenty-something-year-old bartender with chin-length blond hair and high cheekbones turns to her with an amused look in his yellow-gold eyes.

  What is today, weird eye day or something
? First, goth guy’s weird teal and silver eyes, then the cab driver with his green eyes, and now the bartender with his freakish-looking cat eyes. Again, I’d be worried, but that’s not really an option right now, so instead, I lean against the counter.

  He props his arms onto the counter and slants toward Eve with a predatory glint in his eyes. “Got an ID, sweetheart?”

  Eve sucks on her bottom lip and shakes her head. “No … I don’t, but does that really matter?”

  I touch Eve’s arm. “You do have an ID, remember? You used it to get in here.”

  She shakes her head dazedly. “No … We didn’t need one. We used something else.”

  Did we? I suddenly can’t remember, just like I suddenly can’t remember what was bothering me two seconds ago. Something was. I know that for sure.

  What is happening to me?

  Before I can come to a conclusion, the bartender is pouring us two drinks. Instead of the liquid being brown, though, a thick, red substance fills the cup.

  Eve reaches for the glass without a second thought, but fear pours through me.

  Something isn’t right!

  I lunge for her to knock the glass out of her hand. “Don’t drink it!”

  I don’t make it in time, and she downs half the drink in one gulp.

  Her face pinches as she eyeballs the drink. “This tastes weird.”

  The bartender licks his lips as he eyeballs her neck. “It’s supposed to taste that way, sweetheart.”

  She nods then hands me the glass. “Drink up, Sway.”

  The bartender’s gaze drifts to me, and his pupils dilate. “You’re not the same as her.”

  I blink at him, gripping the glass. “What do you mean?”

  His dilated eyes skim me from head to toe before he locks gazes with me. “I mean, you belong here.”

  “Belong here?” No, I don’t belong anywhere.

  Do I?

  Panic chokes at my throat as the smoke sweeps up and suffocates me. The room begins to spin like an out-of-control tilt-a-whirl.

  “I can’t remember … anything.” I stumble forward, and a pair of big hands wrap around my arms.

  “Easy, gorgeous.” Mr. Neck Fetish appears in front of me. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  I shake my head as I sway woozily from side to side. “No … it’s not.”

  “Maybe not for you.” His lips part and fangs slip from his mouth. “But for me, it is.”

  I open my mouth to scream as he dips his razor sharp teeth toward my neck, and everyone turns to stare at me, their eyes gleaming with hunger.

  My body trembles and my neck throbs as my skin splits apart. I drop the cup in my hand, and the glass shatters against the floor.

  Fear spins around inside of me then swallows me up.

  Seven

  Dash

  I’ve never been a fan of the Black Dungeon, mostly because you have to have the Mark of Immortality to get inside, one of the few marks I don’t have. Being a ghost, though, I easily breeze through the steel walls and straight into the heart of the club.

  Most of the people lingering around the bar and flashy dance floor are vampires. A few fey are scattered here and there, along with a couple of witches. Not all of them can see me, but a few species possess the ability to see the dead—like fey. Thankfully, not too many of them are around, and I’m able to stay under the radar pretty well.

  “Now, where is Sway?” I mutter, glancing at the balcony, the table area, and then the bar where a large crowd is forming. I quickly spot Sway’s friend in the madness, her dazed eyes wide as she scurries back from the crowd. She looks around, blinking several times, before bolting for the exit.

  Jackpot.

  I make my way through the mob, noting the hungry gleam in each of their eyes. When I reach the front, I realize why, and my heart nearly bottoms into my stomach.

  Sway is passed out in a large, male vampire’s arms, and his fangs are deep in her neck. I nearly lose my shit. The situation is worse than I anticipated.

  Almost every vampire has gathered around to watch the feast happen, waiting to take their turn.

  At first, I question how I’m going to get past them all without getting killed. Then I remember I’m dead, so technically, they can’t do anything to me.

  Well, would you look at that? A silver lining.

  Well, that is, if the blocking spell has worn off.

  I make my way to Sway, testing the reaction of the wall. When my body doesn’t slam into an invisible force, I yank her out of the vamp’s arms. Holy shit, I can touch her. And it’s better than I ever imagined. I want to touch her some more… Let my hands wander…

  A vampire lets out a snarl, tearing me from my lust filled thoughts. I quickly scoop up Sway in my arms and hold onto her tightly. Since some of the vampires can’t see the dead, most of their jaws smack against the floor. I don’t blame their shocked reaction. Sway looks like she’s levitating away from them.

  I carry her out of the main section of the club, down the hallway, and to the exit, startling the shit out of Doug the bouncer. Thankfully he has the door open, and I hurry toward it.

  “What the fuck?” He blinks at Sway floating and jumps out of the way.

  I step outside into the alleyway, glance from left to right, then hightail it across the street to a rundown hotel to the back entrance. Huge problem though. The door is shut, and I don’t have a damn clue how to open it.

  “Shit,” I curse, growing incredibly frustrated with this damn no-touching thing. But then I look down at Sway in my arms. I can touch her. Perhaps something’s changed.

  “Guess there’s only one way to find out,” I mutter to myself.

  Holding her against my chest with one arm, I reach for the doorknob and a smile curves at my lips as my fingertips touch cold metal. I don’t know why I can suddenly touch objects, if I changed, if Sway changed me, or if maybe my dormant magic flickered to life again, but I’ll take it.

  Maneuvering the door open with one hand, I step into the entrance to get into the stairwell. I check the area for any shadow figures or fey lurking around before carefully laying Sway down.

  I examine her over for any wounds other than the bite marks on her neck. She has traces of fey magic on her arm, the residue resembling the hieroglyphic markings of the Mark of Immortality.

  I grind my teeth. The cab driver had to have done this to her so they could get inside the club, probably because he knew something like a vampire biting her would happen.

  I smash my lips together. Dammit, if Vivianne is doing this, then this is all my fault.

  If Sway dies, this is all my fault.

  “Come on; open your eyes,” I whisper, smoothing my hand over her cheek.

  Her skin is ice-cold. Or maybe it’s mine. The dead are supposed to be cold, aren’t they?

  What if she’s dead? What if that fucking vampire drank her dry?

  I know she’s alive, though, because every now and then, her chest rises and falls. She’s breathing. That’s a good sign. I just wish she’d wake up, so I knew if there was any permanent damage. And by permanent damage, I mean the fanged, bloodthirsty kind of damage.

  I rub my hand across my face. “Goddammit, Vivianne! If I ever become alive again, I’m going to hunt you down and kill you!”

  “Who’s Vivianne?”

  My gaze drops to Sway who’s staring up at me with her wide, bloodshot eyes.

  “You’re alive.”

  “But you’re not.” She moves to sit up then winces, her fingers drifting to her forehead. “What happened? Why do I feel so dizzy?” She peers around at the enclosed stairwell, squinting against the florescent lighting. “Where am I? And who are you?”

  “In a stairwell. And I’m Dash,” I reply, unsure how to explain the rest. There really is no easy way to tell someone they were almost a vampire’s main course. “I thought that was pretty obvious. Did you hit your head or something?” I’m half-joking, and oddly enough, she doesn’t find my humor too an
noying.

  She gives me a tolerant look, her hand lowering to her lap. “Obviously. But how did I get into the stairwell?” She starts to push to her feet then freezes, her eyes swirling with confusion. “Wait. Am I at that weird club?”

  I place a hand on her shoulder and guide her back down to the floor, ignoring the shivers that course through my body. The same thing happened when I picked her up and carried her out of the club. But I still don’t know whether the feeling is from touching someone after days of no human contact or from something else.

  “You need to take it easy,” I tell her, keeping my hands on her shoulders. “The vampire drank a lot of your blood.”

  Her hand flies to her neck. “Shit. I forgot about that. Wait. Vampire?”

  “What did you think he was?” I question with a crook of my brow. “An overzealous hickey giver?”

  “No, I knew there was something different about him. I mean, I didn’t know what. Or at least, I didn’t while I was in the Black Dungeon. But now that I’m out of there, my head feels a lot clearer, and things are becoming …” She shakes her head, dazing off into empty space.

  “There was Otium in the smoke,” I explain. When she gives me a blank look, I add, “It’s this drug witches make sometimes that …” I trail off as she slants away from me. It takes a second to realize what might be wrong. “Did you not know about all this? That all of those people back at that club were witches and faeries and vampires?”

  Great. If that’s true, how in the hell is this girl supposed to help me find the Forest of Shadow and Bones? Why would the Shadow Reaper send me to her if she doesn’t know about our world?

  “You’re crazy.” Her breathing turns ragged as she clutches the base of her neck. “Those things don’t exist.”

  Now I’m the one to give her a tolerant stare. “Look, let’s just get this out of the way really quickly so we can move on. Vampires exist. Fey exist. Witches exist. Pretty much everything exists. And you should be able to wrap your head around that pretty easily, considering you talk to the dead, and you have bite marks on your neck.”