Shadow Sworn (Copper Falls Book 2)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Then we can drive it even faster. Calder would tear my guts out if he heard I left you on the side of the road.”

  She didn’t answer, looking out the window instead. She tried Calder’s number again, and when she got voicemail, she told him that she was on her way home, and Jack was dropping her off.

  “His battery probably died or something,” Jack said, as if seeming to sense that she needed some kind of reassurance.

  “Maybe. He’s usually really good about that kind of thing,” she said, looking at her phone, as if looking hard enough at his name could make him call her back. Her hands were shaking.

  Jack cleared his throat. “Calder’s a good guy. Uh. I knew his dad, too.”

  “Oh? Did you know him well?”

  Jack glanced over at her. “I knew him well enough to know what happened to him at the end. I knew him well enough to have him confide in me that his son would go down the same way.”

  Sophie shook her head. “He won’t.”

  “So you know,” Jack said.

  Sophie took a breath. “I know. And I also know that it’s not going to happen. Not to Calder, and not to Jon.”

  “Why?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Well, whatever you think you know, know that old man Turcotte confided in me about the fact that he nearly killed his wife and that’s why she left. Be careful, Sophie.”

  She snorted. “You’ll forgive me if this doesn’t seem a little self-serving on your part.”

  “Darlin’, I have my pick of women. That’s the benefit of being an alpha. I don’t need to connive and scheme to get one, and as happy as I’d be to be the one you run to, I hope it never comes to that. He loves you.”

  “I know he does. And I love him. And he’s not going to end up like his father.”

  They drove in silence for a while, and Sophie was relieved to see the enormous white pines that lined her driveway.

  “Just promise you’ll ask if you ever need help. No strings attached, I promise,” Jack said, and Sophie nodded. As they got near Calder’s house, she glanced at the driveway. He was there, sanding the rusted side of the Barracuda in a methodical, focused way that reminded her of the way he so often looked when he worked, as if he was a million miles away.

  Calder glanced up at the sound of tires crunching on gravel to see a silver F-250 pulling up in Sophie’s driveway. He stood up, grimacing a little at the stiffness in his shoulders and back. He’d lost track of how much time he’d spent sanding down the Barracuda. He pulled the respirator off of his face and watched as Jack got out of the truck and quickly went to the other side, where Sophie was already climbing out of the truck. Jack took her elbow to help her down, even though she clearly didn’t need it.

  Jealousy slithered though Calder. Anger. His first instinct seeing Jack touch what was his was to rip the alpha’s throat out. His second instinct was confusion. Why was she with him? Where was her car?

  If she needed a ride, why hadn’t she called him?

  He watched as Sophie and Jack exchanged a few words. Jack gave him a small wave, then climbed into his truck and took off down the road. Calder watched Sophie. The fact that he could smell her adrenaline and need even from across the road definitely didn’t help his mood.

  She started walking across the road, and, just like every time he looked at Sophie, he was mesmerized by the way her long, thick cascade of curls flowed over her shoulders, the soft curve of her hips and the way they moved when she walked.

  She came to him, and without a word, threw her arms around him and held him tightly.

  He hated himself, but the first thing he did was smell her. If he smelled Jack on her skin, he’d kill him.

  “Calm down,” she murmured against him. “He just gave me a ride home.”

  “Where’s your car?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

  “I ran into a deer on the way home. It’s at the side of the road. Jake’s having his cousin tow it to you, but it might be a lost cause.”

  He pulled back a little so he could look at her, inspecting her face for any signs of injury. “Are you okay, kitten?”

  “I’m fine. The deer’s not, though.”

  “I’ll take that, any day. Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I did. I called like five times and it went to voicemail.”

  Calder furrowed his brow and dug into his jeans pocket with one hand while still holding her in his other arm. The fact that she could have been hurt only made him feel more on edge. His phone showed two messages and five missed calls, all from Sophie’s number.

  “I had it on me the whole time,” he said, looking at the phone.

  “Maybe you had the ringer off? I sometimes turn mine off by mistake,” she said, and he pulled her closer to him again.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” he said.

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder. Then she sighed. “I got fired today.”

  “What?”

  She nodded, still resting against him, and he led her to the front porch. He settled onto the porch swing and held her on his lap. “What happened?” he asked, trying to ignore the desire that shot through him when she shifted a little on his lap. The desire to obliterate any scent of Jack from her body still lingered, despite the fact that he knew she was telling the truth. It was stupid, and he hated himself for it. He trusted Sophie, but he didn’t trust the curse, and he sure the hell didn’t trust Jack.

  “Sherry said I keep wandering off and it’s freaking everyone out. The big boss heard about it and demanded she let me go,” she said softly, and Calder winced.

  Damn it.

  She sat up so she could look at his face. “Have I been doing that around you, Calder? Blacking out? Wandering off?”

  He didn’t answer immediately, and he saw the moment she realized the truth.

  “Damn it, Calder! How long has it been going on?”

  “A couple of weeks. Mostly at night,” he said quietly, meeting her eyes.

  She got up and stalked away. Then she turned back to him. “And you didn’t tell me… why, exactly?”

  Internally, he was warring with himself over being worried that his woman was pissed at him and the curse was being more of a problem, or admiring how gorgeous she was when she was pissed.

  “Calder Turcotte,” she said sharply. “Stop looking at me like that and goddamn answer me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I hoped it was only happening at night. You don’t wander off when you’re awake with me.”

  “We’re usually doing something else when I’m awake with you,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest, and he bit back a groan at the way her breasts flowed up over her arms when she did that. He shook his head a little.

  “I really did think it was only happening during sleep. I would have said something if I thought otherwise.”

  “You should have told me it was happening,” she said, glaring at him.

  “I didn’t want you to have one more thing to worry about. It was happening at night, and I’d go and get you and bring you back. It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “But it was, Calder. We both know that’s not normal. Damn it,” she muttered. She pushed her hair back from her face and started pacing.

  “Do you need to run?”

  “Don’t change the subject. I don’t need you to protect me, Calder,” she said, meeting this eyes again. “I’m not helpless, and I have every damn right to know what’s happening, especially when I’m the one it’s happening to. How am I supposed to fight it if I don’t even know it ’s happening?”

  “You can’t fight a blackout, kitten.”

  “The hell I can’t. If I know it’s coming, I can try to head it off. I can make sure I secure myself…I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” she said, and the way her voice shook had his stomach turning. She was more pissed than he’d ever seen her, and he knew that beneath that, she was scared. They both knew what the blackouts meant: the cur
se was getting worse. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself. That had been part of it, of course. If he didn’t say it out loud, then it wasn’t true.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry, Sophie. I should have said something.”

  “Stop trying to protect me,” she said.

  “I’ll never stop doing that,” he said. “But I won’t keep shit from you anymore. Okay?”

  She sighed, and shook her head. “What was I doing when you found me?”

  He wanted to go to her. He wanted to hold her, pick her up, take her to bed and make her forget everything but the two of them. And he could, too. He knew how well he could distract her by now. He pushed the thought away.

  “Usually, you were just kind of standing there. Always in the woods behind your house. Just stood there with this blank look on your face. You didn’t recognize me when I came for you.”

  “I wasn’t doing anything? Just standing there?”

  He nodded. “Apparently you’d get up and walk out there. But it seems like you usually let your goats out, too.”

  “What?” she asked, wrinkling her nose in a way he still found ridiculously cute. Just as cute as when they’d been kids.

  “Yeah. Every time I found you, your three weirdo goats were there, standing with you.”

  She scrunched up her face even more. “So you’d have to bring me back home and a then go track down the goats, too? I’m surprised you didn’t just leave their creepy asses out there.”

  “I would have. They followed us back and jumped into their pen every time.”

  Sophie shook her head again, a lost, confused look on her face that he wanted to kiss away. He was about to suggest letting him take her mind off of things for a while when a tow truck pulled up in his driveway.

  “Can you take a look at it for me? I think it’s ruined now, though,” Sophie asked.

  “I will.”

  “I need to go feed the goats,” she said, and then she was crossing the street. He knew that tone, too. It was her “I want to be alone right now and if you don’t give me a few minutes here I’m going to lose my mind” voice. So he went to the tow truck instead, kicking himself the entire way for keeping her blackouts from her.

  One look at the car told him she was probably right. It wouldn’t be worth it to fix it. After signing for it and trying to pay Jack’s cousin, Ryan, who refused payment on Jack’s orders, he popped the hood and looked at the engine. If there was a way to salvage it, he would. He knew Sophie had a bit of a sentimental attachment to the little Chevy. It wasn’t a great car, but it had apparently gotten her back to Copper Falls.

  For the first time, he wondered if that had really been such a good thing, as far as she was concerned.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sophie rounded the back corner of her house and went to the small barn where she kept the goat’s feed. She carried a bucket of it to their pen, let herself in, and dumped it into the hopper. All three of them stood there, watching her, their square-pupiled goat eyes following her every move. She leaned down to turn on the tap to give them fresh water, and was nearly knocked flat when something butted her thigh. She turned to see Merlin standing there.

  “Creepy goats,” she muttered. She finished filling the water, then scratched Merlin behind his ear. “So, what? I have guard goats?” she asked Merlin as she scratched him. She patted his neck one more time, then let herself out of their pen. “You three are like big ugly dogs,” she said, and Merlin bleated at her irritably. She let out a small laugh. “Stupid goats. Just because I open your gate when I’m zoned out doesn’t mean I actually expect you to come with me,” she said. She knew she was rambling, talking nonsense to creatures who couldn’t answer her. Somehow, though, it made everything feel a little less terrifying.

  She rested her arms on the top of the fence and watched as they began eating. The goats stood, munching hay, occasionally head butting one another if one of the others happened to get in the way. Normal, ordinary, stupid goats, she thought to herself, laughing at the way Calder’s words had had her wondering about the bad-natured animals she shared her land with. They still, even after being in the pen together for several days, seemed to stand in silent conversation with one another. She glanced toward the woods, at the sun beginning to set behind the pines. She could finally feel herself starting to relax a bit after the crazy day she’d had, when all three goats gave angry, deafening bleats. She jumped, and looked in the direction they faced, their necks stretched, eyes rolling in what looked to her like rage.

  Marshall strode out of the woods.

  Sophie started drawing her meager amount of Shadow magic to her. Not that she actually expected much, but she knew from experience that she could throw him back with her power if she needed to. She’d done it once before, and honestly with the mood she was in, she almost hoped he’d give her a reason to try it again.

  “It’s time to earn the gift I gave you, little girl,” Marshall said in his smooth voice, and the gleam in his nearly-black eyes made her stomach twist. “Come to me. Now.”

  She felt his power rolling over her, enticing her, pulling her.

  “You’ve been resisting, Sophie. I’ve called you twice in the past few days. You don’t want to anger me by ignoring my summons,” he said, and she felt more of his power roaring over her. “Now come to me.”

  She stood, letting his power wash over her, even as she held her own power at the ready.

  She heard him growl. “If I have to come over there and get you, you’re going to regret it. Kitten,” he added snidely. “Your little boyfriend is busy with your car. Anyone who can spend that much time staring at metal has some kind of mental deficiency,” he said, and she felt his power increase.

  It pulled. It slithered, and enticed, frightening yet seductive, and part of her wanted to follow it. Part of her, the part he owned, wanted to give into its dark promises, that all she had to do was come to him, do his bidding, and all of her pain would end. He never said those things with words, but now, his power spoke, and it said one thing: he wanted her to be his creature completely. And he’d expected it to be easy once he’d turned her to Shadow.

  “This isn’t working out quite the way you expected, huh?” Sophie asked quietly. She didn’t understand it, but she would sure the heck take it. He couldn’t make her do what he wanted. He’d managed once, and he’d failed since. Her heart leapt at the thought.

  He snarled and charged toward her. She threw her arms up, hoping it would work the way it had before.

  Marshall flew threw the air, back toward the woods, where he landed on his back. He was up an instant later, hand raised. There was no finesse now. As his hands tightened at his sides, she felt the first signs of pain, as if she was being pummeled by large, invisible fists. She cried out through the pain, threw her hands up and tossed him back one more time.

  The pummeling stopped, but he was up again as if nothing had happened, and she readied another shield, even though she knew she was reaching the limit of how much she could actually do. This time, he waved his hand, and she went flying back, hard, as if she’d been slapped. Her face ached, and bright light exploded behind her eyes with the pain. She forced herself to get up, and when she could see straight again, she saw the goats leaping high over the fence and charging the warlock.

  They ran at him, and though his hands worked as if he was doing spells, nothing seemed to phase the goats. First Merlin charged him, knocking him back. He got up and tried to throw a spell at them. She could feel his magic filling the air, but it had no effect on the three goats. Gandalf butted him, hard, knocking him into the trunk of an oak, and then Dumbledore did it, slamming his dark, curled horns directly into Marshall’s face.

  Even from where she stood, Sophie could hear Marshall’s nose break. She stood at the ready. Marshall stood up slowly.

  “How did you get familiars, bitch?” he asked. His voice was thick, gurgling, and blood from his broken nose ran down his face.

  She didn’t answer, mostly
because she didn’t know how. She stood at the ready instead as the goats advanced on Marshall.

  He straightened, wiped the blood pouring from his nose, then smirked at her, gave her a sarcastic salute, and disappeared.

  The malice in his eyes told her one thing: she’d hear from him again, and next time, he wouldn’t be caught unaware.

  Sophie watch listlessly as the goats leapt back into the pen as if nothing had happened. She watched them for a few long while, confusion warring with hope.

  He’d called them familiars. She’d read about familiars often, wishing for one, begging the Light to send one her way for most of her teenage years. Mostly because she wanted a companion so she wouldn’t feel so alone. She’d gone through her “can I please have a familiar” phase before Marshall had come into her life.

  Familiars were rare things. Animals, usually goats, cats, or owls, who served witches, who protected them and their home from harm. A very rare gift, indeed.

  And one only ever bestowed upon those of the Light.

  She stared at them in disbelief for a while longer, then closed her eyes and sent a silent thanks to the Light. She was on the verge of weeping with gratitude. The fact that they were there was so much more than protection from Marshall. They were a sign.

  If they were there, then she was not a lost cause.

  Sophie opened her eyes again, smiled at her three weird, wonderful, magical, bad-natured goats, and walked away. She felt like she could fly.

  She walked around her house and across the road, to where Calder was bent over her car.

  “I think it’s a goner, kitten,” he said apologetically as he stood up.

  She didn’t say anything, just went to him and pulled his head down to her, kissed him relentlessly, hungrily, as if kissing Calder, as if being in his arms, was the only thing in the world that mattered. Because right at that moment, it was.

  “I need you,” she murmured against him, and that seemed to be all he needed, too.

  Later, as she lay in his arms, she reflected on the fact that what they had was actual magic, because against all odds, everything else fell away when they were together.