The Shadow Stealer

by Melissa Giorgio

  What he wasn’t saying was that they needed to be careful while also protecting me from Silver Moon. With the seal in place, it would be easier to hide my powers, but what if someone was able to break the seal? What then? It would be naïve for any of us to think this was over just yet.

  “I’m sorry I’m such a burden,” I mumbled.

  “Don’t worry. I knew what I was getting into when I started dating you.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

  Rafe started laughing, and I glared at the phone, wondering if he could sense the death rays I was sending his way. When he didn’t stop laughing, I knew it hadn’t worked.

  “I knew it; I’m corrupting you,” I said, fighting a grin myself. “That totally sounded like something I would say.”

  “Uh, oh,” he said. “Should I be worried?”

  “That you’re becoming like me? No! You should be honored! That’s a compliment!”

  “Sure, whatever you say.”

  “Ugh!” I rolled my eyes. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this; it’s too creepy! It’s like I’m talking to myself! Goodnight!”

  “Hey, Gabi?”

  “Yeah?” I asked hesitantly.

  “I love you.”

  My heart did a happy little leap. “I love you too.”

  We said goodnight and hung up. Smiling, I put my phone on my dresser and shut off the light. I’ll take a short nap, I told myself, and then check to see if Philip’s called. If I can even fall asleep, all wound up like this…

  But the moment I closed my eyes, I drifted off into a deep sleep.

  ***

  I was back in Manhattan, except it wasn’t the city that I knew. Sure, the super-tall buildings were there, crowding over me and making me feel as big as an ant, but everything else was missing. No insane traffic, no sirens, and absolutely no one hurrying down the streets. It was just me, standing in front of Mom’s building, surrounded by silence.

  Craning my neck, I looked up and up and up, wondering if anyone was in the building, staring down at me. Or maybe I was the only person in all of Manhattan. It was so weird, and too quiet—even my breathing sounded loud. I knew this was a dream—it had to be—and yet everything felt so real.

  “It’s strange, isn’t it?”

  I whirled around at the sound of a vaguely familiar voice, but no one was there. My heart was racing, my hands trembling, and I realized it was one of those dreams, where you woke up and you had no idea where you were, or why your entire body was coated with sweat. After everything that had happened, it made sense that I was having this type of dream.

  “Just a dream,” I whispered to myself, tapping my hands against my thighs. “I’m going to wake up any second now…”

  “Are you so certain this is a dream?”

  That voice again. Okay, this was getting annoying. “Either show yourself or go away. I don’t want to have a conversation with an invisible person. Unless you’re invisible for a reason. Like, you’re missing your head or you’re naked or something. Then you can stay invisible. Just… tell me where you’re standing so I can at least pretend I’m looking at you.”

  The voice laughed. “I’m right here. You can’t See me?”

  I froze. Somehow, I instinctively knew he had capitalized “see.” Why, though? I turned in a circle, gritting my teeth when I saw no one, save for my reflection in the office building’s glass window. Except—

  No. That was wrong. That didn’t belong there.

  Trembling, I took a step closer to the window. My body was outlined in thick, black shadows. When I moved my limbs, the shadows moved with them. “What the hell?” I whispered. I looked away from the window, staring first at my arms, and then my legs. The shadows weren’t there. But when I turned back to the glass, I could see them encircling me. My eyes were wide with panic, and I felt dizzy with fear.

  These were the shadows from my other dream—the one with Rafe.

  “Why?” I asked, horrified.

  What a stupid question. I knew why. The shadows stretched themselves into a new, now familiar shape, while the voice whispered next to my ear, “You are mine. You will always be mine.”

  The demon, the one Mom had made a bargain with, appeared, wrapping its bony arms around me and grinning a hideous smile as it guided its open mouth to my neck. I struggled against its ironclad grip, screaming and cursing, but the demon only laughed in response. It had come to take me, to do what it had promised Mom it would do seven years before, and I was powerless to stop it.

  Our eyes met in the reflection of the glass, and I knew I was about to die.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “No!” I bolted upright in bed, thrashing against my tangled sheets as I fought to free myself. My room was filled with a loud buzzing noise, and I looked around wildly, fully convinced the demon had followed me to the land of the living to finish the job.

  My eyes settled on my vibrating phone, Philip’s name lighting up the screen, and my heart did a leap in my chest. Grabbing the phone, I answered the call, but I was so out of breath I couldn’t speak.

  “Why are you breathing so hard?” my brother asked. “What were you doing—wait, don’t answer that. Is Rafe with you, by any chance?”

  “You,” I gasped, “are a moron. I can’t believe you called me at,” I squinted at my clock radio, “three in the morning to ask me if I’m doing you-know-what with Rafe. Jerk. Idiot.”

  “Love you too, sis.” I could hear Philip’s smile in his words. “And here I was thinking you were going crazy with worry over me, but obviously you’re fine.”

  “Of course I was worried!” I clamped my mouth shut, my eyes darting to the door. “Wait a second, okay?” My dad was the heaviest sleeper ever, but I still didn’t want to risk it. Tiptoeing out of my room, I slipped downstairs and into the kitchen. Heading for the fridge, I said, “Okay, go ahead.”

  “Oh, now you want to talk?”

  “I went downstairs so Dad wouldn’t hear me! In case you didn’t realize, he’s super pissed off at me!”

  “Did he ground you?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll hand me my punishment tomorrow—crap, I mean today.” I dug through the contents of the fridge, grinning when I saw a piece of leftover cake all the way in the back. It was carrot cake, not chocolate, but hey, cake was cake, right? “I’m probably grounded until I’m ninety, just to let you know.”

  “Damn. I would say you’re exaggerating, but I know how your dad is. It was nice knowing you.”

  “Yeah, you too.” After pouring myself some milk, I sat down at the table and dug in. “What happened after we left?”

  “Are you eating?”

  I scowled at my phone. “Excuse me, I haven’t eaten anything since a billion hours ago!”

  “I bet you’re eating cake.”

  This time I didn’t bother answering.

  Chuckling, Philip said, “It was all right. The sorcerers all bailed before Silver Moon could see them, and I guess they had some safety spells in place in case something like this happened? They didn’t hit any of us, thank god, but they fried a couple of Silver Moon members.” He snickered. “Scott and Jerome got hit, and their hair was standing up like they’d been electrocuted. It was hysterical, and Kain even got a picture of it with his phone.”

  I grinned. That was something I needed to see.

  “But Collins and Dad weren’t affected by the spell, unfortunately,” he added under his breath, and I wondered if he meant Charles or Collins.

  My good mood evaporated at the thought of Collins in the same room as my brother and our friends. They were right, I realized. If I hadn’t left, Collins would have seen me again. Something told me he wouldn’t let me go so easily a second time.

  Philip continued. “Collins was definitely suspicious, but he seemed to believe the story I fed him about tracking Kain to the office building and fighting off the sorcerers, who all fled when reinforcements arrived. An unconscious Evan helped make the story even more
believable.”

  “Oh, crap, how is he? And Alex, too!” I felt a little guilty for not asking about them sooner.

  “Evan woke up a little bit later, while more hunters showed up to search the building. He was tired, but okay. Collins asked him a few questions, and he wondered where Rafe was, but Kain made some snide remark about how only real hunters could handle the sorcerers. Which of course he didn’t mean, but Collins believed him and actually laughed, too. He totally didn’t notice that everyone in the room wanted to kill him at that moment.”

  “I freaking hate him,” I growled.

  “Yeah, we all do. Anyway, after that he said we could go. I took Kain to the hospital because I was worried about that bump on his head—and he ended up needing stitches for the cut on his chest—and told Evan and Alex to just go to Kain’s place. Surprisingly, they agreed.”

  “No, what’s surprising is Kain letting Evan into his home,” I said. Even I hadn’t been inside yet, and Kain liked me!

  “Why do you think I had his head checked out?” Philip asked. “When he agreed to let Evan stay here, I knew he wasn’t feeling right!”

  “What did the doctor say?”

  “He’s okay. They gave him something for the pain, and he’s sleeping deeply. He’ll be fine.”

  “Good,” I said. “Good.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “I was really worried, Phil.”

  He sighed loudly over the phone. “I know. I wanted to call sooner, but with everything that was going on… And then it got late, and I wasn’t sure if I should wait until morning, but I really wanted to hear your voice. That, and…”

  I didn’t like the hesitation I heard in his voice. Setting down my fork, I asked, “What?”

  “I don’t know when I should see you again. Maybe… Maybe we should lay low for a while.”

  Even though I figured he was going to say something like that, it still hurt. A lot. “I hate this.”

  “Me too. I hate leaving you, especially after everything we learned. And if she’s still going to be around, well, I should be with you. Is she there now?”

  “No, she’s with Rafe.” I filled him in on everything that had happened, including the part about the parasite spell.

  “Shit,” Philip said. “No wonder he hasn’t been himself. If that thing is still there, then—”

  “He must be in so much pain.” As I thought about Rafe suffering alone because he didn’t want to burden me, I began crying.

  “Gabi, I’m so sorry. But you said she’s going to help?”

  “Yeah.” I struggled to control myself. “Later, when she’s rested. She said she can remove it completely. And after that… I have no idea.”

  “Is she going to stick around?” His voice was neutral, but I wondered if he was jealous that I was spending time with Mom when he couldn’t.

  “She said she wants to fix things. I want to believe her, but it’s really hard, Phil.” I drained my glass. “She came back here to see Dad and Chloe, and things were so weird. Mom and Dad were fighting, but then Chloe said something and we were all laughing like… Like we were almost a normal family again,” I explained. “But I’m not an idiot; I know that will never happen. Mom says she still loves Dad, but I really can’t see him taking her back. She hurt him too much.” I tapped my fork against the side of my empty plate. “I don’t think I want him to, either. Does that make me a horrible person?”

  “No,” Philip said. “You don’t want her to hurt him again. I wouldn’t want my dad to take her back, either.”

  My eyes widened at a sudden realization. “Does he even know she’s alive?”

  “Nope. I don’t even know how to break that to him. ‘Hey, Dad, remember when you said you killed Mom? Well, funny story…’”

  I groaned. “Our lives are seriously messed up.”

  “That they are,” he agreed cheerfully. “Besides all of that, how are you doing? After…”

  “After finding out a demon is waiting in the shadows, ready to eat me?” I thought about my dreams but decided against telling him about them. Philip had enough crap to worry about at the moment. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even know what I should be feeling right now. Should I be freaking out?” I shook my head. “It’s not fair. I can’t spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. I can’t. I’ll go crazy.”

  “Hey, first of all, she put a seal on you. While that’s not a permanent solution, it’s still something. Now we just have to figure out how to get that asshole to leave you alone. I won’t let some nasty, stupid demon touch my little sister, okay?” Philip asked.

  His words made me feel a little bit better. “Okay.” I inhaled deeply. “And Phil? Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. No more negativity, okay? Or else I’ll have to come over there and kick your butt.”

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  “Oh, yeah?” he laughed.

  “You’re laughing, but really, you should be afraid of me. I could destroy you.”

  “Sure you can. You and your little skinny arms.”

  “No, I’ll just shove chocolate cake down your throat,” I said evilly.

  “No! Anything but that!”

  ***

  Three hours later, Dad knocked on my bedroom door and let himself in before I could even lift my exhausted head from my pillow. “Get up, Gabi,” he said. “We need to talk about your punishment before I leave for work.”

  “Is this part of it?” I mumbled as I sat up in bed and pushed my messy hair out of my face. My eyes felt like they had a pound of sand on them, and I rubbed at them tiredly. After Philip’s phone call, I’d managed to fall back asleep, but I kept waking up, afraid the demon would reappear to torment me some more. In other words, I’d barely gotten any sleep, and I really hated the world right now.

  Dad stood in front of me, his arms crossed over his chest. He was already dressed in his suit and tie, and his face was somber. There were circles under his eyes, probably there from Mom’s sudden reappearance. I sighed heavily. Could I have screwed everything up any worse this weekend?

  “Two weeks,” he said.

  I blinked. I’d been expecting more than two weeks, but I wisely kept my mouth shut.

  “Two weeks of just school and work. No dates with Rafe, no girls’ nights out with Penny and Chloe, and absolutely no trips to New York City.” Dad met my eyes. “Do you understand?”

  I nodded meekly. “And my phone?”

  “You can keep it,” he said, “because I’d rather you have it in case there’s an emergency. Which there won’t be, right, Gabi?”

  “Dad, about what happened—”

  He held up a hand, effectively cutting me off. “I know what happened. What I don’t understand is why you thought running to the city would be a good idea. You should know better, Gabi. No,” he corrected himself, “you usually do know better. What possessed you to leave like that? Without even leaving a note explaining where you were? Do you know how frantic I was when I came home and you weren’t here, and you wouldn’t answer your phone?”

  His words stabbed me in the heart, and I lowered my head in shame. The thing that made this even worse was the fact that I knew, as we were racing out the door, what I was doing was wrong, but I did it anyway. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “But I had to know if it was true. If Phil was my brother, I mean. And I thought… I thought if his dad could tell us about that, he could also tell us where Mom was. But instead, he said she was dead, and I couldn’t— I just fell apart in the middle of the city. If Rafe hadn’t been there, I don’t know what I would have done, Dad.”

  “That was a cruel thing he did to you,” Dad said. “Phil’s father, I mean. Your mom said he lied to you because he never could accept the fact that she left him. He doesn’t sound like a nice person. I know you’re close with Phil, but I want you to stay away from his dad.”

  My mouth dropped open. That’s the lie Mom had come up with? Way to throw Charles under the bus, Mom. Since I had no choice but to go along with her story,
I nodded and promised Dad that I’d steer clear of Charles.

  “Now,” Dad said with a cheery smile that immediately made me suspicious. “How about you get ready for school?”

  I groaned, flopping back down on my bed and covering my face with a pillow. School on top of everything else that was going on in my crazy life?

  Best day ever.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “You look like death,” Penny said as she greeted me at my locker.

  I rested my forehead against the metal and mumbled, “Gee, thanks.”

  “No, really, what’s wrong?”

  I turned to face her. Harrison was standing slightly behind her, and both of them were wearing identical looks of concern. Remembering what had happened the last time I’d tried to hide the truth from her, I decided to let her in on at least some of the things that had occurred this weekend. “My mom came back.”

  Penny dropped her load of books onto the floor with a huge bang. “SHUT. UP.”

  “Shh, Penny,” Harrison scolded with a nervous look around the hallway. Already some of our classmates were giving us curious glances. I swore they were like sharks; the moment they smelled gossip, they came swimming over for a taste.

  Without a word, Penny clamped her hand around my wrist and dragged me into the nearest empty classroom. Shutting the door behind Harrison, which muffled the sounds from the hallway, she surprised me by giving me a huge hug. “Are you okay?”

  I shrugged. “Not really? I don’t know. I’m exhausted and I don’t know what the hell is going on or what to expect…” I went to rub my eyes but remembered at the last moment I’d put some makeup on to cover up my zombie pallor and yanked my fingers away. “My life is seriously screwed up.”

  “I can’t believe it.” Penny shook her head. “Why now? Why’d she come back? Didn’t she realize what that’ll do to you? And Chloe and your dad? Omigod, how are they handling it?”