Damn it all to hell. I managed to make it all this time without getting shot. Why now?
He had only one thought before murky shadows clouded his vision and claimed
him. I've failed the only woman I'll ever love.
* * * * *
Emma jerked upright in bed, her heart pounding. Multiple noises had shattered her
peaceful slumber. Charlie barked frantically in the utility room. Quickly she felt Shane's
side of the bed. Cold, empty sheets met her fingers. "Shane?"
No answer. Black and dense, the night seemed like an obstruction paralyzing her
will to move. She hurriedly reached for the bedside lamp. Urgency propelled her out of
the bed. She dressed, pulling on her discarded long-sleeved pullover and jeans with
haste.
Down in the pit of her stomach a horrible feeling emerged. Something was terribly
wrong. She pulled on her running shoes and tied them with shaky fingers. A door
closed somewhere in the house and she froze. A furious growling and barking issued
from Charlie.
A loud blast made her gasp with fear.
Gunfire.
A sudden yelp, the yelp of an animal in pain.
Charlie? Oh, God. Charlie.
She tried to draw a deep breath and oxygen dragged into her lungs painfully, as if
they'd filled and couldn't take any more. Nagging fear made her stomach lurch and her
palms dampen. She searched around the room for something to use as a weapon. She
rushed for the lamp, grabbing it up and yanking the cord out of the wall.
No time to think, her heart banging in her chest, her breath ragged, she stood next
to the door, poised and ready. Slowly the door opened and the shape of a man
appeared. Thinner, shorter and less muscled than Shane. She swung and hit him full
force in the chest, the sound of ceramic cracking and breaking ringing in her ears.
The man staggered, cursing loudly. He slumped against the doorjamb but didn't
fall. Before she could move, his arm snaked out, yanking her toward him with
tremendous force. She struggled, stamping on his foot, swinging back, aiming for his
groin. He twisted and prevented her blow from hitting home.
"Damn you, bitch!" He jerked her head back, his arm choking her.
Spots danced in front of her eyes, and she couldn't breathe. This was it. She was
going to die, right here, right now.
Shane. Shane, I love you.
Bad breath puffed past her face and she almost gagged. "Now, Emma, if you
cooperate, you'll live a little longer." The man loosened his hold on her throat. "But I
swear, if you try to get away again, I'll kill you in a heartbeat."
Despite the raspy tone, she recognized the voice instantly. She licked her dry lips.
Reddins.
Without waiting for her to answer, he drew her out of the room, releasing her
throat. He poked the gun into the small of her back, marching her down the hall
through the darkness, toward the living room. When he reached the room, he flipped
on the light. Charlie lay on the floor, blood seeping from her side. Emma tried to rasp
out the dog's name but couldn't.
Reddins suddenly spun her around, pressing her against him chest to chest.
Smeared with insincerity, his lopsided grin looked a little insane. Dressed all in
black, his face streaked with camouflage paint, he appeared ready for a covert
operation. At the same time he seemed ridiculous, as if he'd dressed for a part in a bad
action movie. The left sleeve of his dark sweater was ripped, and blood seeped steadily
from the tear. Had Charlie taken a bite out of him?
Then Reddins pushed her away from him and she staggered back several steps. He
held the handgun on her as he walked toward her. She retreated until she came up
against a wall. He stopped and studied her. In the ensuing silence, her fear grew, and a
stunned acceptance of the inevitable dawned on her like a new day. He would kill her.
If he wasn't packing a weapon she might have a chance to fight him. Then again, if
she must die, she wanted to know why.
"What are you doing here and what do you want?" she said, her voice starting
weak then building strength. "Where is Shane?"
Reddins eyes crinkled at the corners as he laughed. "O'Donnell met his maker."
Stone cold despair lined her heart. "What did you do to him?"
He waved the gun at her. "Never mind that. You're going with me."
"No. You can do whatever you want to me…kill me if you want, but I'm not
leaving here."
Reddins advanced until he pressed her against the cool surface of the wood behind
her. She winced and wished she could dissolve. His rancid breath, laced with liquor,
wafted into her face. She flinched.
"You're one cool bitch, Emma. Hardly a flicker on your face when I told you I'd
killed your boyfriend. Maybe you aren't all that upset. Could it be you have the treasure
and want it all to yourself? Maybe you were planning to off him yourself."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Grant and I didn't find the so-called
treasure. We don't even know if there really is a treasure."
He smiled again, and the glitter in his eyes moved from malice to slightly amused.
"So once you realized there really was a treasure you decided you'd have it all to
yourself."
"No. We thought the treasure was a legend. I told you."
"There's a treasure all right. A necklace that belongs to the One. I'm getting it back
for him, and then I can return to the Shadow Realm." His voice altered, going deeper,
almost too guttural for a man not much taller then herself. His eyes glittered then went
pure red.
She started, alarmed. "Oh, God. What the hell are you?"
He chuckled. "Wouldn't you like to know, Emma?"
"Did you kill Grant?"
"Yeah, I killed him. Stuffed him in that fireplace. Didn't think you would find him.
But you're a fuckin' archaeologist. I should have guessed you'd keep probing where
you don't belong."
"If you know where the necklace is, why don't you take it for yourself?"
His fist came down on the wall beside her and cracked the plaster. Pain didn't
register on his face. "Don't you get it? I have looked. Looked and looked. The One
brought me with him just to find it."
"Who is the One?"
He smiled, his grin laced with evil. Nothing mild-mannered or law-abiding
remained in this cop, nothing human.
Nothing human.
Somehow she knew it in her gut. If the voice change and the intense red eyes didn't
let her know, she would have known by pure instinct. Just as a scared animal knows
when it is about to become prey, she felt his predatory wants deep in her bones, in her
very sinews.
He chuckled. "The One is evil incarnate. Evil in human form. He lives in the
Shadow Realm, just as I do."
"But you're a cop. You don't live—"
"Silly bitch! Yes I do. This body you see me in—it isn't mine. I'm just living in it for
the time being. Until I possess what I need."
She had to keep him talking. Maybe, just maybe if Shane was alive—
No, she didn't want to think of him any other way but her big, strong, gorgeous
man. A deep ache centered in her heart at the excruciating thought that Shane could be
dead.
No. No.
He'd come walking in
that door any minute. In the meantime, she had to save
herself. "You've taken over Officer Reddins' body?"
"A month ago. He came snooping around Sadie Cutley's mine one night.
Trespassing on O'Donnell's property. Got more than he bargained for, unlucky bastard.
The One and I had just left the portal. The One already had his body. A traveling
salesman who passed through Gambit Creek and disappeared into thin air." He
laughed, the sound more a cackle than amusement.
"What portal?"
"The one that lies deep within the mine. The one where Sadie Cutley explored and
lost her way forever."
She shifted against his body and shivered when she realized he had an erection. She
quivered in revulsion.
"You could survive this if you went into the Shadow Realm with me," Reddins
said. "Tell me where you put the necklace. I'll spare your life, and you can come with
me."
"No." She gasped as he jammed the weapon against the underside of her chin. "I
don't know where this so-called necklace is. If Grant found it, he didn't show it to me.
Why is it so important?"
"Because Sadie walked into the mine decades ago and stole something from the
One before she tried to leave him. She tried to leave him and he chased her into this
world outside the Shadow Realm. He killed her. Not before she buried the necklace.
That necklace has powers to transform humans instantly into beings from the Shadow
Ream."
As unbelievable as this all sounded, she didn't need any more evidence that what
he said was true.
"I'm telling you. I don't know where it is," she said again. Her heart hammered
unmercifully in her chest.
Not again. I'm not going to be a freaking victim again.
He leaned forward and reached to touch her face. He traced her cheek with his
index finger. "I don't believe your lying little mouth. Maybe you could delude
O'Donnell and Wilder with your pretty words, but my human form has been in law
enforcement too long to be fooled."
Incredulous, she gaped at him, indignation mixing with pure fear. "You think I'm
involved in some sort of conspiracy?"
"Yeah. A conspiracy for yourself."
"I don't—"
He put his hand over her mouth. "I haven't got time for this. Get moving."
He gestured toward the front door. Roughly, he shoved her in front of him toward
the door. Numbness threatened to overcome her feelings and stiffen her limbs. She
opened the door, pushed through the screen door and stopped.
A body lay in the darkness, off to the side. From the shape of the form, she knew it
was Shane. Sheer terror gripped her and she started forward. "Shane!"
Before she could take two steps, an arm locked around her throat, choking off her
air supply. She gasped for breath as tears poured from her eyes. Cold metal jabbed into
her ribs and she winced.
"Don't bother. He's beyond your help now." He released her, but kept the gun
poked into her back as he urged her around the side of the building. "We'll take the
truck."
No. Please, God, don't let it be true. Please let Shane be alive. A sob threatened to part
her lips.
In the minimal light, Emma could barely see. Twice she tripped over something in
the dark and he grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. It was a strange gesture for
someone who planned to kill her.
Once they arrived at Shane's battered truck, she considered making a run for it. In
the darkness, she might have a chance to hide. If she died, at least it wouldn't be
passively. Shane wouldn't want it that way.
Oh, God. She'd never told him she loved him. She would have given anything to
have a second chance. Numbness brought forth by grief threatened to turn into apathy.
No. No. Shane would want her to live. She must live for him.
Reddins pushed her toward the driver's side of the vehicle. "Get in the truck."
"I don't have the keys."
He reached in his pants pocket and jiggled several keys in her face. "Got them off
your boyfriend. Now get in the truck. And remember, I've got this weapon on you. If
you want to live, you'll do everything I say."
As she climbed into the truck, a million questions scampered through her mind.
Most of her thoughts came half-formed, scattered among the realization that her heart
would pound out of her chest any minute. Taking a shuddering breath, she realized she
had to stay calm. She'd need her thoughts centered to escape successfully. One wrong
move—
Reddins heaved himself into the passenger side.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked.
"You tell me. Where did you put the treasure?"
"What?"
"Don't play stupid. Where is it?"
"I don't have the treasure," she said angrily. "I told you I don't even know if there
is treasure."
"Start the truck and head down the driveway." He shoved the weapon in her side.
"Do it now, or die."
Pain echoed through her side and took her breath. She gasped and held her hand to
her side. She couldn't help the moan that left her throat.
With effort, a dull pain throbbing in her ribs, she started the engine and shifted the
truck into first. The gears moaned as she let out the clutch and they pulled forward. As
she started down the long drive, he glanced at her.
"You'd better tell me now and save yourself pain. If you don't give me the answer
you won't get a choice in how you die. I'll pick for you. Tell me where the necklace is
and you live. In the Shadow Realm, but you live."
"What are you?" she asked.
"I'm a weredemon."
The words came so casually she couldn't believe she'd heard him right. "A what?"
"Are you deaf? A weredemon. I can possess human body after human body and
live for eternity on earth or live out my demon life in the Shadow Realm. And if I
fucked you, you would become weredemon too."
Her skin crawled at the suggestion, but she didn't speak.
Reddins, or what used to be Reddins, continued his story. "But I don't like sex with
a human body. That's why you're going back with me to the Shadow Realm if you give
me the necklace. You'll be my reward from the One. I could do all sorts of things to you
if I wanted. Weredemons have special powers."
"Then why do you need a gun?"
He didn't answer at first then he finally said, "Because guns scare humans shitless,
that's why. And they work so well. Worked damn well on O'Donnell."
As her heart ached with the thought of Shane lying bleeding or dead, she said in
desperation, "There isn't a treasure."
"Right. I don't think Wilder would lie. He had nothing to lose when he told me that
you'd discovered the treasure but had hidden it away."
"Nothing to lose?" Her stomach roiled and she thought she might suddenly throw
up. A hollow ache grew in her stomach. "You were the one who attacked me at Grant's
camper."
"Bingo." He reached out to touch her thigh and she shrank back from him. He
laughed again. "You're a pretty smart woman, I'll give you that."
"Why did you attack me?"
"I thought the necklace was in the RV, and I didn't want you to find it."
"But it wasn't there, was it?"
"Of course not."
She glanced at his profile and he looked back at her. In the dim light, his eyes
glittered like small, fierce chips of brimstone.
"Was he in on this with you all along?" Emma asked. "Trespassing on Shane's land,
destroying my site, Clement's accident?"
"He didn't know shit about the Shadow Realm, poor asshole."
"Look, this isn't worth it. I won't tell anyone what happened. Just let me go."
He snickered, the sound more like a snuffling pig than a sound of amusement. "So
you can tell the SIA authorities? I don't think so."
"SIA?"
"Special Investigations Agency. The organization your boyfriend worked for."
So, now the pieces fell into place. Yet she didn't want the truth like this, with Shane
lying perhaps dead on his porch and her demise maybe a few minutes away.
Pure rage heated her thoughts, throwing a solitary goal to the surface. All right, you
pig. If I'm going to die, you can be damn sure you're going down with me. "All right. I'll show
you. It's in the canyon not far from the site."
Reddins remained silent throughout the rest of the ride. It gave her an opportunity
to think, to plan what she could do. What were the chances she could escape?
Practically nil.
But she had to flee. Anything else was unthinkable.
If this Shadow Realm existed, she would die before she went into it with this fiend
from a hellish nightmare. God, she wished she'd never set foot on Shane's land. When
he'd told her it was dangerous, he hadn't been kidding.
Shane would want her to live, even if she felt a cold, hard lump where her heart
used to be. In her mind, his name echoed over and over, a litany of pain. Emma bit her
lip to hold back the tears, but as hard as she tried to keep them away, a few slipped out.
She didn't give a damn if Reddins saw them. Not even trying to wipe them away, she
let them dry on her cheeks.
Her entire body ached and she shivered with cold. The miles went on and on in
silence, the truck bumping over the rough road and jolting her into a state of
hypnotized pain.
When they arrived at the site, Reddins retrieved a flashlight from one of the pockets
on his black pants and hustled her out of the car roughly. She glared at him, realizing
that in the darkness he couldn't see her expression. In the semi-darkness, she couldn't
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