“How dare you?” she whispered under her breath. Planting herself firmly in front of Jarod, she demanded, “After everything I have gone through you dare doubt my intentions?”
Jarod simply tilted his head as if to ask ‘do you blame me?’
Infuriated, Maya spun around and stormed back toward the road they had come from. “Fine, if you are so damn sure I am lying, then you can go back to doing this all by yourself.”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Jarod’s voice boomed behind her, apparently no longer worried about drawing a crowd.
“Wherever you aren’t,” she yelled back.
The sounds of their squabbling drew the customers out of the inn and the other surrounding bars. But Maya didn’t care, she felt as if her entire body was on fire and if she didn’t get away from Jarod, the crowd was about to have a show that would be talked about for centuries to come. Jarod, however, was not fixing to let her go that easily. He used his speed to get around her and stood blocking her path to the road.
“Get out of my way,” she demanded.
“I’m not going anyw—” He cut off mid-sentence, eyes seeming focused on something over her head.
“Can … you … hear … me?” she yelled, waving a hand in front of him. “I said get out of my way.”
But her bravery was short lived. She watched in terror as a grin she was more than familiar with took form on his lips. No, he wouldn’t, she thought, cringing away from him. He wouldn’t hurt me, would he?
He moved slowly her direction, eyes blazing red. He was focused, intense, and angry; a bad combination on a good day. Trembling in fear, she backed away as he continued to advance toward her. When there remained only a few steps left between them, Maya closed her eyes and braced for the worst. However, to her surprise—and relief—he walked past, barely affording her a glance as he whispered, “What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?”
Her blood ignited within. Infuriated, she turned to confront him until a movement in the growing crowd outside the inn caught her attention. A figure was pushing and shoving their way through the masses, making a b-line for the alley a few buildings down.
“Ha,” she laughed out loud, pointing and jumping up and down with delight, “I told you he was in there!”
Jarod was too focused on his prey to pay her any mind. He took a couple more slow steps, then sped across the garden, reappearing in front of the village chief in the midst of the crowd. Someone screamed, and in a matter of seconds the crowd surrounding the chief and Jarod had dispersed faster than dust in the wind. The man shrieked and spun around, trying to make a break for the opposite direction. With one swipe of his massive hand, Jarod had ahold of his white button up shirt and lifted the dumpy man off the ground, grin still plastered to his face.
“Please! Please, my lord, I beg of you, have mercy,” the chief pleaded shamelessly.
“Mercy?” Jarod huffed. “Like the mercy you were going to show us?” He pulled the man in so close their noses nearly touched. “You locked us in a vault to waste away slowly and painfully over decades,” he growled. “Where was your mercy then?”
“N-no, no, I s-swear I was going t-to come back. I really was,” he stuttered.
“Oh I’m sure you were.” Jarod smiled, then tossed him across the garden square where he landed only a few feet from where Maya approached. Thinking he had a window for escape, the chief scrambled to his feet and pushed past her in a full run across the garden.
“Oh no you don’t,” Maya called after him. Pulling one of her blades from its scabbard around her thigh, she let it fly. The blade found its mark dead center between his shoulder blades and sent him crashing to the ground, flailing.
“Where did you think you were going to go?” Maya laughed.
Seeing her approaching him, the chief crawled on his belly the opposite direction, blood slowly oozing from around the wound, exciting her senses. Her stomach groaned at the thought of draining him of every last drop.
“Stay away from me! You are a witch and a blood thirsty demon,” he yelled back at her. “I want nothing to do with you or your sorcery. Your kind should be burned alive!”
“Awww, now that isn’t a very nice thing to say to the one person that stands between you and him,” she laughed, gesturing toward Jarod, who was advancing rapidly across the garden with the patrols close behind. Standing over the cowering man, Maya placed one foot on his spine just below the knife and pulled it free of its mark. His screams of agony echoed off the buildings surrounding the garden and sent several frightened flocks of birds scattering into the sky above.
“Nice shot,” Jarod commented as he and the patrols approached.
“Not really.” Frowning, she shook her head while wiping the blade clean on her pants’ leg, then slid it back into its scabbard. “I was aiming for his leg.”
The patrols along with Rodgers surrounded and cuffed the still cursing man while pulling him to his feet. Maya faced the man who had wished them dead, as he stared her down with hatred burning in his eyes. “You can do with me as you wish,” he sneered, “but my cause will live on. There are hundreds of people out there who feel as I do. The Full-blood race, especially the Shadows and the pair of you, are an abomination. And we won’t stop until every last one of you is destroyed.”
“Shut up,” Chief Rodgers scoffed, then elbowed him in the back of the head, rendering him unconscious. He then turned to the pair of patrols beside him. “Pick that piece of shit up and take him back to the station. We’ll arrange for his transport back in the morning.”
“Sir, what about his wound?” a tall, thin officer asked, studying the back of the chief’s bloody shirt.
“Have the medic look at it and do what he can to stop the bleeding,” he responded, shooting a fleeting glance Jarod’s direction. “Nothing else we can do now that the clinic is closed.”
Maya glanced up at Jarod. “The clinic is closed?”
He did not respond or acknowledge either of them. Maya studied his features for any sign of emotion, but as usual, he was a blank slate. Anything could have happened to them, she told herself, it doesn’t mean he did it. She struggled to suppress the thoughts flooding her mind of Mikel and his daughter Citera dying at Jarod’s hands. However, facts were facts. And facts were, the last time she had seen any of them alive was when Jarod had been hiding out in their clinic with two other very powerful Full-bloods.
She shuddered at the thought of something bad happening to them. The people in the clinic had been like family to her. Mikel, the healer who ran the clinic, and his daughter, Citera, were two of the nicest and most giving people she had ever met. They had treated Maya and her mother, as well as everyone else in Vicaris for years, and never turned anyone away for their inability to pay. Actually, just about everyone Mikel treated, he had done so for free. Mikel had even made numerous trips out to her house to save them the embarrassment of crossing town covered in visible bruises and broken bones. But what she had loved about him the most, was that he never once pressed them to discuss what was happening. He knew, of course, and even offered to let them stay in the clinic on numerous occasions. However, that was as far as it went, and when they turned him down time after time he would merely smile, pat them on the shoulder, and remind them the offer was always available.
Squaring up in front of him, she desperately tried to control her trembling voice. “Do you know anything about this? About why the clinic is closed?”
“No,” he answered smoothly and without pause.
“So you don’t have any idea where Mikel, Citera, and Dirik have all vanished to?” Rodgers asked, narrowing his eyes. “Oh, did I mention Rigar and his family have vanished as well?”
“Don’t know anything about it,” he replied, facing off with Rodgers over Maya’s head.
Rodgers scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. It was clear from his tone and demeanor that he didn’t believe Jarod any more than Maya did. “Really? Because it just so happens they left
town the same day you came for her and her father. Passed right through a checkpoint saying they were going to a nearby village to deliver supplies. But they never arrived, nor have they returned.”
“How could I know anything about that if I was with you the entire time?” Jarod challenged, almost smirking. “Sounds like you need to talk to the men who let them through the checkpoint, since they obviously didn’t do their job.”
To Maya’s surprise, Rodgers relaxed his posture and smiled back at Jarod; a grin that said he knew more than he was letting on, although she wasn’t sure how. It was clear neither of them knew anything more about what happened to Mikel and his family than they had a few minutes ago. But for whatever reason, Rodgers turned his back to Jarod and began walking away. “You are probably right, must have just been a coincidence.” He smiled, motioning with his head to a spot behind Jarod. “Besides, you are fixing to have a bigger issue to deal with.”
Just as the words left his mouth a familiar voice rang in Maya’s ears, causing her heart to stop inside her chest. “Maya?”
Jarod’s entire body went rigid at the sound. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Jarod stepped to the side. Only a few feet away, mouth gaped and eyes wide, stood the one person who had consumed her thoughts for the last six months.
“Mom,” she cried, throwing herself against her mother’s body. Lila, still doubtful of what she was seeing, remained motionless in Maya’s embrace.
“Maya, is it really you?” she breathed, then stared up at Jarod. “I thought they … he killed you.”
Maya pushed away, gazing softly into her mother’s tear-filled eyes. “No. Thanks to him, I am alive.”
“Maya,” Jarod spoke softly beside her, “perhaps the two of you should finish this conversation inside.”
Maya frowned then scanned the square surrounding them. Most of the crowd had dispersed during the scuffle with the village chief, however, the few that remained were intensely focused in on the two of them. “Yes, I suppose we should.” Returning her attention to her mother, Maya smiled and wiped the tears from her cheek. “Let us go inside and sit. That way we can catch up in private.”
Lila, still in shock, barely managed a nod of her head. She turned and took a few steps in the direction of the inn, then suddenly paused and stared up at Jarod. Maya, knowing her mother would never feel comfortable talking with Jarod hovering over them, smiled weakly at him.
“My lord—” she began, only to have Jarod silence her with a wave of his hand. He was pissed she had addressed him that way, but with the number of people watching, she couldn’t help but feel it was warranted.
“Don’t,” he growled, between gritted teeth. “You know better.”
The scowl on his face and the tone of his voice sent Lila cowering behind her daughter, who stood undeterred by his angst. “Can we have a few moments alone? Maybe a half hour to reassure each other we are all right?”
Jarod relaxed his stance, although she could tell by his gravely tone that he was still upset. “I will go to the station to arrange the prisoner’s transport and send an update to the Tower. I will return for you at sunset and we will leave.”
Maya bowed her head slightly. “Of course.” Returning her attention to her mother, she looped her arm inside of her own and led her back toward the doors of the inn. People in the crowd moved aside to let them pass, eyeing her with hatred and whispering to one another. Traitor, blood sucking demon, and the Enforcer’s whore were just a few of the comments she caught wind of as they passed. But Maya remained focused; walking with her head held high, she refused to let them see how much their words were hurting her. It wasn’t until they were inside the inn, with the windows and doors locked and bolted that Maya began to breathe a little easier.
“Mom.” She smiled weakly, walking toward her, arms extended. To her dismay her mother pulled away. Doing her best to conceal her disappointment, Maya dropped her arms and remained where she stood. “Mom, I know this must be difficult for you to understand—”
“Difficult to understand? Is that what you call it?” Lila cried, tears pouring from her eyes. She pointed with a shaky finger to the bolted door. “I watched that monster carry your lifeless body from this very room along with your father’s. And now, after months of not hearing anything and finally accepting that you were dead, you just show up … a-and with him?”
“Mom, please. I wanted to contact you, to let you know, but he said it would be too dangerous for you.” Maya struggled to hold back her tears, as she tried her best to explain her absence, “I only wanted to protect you, to keep you safe.”
Lila ran her trembling hands through her coal black hair and collapsed into a nearby chair. “And now you work for them … with him?”
Maya feared frightening her mother further, but the uncontrollable urge to comfort her drew her closer. She advanced slowly and took a seat in a chair across from hers. Lila lifted her tear-filled eyes to meet her pleading gaze. Her heart broke as she watched her mother slump lower into the chair. “It is the truth, isn’t it? I can see it in your eyes. He has corrupted you, turned you into a creature like himself.”
“Don’t blame him for what I have become,” Maya remarked quietly, dropping her eyes to the floor. “I asked for this. I told him this is what I wanted.”
Lila, unnerved by her revelations, grabbed her chin and forced her to face her once again. “But why? Why choose this?”
“Because I was tired of being a victim!” she shouted, pushing her mother’s hands away. She dropped her gaze back to the floor, trying to conceal her tears. “I was tired of being afraid and having no one there who would stand up for me.”
“Maya—”
“No, don’t patronize me,” Maya snapped. Standing, she began pacing the floor. Years of bitterness boiled inside of her. “He beat us for years, Mother, and everyone knew but no one would do anything about it because they were afraid of him. Well, I found someone he was afraid of and was willing to do what needed to be done.”
Lila jumped up from her chair, grasping her daughter by the shoulders. “Did it ever occur to you that your father feared him because he was a worse monster than your father ever could have been? That he is dragging you down into the darkness with him? By the stars, Maya, I just watched you stab a man in the back like it was a nothing.”
Maya sighed, kicking at an invisible object on the floor. Truthfully she had hoped, by some miracle, her mother hadn’t witnessed that whole debacle with the chief. Not that it really mattered; in time the entire country would know what she had done. Better her mom find out from her, than through a pack of lie filled rumors.
“I am sorry you saw that … I really am. And I won’t lie to you and say that something like that will never happen again, because it will. But it doesn’t mean I’m going to allow myself to become consumed by the darkness.” Maya hesitated, recalling the desperation in Jarod’s voice when he told her he would kill her before he let the darkness consume her like it had him. Confident in her resolve, Maya peered up at her mother and smiled. “He is doing everything in his power to keep that from happening, I swear. Actually, I think that is the reason we work so well together. We balance each other out; the Enforcer’s darkness with my light.”
Lila listened silently to her daughter, but her words did nothing to ease her concerns. She slumped back down into a nearby chair and peered up at her through tear-filled eyes. “But what if it becomes more than you can handle?”
Maya stood and walked around the table, kneeling on the floor at her mother’s feet. Lila reached out and ran a gentle hand down her face. “He is too powerful, Maya, and the darkness of his aura is a frightening thing to behold. Already it has affected the brightness of yours, dulling its once luminescent shine.” Lila gripped Maya’s hands and pressed them hard against her face. “Please do as I say and leave him, run and hide somewhere before it is too late. I have already suffered through the grief of losing you once, don’t make me go through it again.”
; The words spoken were a bit shocking to hear. Like her, Maya’s mother had a unique “gift.” But where Maya could use hers to read objects and locate people, Lila could see the color of a person’s soul and often had premonitions of things to come. Maya knew her mother’s warnings were not to be taken lightly, but even so, running from Jarod would never be an option, nor did she want it to be.
“I understand your concerns,” Maya replied, doing her best to fake her waning confidence, “and I have witnessed firsthand the darkness he holds within, and I know the struggle he faces each day trying to control it. But running isn’t the answer. I know you won’t understand, but I trust and believe in him. I believe he can overcome the darkness and that one day he will use his abilities to help our people.” Maya pulled back to stare into her mother’s pale grey eyes. “I believe he is going to be the key to the Shadows eventual demise.”
Lila studied her daughter’s half smiling face and pulled her tight into her arms. “For your sake I hope you are right.”
Maya tightened her arms around her mom and the two of them sat embracing each other for what felt like hours. Finally, Lila laughed halfheartedly as she stood, offering Maya a hand. “Well, if nothing else, at least I know you finally know how to use a knife. Care to join me in doing some prep work for tomorrow?”
Maya laughed, taking her mother’s hand and rising along beside her. “I would love to.”
Together they headed into the back kitchen where they spent the rest of the day peeling, dicing, and prepping ingredients Lila would use in the next day’s menu. The whole time they avoided further conversations about Jarod, the Shadows, or the Towers. Instead, Maya quizzed her on how things were going with the inn and the local patrols, specifically Chief Rodgers who Jarod seemed to place a lot of confidence in.
To her delight, Maya learned that—true to his word—arrangements had been made through Rodgers to allow her mother to maintain control of the inn. Of course, that was as long as she was willing to pay a small percentage of her profits every month to the patrols, mainly to keep up the corrupt appearance that everyone expected. She said Chief Rodgers would come himself once a month with a group of patrols to witness as he collected the money. Then he returned a week or two later alone for lunch, ordered something to eat, and left her payment inside a sealed envelope on the table, along with a very generous tip. Lila laughed as she went on to explain that while a few members of the community were upset and suspected something was up, nobody dared say anything because they believed he was doing it because the two of them were having some sort of ongoing steamy love affair.
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