Hunting Shadows (Abyss of Shadows Book 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “Do I need to call an ambulance?” I asked. Hot water was not a good way to handle hypothermia; it could cause the blood vessels in her limbs to open too quickly, her blood pressure could drop, and she could have a heart attack.

  “No.” A moment later, he leaned over her and kissed her forehead.

  Suddenly, the child gasped and opened her eyes. After a moment of hyperventilating, she turned around and hugged Logan. “I knew you would find me.”

  I closed the bathroom door, got dressed in some dry clothes, and sat down at the table. It didn’t surprise me for a second to find that both texts I got since I left Lilly’s house were from Logan.

  I’m at the motel and you’re not there.

  Where are you?

  How the hell did he find me in the woods? Maybe he found my car by chance, but we had been pretty far from the road. Furthermore, why did my car die at that moment? If the creature was just messing with me again, why did Lilly’s voice come through the radio? Did she use witchcraft to do it before she passed out? If it wasn’t her, did the creature want me to save her? What was Logan doing while I was at Lilly’s house?

  A little while later, Logan emerged from the bathroom. “I suppose I need to explain that.”

  “You suppose right.”

  “Lilly is my sister. That is why I came here.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you just say that to begin with?”

  “If you helped me find my sister, it would have meant I owed you.”

  “You’re an asshole. I take it you know that she’s a witch.”

  “Of course.”

  “And that’s why you didn’t want me searching her room?”

  “You suspected witchcraft and I did not want her to be your suspect. Also, I didn’t trust you with her secret.”

  “That explains why you were so sure witchcraft wasn’t involved. It doesn’t explain why you neglected to tell me the witchcraft stuff I found in Dr. Brian’s office was Lilly’s.”

  He frowned. “I didn’t know. I support Lilly in anything she wants to do, including her witchcraft. Right now, she’s only interested in using magic to help people. That does not mean others don’t use it to harm people.”

  “Is she okay? Has she said anything about who or what took her?”

  “She’s okay, but she hasn’t said anything yet. She’s drying herself off and she’ll be out in a minute. Whether she can remember anything or not, you will not use your thrall on her.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I don’t trust mind control powers.”

  “If the other children are still alive, we need Lilly’s help to find them.”

  “I don’t care about the other children. I came here for Lilly and we are not risking her mental health. As far as I’m concerned, my job is done.”

  “You’ll seriously let kids die?”

  “Of course he wouldn’t!” Lilly said, walking out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. Her hair was golden blond and down to her waist, while her eyes were light green. She sat on the ground in front of the bed, facing away. Logan sat on the bed behind her and automatically began braiding her hair, as if he’d done it a thousand times.

  Logan’s expression told me quite clearly that Lilly was wrong. It also told me that I had better keep my mouth shut.

  “Do you remember anything?” I asked her.

  “I… remember it was dark, and I was on concrete.”

  “Smooth or rough?”

  “Smooth. It was really dirty. I had blood all over me, which made the dirt stick.”

  “Did you hear any voices? Did you see anyone?”

  “I heard other kids crying. There was something in my mouth, so I couldn’t say anything, and I was blindfolded. I only heard one voice— a man’s voice. He sounded… kind. He removed the gag and gave me food and water. My hands and legs were tied. I think I was tied to something, but I’m not sure.”

  “Did he try to move you anywhere?”

  “I… I don’t know. I kept falling asleep. I felt really weird and confused. Even my dreams were creepy and confusing, full of monsters and… and something was watching me. When the man wasn’t there, I could feel someone watching me. I didn’t hear who it was, though, and they never said a word.”

  “Did you write a runaway letter?”

  She nodded. “I did, but I didn’t want to. I was like, drugged or something.”

  “Before you were taken, what do you remember?”

  She shrugged. “I went to bed at night, and then I woke up blindfolded.”

  “So, you didn’t see a creature?”

  “There was something…”

  “In your grimoire, you wrote that you were going to meet a witch at the water tower. Did you learn anything?”

  “No. I was supposed to, but things got too creepy, so I called Cindy and cancelled.”

  “Well, we found you north of town. Wherever you were being kept, it must have been fairly close to where we found you.”

  “Since Lilly has escaped, they’re probably going to move the other children,” Logan said.

  “Then we should do this quickly.”

  “Did you forget about the sunlight? It would take us hours to search every house within a two-mile radius of where you found her. At least we know they’re alive.” He finished braiding Lilly’s hair and patted her shoulders. “You should try to get some sleep.”

  “Aside from your parents, who was the last person you spoke to?” I asked.

  “Um… I had to see the counselor after school and then I came home.”

  “Did you lose anything personal?”

  She shook her head. “No. I know better; I know that can be used against me in magic.”

  “Let me see your arms,” Logan said. He studied her arms carefully.

  “What are you looking for?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t matter.” He patted her arm. “I’m going to run to your house and get you some clothes. Ms. Ares, will you watch her while I’m gone?”

  “Yes, but then we need to talk.”

  “No, no, I don’t want you to go!” Lilly said, grabbing his arm.

  “You’ll be fine. This is Aurora Ares. She’s a vampire, so she’s strong enough to protect you.”

  “Take me home to Mom.”

  “You’re not safe there. I can protect you here. I’m going to get your clothes and then we’ll get a room.”

  “So you can help find the other kids?” she asked.

  He sighed. “Yes.” He left us alone.

  Lilly stood up and sat on the bed. A moment later, Deimos and Phobos got on the bed and sat on either side of her. Phobos grumbled at her when she didn’t move. “What are they doing?” she asked nervously.

  “You’re sitting on the remote.”

  “Oh.” She stood up and sat in the other chair at the table. Phobos and Deimos started snarling at each other. Deimos was more dominant, but Phobos was more determined. “I sent a message to a different vampire.”

  “I know. Astrid wasn’t able to come. How did you get her information, anyway?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Duh— I’m not an idiot.”

  “Humor me.”

  “My mother doesn’t let me have internet at home because she knows I’ll look up witchcraft, but she can’t stop me from using the school library computers. I’m on a lot of witchcraft forums. As soon as Kenneth and Andrea went missing, I got on the forums and asked for help. Someone suggested her.”

  I didn’t think Astrid was that well-known, but it wasn’t a bad idea at all.

  “That’s also how I found Cindy,” Lilly continued. “She didn’t know anything about the missing kids, but when I found out she lived in this town, I asked to meet with her and discuss it. I’m hungry.”

  “Then eat something.”

  “What is there to eat?”

  “I’ll order a pizza.”

  “I hate pizza.”

  “Nobody hates pizza.”

  “O-M-F-G, you’re a vampi
re, what do you know about food? I want a burger and fries.”

  “Then you’re just going to have to suffer until your brother gets back.”

  She whined for a while about being bored, so I got her grimoire out of my car and that occupied her for about an hour before she fell asleep at the table. When I picked her up and laid her on the bed, Phobos cuddled up next to her as if to keep her warm.

  Chapter 8

  Logan returned after about half an hour with a bag for Lilly. “Did you get a room?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I got the room next door.” He sat down. “Why did you leave Stephen’s coven?”

  “I met Brandy.”

  “A girlfriend?”

  “Brandy is like a little sister to me. Stephen has some wizard and shifter friends, so he was always one of the first people to hear about plots against the vampires. When I was twenty-seven, Stephen found out there was a group of wizards who created a virus that destroys the vampire DNA.”

  “I thought it was a virus that made you a vampire.”

  “The vampire virus only turns human DNA into vampire DNA. Our strength and power comes from our DNA. The wizards took the vampire virus and mutated it to destroy the vampire DNA. It wouldn’t turn us human, however; it would kill us.”

  “So he sent you and the other sentries to take them down?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wouldn’t it make more sense to send shifters, since the virus only killed vampires?”

  “That was what I thought, but Stephen never trusted anyone except his sentries to handle vampire business. I did it because Stephen had been good to me and I liked putting my training to use.”

  “He was a substitute for your father.”

  “At the time, maybe he was, but that job changed everything. Although we took out the wizards and destroyed the virus, most of us were killed. The other sentries were my friends, my family.”

  “Stephen didn’t care?”

  “He did; that wasn’t why I left. The virus was blood-borne and lived in human blood. A vampire could bite the human or the virus could be injected with human blood into the vampire.”

  “The wizards had human test subjects?” Logan asked.

  I nodded. “And the only way to kill the virus was to kill the humans who had it. Brandy was one of them, but she was separated from the others. According to the records the wizards kept, the virus never took in her. They wanted to know why. Stephen wanted her dead anyway, believing it could still kill us.”

  “All you had to do was not bite her, though,” Logan said.

  “For the time being, yes, but the vampire virus is extremely quick to adapt. No matter what was thrown at us, our immune system fought it and the virus got stronger. A thousand years ago, vampires couldn’t have babies with humans. Five hundred years ago, humans didn’t stop aging when they were turned into vampires. Two hundred years ago, only people who were born vampire could turn humans. A few hundred years from now, who knows? Maybe there will be such a thing as half vampires. Anyway, the point is that Stephen was afraid the anti-vampire virus would adapt just as fast and possibly become airborne.”

  “In that case, it makes sense to kill her.”

  “I know that, and maybe I would have if her blood showed any sign it was a threat. The thing is, I love anatomy and physiology, so I knew how to read their blood tests. The virus died in her blood. Stephen wasn’t convinced and said he would kill her himself. Certain she wasn’t a threat and willing to risk myself to prove it, I bit her.”

  Logan’s expression was as reserved as usual, but I smelled something similar to worry from him. “Why did you risk your life for a stranger?”

  “I don’t really know. I think it was a combination of things. I don’t know how old she was, but I guessed around fifteen or sixteen. I also didn’t know her name, and neither did she.”

  “Amnesia?”

  I nodded. “The wizards had picked her up off the streets. She had been attacked and couldn’t remember anything, including who did it or why. The minute I opened the door to her little cell, she hugged me and refused to let go. She was afraid of the others, but she trusted me. When I tried to use my thrall on her to bring back her memories, it only made her trust me more.”

  “That’s odd.”

  “I told her about the virus and that Stephen was going to kill her. Instead of fighting or trying to talk her way out of it, she begged me to do it myself because she didn’t want it to hurt. She believed that even if I killed her, I wouldn’t hurt her. Stephen theorized that I reminded her subconscious of her mother.”

  “So instead of killing her, you left the coven, opened a paranormal bar, and treated her like a little sister?”

  “That’s exactly what I did. Because I knew so much about the other paranormals, Stephen let me live. In fact, even though I officially left the coven, he let me open my bar in his territory. His reasoning was that I had enough information about his coven that I would be a target for any of his enemies if I wasn’t in his territory. I think some of it was that he did care about me, at least a little bit.”

  Logan nodded. “He probably would have just killed you otherwise,” he said as if it was no big deal.

  “I get why you didn’t tell me about your childhood; you didn’t want me to figure out Lilly was your sister. Now that I know, tell me.”

  “Like I said before, it was quite mundane compared to yours. My father died when I was three, so I don’t remember him. My mother and I were never close, especially when she married her current husband, Bobby.”

  “Lilly’s father?”

  “Yes. From the start, Bobby made it pretty clear he didn’t want me in his life any more than I wanted him in mine. When I turned sixteen, I went out to check the mail and never came back.”

  “What about school and food?”

  “They never reported me missing and I had a job. I continued going to work and school, so no one asked any questions.”

  “Did you ever see your mother again?”

  “Yes. Eventually, we ran into each other at the grocery store. She moved here soon afterwards.”

  “How did your father die?”

  “He was killed by a very powerful wizard named John Cross.”

  “Why would a wizard kill him?”

  “He had something Cross wanted.”

  “Which was?”

  “My mother, apparently. Why he wanted her, I don’t know, and I guess I’ll never find out. Cross was killed more than a year ago by another wizard.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Why?”

  “You didn’t want to kill him yourself? You didn’t want answers?”

  “I don’t see how it would matter. It certainly doesn’t keep me up at night. I never knew my father, only that he died trying to save my mother. Cross was a wizard and those with power take what they want.”

  “You are just buckets of sunshine, you know that?”

  * * *

  I woke a few hours before sunset with a strange restlessness. Deimos was next to me on the bed. I sat up and put my feet on the floor, then grimaced as my feet made a squishing sound on the carpet. My first thought was that there was a major leak, so I looked up at the ceiling. There was no sign of water damage. I leaned over and froze when I saw the liquid I was stepping in.

  Blood. “Not again.”

  I reached behind me to wake Deimos, only for my hand to touch slimy blankets. Not making a sound, I turned. Deimos was no longer on the bed. Instead, it was covered in blood. I couldn’t smell it, though.

  A loud growl right in front of me made me jump, and I turned back to see Phobos right in front of me, watching me worriedly. I looked down; my feet were dry and the blood was gone. There wasn’t any blood behind me, either. Deimos was next to me, awake and staring at the wall.

  Deimos hopped off the bed and the boys started growling at the walls, as if they weren’t sure where the threat was coming from. The temperature dropped about ten degrees.

  Suddenly,
one corner of the room darkened and a middle-aged man appeared out of it. He didn’t look like a sinister creature of magic. His dark blue eyes were almost friendly and his medium brown hair was cut short and professionally styled.

  “Are you the one who has been sending the creature after me?”

  He grinned. “Sorry, no. I don’t send pets to do my work for me and if you pissed me off, you would know it.”

  Phobos growled and started to lunge at the stranger. “Settle down,” I said. Deimos was ever vigilant and didn’t know the meaning of relaxation. Predictably, he stood between the man and me. Phobos, taking my command to heart, started looking for the remote.

  “What are you?” I asked the man.

  He scoffed. “That’s a rude question. I’m a who, not a what, and my name… well, you can call me Langril.”

  “Okay, Langril. Do you often trespass on vampires and their hellhounds?”

  “Oh yes. Trespassing is a favorite pastime of mine and I do it so well. In this case, however, I’m coming as per your request.”

  “I’m pretty sure I didn’t request a visit from a creepy wizard.”

  He pulled a note out of his pocket, unfolded it, and held it up. It was the picture I had sent Stephen, although it was blown up well past the point of distortion. “I heard you were looking for answers on this.”

  “You know what it is?”

  “I do; it’s a demon coin.”

  That was not what I expected. I spent most of my life in the paranormal world and never found any evidence that demons existed. Some of the wizards were polytheistic and believed in a number of gods and devils. There were also plenty of Christian paranormals who believed in demons. Maybe it was strange, but I was more inclined to believe in dragons than demons.

  Still, at least I was finally getting straight answers. “So a demon dropped his spare change while kidnapping little children?”

  He laughed. “You could call it a calling card or a seal, or whatever else you like. The design on the coin is the sigil, or name if you prefer, of a certain demon. This one is for Marluk. He’s a pretty tough bastard, who has a preference for latching on to the life force of newborn babies and feeding on their energy until adolescence.”