Midnight Shadows

by Emerson Knight

  “Samuel will pay,” he promised, “but not until we lift the curse and retrieve the Aufero. Once those goals are achieved, I’ll help you.”

  My fists clenched as I paced the hall like a caged animal, anger rising to a flash boil. Unable to contain it, I turned and punched my fist into a wall. Pulling back bloodied knuckles, I took a slow, calming breath.

  “I’ll be there when we take the Aufero,” I insisted.

  Sebastian nodded, a smooth subtle gesture. He waited, holding my gaze for a long moment until I finally turned and walked away.

  They’re safe, I reminded myself as I weaved my BMW through highway traffic. If Samuel tried anything at the retreat, surrounded by were-animals, it would be suicide. Venting my anger through raw horsepower, I wondered if I could’ve restrained myself in his presence. As much as I hated to admit, it was probably better that I wasn’t present when he’d arrived at the retreat.

  I wonder how Josh will handle working so closely with Samuel? Probably fine, I admitted. My brother didn’t have a were-animal’s temper.

  Eventually, I found myself parked across the street from Caroline’s hotel. Her rental car was in the parking lot, and I didn’t have to wait long before she emerged from her door, looking disheveled. After lighting a cigarette, she began pacing the landing with her free arm wrapped around her torso.

  Her black stone pendant hung noticeably from her neck.

  Watching her slight frame, I realized how much her plan required my cooperation. If I continued to ignore her, she would try her mind magic, but I already knew her limits. Her powers were limited to trickery. Whether the dizziness that preceded the effect of her magic was an inherent weakness in the magic itself or a reflection of her inexperience, it was warning enough. She couldn’t fool me, and she couldn’t physically hurt me.

  Until now, I’d humored her, played her game, but I didn’t have to. If I chose to ignore her, she would at most be an inconvenience. I’d fooled myself into thinking I could give her closure and at the same time expunge my guilt, but there were greater threats to worry about. It was time I put my focus back on being the pack’s Beta.

  A dizziness washed over me.

  I’d lost sight of her, drifted off in thought like a fool. Turning, I saw her striding toward me across the parking lot, naked vengeance burning in her glare. She flicked her cigarette to the concrete. Her black stone pendant glowed.

  Cursing, I pushed the BMW into traffic and raced, weaving between cars to put as much distance as possible between Caroline and me. Her magic wasn’t limited to line of sight, but I was sure it was limited in range. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw both her and the hotel were already out of sight. I slowed some, just enough to avoid an accident.

  There would be a final confrontation after all, but on my terms.

  I changed lanes and took a winding, twisting route home. Once there, I locked the front door and dropped into my leather chair in the living room. On a whim, I took off my shirt, dropped it onto the carpet next to the chair.

  In my lap, I found four black towels. As if such a sight were ordinary, I wrapped one each around my ankles, then my wrists. Gripping the ends of the chair arms, I stared at the blank television as if waiting for it to turn on of its own accord.

  I don’t have a television.

  The thought was a whisper in the back of my mind, as if partially buried there. Confused, I tried to rise from the chair, but the towels held me to it. Pulling on them, I heard the light clatter of chains.

  I felt another brief rush of dizziness. The towels became iron shackles, the leather chair became wooden. The carpet beneath my feet became old, moldy slats of pine.

  You’re in the shack, I realized, and the remnants of the illusion vanished.

  Caroline glowered over me, her eyes black and her lips curled into a sneer that was almost inhuman. In one palm she held an open plastic bag. The fingers of her other hand stirred the contents, a viper’s nest of thin silver necklaces. I’d underestimated her abilities. She’d tricked my mind into believing I’d escaped while she’d brought me here, entirely oblivious to my fate. I almost laughed at the absurdity of it.

  I watched as she raised a delicate necklace from the bag and draped it over my shoulder, igniting a searing pain. I growled from behind gritted teeth, refusing to cry out and give her the satisfaction.

  Then I remembered my plan. Would it work? Had my underestimation of her abilities doomed me?

  She draped two more necklaces next to the first. This time I screamed, venting pure agony for her consumption. After a moment, the pain suddenly eased. I opened my eyes to find a macabre look of satisfaction on Caroline’s face, but when she glanced at the burned flesh of my shoulder, I saw a twinge of revulsion.

  “What do you want?” I asked, my chest heaving as I caught my breath.

  “Tell me why,” she demanded.

  Stick to the plan. Steeling myself for another wave of pain, I looked her in the eyes and said, “No.”

  Furious, she lifted a handful of chains and pressed them against my bare chest. The sudden shock of unbearable pain blinded me for a moment. I turned my head, trying to escape the stench of my own burning flesh.

  The pain suddenly eased as Caroline jerked her hand away. Fear contorted her face, mixing with her anger like oil and water. Taking in the burned wreck of my chest, she turned away.

  Call Josh.

  Once I’d spoken the key phrase, Josh’s alarm spell would alert him. He’d instantly transport to my location. But the spell had a limited range. I was supposed to warn him when the time approached.

  Watching Caroline gather herself, I knew that she was close enough that she might listen.

  “I didn’t kill your father,” I said between ragged breaths.

  “Liar.”

  She turned back to me with a fresh determination and draped a cluster of necklaces over my other shoulder. Once more for her benefit, I screamed.

  That she struggled with her actions, that her underlying morals challenged her rage, guaranteed nothing. I’d brought her to this moment. I’d put her in a position to challenge everything she believed about herself.

  Tears ran from my eyes, mixing with snot and spit as I tried to maintain consciousness. In my mind, I saw an image of myself sitting naked on the edge of my bed, draping a single silver necklace over my arm as I bore the pain without resistance, as if my mind were separate from the agony.

  Endure.

  The pain eased just enough to become bearable. I was distantly aware of the silver on my flesh. I still felt the burning, the searing. I still smelled the charred flesh, but from a distance.

  Eventually, Caroline withdrew the silver. I leaned back against the wood frame of the chair while I caught my breath. Tears streaked her cheeks. There was a horror there, a painful regret, but not enough to break the grim resolve of her rage. Suddenly mindful of her vulnerability, she angrily swiped away the tears.

  She’s not broken yet.

  “Where’s his body?” she demanded in a quavering, guttural growl.

  “More. Silver.”

  Her expression twisted into one of inhuman fury. She splashed the contents of the bag, dozens of necklaces, over my chest, then followed up with her hands, gathering and pressing as much of the silver against my bare skin as she could manage.

  Even from a distance, the pain was unbearable. In that moment, I gave her my screams, my suffering. In the furnace of agony, I burned my anger and anxiety and guilt until nothing remained but a sense of my unburdened self, waiting in the wings for the pain to stop.

  Eventually, my body gave up. My vision went to white, then black.

  I woke up to a slap across my face, but the pain in my chest was an echo of what I’d experienced before I blacked out. My chest heaved as I struggled to breathe.

  Observing the damage she’d done, Caroline screamed her frustration as she repeatedly smashed a shelf with her hands until it splintered. Regaining control of herself, she held one hand just belo
w her nose, nearly covering her mouth as she resisted sobbing.

  “You could’ve made this so much easier,” she said, unable to meet my gaze.

  “Anger makes things simple,” I whispered. “Some decisions shouldn’t be that easy.”

  “Just. Tell me. Why,” she insisted.

  Now she’s ready. “I hired your father to do a job he wasn’t qualified for. He got into trouble. It was a mistake.”

  “You killed him,” she swore.

  “I am to blame.”

  “No, you!”

  I shook my head.

  “Then who?” she demanded. When I refused to answer, she sniffed, summoning courage. “Don’t make me hurt you more.”

  I knew by the loathing in her voice that she’d reached her limit for torture. Now came the real danger. I spat blood onto the wood floor. “You’ll only get yourself killed.”

  “Tell me and I’ll let you go,” she promised with a merciful tone, but her heart rate accelerated.

  “You’re lying.” When she didn’t react, I continued, “After what you’ve done here, you’d be foolish to let me go.”

  “Are you going to come looking for me?”

  I stared at her until she met my gaze. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  She nodded faintly. There was a slight tremor in her movement as she walked behind me and picked up something heavy from a shelf.

  I considered calling Josh. Instead I leaned forward and tilted the chair, allowing me to pivot around to face her. The chair clunked level as I came face-to-face with the barrel of a pistol pointed at my forehead. Caroline blinked from behind the sight.

  If Josh were in range of the alarm spell, three small words quickly muttered under my breath would bring him to my rescue. Those same words would make everything I’d just endured meaningless.

  With an even, calm tone, I said, “Is this what you want?”

  “I don’t have a choice.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

  I stared into the dark barrel. Silver bullets were rare and expensive. She’d just tortured me with a bag of cheap silver necklaces. Had she put her savings into the coup de grace?

  “It’s a fair trade,” I said with a tone of finality.

  Her nose wrinkled in confusion. “What?”

  “I sent your father into danger. In exchange, you tortured me.” Her lips thinned, pressed together as if the word were distasteful. “End this now and I’ve no reason to hunt you.”

  She shook her head, disbelieving.

  The temptation to call Josh grew stronger. “I give you my word,” I said, “I’ll leave you in peace.”

  “If you tell me everything, every detail, I’ll consider it.”

  Even if her heart hadn’t betrayed her, I knew by the quiver of the barrel that she had every intention of shooting me. I sighed. “If I told you who killed your father, you’d be just as dead. In our world, there are enemies you can’t defeat. I don’t want your death on my conscience as well.”

  She wrapped her free hand around the other, trying to stabilize her aim, but the tremor only exaggerated. Staring up the sight of the barrel, I saw her squint.

  “Then I guess this is it,” she said.

  Josh’s alarm phrase was on my lips when I decided to gamble. “Pull the trigger,” I said calmly.

  We stared over the barrel at each other for what seemed like minutes while she tried to muster the final courage. Water welled in her eyes. She lifted her hand to wipe away the tears, then once more squinted down the barrel. Her finger twitched on the trigger.

  “Have you ever killed anyone?” I asked.

  She answered with a slight shake of her head.

  “Most people think the hard part is pulling the trigger, but that’s not the moment that sticks with you. It’s the sound of the bullet smashing through bone and then brain. It’s the blood and the bits of flesh and tissue that end up on the wall. Most people can’t live with it. Can you?”

  Her thumping heart suddenly calmed. She answered with a nearly inaudible whisper, “No.”

  “Nine-one-one,” I said.

  She hesitated, giving me a puzzled look.

  The gentle breeze of Josh’s magic rushed into the room. The wall to my left split down the middle and sheared away in two pieces that tumbled like crumpled paper. Josh stood just outside, his eyes solid black. He gestured to Caroline and a force struck the pistol from her hand, threw her against the wall, and pinned her there. Shelves buckled and collapsed behind her.

  He took in the bloody wreck of my chest, the silver necklaces that had fallen into my lap and onto the floor around the chair. His face twisted in rage.

  “No!” I shouted. He stared back at me with disbelief. “The pendant.”

  With a gesture, Caroline’s pendant snapped loose from her chain and flew to Josh. She was too shocked to object, or struggling to breathe.

  The shackles on my wrists and ankles simultaneously burst open, pins and hinges clattering onto the wood floor. I rose, letting the silver in my lap fall to the floor.

  “Let her go. Josh,” I said when he ignored me. I gestured to the pendant in his hand. “She’s harmless now.”

  His lips bent into a frown, but he released her. She gasped for breath. I faced her, waiting until she collected herself. When she met my gaze, I saw resignation—and relief.

  “Get it over with,” she muttered.

  “You can go.”

  Josh glared at me while Caroline thought I was toying with her.

  “I told you the truth. I didn’t kill your father, but I negligently sent him to his death. The creature that killed him is my enemy, but she’s too powerful for you. She will always be too powerful. I will never give you her name, but I can promise you that when I kill her—I will kill her—I will let you know that it’s done. Until then, go back to your life.”

  She stared at the blood on her hands.

  “You didn’t do anything that hasn’t been done to me before,” I said.

  “I almost—”

  “You didn’t. In the end, that’s all that matters. Go back to Boise and find happiness. I didn’t know your father, but it’s a fair guess he’d want that for you.”

  She took one reluctant step toward the open wall, then glanced between us.

  “Give her the pendant,” I said.

  “No,” Josh snapped, aghast.

  I shot him a hard look. I’d gone through too much in that shack to have him destroy my efforts now, despite his good intentions. Taking her power would only give rise to lingering resentment.

  Scowling back at me, he tossed the pendant to her. His magic stirred around us, preparing to strike at the slightest hint of mind magic. Caroline clutched the pendant to her chest, glanced once more between us, then hurried out of the shack to her waiting car. She wasted no time driving off.

  “You’ve lost your mind,” Josh said.

  I took a deep, soothing breath. The wounds on my chest were already healing, the pain now tolerable. For the first time in a while, I felt like myself again.

  “Samuel’s still at the retreat with Sky,” he said.

  I nodded. “Take me home first.”

  He touched my arm and transported us.

  I cleaned and bandaged my wounds, then picked a thick dark colored t-shirt to hide any blood that seeped through the bandages. By the time I returned to the retreat, the sun had just dipped below the horizon. In anticipation of our mission to retrieve the Aufero, the driveway was overflowing with cars. Sebastian had called in reinforcements.

  “Sebastian said to send you in,” Gavin said as I walked through the front door, nodding toward the office.

  Inside, I was surprised to find Samuel sitting comfortably in a chair next to Josh. My jaw clenched, but the overwhelming desire to squeeze the life from his throat was gone. Revenge was inevitable, but it could wait. At a gesture from Sebastian, I closed the door and stood waiting for an explanation while Samuel ignored my glare.

  Sebastian broke the tension first, wa
tching my reaction closely as he informed me, “Samuel has offered to help us retrieve the Aufero.”

  My stare shifted to Josh. His eyes flicked to my chest, looking for bloodstains. “The spell was successful?” I asked.

  “The casting was successful,” he answered, choosing his words carefully.

  “What does that mean?”

  “We won’t know for sure until Sky gets close enough to the Aufero to trigger the curse,” he admitted.

  I turned to Sebastian. “She can’t go with us.”

  “The orb will only respond to her.”

  Josh added, “I’ll be by her side. The moment she experiences anything, I’ll transport her out.”

  Frustrated, I snarled at Samuel, “What good are you? That spell of Marcia’s won’t let you do anything to harm the Creed.”

  “I can’t harm her or the Creed,” he agreed, “but I can still hit them where it hurts. The peace spell won’t stop me from using defensive magic.”

  “He can’t be trusted,” I announced without taking my eyes from him.

  “You think you can take on the Creed all by yourselves? Be my guest.”

  Josh interrupted. “We need his magic.”

  The Creed’s magic was useless against us in animal form, but Josh would be there. Sky would have to stay in human form in order to handle the orb. They were putting themselves at great risk.

  I growled, but nodded. I’d keep a close eye on Samuel. Attacking the Creed wasn’t going to bring him any closer to obtaining the Clostra. Was he simply trying to gain our goodwill?

  Gavin and Winter arrived and we spent the next hour going over the plan.

  I padded in wolf form toward the magic shop, walking just ahead of Sky, my head low as I sniffed for threats. Behind her walked Josh and Samuel, side by side. As we approached the door, I felt Josh’s magic pass over me. The lock clicked and the door flung open, rattling against the inside wall. There was no point in subtlety. Marcia would be expecting us. She would be prepared for a fight, and we’d just announced ourselves.

  My lips spread into a wolfish grin.

  Padding between shelves of crystals and New Age music, I saw the door behind the counter had been repaired, the frame replaced, and a stronger lock installed. Josh spoke a brief incantation and the lock shattered into pieces. The door flung open with a dull thud.