The Company of Shadows (The Company #1)

by Olsen, Lisa

  Cady cried out, eyes wide with pain. “What do you mean I’ll die? Can’t you just get it out of me?”

  Ethan stared down at the transformation, the pure panic in her eyes leaving no doubt in his mind that it was his Cady whimpering in his arms. The demon had to be trapped inside her, letting her bear the brunt of the pain, the rusty dagger would prevent him from fleeing the host now. “I’m sorry… but the ritual will kill the host. It’s the only way.”

  “You could have… mentioned that… before.” Her words came between pain filled gasps, chest heaving with the effort to speak.

  “I didn’t want you to think of me as a cold hearted killer, just like him.”

  “You’re nothing like him.”

  Ethan saw acceptance in her eyes, and it killed him, knowing he was the cause of so much suffering. No, not him, Asherik; it was his fault. “It’s a little cowardly, isn’t it? Making her take the pain.” He addressed the demon inside of her, still unable to guess at his endgame.

  “She’s the one… you’re killing,” he spoke from her lips, the words stilted, but dispassionate. “I thought… you might… like to say goodbye.”

  Goodbye? What kind of sick pleasure was he getting out of dragging this out? Ethan pulled the dague from its sheath, breathing hard as he reached for her slender hand.

  “Just do it.” Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes as Cady nodded in encouragement. “Do it. You know you have to.”

  Ethan knew his duty, there was no other way. He wouldn’t say goodbye, the farewell wouldn’t come, but something else needed to be said. “I love you, Cady.” His own tears mingled with hers as the bittersweet words were spoken.

  “I know,” she smiled up at him through the tears. “Come what may.”

  The black dagger flashed in the pale moonlight, and Ethan shut himself away from her scream of pain as he stabbed them both through the hand. “Immundus spiritus, audite et scire timor,” he chanted through clenched teeth, beginning the ritual. “Hostis humani generis, vitae raptor…” The demon made no move to fight him, no effort to remove the poisonous daggers. “Tu malorum radix vitiorum seductor hominum…”

  He was doing it, soon Asherik would be bound and Cady would lie dead in his arms. “Proditor innocentes auctor invidia…” The words faltered, and Ethan forced himself to go on. “Avaritia, causa discordiae. Exorcizo te…”

  “Love you…” The words came from stilted lips, the light already starting to fade from her eyes.

  “Exorcizo te…” Ethan wavered, the ritual growing harder to perform. “De cortice… cortice… Shit…” He fell back, eyes squeezing tightly shut. “I can’t… I can’t do it.” He tore free the black blade that bound their hands together, slumping beside her in defeat. Cady gave no reaction, her eyes still wide and staring. Had he waited too long? Cradling her head, he pulled the rusty dagger from her shoulder, never so glad to see demon flesh knit together swiftly.

  “Cady?” he said gently, brushing the hair behind her ears, but she didn’t respond. There was still one rusty dagger protruding from her side, but he didn’t remove it yet; he wanted these final moments with her before his failure was complete. “Can you hear me?”

  The bastard squatting inside her didn’t give him that peace though, she remained locked away from him. Ethan held her as the sun came up, their blood mingling to stain the expensive teak deck.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she said at long length.

  “What’s that?” Ethan replied, not knowing which of them spoke.

  “You’re thinking you would give anything right about now for me to leave her in peace.”

  “You’re not wrong.”

  “I’ll go willingly for something in exchange.”

  “Name it,” he said flatly, no longer caring what the bargain cost him. He could no longer do his job, and he didn’t want to live in a world where Asherik dangled Cady like a puppet on a string.

  “I’ll leave her if you accept me.”

  He knew instantly it was the only reason why it had been so easy to find them. Asherik had lured him there for one thing alone -- the chance at a new host body. Stronger than any human, he’d be more powerful than ever.

  “I want to talk to her.”

  “Don’t do this,” she begged, her expressive face leaving no doubt she’d come back to him. “Ethan, you have to complete the binding ritual, it’s the only way.”

  Ethan took long seconds to enjoy the sweet curves of her face, gazing up at him, so full of love. “I’m sorry, I know this is the coward’s way out, but I can’t do it. I can’t kill you.”

  “Ethan, he’ll have me anyway if he takes your body. He’ll have both of us.” Her hand reached for him, shaking like a leaf on the wind, and he grabbed it, pressing a kiss to her palm.

  “Contact Rikard. You’ll find his information in my laptop, the password is Samson. Tell them to bring the diviner and another reaper.”

  “No…”

  “Hell, tell them to bring two reapers,” he snorted. “When he leaves your body I want you to run, get as far away as you can because he’ll know everything I do.”

  “I won’t leave you,” she shook her head.

  “It’s the only way.” His head dipped to taste her lips one last time before he pulled out the other rusty dagger. “I accept you, Asherik.”

  Cady stretched, taking in a full breath with a sigh of relief. “I won’t leave her until she’s fully healed.”

  “Thank you for that,” Ethan said dully. It would give her a fighting chance to get away, it was all he could hope for.

  “No, thank you.” Her lips curved in satisfaction.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Triumph.

  Asherik was so close to having everything he wanted, he could taste it. Though he could sense no deceit from the reaper, he watched him carefully for signs of treachery, finding only defeat.

  “Don’t do this,” she pleaded with him, and he answered in her mind.

  “It’s already done.”

  “I won’t love you, even if you steal his body.”

  “In time all things are possible. You and I will be together for a very long time.”

  ***

  Asherik left her body in an exhalation that went on impossibly long, until she felt like her insides had all been expelled. But as she sucked in a greedy breath, Cady tasted freedom. Her senses restored, she tested her limbs, finding incredible relief in the control of her own body.

  Ethan had said to run, but she couldn’t leave, not now. There was too much at stake. Even as she looked down in wonder to see the smooth, unblemished skin beneath the sticky blood, she spotted the rusted dagger lying beside her and a rough plan came to mind.

  “Asherik? Are you in there?” she asked, looking deep into Ethan’s blue eyes, still clouded in confusion.

  “I’m here,” he smiled, hands opening and closing as he flexed within his new host. “I knew you wouldn’t flee, I knew you’d stay by my side,” he beamed.

  “Yes, you know me,” she smiled, leaning close. “You know I’d never leave the man I love.” Her lips brushed against his, and as his eyes drifted shut, she slid the knife between his ribs. Moving fast, she groped around for the other rusty dagger, plunging it into his abdomen before he could do more than groan in pain.

  “Ethan, I know you can hear me in there,” she cried, the black ritual knife skittering away from her scrabbling fingers in her haste to grasp it. “I know you can still think and speak… you have to fight him!”

  “Why…” spilled from his lips, and she knew it was Asherik, not Ethan who asked the question.

  “Because I love him, you dumbshit, and I’ll be damned if I let you have him too.” Her hand closed around the bloody hilt, and she drove it into his tattooed palm. “Say it, say the binding ritual now!”

  Cady had no idea if it would actually work. If Ethan could repeat the binding ritual inside his head or if the words needed to be spoken aloud, but it was all she could think to tr
y. If nothing happened… then she’d have to think about calling the Company like he suggested, but she had to try.

  Ethan’s mouth worked, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth as he struggled. His free hand came up and she stepped on it with her knee, leaning her full weight on him to keep him from reaching for any of the daggers. If she couldn’t buy him enough time to get the ritual completed, it was all for nothing.

  He was so goddamn strong, she felt him start to pull free of her hold, and Cady shifted to shove at the knife protruding from his side, driving it a fraction deeper. Ethan howled in response, but something very like fear shone from his eyes, and she held tight to the dagger, tearing a larger wound into his flesh.

  His lips moved, soundless, but steady, and Cady strained to hear what he had to say. “Alligo te in umbras ubi tu sollicitent non spiritum liberum sempitérna sæcula.” The words grew louder, more distinct. “Ubi constringo vos, ut non nocent. Alligo me ad unum caro unus est.”

  At the final syllable, his body stiffened in an arc of pain, and she felt the air crackling around them, charged with energy that pebbled her skin in gooseflesh. An inhuman scream left his lips, piercing the early morning calm and sending a flock of seagulls into frenzied flight. The cry cut off so abruptly, her ears still rang with the sound, the absence of noise eerie in the resulting stillness.

  Tasting the bright tang of her own blood where she’d bitten the inside of her cheek, Cady swallowed, moistening her lips. “Ethan?”

  “Present,” he murmured weakly, fingers twitching around the obsidian dagger in what might have been a wave.

  Cady hesitated before pulling the knife free. “How do I know it’s you?”

  “Should be new tattoo… somewhere,” he replied, his voice thick with pain. “Give me minute… catch my breath. I’ll take a look.”

  Cady knelt by his side, lifting the bottom of his shirt cautiously, but it was hard to see much with two knives sticking out of his torso. Careful not to cause any more damage to his torn flesh, she grabbed the edges of the fabric and ripped, exposing most of his chest to the chilly, morning air.

  It was easy to spot, the new tattoo lay directly over his heart, the symbol faintly resembling a highly stylized dragon, coiled in slumber. “It’s there.” She breathed a sigh of relief, pulling the dagger out of his hand, but keeping it at the ready if anything seemed off about him. The other two knives followed suit, and she immediately saw the relief in his face when she pulled the rusty blades free.

  The blood gushed from the wounds faster than she liked, especially the one she’d laid into extra hard, and Cady scrambled to put pressure on them, using the torn remnants of his shirt for bandages. Ethan lay there unmoving, letting her fuss over him with little more than a groan when she pressed the cloth to the wounds.

  “I hate to say it, but I think you really do need a doctor this time,” she frowned over the bloody mess.

  “I think there are still some traces of rust in there, but I’ll be fine.” His voice did sound a lot stronger already, and there was more color in his cheeks.

  “Of course you will,” Cady smiled down at him when his hand covered hers. “A little duct tape, some tea, you’ll be good as new.”

  * * *

  It took them the better part of an hour to get back to the safe house. The car wasn’t parked too far away, but with all the blood he’d lost, Ethan leaned heavily on her the entire way. Luckily, there weren’t too many people out and about yet, apart from a few fishermen or the odd jogger, no one gave them a second glance.

  “Looks like you’re going to need a new car again,” Cady winced at the bloodstains he left behind once they got back to the Tenderloin district.

  “I told you, I’m not all that personally invested in possessions. It’s just certain people I’m attached to,” he smiled back, bone tired.

  “Yeah well, the next time you pick a safe house, you might want to choose one on the ground floor. It’s going to take us a year to climb all of these stairs.”

  Ethan managed them though, forcing one step in front of another until he stumbled across the threshold, tumbling onto the bed with a weary groan. Grateful for the first aid supplies she’d stocked up on, Ethan laid back while she bathed his wounds with the healing tea. Cady patched him up expertly, clucking over the fact that the wound on his hand was already nearly healed (one of the properties of the tattoo, he explained).

  What a relief it was to let her undress him down to his boxer briefs, much as she had that first night, only this time he was conscious enough to help a bit. It didn’t seem real, these mundane actions, being undressed by a beautiful woman and tucked into bed, and Ethan had the sense of it all being a dream.

  If it was only a dream, he never wanted to wake up as she quickly stripped down to a tank top and panties, joining him under the covers. The danger quickly faded from the forefront of his mind, so did the memory of the pain until he reached for her and his side pulled painfully. Some things would have to wait for at least another day.

  All tucked in, she turned off the bedside lamp only to have him click it back on, grabbing for his cell phone.

  “I have to make a call before I can rest.”

  “At this hour? Not even the donut shop’s open for business yet.”

  “Trust me, they’ll be open.” The corner of his mouth tugged up into a half smile, dialing the number by memory. “Shaw,” he said succinctly, waiting through a series of clicks as he was transferred, holding a finger to his lips in warning as the feminine voice came on the line.

  “Identify.”

  “Shaw, sector twelve, number six five six zero nine.”

  “Acknowledged, Shaw, sector twelve, number six five six zero nine,” she replied. “Report.”

  “Subject Q is bound. I repeat, Subject Q is bound.” It was hard not to smile wide as he said the words, especially when Cady gave him a double thumbs up sign.

  “Acknowledged, Subject Q is bound,” she replied, the highest accolade he would receive. “Casualties?”

  “Minimal.” Though he knew Cady would disagree on that count.

  “Any complications?”

  His gaze fell to the girl on the bed beside him. “No, ma’am, nothing I can’t handle. I’ll have my final report uploaded by the week’s end.”

  There was silence on the line, but Ethan wisely held his tongue. “Acknowledged, Agent Shaw. Stand by for offloading schedule. Standard protocols apply.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Ethan hung up, not having to wait more than two minutes before he received a text, with a date, time and street address. He quickly committed them to memory and deleted the message before turning to face her. “Now, I’m all yours,” he sighed, smiling as Cady snuggled up to his side.

  “I like the sound of that.” She matched his sigh with a dreamy puff of air against the side of his neck and he curled his arm around her. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, thank you,” he murmured, already drifting as the need to hold tight to consciousness slipped away.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  There were a few trust issues to work out between them at first. Cady could admit to tensing a few times when he touched her, a tiny corner of her mind still wondering if Asherik lurked behind those blue eyes. Especially when he did something impossibly romantic (or borderline creepy if taken the wrong way), like filling her bedroom with flowers while she slept.

  Cady fretted over every slight change in behavior before she came to understand that it was a different side he was showing her. A lighter side, one he’d forgotten existed. In the days that followed, with no threat of doom and gloom, Ethan smiled more, brooded less. There were fewer lectures on safety and danger, except where he made her take precautions before coming to see him.

  It was agreed that they would keep their relationship a secret from her friends and family, in order to keep from explaining his involvement with the police. David Brown faded into obscurity and Barry Wilson rented an apartment in a renovat
ed loft in the Mission District. Cady settled back into her old life, moving back home with Ian, who watched her like a hawk at first, especially when she refused to tell him what happened while she was away.

  The police were less patient with her, Detective Lucas detaining her for questioning not long after she got home. Her boss, Dylan, had been charged with murder after being found in a dead hooker’s apartment, jibbering away insanely about the voices in his head. They’d found the blonde haired, blue eyed man in Dylan’s house who resembled Ethan so closely, nearly dead from blood loss. He also spoke about hearing voices when he regained consciousness and it was decided that the pair was in on it together before Dylan cracked and tried to kill his partner.

  Cady answered every question as closely to the truth as possible, but gave them very little information in the end. Yes, she was attacked by Dylan the night she ran away from home. No, she hadn’t met the blonde man before, but he certainly did look like her ex-boyfriend, David. No, she didn’t know where David was. After two hours of going around and around without breaking, Lucas let her go with a shake of the head.

  For a day or two, Cady looked over her shoulder every time she was out in public. She stayed away from Ethan at first, content with a few late night phone calls while Ian was at work, convinced the police were keeping tabs on her. Not that she shared those fears with Ethan; he had enough to deal with on his own.

  Writing up his report had taken up the better part of the week as he agonized over how much of her involvement to include. In the end he’d mentioned her as little as possible, completely omitting her role in the confrontation on the boat or the fact that he’d invited the demon to possess him.

  Besides the report, there were other things to consider, the police manhunt being one of them. But after a few contacts, Ethan assured her it would all be taken care of. Detective Lucas would receive a visit from a very convincing government official, advising that he’d stumbled upon an ongoing federal investigation. Any search for David Brown or any of his aliases would be discouraged.