Awakened (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 1)

by Shei Darksbane

I thought for a moment then nodded. “I could swing that. I’ll just swap a shift so we don’t have to rush back.”

  “Good. I will pick you up on the way out.” I caught an expression pass over his face as he obviously thought of something else. “Dakota, the green… burny hands you keep talking about… Can you show me?”

  I shrugged. “Sure. Just…” I glanced around.

  “No, not here.”

  “Yeah, I figured that would be a bad idea.” I glanced toward the camera on the wall behind me briefly.

  “Perhaps on our way out to Nashville then?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. We’ll just have to find some place safe to stop so I can show you.”

  Ralof hmph’d thoughtfully and nodded. “All right. We’ll want to leave a bit early. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  “Okay. I’ll be ready.” I gave him my address and we said goodbye. Andrei hopped up onto the concrete ramp and hugged me over the railing. I grinned as I protested, shooing him off so I could do my job.

  “All right. I’ll let you get back to standing there doing nothing!” Andrei teased as he hopped into the truck. They left me standing alone in the muggy Knoxville Summer night and I felt the emptiness of the lot around me more distinctly than ever before. The absence of their presence struck me and I realized that new or not, the pack was already a part of me. I needed them. And I hated being separated from them. This was an entirely new sort of experience for me, someone who had spent most of her life alone and generally avoiding human contact on even the most basic level. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t really even have a family except for Nan. Not as far as I was concerned, anyway. Nan was the only blood-related person I still spoke to at all. I wasn’t welcome back home, but I didn’t want to think about that right now. The feeling of having such people in my life again was distinctly preferable to the alternative, but I definitely wasn’t used to thinking of myself as part of a family anymore. I had been a loner for so long, it was kinda hard to adjust.

  I sighed and glanced around the parking lot and decided that standing still was only making matters worse. It was as good a time as any to do a good walk around. I shoved the last few fries in my mouth and headed for the nearest trash can. Walking a bit would clear my mind, and at least if I got myself moving, I’d be less likely to keep standing there fawning over the ghosts of Amorie’s touch that still lingered on my skin, and the ghosts of the past that wouldn’t leave my thoughts alone.

  I’d walked about a quarter of the perimeter when I heard a soft shuffling sound. I glanced toward the faint noise and saw nothing but an empty car that belonged to one of my co-workers and an empty soda can on the ground. I debated the thought that the sound could have been the wind pushing the can to the side. It hadn’t sounded metallic, and I’d felt my hearing was getting better ever since I’d Awakened. But there was no one there.

  I continued around the back side of the building. As soon as I turned the corner, a tingle went up my neck and I knew someone was watching me. I hadn’t heard any doors open so I knew it was not one of my fellow night guards stepping out for a smoke or anything like that. I decided to just keep walking and pay attention. If someone was out there, I didn’t want them to know I realized they were there. I reached into my pockets and pulled out my earbuds and stuffed them into my ears, leaving them loose enough that I could still hear well past them. I went through the motions of thumbing at my phone so it seemed like I was turning on music, and put it back in my pocket.

  As I passed the mid-point of the back edge of the building, I heard three definite footfalls by the corner behind me. Someone was following me. I was starting to panic. I’d dealt with intruders before, but what if this one wasn’t human? My mind went to the vampire from my first Awakened night. The wolf part of me was anxious and uneasy. I pictured her pacing back and forth, fur standing on end. In my imagination, she was snarling at something behind me. I wondered how “imagined” that really was.

  “Shepherd. All clear?” I nearly jumped out of my boots as the radio gave a sharp burst of static followed by Joe’s voice. I tried to catch my breath as I pulled the radio from my belt and clicked it on. “Far as I can tell. It’s so damn humid out here, I thought for a bit it was gonna rain.” I put the radio back on my belt as Joe responded with a “Ten-four.”. I picked up my pace and strode around the next corner toward the other side exit. The statement about rain was a code. It was a way to suggest suspicious activity without alerting someone if we thought we weren’t alone. Especially if we thought we weren’t safe. Joe would come out to check on me and I wouldn’t be alone if whatever was out there decided to show itself.

  As I rounded the corner, I angled myself just so and caught a glimpse of a dark figure striding slowly along behind me near the wall. Fear spiked in my chest as I stepped on around the corner, and the side door opened. Joe stepped out with a flashlight in one hand and his other hand on his sidearm. He flashed the light at me and I shielded my eyes as I hurried toward him. “Dakota? You okay?”

  As soon as he spoke, I felt the presence of the other person vanish. I hurried up to the side door all the same. A smart security guard didn’t take unnecessary risks. I nudged Joe back inside and closed the door behind us. “Call the cops. Have them do a drive around. I saw someone in the parking lot. Probably just some kid or a drunk, but better safe than sorry.”

  Joe caught my eyes and put a hand on my shoulder. “Hey. Dakota. Are you okay?”

  I realized I hadn’t answered him before. I nodded and fixed him with a stare. “I’m fine. Just gotta go piss.” I grinned to emphasize that I was my normal self. Joe didn’t seem fully convinced, so I urged him again, “Call the cops.”

  He blinked once then glanced away from me. “Right. Go on, I got it.” He didn’t meet my eyes again as he pulled out his phone.

  I thought about that as I walked away. Joe was my boss. He was a tough son of a bitch and he’d always been, well, bossy, to put it lightly. The way he’d reacted to my telling him what to do was about as normal as a Japanese music video. I pondered our exchange as I hurried off to the bathroom to make myself an honest woman.

  When I returned, Joe told me the cops were on their way and I followed him to the camera room to check the feeds, but I knew we wouldn’t find anything. Whatever was out there had left as soon as Joe had stepped out, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t come back tonight. Still, we spent the rest of the shift checking the feeds, walking our perimeters as a pair, and communicating with the friendly, read: incredibly grumpy, graveyard shift beat cop we’d been blessed with who was at least good enough to come back once an hour and drive around the building just to be sure.

  As our relief clocked in, Joe clapped me on the shoulder and said goodbye. “Hell of a night, Shepherd.” He hurried on out and I could tell he was as spooked by the whole affair as I had been. Maybe he realized he’d been following my lead all night too and maybe he was as weirded out by it as I was. Or maybe the spooky presence had bothered him too. Unawakened or not, people still knew when they were being watched. I wished I could ask him if he’d felt it too without coming off as crazy as a loon. After all, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen shadows lurking along behind me, and I had no proof that this one hadn’t just been another figment in my mind.

  15

  Catching Fire

  Ralof picked me up at 6:45 a.m. on the morning of our trip to Nashville. Since I was used to being up all night, sleeping after work the night before had been mostly fruitless and I’d given up after a couple of failed naps. I’d wanted to call Amorie before heading out, but had completely failed to consider that she, being a vampire, would be asleep by the time I’d thought about it at five o’clock in the morning. To be fair, I had no idea what she was doing at five in the morning. I had just assumed she would be sleeping in a coffin somewhere. That’s what vampires do. Right?

  I opened my door, mostly dressed, with a toothbrush in my mouth. Ralof smirked at me as I jerked my head in a gesture that said “Come
in”. He stepped into my tiny loft apartment and closed the door. I held up a finger and ran back into the bathroom. “Good morning to you too!” Ralof called from the entry way.

  I spit into the sink and called back. “Sorry! I’m almost done!” I pulled on a black button-down shirt over the bra and tank-top I’d already donned above a pair of black slacks and my nicer, black leather boots. I tugged at the shirt which was fitted to hug curves I didn’t have and sighed at my reflection. “Whatever.” I muttered as I smoothed down my hair and ran out to smile at my Alpha. “Ready.” Ralof was taking in my “lair” with an unreadable expression. I assumed he thought I was a slob, since I kinda was, so I tried to hurry him out the door.

  As we settled into the Ram, Ralof plucked a thermos of coffee from the center cup holder and handed it to me. It was hot and smelled awesome. “You’re the best Alpha ever. You know that?”

  Ralof grinned at me and pulled out of the parking lot. He drove us out of the city center and bypassed the first ramp to the interstate. I assumed he knew where he was going and took the time to perform the sacred coffee-drinking ritual that raises non-morning-people from the dead on a daily basis. By the time I’d finished my coffee, we were turning down a gravel road that ran into one of the myriad parks in the area. This one was more of a hiking trail hub than a proper park, and it wouldn’t likely be occupied this early in the morning on a weekday. I assumed this would be the spot Ralof had chosen to bear witness to my awesome hand-burning powers.

  We got out of the truck a moment later, wandering away from the small forest-bound parking lot toward one of the marked trail heads. “You know, the woods might not be the best place to try this out.” I commented idly as I followed Ralof into the tree-line.

  “You know, that crossed my mind as well.” He teased. “There is a rocky cliff just a couple hundred yards in, to the left.”

  I had to walk double-time to keep up with Ralof’s incredibly-tall-guy pace, and was soon puffing at the effort. “Sounds good boss.” He glanced at my breathy response. “Too damn early for jogging.” I flashed him a grin. Ralof shook his head.

  A moment later, we stepped into a broad clearing that ran, just as Ralof had suggested, right up to a rocky cliff. “Perfect.” I commented, glancing around. I stepped out in the the center of the empty space and settled my eyes on my hands. “So, I guess I’ll just… try this out.”

  Ralof took a step back from me. “Mmhmm.” His posture told me he was on alert.

  I sighed and extended my hands, closed my eyes and imagined them catching fire. There was a warm, tingling feeling in my arms, a rush of pressure in my head as if I hadn’t slept all night and… yeah I realized all of that was just me being tired. I opened my eyes and stared down at my hands. “Oh come on. You aren’t seriously going to do this to me, are you?”

  I flexed my hands, rolling my fingers and my neck. “Okay. Let’s do this. Green burny hands, go!” I extended my arms with a snap of my wrists. Nothing. I frowned. “Burny hands time!” I wiggled my fingers mystically. Nada. I glanced up at Ralof and shrugged with a sheepish grin.

  “How did it happen the first time?” He offered helpfully.

  “Hmm.” I considered how to answer that. I thought back to the first night, to the ritual that had opened my eyes and changed my life forever. I thought about the feelings I’d had at the time when the green fire had first made its appearance. I had just tackled a crazy guy with a crazy light show— No, he was a rogue wizard and he’d been casting some kind of ritual spell, I corrected myself. His spell had slammed into me when I’d tackled him. I hadn’t really realized how incredibly strange I had felt at the time. The rippling sensations of effervescent power had not registered to me then as it did now, looking back at that moment with open, Awakened eyes. I felt a shiver run up my back as I recalled the feeling of the power that rose within me, slowly at first, like a mild electrical pulse, and then more vibrantly as the flames had erupted from my palms. I have no idea what I did right, but I was as startled as anyone when my hands suddenly burst into flames.

  Ralof leaned back just slightly. “That… does not look healthy.” He was talking about the fire, I imagined. It looked downright diseased to me. Could fire be diseased? The light it put off was muted and weak, somehow dimmer than it had any right to be. “Can you control it?” He asked, staring at my hands thoughtfully.

  “I have no idea.” I admitted. I glanced at a rock on the ground near me and wondered if I could shoot the fire out of my hands like in the movies. I held out one verdant palm and thought about making the rock catch on fire. I tried to command the flames to jump to the rock. I even shouted a few classical magic words. But no amount of silent wishes or “Open Sesame’s” had any effect on the fire or the stone. I shrugged. “Okay, maybe not.”

  “It is all right Dakota. Once again, I fear I am definitely going to have to defer to the wisdom of others in this matter. Sorcery, unfortunately, is far beyond my area of expertise. But I will help you find the right help. That is all I can do for this part of your situation.”

  “Thanks, Ralof.” I smiled at him warmly.

  “Now put it away.” His voice was just slightly edgy, as if he were nervous, but he didn’t look afraid.

  “Okay.” I stared at my hands and the flames remained. “Crap. I have no idea how.”

  Ralof frowned. “That is not good. I doubt you should get in the truck like that.”

  “Yeah, no.” I glared at the flames and tried all the same methods I’d attempted to summon the flames with but in reverse. None of that made them go away. I frowned and thought about how they’d gone out during the first night. I had just been staring at them in abject horror. I hadn’t done anything. I had just stared at them until they’d quit burning. I tried to remember that moment, focusing on it mentally and emotionally. The flames suddenly flickered out. “Oh thank you Raptor Jesus.” I breathed, relieved.

  “Mm. I should not have asked you to do this.” Ralof commented, seemingly to himself. “The next time I have a pup with such talents on my hands, I believe I will take them to the experts first, and ask them to show me their tricks after they’ve learned more about them.”

  “That might be a good idea.” I smiled at him as we started for the trail. We returned to the parking lot and soon, Ralof had us back on our way to Nashville as planned.

  I watched the scenery roll by with drowsy eyes for a moment before remembering the other thing I wanted to talk to him about. “So, the other night at work, after you and Andrei left… something happened.”

  Ralof glanced at me briefly. “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I figure I should tell someone about it. But I’m kinda nervous.”

  “You do not have to be nervous with me Dakota. As your Alpha, you can tell me anything.”

  I shifted and put my feet up in the seat, leaning to the side to rest my neck against the door. “Oh I know. I just don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”

  Ralof hmph’d quietly. “Perhaps it is too late for that, eh?”

  I grinned to myself. “Maybe. But I don’t want you to think I’m crazier anyway.”

  “What happened, Dakota?”

  I tensed slightly. The tone in his voice seemed to compel me to answer him. I didn’t think he was trying to force me to talk, but it still felt odd. I had already noticed that when a more dominant wolf told me to do something, I seemed to want to do it. With the way the pack hierarchy worked, it was for the best, but I was still not used to feeling like I had to do as someone else told me. I squashed down the pride that nudged me toward purposeless rebellion and imagined I wouldn’t have minded so much if I hadn’t been actually a little scared to admit what I’d seen. “I saw a shadow form following me at work.”

  Ralof glanced at me again, his eyes lingering on me slightly longer this time before returning to the road. “A shadow form? Like the ones you described seeing before? The memory thing?”

  I nodded. “I think so. But it was different this time.”

 
“Different how?”

  I chewed at my lip for a few seconds before answering him. “I heard it this time. Heard a sound. And it felt more… I dunno. Real.”

  Ralof frowned concernedly. “Are you sure it was not something else?”

  I shrugged. “Not completely sure, but how could I be? I’m not experienced enough with supernatural stuff to be completely sure what it was, and it’s not like anyone else saw it. But it looked like the shadow figures I see. Just… none of them have ever made a sound before. None of them have seemed to follow me either. But mostly, none of them ever really scared me this much before either.”

  Ralof rumbled thoughtfully. “How certain are you that the shadows you see are in your head?”

  “I don’t know, Ralof. They have never done anything before. They’ve always seemed more like an optical illusion than an entity. This was the first time I’d ever felt like something was really there. It seems related to… whatever’s wrong with my head. And maybe Awakening has made the shadows more prominent. Maybe they were always more prominent and I, being Unawakened, simply never realized it.”

  “That is… reasonable.” Ralof didn’t sound convinced. “Perhaps another thing to bring up with SII.”

  I made a soft agreeing sound, my eyes slipping closed. The road lull and my inverted Circadian rhythm were starting to drag on me.

  “Dakota?” he asked after a minute.

  “Hmm?” I peeked up at him sleepily.

  “Is there anything else? Besides blackouts and shadows? Anything else you have not mentioned? Even if it seems insignificant, it could be important.” I could hear the worry in his tone.

  “Not really.” I immediately frowned at myself. “Er, well, maybe.” I had to think about it for a moment. My brain was too sleepy to work it out easily and the coffee I’d drank earlier felt like it was much further away than it actually was. “I have holes in my memory, as I said before. Sometimes if I think about those times, it gives me a bad headache. Sometimes bad enough I have to lay down. A couple of times, bad enough I’ve passed out from it. But I learned long ago not to push that hard.”