Winter Shadows

by Richard Amos

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  About the Author

  Also by Richard Amos

  Copyright © 2018 Richard Amos

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by JMN Art

  Formatting by Gina Formats Words

  Chapter One

  The beach was quiet, too quiet for my liking. Even the waves seemed to whisper.

  Naomi walked beside me as we patrolled the sand down by the water’s edge, her hand resting on her potion belt as if she were in a western movie about to draw a pistol. Her potions were much better than any gun—came with more of a bang, with added bells and whistles that only a witch like her could concoct.

  The white sparks that lit up my hands whenever a beast was near were active, so I knew we weren’t alone.

  Dean and Greg were up on Rainbow Mile, patrolling Coldharbour’s premium shoreline entertainment stretch for more of the toadies that’d been plaguing this area for the past week or so. Fuckers. I hated them, all slimy and slippery in all senses of the words.

  Still, as Greg had said, it was better now that the beasts could be killed by my hand—only by my hand. Seeing as they’d plagued the city for three years, there was a balancing of odds. Sort of. There were still more of them than there were of me. Yeah, the pressure that came with that didn’t let up, especially as three people had been dragged into the sea this week by the toadies, their bones washing up picked clean of all flesh.

  “Come on,” Nay said. “Show your damned faces.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Suspense is killing me.” They were somewhere in that dark water, watching our every move.

  “It’s a shame you can’t dip your hands in and snag them,” Nay said. “A real shame.”

  It was. Unfortunately, my sparky power didn’t react to water like electricity did—so I couldn’t do some electro-fishing while they swam about in the waves, mocking me. In fact, it didn’t react to anything but beast. Well, actually, for some reason, it didn’t like televisions. When the sparks were on and a TV was off, it was all fine. But if they were on and so was the TV… KABOOM! Not one of us had any idea why.

  “Maybe I’ll level-up.”

  “Level-up?”

  “You know, after I’ve loaded up on enough experience points. Maybe electro-fishing will be one of my powers.”

  “Ah, I’m sorry you’re banned from video games, babe.”

  “So unfair!” The game Greg had currently been playing sounded so awesome, as he liked to remind me time and time again. Being banned from being near any TV sucked balls in the bad way. Luke, the beast who lived on the mansion grounds, couldn’t set my power off when I was in Greg’s room—a safe distance away from Luke. Still, the risk was worth it, apparently.

  Damn.

  “Has the flower said anything about levelling up?” Nay asked.

  “She didn’t react when I asked her.”

  “You asked the goddess Hecate about levelling up? I was joking!”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” It was only last night actually, in my regular flower dream, when I’d put the question to her. “You don’t know unless you ask, right?”

  She chuckled. “You do crack me up, babe.”

  There was a splash in the sea. Shapes moved in the water, cutting through the gentle waves.

  “Here we go,” I said.

  Two beasts burst out of the water—humanoid bodies with toad feet, slimy skin, legs with the ability for some hardcore jumping, the head of a toad with a huge mouth, bulging, white pupil-less eyes, and a long tongue for catching prey. They were also completely naked with all of their human-looking male and female bits on display. The two beasts split up, one circling Nay and the other one me. My opponent lashed out with its tongue, the sticky horror coiling around my legs and sending me crashing to the sand, all in a blur of seconds.

  “Bastard!”

  The toadie sprang, landing above me, lowering its face for closer inspection with its oily, black eyes.

  Man, did it stink. “Like what you see?”

  I went to grab its head for a killing touch. Its tongue lashed out, whipping tightly around my neck.

  “O, yeffss, werry muschhh!” the beast said. I got an unwelcome eyeful of limp, dark green penis as it stood straighter, tightening its grip around my neck.

  Gross.

  My larynx was on the brink of being crushed. Thank God the beast had made an error. I grabbed the tongue. Ah, the sweet sound of sizzling beast flesh. I loved my sparks. The toadie shrieked and leapt back, the tongue retracting back into its gob as fast as a startled sea anemone.

  “Viciouffff!” the toadie spat.

  “There,” I said, “now I can actually understand you. You have a bit of lisp now though.”

  “I tafffted …” He fell to one knee. A black ooze dripped out of his mouth. “Muffft heal …”

  It made to get up, clearly thinking it was gonna head on back to the waves and heal itself up in that undying beast way.

  Bollocks to that!

  “I’m now going for the finale, the head shot of head shots.” My white sparks went wild as I tore up the distance between us. The toadie screamed, and I grabbed him by the head before he could do anything else.

  I was inside the toadie. Every beast had a place like this inside them with the fog and the glowing, golden diamond-shaped light containing the essence of a beast, rotating mid-air. Breaking the jewel was the only way to kill a beast, and only my power could access and crack and devour the golden thing. I reached out, white sparks going crazy. The jewel spun, agitated, probably wishing it had legs to get the hell out of there. But all hope was lost to it. Only true beast death remained once I came to this place.

  I touched the jewel and my power consumed it, an army of white sparks spreading all over the gold.

  I returned to the beach, golden shards of light dripping off me.

  I’d fed the power inside me, and it felt so, so good.

  I licked my lips, hungry for more.

  “Have some of this!” Nay threw a potion and it sent out a wave of incredible heat. The toadie near her roared in agony, falling to the sand as its skin dried out.

  I played my part, snuffing the beast out.

  When I returned to the be
ach again, a tongue latched around Nay’s neck. A third toadie had joined the party and was dragging her way.

  “Nay!”

  As I went to tear after her, another one of the bastards was on me. It grabbed the hem of my black coat, twisting it into a position where I couldn’t turn to fight or shrug it off.

  The sensation of my power’s defensive move rose to the surface. Dark blue energy burst from my hands and engulfed me in a dark cocoon. My breath caught in my chest. The toadie went flying across the beach as soon as his skin met the inky shield. I shuddered as the defense died off, slightly unsteady on my feet.

  Head ringing, I ran to help Naomi as yet another toadie joined her captor and secured her legs. Dean and Greg would’ve been feeling the ultimate SOS down the connection we all had—quite handy seeing as there was no time to scramble for the SOS fob in my pocket to ping their phones.

  My face met the sand as my legs were whipped from beneath me. The toadie I’d sent flying, as well as two new players, watched with trepidation, keeping a safe distance as the power in my hands crackled angrily.

  I scrambled to my feet, only to be knocked back down again by three vicious tongues.

  “Fuck you!” I roared.

  “Dead killer!” the three beasts said in unison.

  I rolled across the sand to my nearest assailant, lunging for a leg to sizzle, to bring one of the bastards down to my level so I could grab its head and send it into the final goodnight.

  All it got me was a kick in the stomach, the wind knocked out of me. Another foot met my face, bursting my lip open.

  “Pricks …” I spat blood at them. Defiantly, I got to my knees, expecting to kiss the sand once more. I didn’t. I met their eyes. Nay’s SOS thrummed in my bones as they dragged her away. Fuck!

  “Can you taste the blood, my kin?” one of them said to another. “Its delicious scent sweetens the air, makes it almost edible.”

  “Is it poison?”

  “No, my kin—”

  “Don’t even try eating me, because you’ll definitely choke, or explode—hopefully both.” Blood ran down my chin.

  The toadies laughed. “He speaks boldly.”

  Green light sparkled on my skin, my healing power doings its thing after a thirty second wait. My lips were all better.

  “Jake!”

  Greg! I saw him and Dean running down the beach. Two toadies were ahead of them.

  A flash of fire and heat and the toadies on Nay were shrieking.

  I stood. Predictably, a tongue coiled around my leg, and I was on my back again. But this time I moved quickly, grabbed the tongue and burned through it. The beast shrieked, sucking what was left of its tongue back into its mouth. Two tongues grabbed my legs and lifted me, throwing me across the beach. I landed hard on my right shoulder, skidded through the cold sand. It hurt like hell, but it was better than concrete. Still, even if it was, I could take this shit far better than a regular human—being a weapon of the goddess Hecate and all that.

  Adrenaline was pumping and so was my power’s desire to feed … my desire to feed. The two were interchangeable. I tore across the sand as Greg and Dean jumped into the fight, as well as the two new players. Seven beasts against four. Not bad. Nay was ready with another vial of heat as I took down the two she’d just blasted.

  Five against four now.

  Job done, the others were still standing and pointedly shrivel-free.

  Bollocks!

  “I friggin’ missed!” Nay bellowed as her feet were whipped out from beneath her.

  Greg’s punches were intense, his fists boulders. Dean, leaping to his feet after being sent to his backside, was lighter, throwing high-kicks and agile ninja moves. Nay was the same, the grueling training we all did was so worth it. She delivered a sweet uppercut to one of the beasts.

  Not that I was standing back and watching the show. No. I wasn’t one to pull off the awesome moves they did, not yet anyway. But I knew how to bloody fight. And fight I did, getting into a proper scrap. Tongues didn’t come near me now, the lesson learned. But feet did. I took a blow to the shin, roared and head-butted the fucker. I really needed to stop doing that. It was becoming my go-to move lately. Well, it was pretty flippin’ effective.

  Hands met a head and my killing touch was administered again.

  Nay said a spell which made one of them turn upside down. Another kill delivered.

  Dean took a kick to the gut, crashing into Greg. I moved quick, killing the kicker.

  Two left.

  Man, were they shitting themselves. The amber ribbon of light, seen only by me, coiled around their slimy legs. It was their fear, all pretty and delicious-looking. I licked my lips.

  This hunger bit both creeped me out and made me feel so damn good. And there was nothing like a good feeding, drinking down that beast essence into my core.

  Five down, two to go, and then my feast is complete …

  As scared as they were, they didn’t back down. How far would they get anyway? They knew they wouldn’t get down to the sea.

  “Come on!” I yelled.

  Together as four, we charged at them. In their last bid at victory, the toadies surged to meet us. But they were outnumbered. Fists, feet and a dash of magic brought them to the grand finale that was me.

  It was done.

  Warmth filled me like a warm bowl of hearty soup on a bitterly cold day as the last golden shards fell from my hands. I reveled in the dark euphoria as the green light came to patch up some of the spots where I’d taken some heavy hits.

  I was high, higher than I’d ever been on coke. And so bloody horny!

  No, I had to quell that shit. I didn’t think about sex, not since my husband’s murder. He was my lover, no one else. There was no room in my life for that anymore.

  Still, it didn’t stop the stirring in my crotch. I pushed it away, ignoring the firmness in my jeans. Gross! Kill and get randy? How barbarian of me!

  “You okay?” Dean asked.

  “Fine, cheers,” I said. “You? You guys?”

  He nodded. “Fine.”

  “Good,” Nay said.

  “Okay, mate,” Greg finished.

  “Slippery bastards,” Nay said. “Got a little bit worried there. Thought I was going to be spread on crackers and served with wine tonight.”

  Toadies dined on human flesh, especially humans with supernatural abilities—though they were lacking in Coldharbour these days. They’d been quiet since the war that had taken out most of the supernatural population, before my days here, and the humans that had fought alongside them. But they were hungry again.

  “Not gonna happen,” I said.

  “Too right, it ain’t! I haven’t had a chance to wear my new boots yet.”

  I chuckled lightly. They were really nice boots.

  Dean, dressed all in black as usual, looking dangerous and, well, like sex on legs, was in silent and slightly broody mode.

  Sex on legs? Damn! I blamed the stupid, unwanted horniness—and the fact that he was fae and naturally hot.

  I gave myself a good old mental slap to snap the hell out of it.

  Greg, on the other hand, was just …in pain. No matter what, he had loved his girlfriend, Crystal. The unforgiving nature of Coldharbour’s beast problem, the lie of the city still being a city, all of us hidden away from the world outside while the beasts plagued the streets, all contributed to him not being able to be the man Crystal had wanted him to be. Well, supposedly. What she really had been was a murderer, one who removed the lungs from her victims and had killed a good friend of my guardians before I’d arrived—Wendy. Still, Greg had loved Crystal.

  Nay had been Crystal’s friend, but didn’t mention her now. She was clearly hurt too. I didn’t push anything. I hated being pushed when I lost Michael. I didn’t want to talk or let it all out and be told it’ll get better. That was complete crap. I wasn’t better. I missed him. If it weren’t for this whole me being a weapon of the goddess thing, I’d still be on the hunt to kill t
he white eye guy—his murderer.

  I hadn’t seen that prick since I’d killed Crystal.

  “Babe?” Nay said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Your hands.”

  My sparks were still going. I’d been so elated with the kills, that I hadn’t noticed! Shit! That meant beasts were still around somewhere. More toadies in the waves?

  No, not toadies. Something else.

  She was striding down the sand, her hair a brighter shade of purple than it had been the last time I’d had the misfortune of looking at her. Short and round with a really bad attitude, Dana wanted nothing more than to see me dead. Her wheelchair-bound old lady friend, also known as the fallen Supreme beast Lilisian, was not with her. Thank God, because she really gave me the bloody creeps!

  “Purple,” I said. Dana was too human a name for that heartless bitch. Purple worked better.

  What I’d discovered about the beasts and their hierarchy, is that the higher-ranked, the more skilled the beast was at hiding from my power. Dana was either Gentry or Regal—I was going for Regal, but that part hadn’t been figured out yet. She could have got the drop on us if she really wanted, but something told me she wanted to feast her eyes on my spark show—enjoyed it.

  Bitch.

  A man was with her, sobbing. Poor thing was emaciated and dirty, shivering from the cold. His suit was torn, and his forehead was bleeding.

  “Hello,” the purple bitch said, stopping some feet away. “How are you all?”

  “Oh, you know,” I said, “just enjoying being by the seaside.”

  My sparks brightened, spat violently. Man, did I want to kill her.