Shadow Hunted

by L. A. Johnson

  As soon as Lydia opened the door, she was hit by a wall of sound and energy. The screaming was terrible. It wasn’t human. Lydia covered her ears and then dropped to her knees, her sword clanging on the ground. The ghosts outside were a decoration, but whatever was going on in here was real.

  The sound of the screaming was so debilitating on all of her senses that she had to remind herself why she was here. Kade. She grabbed her sword, got up from where she was kneeling and staggered toward his office. That was as good a place as any to start. As she darted down the hallway, she glanced at the large living room which held the couch she was on earlier today after the soul sucker attacked her. She couldn’t even see the couch, though, because there were spirits circling around the room and screeching at old, feeble mages hiding behind chairs and tables. Wraiths. Oh shit, this is worse than I thought.

  She crashed into Kade’s door and then shut it behind her. Kade was at his desk with a flashlight flipping furiously through the pages of a book. It was much larger and older looking than the one he had pulled out earlier. She felt a moment of relief at finding him and then a flash of anger at everything that was going on in her life right now.

  Kade looked up at her. “Lydia. As usual, you pick the worst times to come barging in here. You made it this far, so you’ve probably figured out that I’m a little busy at the moment.” He had a point. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to warn you, you pompous ass. I shouldn’t have. I should have left you to whatever this is.”

  “Can’t really talk right now,” Kade answered, “up to my eyeballs in wraiths. You might have seen them on the way in. I’m trying to save the day. If I don’t get rid of these things soon, they will suck up every bit of magic in this place. You know what we’ll be then? A very expensive bingo parlor. I don’t think either of us want that. Either help or stay out of my way.”

  Lydia had heard of wraiths, but despite being a partially supernatural being herself, there were some things she honestly thought were made up. It had been a bad week for her understanding of reality. “How bad is it?” she asked.

  “It’s bad,” he said, continuing to flip through pages. “We’ve lost at least a third of our members already, and now I’m looking through forbidden magic to figure out a way to survive.” For the first time, he looked up at her with a sad expression. “I’m sorry, Lydia.”

  That sent a new shiver down her spine. Kade had lots of things to apologize for over the years, but she had never heard those words leave his lips. “What have you done now, Kade?”

  “You shouldn’t have come in here. The perimeters are all magically sealed. Nobody gets out. It’s us or them. If I can’t find a way to kill these things soon, legal or otherwise, then we’re all dead. Including you.”

  “Perfect,” Lydia said. “And here I was thinking I’d just warn you and then leave. So your ‘help or get out’ directive earlier was just optimism?”

  “I’m still trying to figure everything out,” he snapped back. Then his face brightened. “I found it!” he said, looking down at the book and rising from his chair dramatically. He mumbled as he speed-read the page. His expression got even happier and then it fell.

  “What?” Lydia asked.

  “There’s no way,” he said, shaking his head. “At my best, even with this spell, I might defeat half a dozen of them, and there are at least twice that many out there right now.” Then he banged the book on the table. “Shit. I need dark magic to even make this work.”

  Lydia shot him a look. “Idiot. I have dark magic, remember? As of today, I’m a magic rebel monster you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. And of course, now you need my help. Again, how convenient for you.”

  Kade mumbled something, she could only assume it was from the book he had picked up and was re-reading. “Dark fae, there might be a way. You’re right, you might be able to help after all, Lydia.”

  Lydia took a few deep breaths. “Oh good, rhyming insults. How specifically can I save your ass again tonight?”

  “You’re not going to like it,” Kade said.

  “Then it’ll be exactly like every other interaction we’ve ever had. Are we going to do this or not?”

  He ran back to his desk to read the page again. The flashlight made his face look spooky.

  “Why don’t we just turn on the lights?” Lydia asked.

  “That would attract too much attention. They’d be on us in seconds. That’s what those idiots did when the attack started. I said ‘shut up and don’t turn on any lights’ and what do they do? The opposite of what I told them. And now most of them are dead. Okay, it says here that we need a few drops of your blood.”

  “Of course,” Lydia said.

  He kept reading while he pulled a candle holder out of his desk drawer. He mumbled again. “Put the drops of heathen magic blood in the container and then.” He looked up at her. “Heathen magic is another name for dark magic,” he said to her.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I got that. Actually, I think I like the term heathen magic better.”

  “Be serious, Lydia!” he said to her before turning back to his book. A wrinkle appeared on his forehead as he read. “No. That’s not possible,” he said at last.

  “What?” Lydia asked. She took out her sword and prepared to cut her finger. “You said you needed my blood, right?” The screaming outside of the office was horrible. Lydia was ready to do whatever it took to get the hell out of this place.

  “The spell needs both of our blood,” Kade said.

  “No way,” Lydia said. “That’ll connect us forever. Ick.”

  “I’m not any happier about it than you are,” he said, “and our only other choice is to be dead together. Would you rather be dead?”

  “I’m thinking,” she said, pouting. “Fine. I don’t want to be dead.”

  She approached his desk and held a finger over the candle holder. “Now?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Now. While we’re still alive.”

  “I hate you,” she said as she cut her finger and let her blood drip into the candleholder. She figured she could just add this to the growing list of regrets she was collecting. “When this is all over, after you’ve answered all of my questions to my complete satisfaction, I’m still going to kick your ass.”

  “Whatever,” He said. “If we survive this you may do as you wish.”

  “Oh, I wish.”

  He added his blood to the candle. He wasn’t paying attention to her anymore, though. His mind was fully engaged with the spell.

  “What happens next?” Lydia asked.

  He looked up. His eyes were wide and creepy. “Okay, this feels like it will work. When the spell is done, we’re going to have no time to lose.”

  “What the hell am I supposed to do here? You never allowed me to train? And now I have dark magic I’m supposed to use on these wraiths? Couldn’t you get in trouble for this? Couldn’t I get in trouble for this?”

  “Oh, most definitely. If the wrong mages find out, I could die a horrible death. Worse even than death by Wraith. But I will not let the entire mage order go down. Not like this. Are you ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m going to say the spell, and then the mixed blood will rise in a black circle. Then we’ll have ten minutes or fewer to kill all the wraiths.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “You’ll point at them, use your dark magic, and say: ‘mori stultus exspiravit.’”

  “That’s very specific,” Lydia said. “What does it mean?”

  “Directly translated, it means ‘die stupid ghost.’”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Lydia asked.

  “Have you ever known me to have a sense of humor? Besides, in this situation, it’s not so much the words you say, it’s the attitude.”

  Lydia figured it was best to move on. “Okay, the spell just takes an attitude. I can do that. How do I use magic?”

  “All it takes is focus. Concentrate, feel
the attitude of the spell, and let it loose.”

  “That’s it?” Lydia asked.

  “That’s it,” Kade answered, oblivious to the savage look she was giving him. Then he caught sight of her expression. “What?”

  “All these years and you couldn’t spare a second to fill me in on the secrets of your universe? Or were you trying to hide from me the fact that all of your magic knowledge would fit onto a Reddit meme?”

  He looked at her, and his face was desperate. “We don’t have time for this, Lydia.”

  “Fine, what kind of range are we going to have?”

  “I don’t know, we will be winging it from here on out, but at least we’ll have a chance.” He looked up at her. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  He spoke a strange sentence at the candle that now held both of their blood. Lydia felt a surge of power and a new connection to Kade. She could feel his fear and anger and his concern for the mages in his care. She even thought, for a moment, that she felt a fleeting sense of concern for herself. She thought for a moment, maybe, that she even felt something similar to affection toward Kade. It confused her. She wondered if he could sense her thoughts and emotions as well.

  “Knock it off and focus,” Kade said.

  And the warm fuzzy feeling toward him is gone, she thought.

  Kade continued the spell. A black circle rose from the empty candle holder and hovered for a moment. Then it burst like a heavy, inky bubble. Once it burst, it left bright red blood drops all over Kade’s desk and the book that was still open.

  “That’s it,” Kade said. “Showtime. Drop the sword. It’ll be useless anyway.”

  Lydia shook her head. “No, I don’t think I will. This sword is going to stay with me, thank you very much. We’ve been over this.” Tonight was certainly going differently than she had hoped. And there was no way she was giving up her sword. “What’s the plan, Kade?”

  He beat her to the door and threw it open. “The first thing we will do is turn on every light in that room.” He pointed to a small alcove outside of his office. “If we draw them all in there, we can kill them.”

  Lydia couldn’t help but admire the gutsy plan. It was high risk and high reward. Win or die trying. She followed Kade who was already switching on all the lights. He had told her to point at them and what to say, but she still had no idea what to expect. What was more worrying was the fact that he said he could only take out six of them. She didn’t know how many wraiths there were, and she guessed that he hadn’t taken a head count.

  Once there was enough light in the room, the wraiths came. They came from all angles at once. She screamed. Kade’s plan was working, the light was drawing them in. She counted at least eight, and they continued to flood in from other areas of the mansion.

  She felt a jolt of icy pain from somewhere behind her. She wheeled to see that more of them were coming in from behind. “There’s a lot of wraiths, Kade,” she yelled.

  “Remember the spell,” he said, “mori stultus exspiravit.” At his words, a beam of pale blue light went out of his hand, barely visible, and hit an advancing wraith. The wraith wailed and then descended to the ground. It continued to fall below the floor and disappeared with a pop. It worked, but Kade dropped to one knee.

  “Kade, are you okay?” Lydia ran around a wraith to check on him. She needed him to be okay. She did not know what was going on. Thankfully, he got back up.

  “Start zapping ghosts, Lydia, or we’re all dead.”

  “Okay,” she said, backing up and trying to focus. “But it would have been really nice if I had any experience with this magic stuff before it was a life and death situation.”

  Kade zapped another wraith. “Lydia!”

  “Okay,” she said, sucking in a breath. “Here goes nothing.” She pointed her hand at the nearest wraith and said the words, “Die, stupid ghost.”

  She watched as the beam of light shot out from her hand and hit the wraith. So far so good. The moment that the beam of light connected, however, there was a backlash of emotions that hit her and knocked her off of her feet and into the wall behind her. It literally knocked the breath out of her. She lay at the bottom of the wall gasping. Much to her surprise, once the beam contacted the wraith, there was some sort of bridge that allowed it to communicate all of its emotions back at her in a rage that was physically and emotionally overwhelming. Kade had failed to mention that would happen.

  All she could do was try to breathe again as she watched it sink beneath the floor with another pop. Then she struggled to get up as more of the beings surrounded both her and Kade. She got to one knee as another wraith charged her. Out of time, she lifted her hand again and said the words. Another beam of light, another wave of agony. She hit the back wall again, only this time the physical jolt of the wall helped. Without the physical pain to hold on to, she was sure she would have lost consciousness. “Two down,” she muttered, “only eighteen more to go.”

  Kade had taken out four of them to her two, but the math wasn’t working in their favor. Even with six eliminated, there were still at least a dozen. Of all the ways she thought she might eventually die, fighting side by side with Kade in a forbidden magic battle wasn’t one of them.

  The wraiths suddenly mobbed Kade. They had probably figured out he had the stronger magic. He screamed and fell to the floor. There were beams of light shooting from the wraiths down at him. He was writhing on the floor and screaming. Lydia could only guess that was how the wraiths suck the magic and the life out of people.

  She ran in his direction, waving her left hand in a semicircle. She screamed the spell. Then she pulled her sword out. In the presence of supernaturals, as usual, it burst into flame. Then she jumped into the wraith pile on top of Kade, screaming and slashing. The spell she screamed took out two of the wraiths. And then, much to her surprise, the sword cut across the beams of light aimed at Kade. That broke the connection the wraiths had on him somehow, allowing him to get up and continue the fight.

  The double wraith elimination blowback hit Lydia. She dropped her sword and fell to the ground. The wave of psychic energy hit her mind. It knocked her inside of herself somehow, and the rest of reality faded away. It was a terrifying feeling, and she tried with the last of her strength to reach out and hold on. The last thing she saw was Kade getting back up and spinning and snarling and casting spells. Then the rest of the world faded into black.

  Eighteen

  Lydia woke up. It was morning. She could tell by the light streaming into the windows of the mage mansion living room. She was lying on the same couch where Kade had told her she had dark magic yesterday. Was that only yesterday? There was a blanket on her, and she had a splitting headache. I guess that means I’m alive.

  Memories came back to her. Or maybe it had all been a bad dream. Something about wraiths and a nutcase ginger Viking mage and a weirdo with a million teeth. She sat up. It was a bad idea. The world swirled around her, so she lay back down.

  She heard footsteps. There were mages walking around, so some of them were alive too. The events of the last couple of days came back to her in a fuzzy haze, but they weren’t in any kind of order. Why was she even here?

  She checked her watch. It was eleven in the morning. Oh no, she had to stop Algorath from taking away her powers. Maybe. It all felt so confusing. She tried to sit up again, and again it didn’t work. She closed her eyes to let everything settle.

  “Easy, Lydia,” said a voice nearby. Lydia opened her eyes. It was Kade. He was sitting in an easy chair beside the couch.

  “I don’t have time for easy,” Lydia said. “I have to do your job and go take out that evil mage.”

  Kade smiled at her. It was weird. He looked tired. His hair was even messed up.

  Everything from the past couple of days came back to Lydia. “What happened last night? And why did you guys let me sleep so late?”

  Lurch chimed in. “It took the last bit of Kade’s magic to heal you. Otherwise you would have
been unconscious for the next four or five days.”

  “Oh, hi Lurch!” Lydia said. “I’m glad you made it.”

  “Thanks to your heroics last night, we’re all still alive.” Kade said. “Last night you said you came here to warn me. How did you know we were under attack?”

  Lydia sat up. This time it worked. “Zack and I used your stupid magic rock to find the guy who summoned the soul sucker. It was some hipster yuppy at a coffee shop. But then the real evil mage showed up. Some ginger Viking named Algorath. He said he had taken care of you, and not in a good way. I came to check on you and ended up in a wraith war zone with no way out. Thanks for that.”

  “What did this Algorath mage want?” Kade asked.

  Lydia thought about it. She would not tell Kade about the deal he offered her. It truly was none of his business. She replayed last night’s conversation in her head and then remembered. “He said he’s starting a dark mage order. He’s planning on taking you out and last night he nearly succeeded.” Lydia got up and stretched. “I’d watch my back if I were you.”

  “That’s not all he said,” Kade said.

  “That’s all he said that concerns you,” Lydia answered. All she wanted to do now was what she wanted to do last night, get out of there. She had a lot to think about. She had fought side by side with him, but only to survive. It no longer mattered to her if they were connected or not. There was no way she was going to be able to get past the years of his lies. She rummaged around on the sofa and found her sword. “I’ve got to go.” She looked at Kade. “Take care.”

  “You mean goodbye,” he said quietly.

  She headed to the door. “You can interpret it any way you want.”

  As soon as she got back to her car, she knew where she needed to go to think. The forest. It was her biggest fear, but it had also kicked off all the Shadow Slayer stuff. She now knew what had happened that day when she fought that tree goblin thing. She had survived not because of luck but because of magic. Her own dark magic. It was there even before the soul sucker enhanced it. Kade had known it all along, and now she did too. The last few days had changed everything she ever knew about herself. Her thoughts roamed wildly until she pulled into the same dirt parking lot.