Awake in Shadows

by Eve Langlais

  “Ugh.” Adara stamped her foot. “Stop screwing with me. Take me to the other place I want to see.”

  But the mist ignored her. Her lips pressed into a tight line. There had to be a way to that other place. A path.

  Adara looked down at her body. She didn’t see the thread that tethered her to someone. The hidden tie that bound her to a stranger.

  Except they obviously weren’t a stranger. She ran her hand down her belly, feeling nothing.

  Do I really want to tug on that thread? The last time something had awoken, it saw her.

  Recognized her.

  And then tried to kill her.

  Kill her now or kill her later, what was the difference? Adara clenched her eyes shut and put herself into a meditative space, clearing her mind and thoughts. She then looked inward. Looked into the core of her being. Searched for a thread. A hidden tie. But the witch, having found it once, had weakened the magic concealing it.

  Faint. So very, very faint, yet Adara found it. Ran a ghostly finger along the thin tendril. It vibrated.

  She waited.

  Waited in that gray place.

  “Who are you?” The three words startled her despite her deliberate act. She blinked and lost sight of the thread.

  But the voice followed. “Who. Are. You?”

  The reply: “Forsaken.” She bit down. That wasn’t her name. Wasn’t who she was. “Can you hear me?” A tentative query that was immediately sucked into the swirling morass.

  “Where are you…are you…you…?” The words echoed in the fog, twining around her limbs. She sucked and held in a breath. Her skin prickled.

  “Who is it? Where are you?” The query was flat. Not one reverberation.

  She should have felt fear at the intrusion on her gray space. Yet she found herself more curious. What was the worst that could happen? She’d already experienced torture beyond compare. The witch had told her she wouldn’t live for long.

  If I’m going to die, then at least let me die knowing who I am.

  “Do you know me?”

  The mist grew thicker, and there was no reply. The chill in the place brushed past her, colder than ever, pimpling her skin. It tested her. Tasted her scent.

  She held still.

  A low voice emerged from the fog. “It is you.” Hissed. “You betrayed me.”

  “I don’t even know who you are.”

  “Liar.” Spat and harsh. The mist coalesced into a shape that strode towards her.

  Big. Menacing.

  Adara took a step back, and her breathing stuttered. At her side, her fists clenched. The urge to flee hummed strongly within.

  But running wouldn’t solve anything. For all his frightening appearance, the mist figure couldn’t hurt her for real. This was a dream. She only had to wake up if it got too intense.

  The realization bolstered Adara’s nerve. She stood firm.

  The figure approached with slow, ponderous steps of intent, his features shrouded in mist. No mistaking his very male lines. Much taller than Adara, taller than most men. He was wide, too. But not barrel-chested. His silhouette proved trim and athletic. However, what did he look like? Even though he stood near her, she could see nothing of his face, just the basic impression of shape, with the nose outlined but the mouth and eyes darker pits.

  Not exactly the most reassuring appearance. For all that he was hidden, he apparently could see her.

  “Who are you?” Rather than reply to her question, he mused aloud. “The scent is hers. The trail leads here, and yet you are not who I expected.” The fog hand moved towards Adara’s face, and she retreated.

  “No touching. I don’t know who you are.”

  He spoke as if he didn’t hear her. “You are quick. But many are rapid on their feet.” He cocked his fog head forward. His voice low and musing. “The eye color is hers, but the rest of you…” He retreated and bobbed his head in a slow appraisal. “The rest is all wrong.”

  His words mirrored how she felt every time she gazed into a mirror.

  “Who do you think I am?” A soft plea tinged her query.

  “You are an impossibility. A wishful dream. A cruel mockery.” The bitter harshness in his claim hit her hard. “Who are you? Why do you pretend to be her?”

  “Who is this her? Tell me.”

  Laughter barked from fog man. “Obviously, not her, for she never asked. She took.”

  “Please.” She reached out but didn’t touch. “I don’t remember anything of my past.”

  “A likely excuse.”

  “The truth.” Then, because he wouldn’t answer, she asked her own burning question. “Who are you?”

  “Who are you?” he countered, whirling from her and stomping a few paces away.

  She saw no reason not to reply. “Adara.”

  “I know no Adara.”

  “It’s not my real name. It’s the one they gave me.”

  “Who did?”

  “If you want me to share, tell me who you are.”

  “As if you don’t know. You bear my mark. Yet I don’t know you. Which means, someone moved the mark. Who? Did she transfer it?”

  “Who is this she you keep talking about?” Adara asked.

  He opened his mouth. She knew he did even though she couldn’t see it clearly, and he said something. A name…a name she wasn’t allowed to hear. Fierce pain erupted in her head. Debilitating agony.

  She dropped to her knees, gasping for air. Holding her head.

  She heard a surprised, “What magic is this?”

  Forget. The command hit Adara hard before sinking her into extreme pain, the kind that saw her sitting upright with a strangled scream on her lips, her body covered in a sheen of sweat.

  Titus held her hand, or rather she held his in a crush that didn’t appear healthy for his smooshed appendage.

  “Wake up, dearest. You are safe.”

  She panted, the remnants of the agony making her limbs tremble. “Did he follow?”

  “Who?”

  “The mist man. He was so real. He recognized me and didn’t.”

  “You’re not making any sense,” Titus said. “What happened?”

  “Didn’t you see?” she asked. In the past, Titus merely had to touch her to be drawn into her nightmares.

  He shook his head. “I awoke because you began to scream. I am sorry I could not stop the nightmare.”

  “I don’t know if it was a nightmare.” There was a sense of realism to it as if she’d really spoken to someone.

  “It obviously caused you pain,” Titus remarked.

  “Which is gone now.” Adara released him and swung her legs out of bed. “Talk about intense.”

  “Intense how?” Titus asked.

  She paused halfway into the bathroom. “For one, I wasn’t replaying a memory. I was speaking with someone. A stranger who thought I was someone else.” Remembering that shadowy figure caused a twinge.

  “What did he say? What happened?” Titus asked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” She couldn’t out of fear the pain would come back. She slammed the bathroom door shut then made a beeline to the shower and turned it on to very hot.

  The clinging cobwebs of the gray plain felt as if they stuck to her, and she wanted them gone.

  Apparently, Titus wasn’t done chatting. The door opened a few inches, and while he remained outside the room, he continued to speak.

  “What did you see in your dream?”

  Was there any point in avoiding it? Best find out now just how far the whole memory block thing extended. “I saw a fog guy.” There was really no other way to explain it.

  “Frog as in a green fellow with huge eyes and webbed limbs?”

  It brought a smile to her lips, and she shook her head, unseen under the shower spray. “No. Fog, as in hot and cold meet to make a mist.”

  “Isn’t that a ghost?”

  Adara frowned. “I don’t think he was a ghost.” He’d seemed so real.

  “And what did
this fog man want?”

  “He’s looking for someone. A woman. He says I have her mark, or had her mark, but I’m not her. He kept asking me where she was.”

  “Then hurt you when you couldn’t answer?” Titus theorized.

  “He didn’t do that. The pain didn’t start until he tried to tell me the name of the woman he’s looking for.”

  “So let’s avoid that for the moment. You said he is looking for someone?”

  “Yes. Do you think it’s the same guy Madame Poulin warned me about?” Adara stuck her head around the edge of the frosted glass and saw Titus standing inside the door, his back turned to her.

  “Maybe. If it is, this guy is getting close. Logan’s beta says their house was visited twice by some guy looking for a woman.”

  “Me?”

  “There was no way to be sure without revealing we know about you, but it would be a coincidence if it weren’t.”

  “Coincidences should never be ignored.” Adara ducked under the spray to rinse her hair. “So, who is this guy?”

  “He’s not a guy.”

  “Then what is he?”

  “You won’t like it.”

  She emerged and snared a towel, quickly wrapping it around herself. “Spit it out. I can handle it.” There was no other choice.

  “Demon liaison. Goes by the name of Mammon.”

  A chill went down her spine, but not a hint of recognition. “What’s he look like?”

  “Regular-looking fellow by all accounts. Suit-wearing, forties, perhaps late thirties. He didn’t smell human, to quote the wolves. Dark-haired and of possible Greek descent if looking for more specific features.”

  Still, nothing even tingled. “Mammon.” Repeating his name didn’t jangle any memories either.

  “This fog man, do you think it could have been this Mammon fellow?”

  She rolled her shoulders. “I don’t know. I can’t even be sure he was real.” Except, a part of her was sure. There was something about the way he spoke, as if he thought her a mirage. Could another person stumble into her dream? Titus had done it before, as had Logan, but they had to be touching her.

  In this case, though, she’d called him. That third thread, the one hidden even from her, was connected to him. And she’d played with it. Drawing him to her. The question was, could he now use it, in turn, to track her down?

  “I can see your mind working. What did you think of?”

  “When we were bound, could you use our tie to find me?”

  “Yes and no. It is not a GPS locator.”

  “But you could use it to trace a path to me.”

  Titus frowned as she passed him and entered the bedroom proper, heading for the pile of clothes on the chair.

  “Yes, but I am more concerned about why you’re asking.”

  “I played with that third thread. In my dream,” Adara added.

  “You did what?” Titus snapped. “Have you so quickly forgotten what happened during Baba Yaga’s spell?”

  “I didn’t forget. Which is why I did it. That third mark is connecting me to whoever is hunting me. So long as I have it, I won’t be safe. We have to get it removed.”

  “That spell needs the blood of the other person to break it.”

  “There must be another way.”

  Titus shook his head. “If there is, then I don’t know what it is.”

  Adara did. Death.

  “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating the towel wrapped around her body.

  “Of course.” Without argument, Titus turned his back, and she dressed while he remained a perfect gentleman.

  It made her wonder if she’d imagined his flirting. Did she put more stock in his actions than they actually meant?

  When the tie bound them, she occasionally got a hint of his emotions: hunger, anger, mirth. But none of those were concerning her. When it came to what he felt for her, he kept those feelings locked down tight.

  “All decent,” she said. “And hungry.” Surprisingly enough. But a rumble of her stomach let her know that, despite everything, life went on.

  “I ordered you a tray. It’s in the other room.”

  She followed him out to the living room and spotted several covered domes on the table, but no Logan.

  “Where is Logan?” Because the suite wasn’t big enough to hide him.

  “Nearby. He’s handling some business.”

  “Pack business?”

  “Of a sort.”

  Hand clutching a handful of berries, Adara paused a moment and peeked at Titus. “What’s happened? Is he okay?”

  “The wolf and his pack are fine. However, there were some incidents overnight.”

  “Are you going to tell me, or am I going to throw things at you until you do?” She held up a blueberry.

  He arched a brow. “How is that supposed to convince me to speak?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t figure it would. I was trying to make you smile because you appear agitated.” Which was rare enough in Titus to be cause for concern.

  “Everything is fine at the moment.”

  She caught the use of the word moment. “What happened last night? What did I miss? You might as well tell me. I am going to find out anyhow, and then I’ll be annoyed at you for hiding it from me.”

  “I can see you’re in fine form once more.”

  Meaning she wasn’t the cowering shell that came out of the witch’s store last night. “Still alive. And you’re stalling.”

  “Baba Yaga was found dead this morning.”

  “Oh, no!” She might not have liked the woman, but having just met and seen her, it freaked her out to hear of her demise. “Was the magic she did last night too much for her?” Had Adara unwittingly killed the old lady?

  “No. It wasn’t natural causes or magic.”

  “Then how?”

  “Let us just leave it at rather gruesomely.”

  The fact that he wouldn’t say let Adara know just how bad it must have been. Her lips turned down, and her appetite fled. “Someone murdered her. Because of me.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “But you obviously think so, or you wouldn’t be acting so weird, and Logan wouldn’t be missing.”

  “He’s not missing.”

  “Then where is he? What is he doing?”

  “While the security here is above top-notch, Logan felt a need to do a perimeter reconnaissance of his own.”

  “He thinks we’ll be attacked?”

  Titus’s expression said it all.

  “What else aren’t you telling me?”

  “The demon liaison, Mammon, went to Logan’s house looking for you. We think he went there after torching my home.”

  She blinked. “He burned your house down?”

  “We presume it was him, but it could have been any number of enemies. Cabal leaders always have several.”

  “It was him, and when he didn’t find me at your house, he attacked Logan’s.” She pushed away from the table, agitated. “See, this is why you can’t be near me. I bring death and destruction.” This was their punishment for giving aid to the Forsaken One.

  “No one was hurt during either incident.”

  “That’s not the point,” Adara snapped. “They went there looking for me. And then, when they didn’t learn anything, they went after Madame.” She rose and paced. “But why her? It’s not like the witch could tell them much of anything. We only met last night.”

  “Actually, indications point to Baba Yaga being interrogated first. It is she who probably told them you were in my and Logan’s company. But there is something important you’re missing.”

  “More important than the fact that knowing me got her killed?” Said with heavy sarcasm.

  “How did they know to speak to her? It is not as if we announced our plans.”

  “That third thread. When it appeared, it acted like a beacon.” She looked down at her body. “Which means, when I played with it in my dream, I probably told him where I was.�
�� She raised a frightened gaze. “What if he’s coming here?”

  “Then we’ll handle it.”

  “How? He took down Baba Yaga.”

  “A witch who’d used up most of her magic with the spell she cast for us, I’d wager. We’ll be better prepared.”

  “You’ll die.”

  “Have a little more faith in my skills, dearest. I haven’t lived this long by happenstance.”

  But what if Titus were wrong? What if the demon was stronger?

  Logan and Titus would do their best to protect her. And quite possibly die.

  Plus, there was one other issue. Adara wanted to meet whoever was following her. The fog man in her dream. He seemed to know who Adara truly was.

  What’s my name?

  “You have no name. You are forsaken.”

  She rejected the immediate answer. She would discover her past. She had to.

  But that required ditching her self-appointed bodyguards. They just couldn’t stop themselves from getting involved.

  Unfortunately, Titus wouldn’t leave her side. Which meant she couldn’t exit the room.

  Just when she was about to scream her frustration aloud, he received a call from Logan. She didn’t hear much of that conversation, only Titus’s side.

  “You did what?” Pause. He slid a glance over to Adara. “Better hold on to him. I’m coming right down.”

  The moment he tucked the phone away, Adara bombarded Titus with questions. “Logan caught someone? Who? I want to meet him.”

  “Logan detained someone looking for you. They are in the lobby, and no, you’re not coming down. Not yet. He still doesn’t know for sure you are here, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

  “You can’t seriously be thinking of going.”

  “I can. And will. Don’t even think of leaving. Stefan is just outside that door. He has his orders.”

  Which he might ignore given his hatred of her.

  “Go, then.” She waved a hand. “It’s only my life you’re interfering in.”

  His face went through more expressions than she would have expected from him, including indecision, before settling into stern, uncompromising lines. “I will assess the situation. If he doesn’t pose a danger, we’ll bring him to you.”

  “Really?” She cocked her head.

  “You’re not the only one wanting answers, dearest. If this man has them, then we’d be foolish to ignore the chance to find out more.”