The Lurkers Within: (A Havenwood Falls Novella)

by Danielle Bannister

  When the last soul had been shed, I could tell. My body felt like my own again, though very, very tired. I closed my eyes. I needed to sleep, for like a thousand years. This cold, dirty ground would do just fine.

  Chapter 15

  When I woke up, it was to a strange room. I expected to awaken in a hospital, or the morgue, truth be told. Definitely not in a cozy-looking bedroom. Sitting beside me, with her back ramrod straight in a chair near the door, was the woman Roman had called Saundra.

  “Ah, she’s awake at last,” she said as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. I expected to feel groggy or in pain, as I had been prior to my shedding, but to my surprise, I felt quite agile and full of energy. Even my ribs felt better. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Saundra Beaumont. I sit on the Court of the Sun and the Moon and the High Council of the Luna Coven. I’m sorry to have met you the way I did. I want to extend my sincere apologies for the unfortunate way you have been treated. However, we are here to help and protect you now. As we should have done from the moment you arrived.”

  “Where am I? Why don’t I hurt?”

  “You’re at Whisper Falls Inn.” She shifted in her seat. “I had Dr. Underwood tend to your injuries.”

  I didn’t know who Dr. Underwood was, but I had to assume he was a supernatural if Saundra called on him. I was no expert, but I knew cracked ribs weren’t something that healed overnight, so magic must have been in play.

  Glancing around the room, I noticed that, while the room was homey, there were no giant stuffed animals or flowers laid out, which meant Eduardo hadn’t been here yet. He liked to spoil me whenever he got the chance.

  “Guess Eduardo and Harper haven’t been here yet?” I asked.

  Something in Saundra’s eyes flickered. “No one knows your location but me and Michaela, the inn’s owner.”

  My eyebrows shot up, instantly questioning her motives for keeping me hidden away. I didn’t know her at all and had no idea if she was good or evil, truth be told. She seemed to follow my train of thought, because she put up her hands briefly in surrender. “It’s only so that you could recover in your own time without a million people hovering over you. You needed peace and quiet, so I saw to that.”

  I relaxed a little. “Well, thank you for that, I guess. How long was I out?”

  “Three days.”

  At that, I bolted upright. “Three days?” That’s when I noticed the IV attached to my arm.

  “I’m surprised it was only that long,” Saundra said flippantly. “I would have expected at least a week after your ordeal, but then again, you are a bit of a mystery.”

  It was hard to believe I’d been asleep that long, but after what I’d endured, I was surprised I wasn’t dead.

  “Eduardo,” I said, knowing he was probably worried about how I was doing, too. “I need to see him.” He was probably tearing up the town, trying to find out where they had taken me.

  “I’m afraid that will be quite impossible.”

  “And why is that?” I asked, not enjoying the finality of her tone.

  “The Court met, and it was decided it was best that Eduardo’s memories of Havenwood Falls—and of you—be wiped clean.”

  “Wiped clean? What the hell are you talking about?”

  She placed her hands on her lap in a slow and methodical way.

  “It means just what you think it means. And before you think about it, even if you were to find him, which you won’t, he wouldn’t remember you, or anything about his time in Havenwood Falls.”

  I stared at her for a few moments, waiting for her to tell me that she was joking or that I’d misheard her, but it became clear that she had really sent him away. She’d erased him from my life.

  “Who said you could do that? You don’t have the right to—”

  “Actually, I do, Agent Young. This is our town you’re in. We have full say who stays and who goes.”

  My nostrils flared in anger.

  “And my partner was a threat to your stupid little town?”

  Saundra’s upper lip twitched at the insult, but she kept her composure. “Your human ‘friend’ was never a threat among a town of supernatural beings, Tasha. He was, however, a threat to you.”

  She wasn’t making any sense. Eduardo wouldn’t hurt me. Not possible.

  “Please, enlighten me,” I snapped.

  Saundra pursed her lips, seemingly annoyed that she had to explain her rationale to the dumb human. “Do you love him?” she asked.

  “He’s my partner.”

  She frowned. “Yes, I know. That wasn’t an answer, though.”

  “I fail to see how my being in love or not with him has anything to do with why you sent him away!”

  “It has everything to do with it.”

  I opened my mouth to ream her out for daring to assume how I felt. How dare she say I didn’t love him. She didn’t know anything about me or our relationship. But I couldn’t articulate a proper argument. I cared for him, had fun with him, and we fit together perfectly, but I would never love him. I was just too wild to be tied down. At least, not yet. I knew he was falling for me, and I had done nothing to discourage him. It had been cruel of me to lead him on. Truth was, I held on to him so close because he was the only person I had whom I had ever considered a friend. It was selfish of me to hold on to him when my ultimate goal was going to be to let him go. Saundra had done him a kindness by erasing me from his memory.

  “No, I didn’t love him,” I admitted at last. “I’m not capable of loving anyone but myself.”

  Saundra nodded. “That is precisely why I sent him away. He had fallen for you in ways that human men fall for beautiful women. But you are not normal, Tasha. You never have been. You’re gifted, even among the supernatural. Your ability to absorb souls won’t go away. There will always be lurkers within your flesh. You will always be tied to the spirit realm. You can’t expect a human to be able to deal with such a burden.”

  As much as I hated to hear it, she was right. I wasn’t normal. Why did I think I’d ever be able to have a normal relationship with a guy?

  “Besides,” she went on, “a puppy-dog crush would get in the way of the work we need you to do here in Havenwood Falls.”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed straight in her face. “You want me to work for you? After the shit your town pulled on me? Dragging me here without telling me the truth, allowing one of my best agents to be killed, imprisoning his aura, and then sending away a guy I was seeing?”

  Saundra sighed. “What happened to your partner, Adam, was unfortunate. However, we were able to retrieve his aura during your shed. He has been released into our custody and supervision within Havenwood Falls.”

  “Wait? Adam is alive?” I asked, not daring to believe it.

  Saundra shook her head. “No. Not in the way you’re thinking. Too much time had passed for that. His vitals were weak back at the house. He was brain dead, as I’m sure you knew. The only way to salvage the best part of him was to allow him to cross over. We provided him with the option to stay here or to wander the earth. He chose to stay.”

  Adam’s aura was intact. His soul had been saved. My eyes overflowed with emotion. I’d be able to see him again, even if he was only a spirit now.

  “Can I see him?”

  She nodded. “Soon. He’s here, actually. In the inn with Madame Luiza, another spirit. She’s giving him the tour.”

  “I wonder what color his aura is now?” I whispered to myself.

  “Color?” Saundra asked.

  I shook my head. “Nothing. I see an aura’s color. It matches the mood they are in. He was blue the last time I saw him. Confused.”

  Saundra seemed bewildered by this. “Oh, well, I’m sure you’ll find Adam looks very different now that he is no longer confused. He’s a striking man. It’s no wonder Madame Luiza is monopolizing him. She’s a wicked flirt.”

  “Wait. You can see Adam?”

  “Of course. He’s more translucent then
he was when he was alive, but his features are still quite present.”

  I stared at her for several minutes. Was this what happened to a spirit when they got to choose their fate? Was I only able to see auras in a state of distress? Or could she see ghosts differently than I could? There was so much to process.

  “We’re quite pleased he has chosen to stay. He will make an excellent addition to Havenwood Falls. I’m hoping you’ll choose to do the same, Tasha. We could use your abilities here,” Saundra said.

  Pulling my emotions back in check, I turned my attention to Saundra.

  “I hate to inform you, lady, but I already have a job. One that pays quite well. I get to travel on someone else’s dime and rid the world of asshole souls at the same time. Why do you think I’d want to stick around a dump like this?” I asked, ticked at her audacity, thinking I’d actually stay here after everything that happened.

  Saundra stood up and walked over to the window and pulled back the drapes. The sun had gone down, but I could see the streetlamps and Christmas lights twinkling in the darkness. “Because I know what you want, Tasha. What you really long for, more than anything else. It’s something money and a million air miles could never grant you, but we can.”

  “Oh, really? What’s that?”

  She turned around and clasped her hands in front of her again. “A place to call home.”

  I stared at her blankly, unable to articulate my response. How the hell could she know that’s what I longed for, when I’d never mentioned it to another living soul? I wondered, suddenly, if she could read my thoughts.

  “Think it over,” she said, before she crossed through the room and left me alone.

  Damn it all. She was right. I had been searching for years for a place where I fit in, where I was accepted for my oddities. Now that I’d discovered my true identity as a soul shedder, I was going to have a ton of questions. Questions only a town like this had any hope of providing answers for.

  For several moments I sat in silence, trying to process everything that happened. Just when I was ready to get out of bed and hunt her down to ask my questions, there was a knock on the door. The person on the other side didn’t wait for an answer before they opened the door.

  Addie walked in, wearing a black hoodie with a pentagram on it, jeans, and knee-high leather boots.

  “Hey, how you feeling?” Addie asked, shutting the door behind her.

  “About a hundred souls lighter. You?”

  “I’m feeling a lot safer now that those spirits are back where they belong. Thank you, Tasha. That could have gotten really ugly.”

  I laughed. “I don’t know, it was pretty rough from where I was lying.”

  “Right. Sorry.”

  I shook my head. “It’s okay. Hey, did you find Harper yet?”

  Addie’s expression shifted, her gaze dropping. “No. We haven’t given up, but . . . she’s just gone. We can’t find any trace of her. Her mace, Desi, has been hunting for her nonstop. It’s like she disappeared off the face of the planet.”

  “Was she pulled into the spirit realm?” If she had been taken by the Indrori before I took it down, then maybe she was just between planes. I could recover her. “If she’s in the spirit world, I could—” That’s when it struck me how many days I’d been asleep. Too much time had passed. I wouldn’t be able to recover her.

  “I don’t think she’s passed on,” Addie said, stopping my train of thought.

  “Well, what happened to her then?”

  Addie took a breath, as though debating how much to tell me.

  “Please. She . . . she helped me when no one else would. If I can help you figure out where she is, I have to try,” I plead.

  “I shouldn’t be telling you this. You aren’t even a ward of the town.”

  “But I was with her when she disappeared. Maybe there is a piece to this puzzle I can help with,” I argued. I wasn’t just going to give up on Harper. She didn’t give up on me. Even when her life was on the line.

  “The Court thinks that the Indrori and the Collector may have been working together.”

  “You keep mentioning the Collector. Who is he?”

  Addie stood up and walked over to the window. She seemed to gaze outside for the longest time before she spoke. “We don’t know much, really. Someone who calls themselves the Collector has been threatening people in our town. Including Harper. The fact that Harper showed up in this house with the Indrori makes us think that they were working together to take Harper down.”

  “Wait, so you think Harper was the target?” I shook my head vehemently. “No. The Indrori clearly wanted me dead. They told me point blank their plans to destroy me.”

  “I know. Which is why I think the Court may be wrong on this. I don’t think they were working together. I think the Collector saw an opportunity to take Harper and used the distraction of the Indrori to his advantage.”

  “It would be the perfect setup. But how would the Collector even know Harper was there?”

  Addie turned around. “There is a lot the Collector knows that we can’t figure out.” She lifted her hand and tugged absently on her shirt.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Nervous twitches were a dead giveaway when a person was trying to be secretive.

  “It might be nothing . . .”

  “Tell me.”

  Addie came back to the chair and sat down. She bit her lip for a moment before she spoke.

  “When we were in the Infernum, Liam, one of the hellhounds you saw, said when returning some of the souls you shed to their prison, some of them . . . their signatures smelled different when he returned them to that section of the Infernum. He couldn’t pinpoint what was off about it, but it was different than any of the other souls he’d dealt with. It might be nothing.”

  “Or it could be everything,” I said.

  “How so?” Addie asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s just . . . Harper said something like that, too. That her powers—they were working differently with me. She said it was like everything was backward somehow.”

  Addie shrugged. “Harper’s gifts are still emerging, though. That might just be her growing into new gifts. I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We just have to keep thinking.”

  “I could help,” I heard myself say. “I could go back to the house. See if her spirit is there . . . I mean, maybe she’s trapped. I wouldn’t be able to bring her back, but I might be able to find her, at least.”

  Addie smiled, then patted her black bag. “If you’re sticking around, you’re gonna need one of these.”

  “One of what?” I glanced at the bag.

  Addie rolled her eyes. “Saundra didn’t explain what I do, did she?”

  “Besides saving my ass? No.”

  That prompted a laugh. “When I’m not out being a badass hellhound, a witch, and saving your ass, I’m also the town’s resident tattoo artist.”

  I should have guessed she was a witch. That’s why she and Roman seemed to have a shorthand I couldn’t pick up on.

  “Oh. Do you work at Tragic Ink?” I asked, remembering the shop Davis at Coffee Haven had told me about. Her working there would be cool, but I wasn’t sure why she was bringing it up now.

  “Nope. I work for the Court. I’m the business manager and responsible for the Registry.”

  She sat down beside me, placed a black leather bag on my bed, and took out several tattooing instruments.

  “Um, are you giving me a tattoo?” I asked.

  “Yep. That’s why I’m here. Saundra really didn’t tell you anything about this?” She sighed as though she was used to having to do the dirty work. “It’s my job to mark the residents and visitors of Havenwood Falls. It’s how the Court keeps tabs on the supernaturals. Makes sure we’re not breaking any rules, stuff like that.”

  “Yeah, Roman Bishop told me a little about it. They act like an ankle monitor, right?”

  “Yes and no.” She dug into her bag again.

  “Does it za
p us if we get out of line?”

  She stopped rifling in her bag to look at me. “Of course not. That’s not how we are. It only works with the wards on the town. If there’s trouble, the Registry gives us an idea of who we need to track down for the cause of it. See, I infuse the ink with magic that connects with the energy of the wards, so we know who comes and goes. But we only care if there’s a problem. Otherwise, we don’t pay any attention. And the magic also gives everyone a benefit. So it’s a mark of freedom, in a way. It’s a symbol that we belong. That we are a community.”

  I hadn’t thought of it that way. When she said it like that, it seemed like the tattoos were a badge of honor. Something to wear with pride, not shame. I sort of liked the sound of that.

  “Although, you’ve got a killer tat already,” Addie said nodding toward my torso. Smiling, I reached down, lifted my shirt, and showed her the snake coiled around my body. The scales were no longer filled in.

  “Woah,” we both said at the same time.

  “They’re all gone,” I whispered, running my fingers over the thin black outline of the scales. I really had shed them. “These were all black before,” I said in wonder. “I wear demonic spirits, apparently. Until I get full, and then, I shed—like a snake—and off to the Infernum they go.”

  “You have a wicked gift.” Addie didn’t even bat an eye at how bizarre the statement was. Instead, she seemed . . . impressed.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of wild.” I laughed, realizing how comfortable I felt chatting with Addie.

  “A snake is such a fitting tattoo, given your abilities,” she said, admiring the handy work.

  “It is?” I would never in a million years attach spirits to snakes.

  “Well, sure,” she said, pulling on a pair of gloves. “I mean, a snake has long been used in medical logos, for good reason.”

  I paused to remember the snake and staff images on my own medicines in the past. Why did we use a snake logo for medicine? I’d never stopped to think about it. Addie seemed to realize I was clueless, because she gave me a small smile and went on.