The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  “Let’s go for a walk,” seth said, as he rounded the corner into the front room.

  Fine by me, I’d do anything to get out of there. Seth didn’t seem as frazzled as the others had been. He was just being Seth, weird as he is, he was Seth. The walk again was quiet, and the night air was chilled.

  I tried questioning Seth about what had the coven in a tiff. “There is a very powerful presence in the city tonight,” he said, “none of us can figure out who or what it is.” He stopped the march and clasped his hands behind his back. “Can you not feel it?”

  “Honestly?” He indicated his head. “I haven’t.”

  “Now why is that?” I was at a loss for words. How the fuck should I know why?! He was the one that was supposed to be teaching me about all this shit! Not the other way around. He felt my annoyance and quickly continued. “I’m not trying to offend you, I only wish to know what you think about these things. Think about it, Vincent, what are the reasons that you might not feel such a strong and terrifying energy source?” I just shrugged. He lips pulled back into that grin that made my skin crawl, that evil fanged grin that they loved to use to throw us off. “One,” he continued, “you are not strong enough. That I doubt very much. Or two, you are not listening.” It took me only a second to comprehend what he was getting at. But then the light came on.

  That’s what these walks were for, silence so I could hear.

  The light that came on must have shown on my face, because his grin grew into a full smile. “Now you understand. You cannot live with these powers and only take them out to play with when you want or by accident. You must learn to be mindful of everything around you. The way that you are when you feel a threat close at hand is how you must always be. Now, clear your mind and reach out to the world.”

  I did what he asked. Clearing my mind was harder than I’d imagined. Too much crap was up in there. All the little mundane things took up so much space that I was missing so much around me. I wasn’t ready for what happened next.

  When I dropped my shields something crashed over me. It was as if a tidal wave of fire and ice broke on my head. I heard screaming from I didn’t know where. I felt afraid, not because the thing felt evil, just so damned powerful. Of what I could still feel from my body, I was shaking. I no longer knew if I was standing, hell I could have been flying like one of my freaky vampire friends and wouldn’t have noticed. And just as quickly as the wave of power crashed over me it was gone. The tides had washed away. I was lying on the ground, the screams had been mine. Seth was cradling me in his arms. I don’t think he has ever told anyone about that moment of weakness. Compassion, compassion from a vampire, go figure. Shit was so fucked up anymore. “What the fuck was that?” I think I asked aloud.

  Whether I did or not, Seth answered the question. “We don’t know. However, that is what we, the vampires, are concerned with. You may want to shield your mind again. It is I who cut you off from it.”

  “Why didn’t you warn me?” I asked him, pushing myself off the sidewalk.

  “Would you have learned?” Also standing.

  I began to brush off my pants. “Learned what?” I huffed.

  “The balance? If I had not let you feel the full impact of the power, would you have been able to learn not to let it all in?”

  “Good point.”

  “I have a few.” Damn that sounded like something I would say. “Now,” he continued my lesson, “please, shield your mind, but not all the way, let a small bit of yourself out to search around you.” It wasn’t as hard as completely opening up had been, since I’d done similar to search out specific people or things. I had it, and Seth dropped his protection. Again I felt the burning cold, but this time it was subdued. It was just a prickle against my mind rather than a full blown hurricane. Not only did that source of power hit me, many things did. I could feel Seth more clearly than I’d ever been able to before, and all the people that were in the building beside us. I could feel them all. It still was overpowering, so I placed more protection around my mind until the world was just a whisper to me. I’d learned another tool. Not mastered, but at least learned control over. “Better?” he asked me, after a few moments of silence.

  “Define better?”

  “Not worse.”

  “Thanks.” He fang-grinned again. “Now what?”

  “Now we go back. I have yet to eat, unless you would like to donate?” God I hoped he was joking.

  “No.”

  If you’ve never heard the laugh of a master vampire after he or she has scared the shit out of someone with a joke like that, it would be next to impossible to fully understand the sheer amount of power a laugh like that can hold. That power can make a person die from fear, or it can fill you with utter joy. And the scariest part of the whole thing is you won’t know which you’re feeling, the fear or the joy, until it is far too late. That is how he laughed at me then.

  But the joke and his laughter did not last. The world fell silent. Everything was utterly and eerily silent. There were no sounds from the city that surrounded us. We were trapped in the presence that only a few moments ago knocked me to my ass. It, whatever it was, was right on top of us. Seth looked scared out of his wits. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the stronger of the two of us to look like that. His fear added to mine. That’s when he appeared. And I do mean appeared. One second there was no one on the sidewalk with us. The next, he stood there. The silence continued, he said nothing. He was tall and slender. From his high collared shirt to his shiny leather boots, he was dressed in black, pure unadulterated black. He was paler than any vampire I’d seen before, no pigment at all. His hair, falling to his ass, was perfectly straight, it was beyond white; it was platinum. As he stared at us, his long nails, as all vampires have, tapped the silver wolf carved into the head of his cane. Besides that, he never moved and had no heartbeat. If his hair weren’t moving ever so slightly in the wind, I’d have sworn he was a statue. Nor did he speak aloud. “He’s very green, Seth, very green.” Before I could ask any questions, he’d moved. He was suddenly standing right beside me. A sword, which I could only assume came from inside the cane, was at my neck. “But you have potential. However, my young friend, potential won’t keep you alive. You will die like all those before you.” And then he was gone and we couldn’t feel him anymore. He was just gone, gone from the street, gone from the city, just gone.

  “Who the fuck was that?!” I screamed at Seth, with my heart still racing with fear. He just stood there shaking his head. “Tell me! And what was with telling me I’ll die like those before me?!” Still he only shook his head. His eyes were glazed over as he stared into nothingness shaking his head. I was pissed and scared and armed, not a good combination. I had one of my pistols in my hand and pointed at Seth’s head. It would have been a mistake under normal circumstances. But those moments were not normal. “You better fucking tell me something before I pull the fucking trigger and paint the wall with your brain!” The second that I said it, I knew that I could do it. I knew that as powerful as I’d thought Seth was, I could kill him right then and there. With that thought in my head, I dropped the pistol to my side. “Please, Seth, talk to me.”

  His blank gaze was directed at the gun in my hand when he began to speak. “You would have killed me?”

  “No.”

  “You know you could have.” I couldn’t bring myself to respond. Yes, I knew it, I thought to myself, and so did he. There was no reason to talk about it. “The questions you ask, I have no answers for. No one knows who he is. He is older than time, and more powerful than even the Council. I have no doubt that he could destroy our whole race.”

  “He is a vampire then?”

  “Again, I do not know. He’s said to appear as often as a wolf as he does a vampire. He is everything and nothing, everyone and no one. They call him the Messiah. He is a myth. A myth, which even I did not believe in. Now do you understand way I’m so shaken, Vincent?”

  “Yes.” All I underst
ood was a vampire, or whatever the hell he was, scared the shit out of a powerful vampire witch. I had every right to be shaken. “Too many questions,” I thought out loud.

  “Far too many. I can say that we, or at least you, have not seen the last from him.”

  “Why?!” I didn’t want to see him again.

  “He chose to appear because of you. You are all he mentioned. Yes, I have no doubts that you were his reason for visiting the city and showing himself. This will not be a single occurrence.” He turned on his heels and began walking back for the coven. “We must tell Amun of the night’s happenings.” That was a plan I could agree on.

  Too deep in thought, I had nothing to say on the walk back. I was scared, but also wildly curious. I didn’t know if Seth was right, that I was the Messiah’s reason for appearing. But I strangely wanted him to be right. I felt like a kid that couldn’t keep from playing with an anthill, I knew I’d get bit if I kept at it, but the temptation was just too great. Someone that powerful, that dangerous held me in such fascination. The only way I could satisfy my curiosity was to speak to the Messiah myself, if Seth was no help with my questions, I didn’t think there would be anyone else that would know anything. It seemed like a long while before we reached the coven, and though Amun needed to hear what went on, I didn’t feel like sitting with a bunch of vampires after that encounter.

  “Can you pass everything along to Amun?” I asked, trying very hard not to sound like I didn’t want to go inside.

  “I could,” he said, opening the street level door, “but I’m sure that Amun would like to know your thoughts on the situation. You as well need to pass along the information that you received on your computer last night.”

  Fuck, I hated when I didn’t get my way. “Fine,” I said reluctantly, as I followed him inside. I nodded at Johnny as we made our way through the store. Things had cooled down in the time we were gone. The vampires still seemed on edge, but they didn’t look like they wanted to kill everything. Even if they were behaving a little better, I still wasn’t comfortable with them that night. Walking down the large staircase, I quickly probed the compound and found it near empty. “Where is everyone?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

  “Hunting, I’d imagine,” Seth answered. “Not many of the younger ones left the coven tonight, so they are in need of feeding.”

  Oh, information I could have done without. But hell, it was me that opened my fat mouth around Seth and asked the question. Once again, there I was with no one to blame but myself. What a wonderful day it had been.

  We found Amun sitting in his study with Tarja. They both seemed to be doing fine. Sitting, more precisely, laying with one another on the sofa. Amun lay gracefully across one arm propped on his elbow, while Tarja rested her head on his shoulder. They were laughing about a joke we hadn’t the privilege of hearing.

  “Welcome back, my friends,” Amun said with a smile, sitting more upright.

  “Amun, Tarja,” I said. I was trying to keep things as simple as possible. I didn’t know if Tarja was still irritated with me from our last meeting.

  “How are you this evening?” Amun asked. Still sounding a little too sly, even for him.

  “I’ve had better.”

  “Haven’t we all?” His hand motioned to the other seats. “Sit and tell me about it.” I did as he asked. I relayed the information about the email I’d received from our target. He was thrilled with the thought that we’d soon get to fight together again. It was funny to think that no matter how he’d started out in life, or how beautiful and graceful he was, the millennia of wars and coven bickering had turned him into a warrior.

  Not a moment after I was done telling the story, Alexander joined us. He was in his normal uniform of t-shirt and jeans. He said nothing. He crossed his arms, not happy to see me, and leaned against the far wall.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Seth asked me, his fingers steepled in front of his face.

  Ah damn it! I was going to have to tell them about the Messiah, damn it. “I guess I did,” I said, shooting him a glare that I was damn proud of. “We met someone tonight.” I turned to look at the two on the opposing couch.

  “Really?” Amun’s head rose a little, he was interested.

  “Yeah, really.”

  “Please, do continue.”

  That was my plan, but I refrained from thanking him for permission. “Seth and I were walking around the city tonight, which I’m sure you know, and we ran into the Messiah.”

  Amun didn’t get a chance to respond, the moment I said the word messiah, Alexander let out a roaring fit of laughter. “This is your new champion, Amun? He’s talking about fairy tales.” More rage shown in Tarja than in Amun, but neither one was happy. “Oh yes, boy, you are to be our saving grace.” He continued laughing.

  “Haven’t I warned you?” Amun’s voice was barely above a whisper. Alexander didn’t hear the warning. He kept laughing. At a speed I still was not used to, Amun was off the couch and had Alexander pinned to the ceiling, Amun himself was floating several feet off the ground. “Haven’t I warned you not to disrespect my guests?” The much larger vampire struggled against Amun as if he were outweighed by hundreds of pounds. When he finally gave up the fight, he was dropped to the ground. “I will not warn you again.”

  I was trying to see if Alexander was blushing as he ran out the door. I was wondering if it is possible for a vampire to blush, hum? The world may never know. It didn’t matter, he was gone which was fine with me. He looked at me like food, and I didn’t like that one bit. I didn’t fear Alexander, I knew if the time came, I could and would kill him. But I also knew that Amun would be none too happy with me over it.

  “Rough day?” I asked, switching back to my normal sarcasm.

  Amun let out a small chuckle as he returned to his seat. “You could say that. And thanks to you,” he said placing his arm around Tarja, “we know why. Please tell me more about the encounter.”

  So I did. Every detail, almost. Both Tarja and he stayed silent through the telling. Never interrupting, I was able to recall everything from the moment I felt him coming until he disappeared. I left out the part about me being knocked to the ground by the sheer weight of his power. Seth made no mention of it. For that I was, and am, thankful.

  “Do you think this has anything to do with William’s abduction?” I asked no one in particular.

  He thought for a moment before answering. “No,” he said, “I do not think so. The Messiah has never been said to work with the Council. Point of fact, in most tales he has been said to work against them. It’s been said, he is the one that has fought against the oppression of the Council since its formation.”

  “The Robin Hood of vampires,” I responded.

  “Yes, something like that.” Amun’s lips pulled back into a grin. “Though Robin of Loxley was not the hero folklore would have you believe. A political activist, yes, a hero of the poor, no, but without a doubt, he was a pompous ass.”

  Now what was I suppose to say to that? Not a goddamn thing that’s what.

  “If you are an interest to the Messiah, Vincent, then perhaps if you prove yourself worthy to him, he may aid us in our fight with the Council.” Seth’s voice was clean of any inflections.

  Twice in less than two minutes I was left speechless. I didn’t want any of this. True, the Messiah, whatever the fuck he was, intrigued me, but let’s not forget he also scared the living shit out of me! I wasn’t really looking forward to the idea of trying to become his buddy.

  I left that night in a very somber mood, I wanted to curl up with Carmen, but I didn’t know if she was already asleep, or if she’d even want to. So I drove back to The Guild feeling lonely, my mind full of the changes my life had undertaken. “Crazy times,” I said aloud, with no one and nothing to hear me but the approaching dawn.

  The sun was creeping over the horizon as I pulled into the courtyard, and as with every morning in this godforsaken country, a heavy fog kept the air
chilled. Fitting, I thought, considering my state of mind. Carmen was not in my room when I found my way to the door. Not wanting to wake her up, I resigned myself to the idea of sleeping alone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  We still had a week before our meeting with whoever wanted me dead. Such a long list of candidates, I didn’t know where to start suspecting. And all I could do was to wait. I hated waiting. I felt so out of control, weak. No sir, I did not like it one bit.

  Day after day passed in a similar manner, I’d spend some time with Seth and Amun learning the tricks and trades of whatever it is that I had become.

  The most challenging of tasks Seth had me attempt was a meld of sorts. I was to initiate a bond similar to the night Amun and I joined minds while fighting the mercenaries lead by Sean McCann, with both of them at once! It was fucking tough! I could contact and connect with each one of them. As soon as I put it in my mind that talking to both of them at once was a lot like call waiting and conference calls, I was able to fit a three way conversation into my head. That was just plain confusing. But placing us under one consciousness… took some work. It seemed like hours of trying before I achieved it. For lack of any other term, my gifts were still growing, and still unknown, to any of us. Even Tarja, who would sit in on my lessons, was impressed by how quickly I was picking up and using the new information. Alexander still looked at me like food. And I still looked at him like a big, dumb pile of muscles. We didn’t like one another and that was just fine with me.

  Carmen and I were on speaking terms, and that was about as far as it went. She was friendly and professional. She didn’t want to share and I didn’t want to push. So we were at a stalemate for the time being. However, I did have an ace up my sleeve that would resolve our issues. The nightmares were back, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. If she knew, she’d be in my room every night watching over me. I knew it, that’s just the kind of person that she is. I might be a killer and I might be an asshole, but I am not going to play one of my friends like that.