The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  He was right; I had been in tougher situations, a lot tougher. So why was I freaking out so much? Two very simple reasons, first I wasn’t the only in danger, there were other people fighting with me and not all of them by choice, second those damn dreams. They were just dreams though. Without telling him the details of those horrid visions, there was no way he could understand where I was coming from with my concerns.

  I just stood there staring into the closet rolling the whole thing over in my head. What would be so wrong with telling him? I thought to myself. Would he believe me? If he didn’t, no big deal, but if he did, if he could see the horror in my eyes when I told him, where would that leave us?

  I’m not sure which argument won me over, but I took a seat on the couch and told him everything, every detail I could remember. He’d sat down on the adjacent chair as he listened to my rant.

  “So that’s what happened to the sheets?”

  “Yep,” I said, lighting a cigarette.

  “Too bad for you. I figured….” he let the sentence trail off into nothing. We both knew what he’d figured, there was no need for him to finish the remark.

  “So?” A simple question for him.

  “So, I don’t have the first clue of what to make of you, Vince, at all. Let alone try to understand your dreams, visions, whatever the fuck they are.” He lit his own smoke. “I don’t know what it could mean, and neither do you. It may have nothing to do with the meeting at hand.”

  I let out a long breath. “What about the body at my feet, what if I—”

  He cut me off. I didn’t care. “Can I pass on some advice?” I inclined my head asking him to continue. “I’ve watched her go on missions I wish she wouldn’t, but there’s no stopping her.”

  “She not the only one I’m afraid for.”

  He stood up chuckling a bit. “You’d better be talking about yourself then. I ain’t planning on dying tonight, my friend. Get a shower, and get your head together. We’ve got to be leaving soon.” Then he left me in utter silence. If he was worried, he didn’t let it show. I wasn’t sure which would have bothered me more, if he wasn’t freaked out, or if he wasn’t showing it, since I was having such trouble hiding my fears.

  He made a very good point, I needed my head together for tonight. Also I needed a shower, badly.

  The water was hot and felt wonderful, calming, relaxing. I couldn’t afford a long shower. They were waiting for me and I’d already wasted too much time whining and bitching.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  It was time to go. There were no more second thoughts or hesitations. Perhaps I was being paranoid. The meeting might just go swimmingly. But not for a second did I think that it would. Deep down in my gut I knew that we were headed for trouble. I also knew that I couldn’t stop it, not without calling the whole thing off. “Too late for that,” I said aloud to myself, as I slid my knives into their wrist sheaths. Carmen and Terry were waiting downstairs for me. I should have kept them waiting. I should have canceled the damn thing.

  “Are you ready?” Carmen asked, when she saw me at the top of the staircase. She was dressed in blue jeans and a large gray hoodie, we didn’t know how messy the night was going to get. As practical as her outfit was, she was still a knockout. “Are you ready?” She asked again, bringing me back to myself.

  Was I? “As ready as I’m gonna be.”

  And with that, the three of us were out the door. I knew we had to go to Amun’s, but that didn’t stop me from not wanting to. So as time loves to do, the thirty-minute drive seemed too short.

  Too soon we were parked in front of Johnny’s storefront. Time to put on my grown up face. “Alright,” I said, “let’s get this damn thing over with.” I has surprised and proud of the tone of my voice. I could do this. Everything was going to go as planned.

  We hadn’t even made it out of the car when Johnny’s head came poking out of the door to greet us. He was grinning ear to ear. At least someone was looking forward to tonight. “Everything is ready,” he said, as we made our approach. “And how is everyone?”

  Normally I really liked Johnny, at that moment I wished he’d tone down the excitement, I got the image of a little lap dog jumping up and down, so happy to see his people. The thought drew a smile from me. On the other hand, his optimism was refreshing. It helped. “Wonderful, Johnny, yourself?” Carmen was the first to speak.

  Sexually frustrated, worried about friends dying, and worried about what the night held. That’s what I wanted to say, but I didn’t. “Breathing in and out,” was my response. Terry just shrugged.

  “We’ll make it through tonight. I know it.” The ever-optimistic Johnny, ladies and gentlemen. “Come on, everyone is waiting downstairs.” We all followed him to the lower chambers of the coven’s keep.

  Michael, Tarja, Alexander, Seth, and of course Amun were all waiting for us in the conference room, along with another dozen vampires and werewolves. In total we had a force of three humans, six wolves, and twelve vampires. I could think of worse back up. But that didn’t relieve my worries. “We will be all right, don’t fear for us,” Seth spoke to my mind before anyone had even said a word.

  “Thanks, Seth.”

  “Well it seems like the party is about to begin.” One thing I’d noticed about Amun was his theatrics. He seemed to have the inability to speak plainly, with him everything was a speech. Too many years of leading, I thought to myself. “Everyone is here and ready, you just need to give us the word to proceed.”

  Every eye in the room, mortal and immortal, was on me at that moment. Nope, everyone go home! Shit, I wasn’t allowed to say that. “Let’s do this.” See, and you thought I was going to chicken out… it’s not too late for that is it? Yep, too late.

  The vampires that had the power of flight, traveled by such means, they quickly made their way to the meeting spot. Setting up long before the rest of us or our targets arrived. The wolves, humans, and a handful of vamps rode in two SUVs. The ride was crowded and quiet; everyone was running over their jobs in their heads. Johnny drove himself, staying behind awhile. He/the hit-man-fake-me, wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another hour. I didn’t like leaving him alone like that. Just add that to the list of bothers of the night.

  The night was going just swimmingly. We were all in our places playing our parts. Those of us that couldn’t move at lightning fast speeds were spread through the warehouse and just outside of it. The others were within a block radius waiting for mind-speak. Every team had a psychic with them in order to keep communications open.

  Carmen, Terry, Seth and I were hidden on the catwalk above the meeting spot. We soaked our clothes in cigarettes and alcohol, trying to trick our targets if our presence was felt. Seth would also try to psychically cover us. The whole plan was banking on no powerful vampires or other magic-type freakiness overcoming our camouflage. It wasn’t the greatest plan, but it was something. Not my plan anyway.

  It wasn’t but an hour we had to wait. “Someone is here,” Seth whispered. We all looked down toward Johnny, who was leaning against a pillar smoking a cigarette. He held himself well as he played the part of a high-end hit man. I caught myself wondering if that’s how he saw me, looking like a cocky prick. I wouldn’t blame him, its how I saw myself most of the time.

  A silver Mercedes pulled into the open bay doors of the warehouse and slowly came to a stop before reaching Johnny. When only the driver stepped out and opened the rear door, no one got out of the back seat. Johnny; however, did begin to walk toward the open door.

  “What’s going on down there?” I asked Seth, mind-to-mind. “I want to see.” Without question Seth did as I asked. I suddenly was seeing through Johnny’s eyes. The feelings of all the new tricks I was being shown kept getting weirder. I saw everything that he saw and heard everything that he heard. I also immediately saw who was offering the price on my head, Edward. I had to grit my teeth at the sight of it. With all the worry of vampires and werewolves, I’d stopped considering him to be a possi
bility. At the same time that I grew angry with him, I also found myself a bit proud, not of him but of me. Had I really gotten so far under someone’s skin that they were willing to drop two and a half million dollars to have me killed. The thought was just plain cool.

  “I must ask you, why you’ve accepted this contract?” Edward asked Johnny.

  “Does it matter?” Johnny was cool and collected. He kept his voice cool, flat. He was perfect. “You know what I do. I’ve got my advance, now I’m going to ask what I came to ask.”

  “Right to the point, very well. What do you want to know?” He spoke softly; he held an edge of concern in his voice.

  “This Vincent Black, what has he done to warrant such a contract? I’ve never heard of a price tag this high on anyone, save government leaders and such. So what’s the deal?”

  “He offended me, and took something from me.” Edward’s answer was broken by a harsh coughing fit. When the fit subsided, he continued, “Does it matter?”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “I’ve seen enough. We don’t need the back up. Let’s just take him down,” I said to Seth, as I started my way down the catwalk, followed closely followed by the others. Amun and Michael made their way into the bay door; either of them could stop the car from escaping as we made our approach.

  The driver was leaning against the hood with his back toward the stairs we were running down. Slowly and uncaringly he spun to look at us. “OY!” he called out, “move along!” My pistol was drawn before he could continue. Two shots and he was dead. Those shots didn’t go unheard by Edward.

  The rear door flew open, “What was that?” he said, with his pointy-head poking around the door. “Dear God,” he whispered when he saw me. At that moment he came tumbling out of the open door, followed closely by Johnny’s boot and then Johnny’s himself.

  “Evening, Edward,” I said, standing over his crippled body. “Night not going well?”

  “You are an utter pain, Mr. Black.”

  “I know, and you are a dead man.” Amun and Michael had approached our little crew.

  Edward took a long slow look at the two vampires standing with us, stopping on Amun. “Don’t be so sure. I’ve got friends as well.”

  “But mine are here.”

  Amun stepped forward, and in that voice he loved to use when he was trying to sound wise, he asked, “Who are these friends of yours?”

  “Amun, I presume?” he asked, pushing himself upright against the car. “Friends that would even make you shake in fear.”

  Amun let out a long sigh, and then a snicker. “Council. Your mind is quite open; I can read every one of your thoughts. Would you care to tell Miss Piper what has happened to her father, or should I?”

  Carmen's attention was fixed on Edward with a hateful gaze. “He can tell me.”

  “I sold him to the council.”

  “Why?” Terry asked.

  “Why do you think, you stupid fool.” He began coughing violently again.

  It was Seth that answered. “He’s to become one of us, Carmen. He traded your father’s life for immortality.”

  “Is that all that your life’s work has come to?”

  “What do you know about it? You stupid little shit, what do you know about the pains and sacrifices I’ve made for The Guild? Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve worked for, it has all been for nothing. I’m old and I’m dying. They will stop it. I’ve given them a war to end Ra. I’ve given them that, and they will give me life.” I didn’t think he really had to call me a stupid little shit. I got his point.

  “You bastard. Dying?” Carmen hissed. “I should kill you right now.”

  He laughed while he gasped for air. “That, I don’t think, will aid you to recover William. He is still alive you know.”

  We knew that… didn’t we? “And thanks to your clearly open mind, that isn’t all we know. You are of no use to us. As I’m sure you are no use to the Council, they would have killed you the moment that you were of no further use. And since you can no longer destroy me via The Guild, that time is now.” Seth turned to me. “You may kill him now.”

  I pulled the action back on the Glock still clutched in my hand. “Not my place.” I offered the gun to Carmen.

  Without a word she took the pistol. “What would your father say?”

  “Put two in his heart.” She followed the advice her father would have given and then some. She kept firing into his twitching body. She began screaming, “You bastard! You fucking bastard!” Tears were streaming down her face when the gun clicked empty.

  Edward was dead and we had the information we needed. We were going to get William back. But it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew the time to face the Council was close, but we didn’t know just how close. “We’re not alone,” Seth’s voice was flat, no fear, just worry.

  “Council?” I asked, while I held Carmen, her tears dying off.

  It was Amun who answered. “Yes.” His voice held the same concern as Seth’s.

  Carmen was looking up at me smiling, her tears dried to her cheeks. “You got him, babe, but we need you here, now. Are you with us?”

  “I’m here. No worries, luv.” Though she was wrong, there was reason to worry, we had Council, and we had stupidly sent our back up home. Maybe Edward was right, but I wasn’t little.

  “Thank you, Amun.” A male voice came from the open overhead door. When I looked up to meet the voice, I saw what awaited us. Fifteen vamps stood lined up shoulder-to-shoulder blocking our exit. I should have felt them. I was closed off and I couldn’t feel them. The center standing vampire was the one who spoke. “You’ve saved us the trouble of killing him ourselves.” He was short, lean, medium build, nothing special physically about him. But that wasn’t a concern, he along with any of the others could pick up the only car we had within reach and rip it in two. Our two vampires and our two wolves wouldn’t be able to take them all on. They were there, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing we could do about it.

  “It was me.”

  “You must be Carmen Piper. You’re father is a delicious, I mean delightful, man.” He chuckled to himself. Personally, I’d heard funnier things in the obituaries, and yes I read the obituaries. I kill people, it kinda goes hand-in-hand. “However, you have also ruined my dinner. How I do love to hear the screams.” Carmen’s hand began going for her gun, I’d already taken mine back and reloaded it. My hand on her upper arm squeezed just a little. She got the point.

  “My friends, this is Steven, a captain to the Council.” Amun waved his hand half-heartedly at the lead vampire. “What do you want, boy?”

  The boy comment struck home. “I am here to do the Council’s biding. I am here for you!” One bony finger darted toward Amun. “You and your friends are to come with us.” How very original of him. Why did the bad guy always drag us somewhere? Wouldn’t it be easier to kill us right now? My guess is he wasn’t strong enough to kill Amun or Seth.

  “You cannot take us by force,” Seth spoke up. I love it when I’m right.

  “No, you are right, I cannot overpower you. But your humans and wolves are easy prey.” His finger moved from Amun to Carmen. That one pissed me off. Being the atypical male that I am, I stepped in between Carmen and him. Deep down I believed I could do something to stop him. My gun! Use my gun, I thought to myself. I never claimed to be the brightest. I didn’t get the gun even half raised, when everything went black.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Goddamn I had a headache! I didn’t want to open my eyes in fear of the light. What the hell did I do to myself? I couldn’t remember shit. All I knew was I was in pain, a lot of pain. “Ahggg…. What the fuck is going on?” Hoping there was someone there to hear me. But no one answered. The pain in my head was subsiding. I was beginning to regain feeling in the rest of my body. Wherever I was, it wasn’t good. My arms were bound above my head, chains. Oh God… No God. Please No! I opened my eyes to a pitch-black room, though I knew the room I was in. I knew I was about
to see one of my friends dead at my feet. And the screaming started. My screams echoed off the stone walls of the room back to my still pounding ears. What have I done? Who did I get killed? I screamed again.

  “Vince?” Carmen’s voice came at me softly. She sounded like she was just waking up as well.

  “Carmen, are you alright?”

  “Yeah, other than a splitting headache I’m just peachy.” I heard her chains rattle. “Can you move? I’m chained to the wall.”

  “Me too. Where’s Terry? What happened?”

  She sighed with frustration. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember much. I felt dizzy and then blacked out. How long was I out?”

  “I don’t know. I just came to a moment before you did. Wherever we are we’re in trouble.”

  “Yeah, no shit. What about Amun or Michael, any thoughts on what happened to them?” Yeah, I had thoughts. One of two things, they betrayed us, or they are in the same shit we are. “Vincent?” Her voice softened

  “Huh?”

  “Were these the chains you were screaming about in your nightmare?”

  “Yeah.” But that was the only response I had time to offer. As the door creaked open flooding the room with light, I knew what was coming. I just didn’t know who was dead. And just as I did in my nightmare, I screamed and fought the chains that held me to the wall. I was blinded by the light from the open door. My vision was gone and my hearing was haunted by the taunting laughter of our captor. Before my eyes adjusted to the light, I felt blood from my wrists pouring down my arms. I was fighting so hard I’d ripped my skin open, but I didn’t care. Someone I cared for was dead, and the monster’s laughter was driving me to madness. I wanted to kill him.

  My eyes finally adjusted to the bright light of the hallway. The monster was truly that, he was a hideous misshapen thing. No doubt he was a vampire, but he looked nothing like the others I’d met and seen. His lips had been sliced away to expose not only fangs but all of his teeth that all came to razor points. The rest of his face was distorted as if his skull had been shattered over and over again. His torso and tree trunks of arms where covered in deep scars. The body, still over his shoulder, was male but beyond that I couldn’t tell who it was. I could only see from the waist down. Terry? Perhaps Michael? Too large of a man to be Johnny, or William. Carmen’s as well as my own screams stopped. “What the fuck do you want?” I barked at the monster.