Claimed by Shadows (Kissed by Shadows Series, Book 3)

by Lola StVil

  Fuck.

  Pest cowers on the floor behind the bed, barely daring to look. He is the smartest person I’ve ever met, but he’s not someone you want to rely on in a fight. This is all on me now.

  I turn my gaze back to the warlock in front of me, and I fire quickly before he has a chance to start drawing any more symbols in the air. My orb of golden flames rushes towards him and catches him in the shoulder. His body explodes in a rush of thick black ashes, which come back down to earth and coat the floor.

  I turn my attention to the other warlock, but I’m too late. The symbols he’s drawn in the air are already springing to life. They knit together and form a blue ball of sparking energy. It floats across the air, almost lazily, towards Sadie. She sees it coming and pushes the puppies away from her. She still has enough of her faculties about her to know it’s dangerous, but evidently, not enough of them to actually get out of its way herself.

  My only chance of saving her is to kill the warlock before it hits her. If he’s dead, his spell will be gone. I fire. My shot is right on target, but before it reaches him, it fizzles out, harmlessly melting into the air. The warlock has erected a shield.

  It might protect him against my shots, but it won’t protect him against me. He senses me moving towards him and turns to face me with an evil grin.

  From the corner of my eye, I see Pest jump up from his hiding place. He jumps into the air and throws himself onto Sadie, covering her body with his. He reaches up and swats at the blue ball. It rebounds, bouncing away from them, and Pest screams as his skin begins to blister and peel away from the bones of his hand. But to give him the credit he deserves, he stays in place, protecting Sadie.

  Pest’s scream distracts the warlock, and I hurl myself through the air. I connect with him, and our bodies tumble to the ground. He bucks and writhes beneath me, but I hold him in place. I reach out, grab his head in both hands, and drag it towards me.

  He looks me in the eye as I get ready to slam his head down on the floor.

  “We aren’t the only ones coming here. We were just the first.” He grins. “You’re done.”

  I don’t need to hear any more. I slam his head down hard on the floor. I hear bones crack, and blood begins to seep out of the back of his crushed skull, but I don’t stop. I pour my anger into him, smashing his skull down again and again until it’s just mush in my hands, his unrecognizable face sunken away.

  I jump to my feet, ready to fight when a hand touches my shoulder. I bring an orb to my hand.

  “Stop. It’s me,” Pest screams, just as I am about to release it.

  It’s too late to stop it, but I manage to change the angle of my shot just in time and my orb flies over his shoulder and blasts a hole in the wall behind him.

  “You heard what he said, Kane. More are coming. You can’t take them all on yourself. You need Sadie,” Pest says.

  I ignore him.

  “How’s your hand?” I ask.

  He holds it up. The skin is blistered, and much of it has peeled away, showing the angry red flesh beneath it.

  “It’ll be fine. I have some healing salve somewhere. Stop changing the subject,” he says.

  “I heard you,” I snap. “What the fuck do you want me to do about it? Mainline black coffee into her or something?”

  “The Obo leaf is making Sadie forget her problems. It’s taking her into a deeper state of indifference. If her problems didn’t seem so bad, she could fight the effects of the leaf. The alcohol is mostly out of her system now. It’s the leaf causing her to still seem drunk. Kane, you have to let her know you don’t hate her. That there’s a chance you two can work this thing out.”

  “But I do hate her,” I say.

  Pest shakes his head sadly.

  “No, you don’t. She hurt you, and you are feeling that hurt as hate because it’s easier to feel hatred than sadness,” he says.

  I go to speak, but he’s not done.

  “Why did you do that to save her if you hate her? The warlocks wouldn’t have come after you if you’d walked away, and they had no interest in me,” he says.

  “Sadie is powerful, Pest. I can’t even bear thinking about her powers in the wrong hands,” I reason.

  He pauses for a moment. It’s obvious he wants to say something, but he’s holding back.

  “Just say it, Pest,” I snap.

  “If you hate her so much, then why were you so angry to find her in my bed?” Pest asks quietly.

  A loud crashing sound behind me stops me from having to answer him. It’s a damn good question, one that may well have gotten his neck snapped if the horde of warlocks who stand before me now hadn’t arrived when they did. It’s a question I’m not quite sure how to answer.

  Is he right? Am I hurt rather than angry?

  I don’t know, but here’s what I do know: Two of the warlocks have sprung up into the air and are raining fire down into the room. Two of them have teleported behind me, and two of them stay in front of me.

  They’ve seen what happened to the others, and they’re going to concentrate on taking me down first. The only hope any of us have of surviving this is if Sadie gets her shit together and helps me.

  “Mother,” I shout, trying to keep the scorn out of my voice when I say the word. “You need to snap out of it. I don’t hate you. Alright?”

  “You sure sound like you do,” she says sadly.

  She seems unaware of the flames raining down, licking the bed, the curtains, everything. I fire at the warlocks in front of me as I shout to her, but I’m fighting a losing battle. I duck and dodge the lasers that come at me, but it’s only a matter of time before one gets me.

  I fire into the air, and one of the warlocks who was sending down the flames evaporates. That’s something I guess, but it’s a small victory, and it’ll soon be insignificant if I can’t convince Sadie to help me.

  “I’m serious, Mother. There’s maybe a small part of me that doesn’t hate you. I guess I understand that at the time you were doing what you thought was right. And you didn’t know what would happen to me. Where I would end up. The things I would have to endure…”

  I trail off. Sadie is still totally unmoved by my words, and the warlocks are closing in. I manage to take down another one, but it’s still four on one, and if they don’t kill us, the fire raging around us soon will.

  One of the warlocks’ lasers comes at me, and I move to the side, straight into the path of another one. I feel a searing pain as the laser cuts a line through the flesh of my thigh. I bite back the shout of agony that bubbles inside of me. I won’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me cry out.

  I fire, but my aim is off, the pain clouding my judgment, and instead of taking a warlock down, I hit him in the arm. His arm hangs uselessly by his side and slows him down a little. We can still beat them.

  “Please, help me…”

  I pause. I hate the way my voice sounds. It’s not cold and uncaring like it has been whenever I’ve talked to Sadie since learning the truth. Instead, it sounds raw, hurt.

  “Mom, please,” I finish almost in a whimper.

  I don’t have time to watch her, to see if my plea has worked. I have to concentrate everything I have on the attack. I can feel the heat of the flames singeing my shirt and the back of my jeans. The warlocks from behind me have moved to the sides, the heat getting to them too.

  I fire again, and the injured one goes down. The others are drawing symbols in the air in front of them, so fast their fingers are just blurs.

  A movement to my side catches my attention, and I quickly glance that way and then I refocus. I feel a warm spark of hope inside of me. Sadie stands up, her back straight and her own hands darting through the air.

  I smell something salty, and a wave of ice-cold water blasts through the room, extinguishing the flames and soaking us all. I fight to keep my footing. The warlocks aren’t so lucky, and two of them go down. The third one vanishes before he falls.

  I don’t have time to wonder wher
e he went. The warlocks may be down, but it’s not stopping their hands from moving. I blast one away at the same time Sadie blasts away the other one.

  “Guys, up there,” Pest shouts, his voiced laced with panic.

  We look where he’s pointing. The last warlock floats above us like a giant bat. Purple webbing floats from his hands down towards us. Sadie and I exchange a glance, and together, we aim at him and fire. He explodes in a mixture of black ashes and red sparks.

  I am sore and exhausted, and a glance at Sadie tells me she feels the same, although her pain is from a different source. We meet each other’s eyes, and she smiles a little. I feel myself return her smile.

  And just like that, I realize I was telling the truth earlier. There’s a little part of me that doesn’t hate my mom. And it just grew a little bigger.

  Her voice is full of pleading and emotions as she calls my name. I can’t deal with this now. Sure, the part of me that doesn’t hate her grew a little, but let’s be honest here, that didn’t take much as it was pretty damn tiny to begin with.

  “Not now, Mother,” I snap.

  “Oh,” Sadie says sadly. “We’re back to that.”

  “What the hell did you expect? What do you even want from me?” I snap.

  “I want a chance to explain properly,” she sighs.

  “Look, I don’t have time to deal with this shit now. I’m going to secure the area, make sure there are no other attacks happening. Why don’t you make yourself useful and use your magic to clean this mess up?” I say.

  I’m out the door before she has a chance to argue with me. I do a quick patrol around Pest’s block. Nothing seems to be out of place. I guess the group of warlocks kept the information they had on Sadie being weakened to themselves.

  I go back to the apartment, steeling myself for what I know is coming. Why does Sadie have to be so damn needy? Why can’t she just let things happen in their own time instead of trying to force a relationship with me? Why? Why? Why?

  It’s just a whole bunch of questions in my head and no answers. Or at least no answers that I’m willing to listen to.

  Sadie has taken my advice and cleaned up the mess. The fire damage is gone, and the window is fixed. Pest and Sadie sit at opposite ends of the couch, not speaking and barely looking at each other.

  “Let’s take a look at your hand,” I say to Pest.

  He grins. “I didn’t know you cared,” he says.

  “I don’t.” I laugh.

  “You so do,” Pest insists with a shit-eating grin.

  I roll my eyes as he laughs. He holds his hand out to me, and I wince at the sight of it. The skin is peeling off it, and the blackened edges make my stomach roll.

  “I guess I found out what the blue energy does,” Pest says.

  “You should stick to your books. It’s a much less painful way to find stuff out,” I say.

  I turn to Sadie. “Can you do anything with that?”

  She nods and gets to work.

  “Do you really think you’ll ever be able to forgive me, Kane?” Sadie asks without looking up from Pest’s hand.

  I sigh.

  “Look, I’m glad you’re okay, but right now, that’s all I can give you. My focus is on helping Atlas and the team. You haven’t been in my life until now, and we’ve both been fine, so I’m sure a bit longer won’t hurt anyone,” I say.

  She does look up then. She smiles shyly at me.

  “So, that means there’s a chance,” she says.

  She hurries on before I can reply. “How is Atlas?” she asks.

  I sigh again and sit down opposite Pest and Sadie. I run my hands through my hair.

  “She’s a mess. She blames herself for Remy and Regal, and she won’t open up to anyone. I can’t make her see this isn’t her fault. It’s Quinn’s. Mother, have you tried to reason with Quinn? Make her see she doesn’t have to do this?”

  “Yes, but she’s beyond reason. Something in her has snapped. She wants blood, and nothing else will do. I fear how this will all end,” she says.

  I can hear the worry in her voice. I bite back the sarcastic comment I want to make: another kid you screwed up. What’s the point in saying it? It’s not like she doesn’t know.

  Sadie gets up off the floor where she kneeled as she healed Pest’s hand. She sits on the couch beside him, and I have to look away when I see the delight on his face.

  “All fixed,” Sadie says to Pest.

  “Thanks,” he says.

  He holds his hand up in front of him, turning it this way and that and admiring the newly formed pink skin there.

  “Kane, I know you don’t owe me any favors, but can I ask something of you all the same? Two things, in fact,” Sadie says.

  I nod. I have no interest in doing her any favors, but I’m curious about what she wants.

  “First, will you look after Atlas for me? I know she’s a leader, and I know she’s strong, but well, she can’t do this alone. Even though sometimes she thinks she can,” Sadie says.

  That I can do.

  “That’s a given, Mother,” I say. “What else do you want?”

  The second one is the real favor. The first was something to get me on her side. Something she knew I’d agree to do.

  “I want you to meet with Nyten, your father. He—”

  “No fuckin way,” I interrupt. “I don’t care if he’s a god and he’s used to getting his way. This time, he isn’t getting it. Arken has made more of an effort with me than Nyten has. Do you have any idea how that feels, Mother? You and Nyten chose to walk out of my life for good. And you don’t get to wander back in when it suits you. You’re only here because you’re harder to avoid.”

  She looks down at the floor, but not quickly enough that I don’t see the tears standing out in her eyes. I feel a wash of guilt, but I remind myself that she had a choice and she chose to walk out of my life.

  I don’t have long to dwell on my feelings because my cell phone rings. I pull it out. Atlas.

  “It’s Atlas,” I say as I take the call.

  “Everything okay?” I ask.

  “Are you still with Pest?” Atlas demands.

  Her voice is shaking. Something’s happened. Something bad.

  “Yeah. What’s up?” I ask, sitting up straighter.

  “Does he know where Sadie is?” Atlas asks.

  “She’s right here,” I reply. “Long story.”

  “Kane, get back here, please. And bring Sadie.”

  She hangs up before I can reply. I stand up and push my phone into my pocket.

  “We have to go. Now. Something’s happened at the Tamlo. I don’t know what, but Atlas asked for you,” I say to Sadie.

  She’s on her feet before I finish the sentence. She puts her hand on my shoulder, and I feel its warmth, and for a split second, I allow myself to appreciate how pleasant it feels.

  Sadie teleports us to the Tamlo. As she does, I hear Pest behind us.

  “This was lovely, Sadie. I mean, not the attack thing. But the other thing. It was nice,” he stutters.

  I roll my eyes. It’s hard to believe sometimes that Pest is a world-renowned research expert. He sounds more like a nervous schoolboy who has just had a date with the prom queen and can’t quite believe his luck.

  Sadie and I run down the corridor in the Tamlo. Tracey, Saudia’s girlfriend, waits in the corridor. She sees us running along, and she stands up to meet us.

  “Tracey, hey. What’s going on?” I ask.

  “I’m not entirely sure. I came to try and cheer Saudia up a bit, you know. And I found the team in the waiting room. A nurse had asked them to wait there while she did some observations on Regal. We weren’t out there long when she came back and said something was wrong. Something they don’t know how to fix. Atlas called you and asked me to wait here for you. And that’s all I know,” she explains.

  Something the staff here doesn’t know how to fix? That doesn’t sound good, but at least now I’m pretty sure I know why Atlas asked fo
r Sadie.

  “Come on,” I say, leading the way to Regal’s room.

  The three of us burst in. Regal still lies on the bed. I thought he looked ghastly before, pale and pasty as he was, but now he appears even worse. His body is convulsing as the team stands and stares at him in shocked silence. A dark green coil is wrapped tightly around his body, pinning his arms to his sides. His eyes are no longer glassy and vacant. Instead, they are no longer his eyes. They are just two slits in his face, covered by a murky gray film.

  “What the fuck happened?” I say.

  Atlas glances up at me and shakes her head.

  “We don’t know,” she says.

  Sadie takes charge then. She pushes past me and worms her way between the team until she’s standing by Regal’s bedside.

  “Everyone out, now,” Sadie commands.

  No one moves.

  “No way. We’re not going to leave him,” Langston blurts out.

  Sadie gestures to me to go to her. I debate ignoring her, but this isn’t a time to be petty. I walk over.

  “Get them out of here, Kane. I need space to work on Regal,” she whispers urgently.

  How the hell am I supposed to do that without dragging them out? I worked with the team on finding the objects, and I think they know I’m on their side now, but how much do they trust me? Not enough to leave one of their team behind on my say-so, I’m sure.

  “What is it, Sadie? What’s happening to him?” Perry asks, serious for once.

  Sadie ignores him, her hands working in the air.

  I make my way to Atlas. She trusts me. I hope.

  “Atlas, we have to leave. Sadie made it clear she needs us all out,” I say urgently.

  “We can’t just leave him here,” Atlas pleads.

  “I’m not suggesting we go on vacation, Atlas. Just into the hallway. Sadie can’t work like this, and you know it,” I suggest softly.

  She looks at me with a frown and then she nods.

  “Okay, guys, you all heard Sadie. Let’s wait in the hallway,” she says.

  The team starts to protest, but she doesn’t even hear them out.