MADNESS: Book One of The Shadow-Keepers Series

by Jas T. Ward

  Flexing all his senses, Reno was able to pin the negative energy coming from an alley where a delivery truck was parked, casting the narrow space in shadow. Loping across the street, he slid sideways past the truck and entered the dark alley between two brick buildings.

  With his back pressed against one wall, he was able to feel the strum of deep, bass-heavy music and guessed one building was one of the underground punk clubs. The other building had boarded up windows and silence. Good. Only one place to worry about possible witnesses in the form of couples looking for a place to make out or have sex outside of the club; drunks staggering into the fog heavy night.

  Tilting his head, he heard a muffled sound of pain followed by a hiss for silence. Bingo.

  Following the wall with one hand trailing along it, his enhanced eyes picked out two figures in the back of the space, which ended in a metal plated and fence blockage on that end, which meant no way out except past him.

  As Reno silently approached, careful to place heel then toe with his shit-kickers as he made his way through the debris, he thought he was going to get lucky and approach unheard.

  But as he was within just a few feet a bottle skidded away from his foot and chimed against the wall taking that hope with it. Crap.

  Two tall Eaters stood up, and even in the dim light Reno could make out flashes of fangs along with the whites of their eyes.

  Okay. Two wasn’t too bad. He did a quick survey behind them to note a human curling up, letting out soft mews of pain behind the two baddies. Even better. Human still alive. No points against him yet.

  Reno went into a defensive stance and spun out the dagger to his hand as he retrieved its twin from his arm brace. The Eaters approached fast and he braced for them to hit. Eaters could behave one of two ways. Either haul cowardly ass because they had no training to fight or attack because they did.

  Lucky him, he got two that could do the latter.

  Sundown paced in his head as Reno kept his chin down with his eyes tracking the two Eaters as they split off to go to both sides. One left. One right.

  Focusing on the one on his left as it approached, he let it get close enough to snap a leg out to kick it in the chest, sending it crashing into a row of trash cans.

  The one on the right grabbed Reno’s arm as he went beneath it to thrust his blade up and land in rock hard gut and muscle. It let out a howl of pain to stagger back as the first one recovered and tackled Reno to the ground. He let out a grunt as he felt something cause pain to flare in his side and the Eater smiled as the scent of Reno’s blood filled the air.

  The human was now softly groaning. He knew he only had a few minutes before the venom from the Eaters would clear from her mind and she would be able to remember what she saw.

  He couldn’t have that.

  Killing anything was messy and humans had the tendency to scream and make a ton of noise when they watched someone kill what appeared to be human to their eyes. Toss in the higher freak out when they saw them become their true form when dying and he really didn’t want any of that to happen.

  As he hit the grimy pavement hard with the Eater going down with him, Reno reacted fast and slammed a fist with skull shattering force into the side of its head. Nothing.

  Oh great.

  That was so not what he was hoping for. Swinging up his other hand he slammed both fists against the Eater’s temples and this time it swayed from the blow.

  Using that to his advantage, he brought a boot up to plant in the Eater’s chest and sent it flying across the alley to hit a metal service door on the dance club so hard it left a dent as its body slid down. As he flipped up to his feet, the remaining Eater was on him in seconds to grab him around the waist from behind to pick him up off his feet in a rib crushing hold. Not to mention the hold made the stab in his side throb with more intense pain.

  He let out a growl with a hiss as he tried to angle his arms in the circle of the Eater’s to loosen its bone crushing embrace but it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Black swirled in his vision as he not only felt, but heard, one rib pop and then two more with the rest waiting in line to join the pain party.

  “Let me out Candyman. Come on. Let me out!”

  Pain was a trigger between him and his dark side and once again it was really all it took. Suddenly Sundown was out and with a roar of anger was slamming Reno’s head back against the Eater. Blood sprayed as that action was repeated to shatter the Eater’s nose and brow, causing it to loosen its grip, and he dropped.

  Landing on his feet with his hands braced on the pavement, Reno let out primal rumble with a smile as he looked up at the bleeding Eater, who was staggering back. “You are screwed now Mr. almost dead and ugly.”

  The Eater tried to recover but Sundown was fully engaged as he launched at it with a dark, deadly smile and fangs bared. The Eater tried to defend but Sundown was all blade and fist. Even after the Eater had hit the pavement, Sundown kept wailing on it causing blood to fly and flecking the wall until it ran red like some bad tagging of gore graffiti.

  Reno found himself straddled over the Eater with blood, bone, and gore dripping off his knuckles as he came back, and Sundown went back inside.

  Getting to his feet to stare down at the demon as it became its true Hell-spawned form for a brief few seconds before it sluiced to sticky goo, he glanced at the other Eater. It was trying to crawl away as if it thought that would somehow save it.

  Curling his lip to look down at a slash on his side with his red blood already running down to soak into his leathers, Reno stalked towards the Eater.

  Grabbing it by its hair to yank its head up, he sliced fast across its throat then dropped it. The demon gurgled as it phased into demon fugly before letting out a rasp of breath and dying.

  “Never ceases to amaze me when you kill, Reno.”

  He whipped around with his vision still hazed with red, dagger at the ready, when he heard the voice.

  Narrowing his eyes to see Evan standing there, Reno blew out with a slow breath what was left of him going dark as he sheathed his blades. He rolled his head and then tilted it to look at Evan and flash a now relaxed smile.

  “Just doing the job, Evan.”

  Evan gave him a strange half-smile and nodded. “Yeah, but no one seems to enjoy it near as much. That laugh? When you kill? Creepy as fuck man.”

  Reno’s brow creased as he wiped blood from his hands on the one blood-free area of his shirt. He didn’t recall laughing but then again Sundown had surfaced so it wasn’t too surprising. He cleared his throat and then paused. “Wait. Why are you here?”

  Reno then noticed Mark, Evan’s Relay, standing behind him being quiet and Mark was never quiet. Reno’s eyes drifted left and then right to give some thought to what that could mean as his gaze slid back to Evan’s. “What’s going on, E?”

  Evan crossed his arms across his chest and shrugged, looking down at his boots avoiding his eyes. “Bounce wants to see you. Now.”

  Reno felt fear glide its way up his spine like ice as he heard Evan’s words. Bounce had never summoned someone from the field just to come see him, not that he had heard of, because patrol was that important. Reno looked back at the scene of the slaughter and waved a hand towards the injured human victim, his mind scrambling to delay.

  “I have to make sure she makes it to the hospital...” Evan cut him off before he could even finish his statement with a tone to his voice that caused that fear to thicken.

  “Now, Reno. Bounce said now. Mark can make sure she makes it to safety and he can clean up the goo. But I’m supposed to take you immediately to the big boss man.”

  Reno swallowed so hard he almost hurt himself at Evan’s words. Why would Bounce want to see him?

  Opening his mouth a few times to say something, he finally settled with just giving a nod and following Evan to the Breaker’s sports car. Climbing in, they rode in silence as they made their way to the club. Reno chewed on his bottom lip as he pulled out a Twizzler to fidget with and tri
ed to focus on wrapping it around his fang.

  As they pulled up, Evan kept at the fetching duties as he led Reno inside the place through the service entrance. The club was pounding with the usual techno eighties blend as they made their way to the owner of the club’s office. Knocking only once, Evan then swung the door open so Reno could step inside as the Breaker said flatly. “Brought him as soon as I found him, Boss.”

  Bounce looked up and Reno noticed right away that Bounce’s eyes were blood red with pupils seeming to engulf even that color with emotion. And Reno was betting it was not the good emotions either.

  Reno didn’t even realize he was as if frozen in place until Evan gave him a slight shove to get him to step into the room as Bounce rose to stand. The Breaker leaned in to say simply, “Nice knowing you Reno” and closed the door.

  Before Reno could ask what was going on, Bounce was on him fast and threw him across the room to cause Reno to slam into a wall. He crashed to the floor as a shelf snapped and broke sending its contents cascading on top of his head. Reno shook his head to try to clear it and scrambled, dazed, to his feet as Bounce stormed towards him.

  “What did I do!?” He had no idea in his panic as the huge rush of rage surged from the god like an emotional tsunami.

  Bounce grabbed Reno’s shirt and threw him as if he were a child, which caused Reno to hit that next wall so hard he left a freaked out Reno shaped dent in the drywall before he crumbled to the floor.

  Reno threw his hands out in front of him in defense hoping to slow Bounce’s flow that seemed to roll to beat the crap out of him. “Wait! Please. What did I do?”

  He slid up the wall to get to his feet, glad the wall kept him from falling back down as he could feel just about everything hurting from the tossing.

  Keeping his hands out as he panted out his breath trying to shut down the panic, to ignore the fear in hope of finding out what had set Bounce off.

  He had never seen Bounce this way. But then again, he had never broken any rules to push Bounce to be like this.

  Bounce seethed and stepped up to brace a hand on the wall by Reno’s head and leveled his stormy, angered gaze with his. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Reno’s eyes skidded around the room as if it would give him a clue before he answered. “Besides getting my ass kicked?”

  “Oh my god. We are so going to die now. I like lilies. They are pretty. Go well with black.”

  Bounce let out a frustrated snarl and Reno blinked wondering if Bounce could hear Sundown before trying to say the right answer, if there was one. “I was out patrolling. Doing my job and I saved another human. Just like I always do. Or uh..try to do?”

  Bounce’s face just went darker and Reno straightened up, irritation starting to build as Sundown started to stir to feed his bravado from the inside out.

  “I always do my job. I kill. I slaughter. I have never...” Reno bared his fangs and snapped them at that word as he said it again to get in Bounce’s face, “never lost a victim. I always make sure they get to help. I’ve never been revealed and I’ve never brought attention to the Grid from anyone who didn’t already know about it. I. Do. My. Job.”

  Bounce narrowed his eyes and bared his own fangs at Reno’s very unwise show of aggression. Except Bounce’s were longer than Reno’s and right now looked much, much deadlier. Bounce brought a hand up to press against Reno’s chest to shove him back against the wall to say in a angry bark, “With the woman. Emma.”

  Reno winced as his bravado whimpered away leaving him with nothing. He opened his mouth to explain, but nothing came to him.

  Bounce shoved him once again before the god stepped away. He paced before turning to face him. “Do you have any idea what you may have set in motion? How carefully and secretly Jess and I have tried to keep things hidden? To protect and make sure things don’t get discovered?”

  For a few moments Reno thought Bounce was talking about his true identity. But then he cycled the words Bounce was saying through his less than stellar brain processes and realized the god had said Jess. Jess didn’t know he existed. So that couldn’t be it. He frowned and pushed off the wall. He tilted his head to frown as he blinked at Bounce.

  Then it hit him like the wall he had become friends with minute ago in reverse. He gawked at Bounce and said in disbelief, pointing at the god. “Sophia. You know about Sophia. Whose kid she is.”

  Now it was Bounce’s turn to stare at Reno as he shook his head at Reno’s delay time in registering what he was pissed off about. But then again, this was Reno and he had no doubt the split essence and its new body together with the dark that lurked deep often got into debates with reality. Bounce wasn’t so sure he could handle it, so the judgment ended there. Blowing out his rage as he rested his hip against the desk, Bounce crossed his arms on his chest to regard the Breaker.

  “I do. Always have. And Jess and I had decided when Emma found out she was pregnant we had to do whatever we could do to protect Sophia. To ensure that her existence, and who sired her, was never revealed. A child is the brightest of all the lights on the Grid. Do you have any idea what would happen if it was learned that Jess was her biological father? That she was a child of a Breaker whose soul is still indebted to Hell?”

  Reno did. He had thought about it every day that he watched Sophia babble away or curl up next to him and Witch as they watched movies. He thought about how such a sweet little girl would become the property of Hell and its dark lord ruler simply because she was a miracle and should never be.

  Just like him.

  He met Bounce’s eyes as he said in a voice that was almost shaking with the truth of it, “Hell owns her. And can take her. Do whatever it wanted to her.”

  Bounce nodded. “And darken a very bright light. Destroy innocence, which would be a very serious blow to the Grid. Not to mention if the Eaters learned of her light? Imagine how they would feast on that little girl’s spark.”

  Reno frowned as he brought a hand up to spear his fingers through his hair. It would be devastating. But worse than that would be how it would destroy Emma to lose Sophia to Hell. She had already lost her parents and her brother, he didn’t think she could survive, or even deal with, losing the only thing that truly loved her without strings or judgment. Totally and completely as only her child could.

  Emma would cease to exist. She’d be a walking talking shell of the woman he loved more than living. The woman he had been willing to die for just so she would never have to feel pain again because of Jess. The whole reason he even existed.

  “I didn’t think. I just...” he dropped his hand and walked over to lean against the desk next to Bounce.

  “I love her. I’ve always loved her. From the very first moment I ever saw her. And all this time when I was supposed to be forgetting about her...?”

  Reno looked sideways at Bounce. “All I was doing was needing and wanting her more as the pain just hurt more and more from missing her. What do you want me to do? I just...” His voice became so pained and desperate that the words didn’t even seem to say how much he felt, his heart ached to declare it with each beat. “She’s all I’ve ever loved. All I think I can love. And I love Sophia too.”

  Bounce let out an elongated sigh as he pushed off the desk to face Reno. “That’s the problem. You love them. And now? They love you. Love is the brightest light on the Grid and it’s the one power that can feed it like none other. I can’t change its link or its flow, because once it’s feeding the light of those in love? My hands are tied.”

  He clapped a hand on Reno’s shoulder to squeeze in understanding. “That’s why I strongly advised you to stay away from her. Not that I didn’t realize you loved her. But because I knew she would love you too. But now Reno...” The god sighed and looked down at the floor. “You two being together has so many twists and turns it could go very bad. Very. Very bad. Destined love does not always make for fairy tales and happiness.” The god’s eyes became haunted for a moment before it was hidden away.r />
  “The powers that could take notice of this won’t care. Or give a shit about that little girl. They’ll just want what they think it grants them.”

  The god met his eyes. “Power.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Go or No Go

  Reno’s feet felt heavy. But his heart felt heavier. He knew Bounce was right and that just tore him apart. Emma and Sophia were in the spotlight now because of him being in their lives. Add to that the twists and knots that made up his past? It was all too much for him to even try to make sense of.

  As he entered his empty apartment, which hadn’t housed him in body or spirit in weeks, he tossed his keys to the hall table and walked over to drop down and sag onto the couch.

  Okay, so his body was here. But his spirit was in a house with a beautiful green eyed Relay and her little girl with dark bouncing curls.

  Bringing his hands up to cover his face, he sat there for several moments as the rage, defeat, and pain bubbled until it finally boiled over. He let out a primal scream of frustration as he kicked the coffee table in front of him and sent it flying across the room to shatter on the wall into a hundred chunks and splinters.

  What was he going to do?

  Listing to the left, he lay on his side and stared at the wall, which now sported a nice table made dent. He couldn’t leave Emma. He had promised her. She had already lost so much and was just now having faith in him. Trusting that maybe she could love and that it, along with him, wouldn’t leave. Like Jess did.

  Closing his eyes as his phone started going off in his pocket, he knew it would be Emma without even looking at the caller ID. The sun was just now coming up after he had wandered the city in a confused and hurting state for hours.

  The ringing of his phone stopped, only for his Grid stamp to sizzle with power under his skin. She must have contacted the Grid in worry. Bounce would handle that, he assumed. His phone went off again and he pushed to sit up as he pulled it out of his pocket.

  Reno stared down at it with a deep frown on his face as his fingers brushed over the name and the picture of Witch with Sophia when the call went to voice mail. He felt an ache for not taking the call.