House of Shadows

by Morgan Hawke

  Draugar raised his brows. “So you know that poor Rudolf is no longer among the living. Very perceptive.” He held out a pale hand and his fingers brushed against the edges of her light. “How interesting.” He smiled with tight lips. “No matter. Rudolf may be only a shambling corpse, but he still has his uses.”

  The dead sorcerer shuffled toward the edge of her glow. Rancid orange power ignited, then curled around his upraised palms.

  Rowan backed away. Her radiance didn’t seem to be bothering the creature all that much.

  “Shoot her if she runs,” Draugar called out. “Not to kill, only to hamper escape.”

  Rowan’s eyes darted toward the police officers. They had their guns out and they were pointed at her. She froze in place. Where the hell is Rick?

  “You are very strong but untrained,” Draugar said calmly. “You will make an excellent student.”

  “Over my dead body,” she snarled.

  Draugar chuckled. “As you can see, death will not save you from me.” He waved a hand at Rudolf.

  The little sorcerer raised both hands and let out a string of arcane words Rowan didn’t recognize. The creature shouted and his power lashed out. Rowan felt it contact, then slide across her light like sticky oil. His power spread until everything seemed tinted with that disgusting color. What the hell is it doing? I’ve never seen anything like that...

  Suddenly, her sphere of light compacted inward. Her head began to throb under the pressure. He was crushing her magic around her. She gasped then whimpered. The pressure steadily increased and she dropped to one knee, trying to make herself smaller. She desperately wanted to grab her head with her hands, but they were fastened behind her back. It was getting hard to breathe...

  “You cannot stand against Rudolf’s power,” the creature said calmly. “Release your spell and he will stop.”

  Rowan shook her head slowly. “I can’t... I can’t...” She gasped for breath. The pressure tightened. She wheezed, trying to get air in her lungs. She felt like she was slowly being buried under tons of earth.

  “You will release it or you will pass out from lack of air to breathe.” He chuckled softly. “Either way, I still have you.”

  Rowan fell and curled on her side. Her lungs pumped painfully for air and got nothing. I can’t breathe! There was a rushing in her ears and darkness closed her vision into a small tunnel. Her eyes began to lose focus. She could hear her terrified heart pounding like thunder.

  Somebody shouted from very far away. “No!”

  Her power winked out.

  Abruptly, the pressure crushing her was gone. Rowan lay on her side on the gravel drive and drew a long breath. Her mind was wrapped in a dark fog of fear. She sucked air into her starving lungs and coughed.

  Someone turned her over on her stomach and she felt icy fingers close around both wrists. She blinked, but her eyes refused to focus, she couldn’t see who held her. “Let me go,” she began and coughed harshly. Icy cold seared both her wrists and she let out a sharp cry.

  “Do not try to use your magic or you will be severely punished.”

  She jerked away but was hauled bodily off the ground by the armpits. An arm closed around her ribs, then tightened until her back was pressed against a body that seemed to be made of stone.

  “Let her go.”

  Rowan’s eyes abruptly cleared. She was facing Rick and he was standing in front of the broken entrance to his house. Rowan coughed. “Rick...” Her voice came out in barely a whisper. His overwhelming emotions washed into her through their mental link, flooding her with terrified concern colored by violent and bloodthirsty anger.

  “Why should I?” The voice was calm, pleasant and right next to her ear.

  Rowan looked up sharply; Draugar was holding her up off the ground with his arm wrapped tightly around her ribs. Fear squeezed her and she kicked out sharply. Draugar’s arm around her chest tightened. She gasped for breath. He was squeezing the air from her lungs.

  “Be still,” he said softly and relaxed his hold.

  Rowan drew a frightened breath. She threw a desperate look at Rick. It took everything in her not to scream for help. She could feel Rick’s anger but it was hard to think past the gibbering fear in her own thoughts. There was nothing she could do. Her hands were still cuffed at the small of her back and she was being held off the ground, utterly helpless in the arms of something a hell of a lot stronger than she was.

  Rick loosed a rumbling growl. “If you don’t let her go, I will rip your throat out.” His fingers lengthened into lethal claws.

  A cloud of shadow coalesced at Rick’s side and became Klaus. Rowan had never been so happy to see the gnarled vampire.

  “Hello, Klaus.” Draugar raised his free hand and signaled to the two police officers. They came trotting over to the cars. Draugar tilted his head to the side. “Rudolf?”

  The gnarled visage of the dead sorcerer twisted into a nightmare parody of a smile, revealing the serrated points of his teeth. The little sorcerer took a step toward Rick and raised his palms. A dome of orange fire blaze to life encircle the sorcerer then spread to include Draugar and Rowan.

  Rick took a step toward it then flinched back. Klaus stood perfectly still, his face completely without expression. His darkness boiled around him, but other than that, he seemed perfectly willing to merely watch.

  Draugar frowned at Rick. “You are also vampire?”

  Rick bared long white canines.

  Draugar turned his gaze on Rowan. “You, a witch, willingly serve vampires?”

  Rowan strained to take a full breath; his arm was squeezing too tightly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” she wheezed out.

  Draugar snorted. “You would be better served by remaining with me and learning to use your power than as a plaything for a vampire.”

  “I’m not a plaything.” She shifted in his hold. The handcuffs were biting into her wrists and her feet were going numb from hanging from his arm.

  Draugar turned his eye on the vampire. “You, vampire, are familiar to me,” it said softly then raised a silver brow. “Holt… Rickart Holt, is it not?”

  “Yes.” Rick frowned. “Do I know you?”

  “It has been a very long time.” Draugar’s face abruptly rearranged itself into the angular lines of a much older man with a neatly trimmed mustache. His long silver mane disappeared and was replaced by closely cut, iron gray hair. “Have I changed, so greatly?”

  “Mother of God,” the vampire whispered. There was a shudder of horror in his voice. “Todt…”

  Rowan looked over at Rick. His face was wiped clean of all expression but she could feel the acidic boil of hate churning within him through their mental link. “You know each other?”

  A growl rumbled loudly from Rick. “It is because of Todt that I was damned before I ever became vampire.”

  Draugar’s face remained that of an older man. He nodded. “So, you do remember me.” His lip curled in a twisted smile. “As a soldier, your potential for exquisite violence manifested itself gloriously before you regained your human concept of morality.”

  Rick jerked his gaze away. “As a soldier, it was my job to kill.” A muscle in his jaw flexed.

  “You killed people?” Rowan said softly.

  Rick’s head shot up and his eyes sought Rowan’s gaze. He’d heard her soft exclamation. “It wasn’t my idea to be a soldier. I wanted no part of the war.” Rick ground out. “I was conscripted straight out of college that summer. One minute I was walking to class, the next I was being stuffed into a bus under gunpoint.”

  Rowan blinked in confusion. War? What war?

  Draugar smiled condescendingly. “And you were a very good, very obedient soldier.”

  “If I didn’t follow orders I would have been shot,” Rick bit out venomously.

  “Does he not sound innocent?” Draugar turned a silver eye on Rowan. “He was a Landser of SS-Sonder-Kommando Dirlewanger, one of the most ruthless penal battalions ever to serve the F
uhrer.”

  Rowan took a sharp breath. The Fuhrer—as in: Hitler? Rowan stared at Rick. “You were a Nazi?” she asked in a tight voice.

  Rick looked at Rowan’s white face. “Hell no, I was never part of that.” He shook his head sharply and jabbed a finger at Draugar. “Todt’s inhuman excuses for officers were Nazi, I was a Stabsfeldwebel, a Warrant officer one rank above master sergeant.”

  Rowan’s heart hammered in her chest. Rick was a German soldier during World War Two? She looked at Draugar then at Rick in shock. Oh my gods, I don’t even want to think about this…

  Draugar tilted his head to one side. “Out of curiosity, when I knew you as a mortal man, you did not kill others easily, but as a vampire, I know that you must drink blood to survive.” The brows rose and a bloodcurdling smile spread across his face. “How do you justify the killing of others to survive? How do you live with the destruction of your own soul?”

  Rowan shot Draugar a look of disgust. Son of a bitch! What an ugly thing to say!

  Rick bared his fangs in a snarl. “Yes, I drink blood, but I don’t need to kill for it.” The growl in Rick’s chest was very pronounced. “I haven’t killed since I burned your camp to the ground.”

  Draugar’s brows rose. “So, it was you that set fire to my camp, so long ago?”

  Rick nodded. “It was both my sire and I.”

  Rowan looked at Rick. He’s never mentioned that he did anything with his sire... He said he didn’t remember him.

  A nasty smile curved Rick’s mouth. “The two of us hunted and killed as many of you as we could find. It was his idea to fire the whole camp afterwards. I had thought we’d gotten you and all your filthy abominations.”

  Draugar sighed. “If it will satisfy you, you did succeed in destroying all of my slaves.”

  “Good.” Rick bared his teeth in vicious smile.

  Good, Rowan thought in agreement. She reached for her magic but it kept slipping just out of reach.

  Draugar grinned. “However, the rest of your remaining militia compatriots died when the fire took the camp. Their deaths rest on your soul.”

  Rick flinched and glared hot daggers at Draugar. “I know.” He wrapped his arms defensively around his body.

  Rowan bit her lip. Sadistic bastard... She wriggled her fingers. If I can generate my radiance, this guy will drop me, and hopefully knock out the orange field. Then I’ll get the hell, out of the way and let Klaus do his thing to this asshole. Her arms were going numb and she couldn’t feel her feet anymore. If I can just get loose...

  Draugar tilted his head to one side. “I remember this other vampire, a Russian.”

  “A damned pity he didn’t kill your ass.”

  Draugar nodded then smiled. “I’m afraid that it is time for me to leave you, pleasant as this conversation has been.” His head tilted down.

  Rowan followed his glance. Rudolf was on his knees. His head was tilted back with his eyes rolled back showing only the white. His mouth was slack and hanging open and his face had gone very sunken and gray. His hands hung limp at his sides.

  “I’m afraid that Rudolf has not much more left in him, so it’s time I set up his replacement.”

  Rowan’s skin broke out in a cold sweat. Her head shot up and she glared at Draugar. “I am not going anywhere with you!” Abruptly, she found her magic. She felt the power surge under her skin—and turn into white-hot acid in her veins. She shrieked and continued to scream as fast as she could draw breath, thrashing in agony.

  “I told you not to use your magic.” Draugar said softly.

  * * *

  “Rowan!” Rick lunged for the orange barrier. He struck it and hissed in sharp pain. Todt pressed a hand to Rowan’s forehead. Her struggles and screams abruptly ceased. Her eyes closed and she collapsed like a rag-doll. Todt reached down and caught her legs under his other arm, lifting her up and cradling her like a child. Her red mane fell in a spill of shed blood against the stone gray of his sleeve.

  One of the police officers scooped up the limp sorcerer and shoved him into the back of the first police car, then raced around to climb into the driver’s seat. The second officer opened the back door to the car parked by Todt.

  Todt’s face abruptly shifted into the porcelain-pale, ruggedly handsome features of a Viking. His hair became spun silver and tumbled down past his shoulders. Todt shook his head, tossing his silver mane until it settled down his back. He shot a narrow look at the two vampires. “If I see either of you—the witch dies.” He turned and shoved Rowan’s unconscious form in the back of the waiting police car, then stepped in. The waiting officer closed the door and got into the driver’s seat. Both police cars pulled away, crunching down the long gravel drive.

  Klaus began to rise from the ground. “His sorcerer fades...I can take him.”

  “No, Klaus!” Rick grabbed Klaus’s wrist with clawed fingers. “I can’t risk Rowan.”

  Klaus began to lift higher. “I must follow him - I will not risk losing him.”

  “No! Don’t!” Rick grabbed the front of Klaus’s robes to keep him from soaring after the cars. “I can’t have you chase him, he will kill her. I’ve seen him kill for no reason at all.”

  Klaus twisted and caught both of Rick’s wrists while continuing to rise, lifting Rick off the ground with him. “You do not have the power to fight me, you fool.”

  “I know,” Rick hissed. Klaus was crushing the bones in his wrists. “You won’t lose him, I can track her through my blood-bind.” Rick eyed the second story window that was level with Klaus’s head and twisted his wrists in Klaus’s powerful grasp. “As soon as they are out of sight we’ll follow them, we need to stay out of sight.”

  Klaus frowned and began to drop to the earth. “Very well. But my patience with you is very thin.” He released Rick’s wrists and Rick dropped half a story to the ground, landing lightly on his feet.

  Rick rubbed his wrists then turned and watched the two police cars disappear behind the trees lining his drive. “So is mine.”

  - Fifteen -

  Arcanum

  Rowan took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She was staring at a cream-colored ceiling decorated with a relief of ornate sculpted vines and leaves painted over in white. She blinked. Was I asleep?

  She turned her head to one side. She was lying sprawled across a large brilliantly colored Persian rug on the floor of a huge and empty room with tall windows heavily curtained in gold velvet, lining one whole side. There was an enormous, white marble fireplace commanding the center of the wall by the windows. Where the hell am I?

  She curled her legs under her and sat up. She groaned. Her body hurt like hell. Her stomach and chest muscles ached, her head was a throbbing mess and her hands and feet were tingling as though her circulation had been cut off. Her shoes and socks were missing. Rowan searched her waist and discovered that her leather cigarette pouch and her tarot cards were still attached to her belt. Well at least I can smoke if it gets too dull around here.

  She rubbed her sore wrists and discovered a finger thick bracelet of pale amethyst stone around each wrist. She held up her wrists. The bracelets were exactly the same. She twisted the slender stone and discovered that they would not go over her hand. She couldn’t get them off. She rubbed at her tingling bare feet and found an amethyst bracelet around each ankle just like the ones on her wrist. What the hell happened to me?

  Rowan’s head jerked up, remembering the cops, the sorcerer and Draugar holding her like a doll. Shit, I’ve been kidnapped by that monster... I gotta get out of here.

  She looked around and saw a door on the wall opposite the row of windows. Rowan levered herself up onto her bare feet. She took two unsteady steps toward the door and bumped her nose smack, into a wall she couldn’t see. Rowan jolted to a startled halt and rubbed her nose. “Son of a bitch! What the hell, was that?”

  She put out her hands. There seemed to be some kind of smooth invisible something right in front of her. She tapped it lightly with her knuck
les and it made a sound like a window being struck. Invisible glass? She hit it harder with her fist and promptly bruised her knuckles. “Ow, shit.”

  She sucked on her knuckles, then put out a foot. Very carefully, she bent her knee, then kicked at the invisible glass with the ball of her foot, hard. She was knocked right off her feet and landed on her butt with a bruising thump. “Damn it!”

  She rubbed at her sore foot, then got up. “What the hell is this?” She put out her hands and touched the smooth cool surface. “There has to be a way out.” With both hands out, she traced a seamless circle all the way around the rug.

  The door opened behind her. Rowan turned around and saw Rudolf limping unsteadily toward her. He was looking even more like a corpse than before. His skin seemed to be flaking off and there were dark stains leaking through his coat. Rowan backed away from the sorcerer’s approach. Rudolf stopped at the edge of the invisible glass. His orange eyes focused on her.

  Rowan swallowed. He was giving her the serious creeps. She rubbed at the hair rising on her arms and brushed the bracelet. Her eyes dropped to Rudolf’s wrists. He was wearing bracelets, too, but they were orange, the color of his magic.

  She frowned. My magic isn’t purple... She blinked. It was when she sharing Rick’s power. Rowan sucked in a breath. She must still be holding some of his power. Maybe she could still reach him? Rowan closed her eyes and opened her thoughts wide, seeking Rick’s essence and felt...Nothing.

  “I would not use your magic if I were you.”

  Rowan’s eyes snapped open. Draugar was standing right behind Rudolf. She hadn’t heard him come in. His long silver coat was gone, along with his jacket and tie. His white shirt was unbuttoned and open down the front showing a long line of muscular and pale skin. He smiled and rolled one sleeve up over a muscular forearm, to the elbow. A warm wave of curious interest uncurled low in her belly.