House of Shadows

by Morgan Hawke

  She finally rolled to one side to sit up facing away from him with her knees folded under her. If he’d left off his pants I would have begged him to fuck me. She wrapped her arms around her waist. I almost did anyway. She closed her eyes, feeling a rush of hot shame.

  “Rowan?”

  Cautiously, she turned to look at Draugar. He had not used her name before. “Yes?”

  Draugar thrust out his hand and made an odd gesture. “Cast.”

  Rowan felt her power arc out of her in a shimmering ring and she gasped. Oh, my Goddess! That isn’t me! That’s him! Her magic swelled like a bubble into a gossamer and almost visible net of shimmering awareness. Suddenly she could feel the entire house and the property surrounding it. She could feel the two soured police officers standing by the front door and about half a dozen other people moving around in the huge house. Every one of them had a spot of taint to them. She reflexively felt within herself and discovered that she was clean of whatever was rotting within the other occupants of the house.

  She frowned. “I’m not like the others,” she said unthinkingly, out loud.

  Draugar turned to look at her. “That is because you are mine. They were created by another.”

  Rowan cringed. Can we ease up on the ‘mine’ crap?

  Draugar reached over and picked up his shirt from the floor. “And now I have to destroy them.”

  Rowan’s mouth fell open. “Destroy them? You mean kill them?”

  Draugar shrugged. “It was Rudolph’s spell that held them. Now that he is gone...” He glanced at the pile of ash that still marred the rug. “His former slaves have been released.”

  Rowan’s hands fisted at her sides. “So, you’re going to kill them because they are reverting back to their original selves?”

  Draugar snorted. “Hardly. What has been done to them is irreversible. Without Rudolf to control them, they will become increasingly uncontrollable and highly dangerous.”

  Rowan grit her teeth. “Dangerous? To you?” I hope.

  “Not to me.” Draugar smiled and shook his head. “I assure you, I am very difficult to harm.” He sighed. “Rudolph’s slaves are all eaters of flesh.”

  Rowan felt her skin grow cold and rubbed her chilled arms. “My Gods... What the hell are they?”

  Draugar tilted his head to the side. “To borrow from your pop culture, I believe they are something you would call the living dead or zombies.”

  “Great Mother! Are you telling me that zombies are real?”

  Draugar raised his brows and snorted in derision. “You know that vampires exist, how can you doubt these creatures?”

  “I see your point.” Rowan felt a shudder come over her. “And they eat people?”

  Draugar shrugged. “These are not dead, but they are tainted and their bite is highly infectious. Left to themselves, they will hunt among the local population, making more of their kind until the entire town has either become one of them, or has been consumed by them.”

  “Oh, my gods,” Rowan said and shivered. The hair on her body rose. “And you have them for pets? Isn’t that really dangerous?”

  Draugar shook his head. “Not to me. I cannot contract their disease.”

  Rowan made a sour face. “Lucky you...”

  Draugar nodded. “Unfortunately, if their bodies are slain, say, by the local police, they do not fall immediately, but remain animate. Eventually, they become consumed by the taint that made them. In this condition, they only last three days, but three days is enough to infect and massacre an entire town. I have seen it happen. Now that I can no longer control their actions, their destruction is necessary.”

  Rowan had to look away. “Or they’ll kill the whole town.”

  “Indeed.” Draugar tossed his shirt over his shoulder and headed for the door. “You will be safe in here, they cannot pass the barrier.” He stopped when he reached the door and looked over his shoulder. “You may dress yourself, if you like.” He smiled suddenly. “Although I would not mind if you remained as you are now. You are quite lovely.”

  Rowan’s mouth popped open in surprise. “No thank you!” She leaned over and grabbed for her clothes.

  Draugar turned the doorknob with his brow furrowed in thought. “I already have your soul,” he said softly. “I am wondering what it would be like to have the rest of you.”

  Rowan whirled to face him with her clothes clutched defensively to her chest. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “I am wondering if the possession of your body would be worth the price of a small amount of my power.”

  Rowan hunched behind her clothes. “When Hell freezes over!”

  “I don’t think I’ll have to wait quite that long.” He chuckled. “You were more than willing only a few moments ago.” He opened the door. “I found myself quite tempted,” he said and closed the door, firmly.

  - Sixteen -

  Ensorcelment

  “I have to find a way out of here before he gets back.” Rowan struggled into her clothes with all due haste. She nearly screamed in frustration when she had to pull her T-shirt back off and then put it back on, right-side out. She didn’t see her shoes or socks anywhere in the huge empty room. There was only herself, the rug she stood on, the heavily curtained windows lining the wall opposite the only door and the massive, ornately carved, marble fireplace against the right wall.

  “Damn it, there has to be a way out...” Hands out, she explored the smooth surface of the barrier that imprisoned her in the center of the vivid rug. She stretched as high as her hands would reach, but couldn’t find the upper edge. In desperation she pressed her fingers along the bottom edge but it seemed to be sunk into the floor. She groaned and stood up to stare at what she couldn’t see. “Piss.”

  Rowan dug into her hip pouch and pulled out a black clove cigarette and her lighter. “The damn thing’s invisible. I could be standing in front of the exit and never know.” The tiny gas jet of her lighter hissed. She lit the cigarette and exhaled the thick and pungent white smoke. “If I could just see this thing...”

  The white smoke billowed from her lips and abruptly curled to the sides and up as though it struck a flat surface. Rowan blinked, sucked another mouthful and blew more smoke. Briefly the smoke showed a smooth curving surface. “Well damn, there it is.”

  Puffing on her cigarette, Rowan circled the entire circumference several times, looking for a seam, a crack an imperfection... It was smooth like glass and arched high over her head.

  “Son of a bitch! I’m in a fucking bell-jar, like some damned china doll!” In frustration, she smacked the barrier with the flat of her hand. There was a soft hollow ‘bong’. “Ow, shit!” She shook her smarting palm.

  Groaning, she walked to the center of the carpet and flopped down to sit with her knees bent and her arms wrapped around her legs. Out of pure spite, she put her cigarette out on the expensive carpet, creating a nice black burn mark.

  “This really sucks...” She sighed and rested her chin on her upraised knees. I can’t be somebody’s slave; I have a cat to go home to, and a job... She blinked back the dampness in her eyes. I have a life, damn it!

  Two more cigarette burn-holes later, Rowan felt a whisper against her senses. “What?” She lifted her head from her knees. “It’s not Draugar, I can feel him upstairs along with two of the tainted things,” she said thoughtfully. She closed her eyes to focus on the disturbance. “The rest of the um, zombie-things feel like they’re migrating upstairs too, so it’s not them.” She tilted her head and reached out along the magical webbing around the property.

  Something was moving along the house barrier that she was magically bound to. It was something familiar and dark. She frowned in concentration. The presence abruptly slid through the barrier and moved swiftly toward the side of the house that she was on. To her complete surprise, her nipples began to tighten and a warm curl of sensuality began to roil through her. What the hell?

  The presence was suddenly on the other side of the curtain
ed windows. There was a muffled sound of breaking glass. The curtain’s shifted on the furthest window on the right, by the wall the fireplace occupied.

  She groaned. “What the hell is after me now?”

  Rowan?

  Her name been projected directly into her thoughts. Rowan’s eyes opened wide and she blinked. There was only one person who could do that. Rowan got to her feet and felt her heart beating in her throat. “Rick?”

  Rick’s dark head appeared between the folds of heavy velvet. His hair was tied in a long tail that fell over one shoulder. “Rowan?”

  “Rick!” Rowan let out an explosive breath. “I am so glad to see you!”

  “Glad to hear it.” He grinned broadly. “Sorry I took so long...” He pulled himself through the curtains and stood on the carpet. “I drove your car out here and I didn’t realize that it was this far out in the middle of nowhere.” He shook the skirts of his long midnight coat. Shards of glass scattered at his feet. He sniffed and frowned. “I leave you alone and you smoke up the whole place with your cigarettes.”

  “Like it’s your house?” Rowan made a face. “Get over it.”

  He walked toward her and glass crunched under his feet. “As I recall, you smoked the hell out of my kitchen.”

  Rowan stuck her tongue out at him.

  Rick snorted and shook his head. “Anyway, where are Todt, and the short orange guy?”

  “The orange guy, Rudolf is dead. That was him.” She pointed over to the ash stain on the carpet. “The other guy is upstairs killing zombie-things.”

  “Good, that sorcerer was a pain in the ass, and I was wondering where the cops had disappeared to.” He stopped a few feet away from her. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

  Rowan gave him a lop-side grin. “Sure.” She put her hands on her hips. “As soon. I can escape the barrier he’s put around me.”

  Rick’s mouth fell open. “Barrier? Please tell me you’re joking.”

  Rowan bit her lip and shook her head slowly. “Wish to the powers that I was...”

  Frowning, Rick stepped onto the carpet that marked the boundary.

  “Be careful, it’s damned hard on the nose,” Rowan said wryly. She rubbed her own nose in reflexive memory.

  “I don’t feel anything,” he said softly and strode cautiously, right up to her.

  Rowan stuck out her hand and felt the barrier just past his side. “You’re inside it,” she said softly. “Weird... It doesn’t seem to notice you.”

  “Good.” Abruptly he grabbed her up in a hug, lifting her off the floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He buried his face under her red hair. “Damn, I was worried sick!”

  She hugged him around the neck hard. “Me too.”

  He pulled back. “Are you okay?”

  Rowan sniffed and nodded. “Yeah, nothing broken.”

  “Good.” He nodded sharply. “Time to blow this taco stand...” He turned with her in his arms and felt a hard vibration go through Rowan.

  “Ow, shit...” She rubbed her shoulder. It had slammed into the barrier. “I still can’t pass the boundary.”

  Rick frowned and let her slide down to stand on the rug. He waved his hands where she had made impact. “I still don’t feel a damned thing.”

  “Can you hear this?” She knocked lightly on the smooth wall of magic. A soft bong followed each of her gentle strikes.

  Rick’s eyes widened. “Shit... I see what you mean.” He frowned. “It’s just a spell, right?”

  Rowan nodded.

  “Then there has to be a way to break it.” Rick held out his hands, but still encountered nothing. “What would you normally use to break a spell?”

  Rowan blinked then looked up at him. “I use my athame, and come to think of it...” She put out a hand and stroked the smooth surface. “Salt.”

  He turned to her and raised his brows. “Salt and your what?”

  Rowan sighed softly. “My black handled ritual dagger. That’s what I use to break spells.” She tapped the invisible wall with her knuckles again. “But I’ve never run across anything like this before.”

  “Do you think it would work?” he frowned. “Just your dagger and salt?”

  Rowan tilted her head to one side. “It’s the only thing I can think of, at the moment.” She shrugged. “It might not affect it at all, but then again, it might put enough of a crack in it to force my way through.” She winced. “But, I don’t have my dagger with me. Everything’s in my red shoulder-bag and that’s back at the house.”

  Rick looked at her blankly a moment, then suddenly smiled. “Does your shoulder-bag look like this?” He opened his coat and showed her a long-handled, red velvet bag slung across his chest.

  Rowan laughed. “It looks exactly like that!”

  “Good.” He slid out of his coat, dropping it on the floor then pulled the cloth handle over his head to hand her the bag. “Here, break this damned spell and let’s get the hell, out of here.”

  Rowan took the bag gratefully and dug into it. “Thank the powers that you thought to bring it!”

  “Don’t thank me, it was Klaus’s idea to bring it.” Rick shrugged back into his coat.

  Rowan looked up with fully half her arm buried in her bag. “Klaus?”

  Rick shrugged. “He said, and I quote...” Rick cleared his throat, frowned ferociously and proceeded in a guttural and hackneyed, Russian accent. “Take her bag of arts. The ved’ma will have need of her possessions to break what sorcery he has bound her with.”

  Rowan blinked. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Rick snorted. “’Fraid not...”

  Rowan’s hand closed around the handle of her ritual knife. “Ah ha!” She pulled out her sheathed dagger. “I want you to wait over by the fireplace.”

  “By the fireplace?” Rick’s brows knitted together. “What for?”

  Rowan pulled out her bag of salt. The strings of a small blue bag were tangled to the ties. “I’m going to do this quick and dirty.” She frowned at the small bag of frankincense then looked up at him. “This spell is really strong and I have no idea what kind of aftershocks or explosion I’m going to set off if I actually succeed in breaking it. I don’t want you to get hurt by accident.”

  Rick snorted. “I’m the big bad vampire, and you’re the fragile human, remember?”

  “Will you quit it with the fragile shit?” She untangled the small blue bag from the strings of her salt bag. Thoughtfully, she held the frankincense bag in her hand and somehow, she knew that she was going to need it. If I’m going to need this, then maybe I need other things too? She shoved her hand back into the bag. “Give me what I need to pass through this barrier spell,” she said softly.

  “You’re still more likely to get hurt than I am.” He frowned. “Wait a minute, how much power are you planning on throwing at it?”

  “Everything I can dredge up.” Her fingers caught on more string ties. A breath of hope began to uncurl inside her. She pulled out her hand and found three more colored bags of herbs attached to her fingers.

  “Everything? Isn’t that dangerous?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a whole lot of choice here. Once I start knocking on this thing, Draugar is going to know immediately and come running. I have to make a big enough hole to squeeze through on the first shot.”

  “And if you can’t break it?”

  Rowan bit her lip. “If I can’t break it, then I need you to leave immediately.”

  “What? Oh, hell no!” He grabbed her shoulders. “I am not leaving here without you.”

  Rowan grit her teeth. “If you stay and get your ass killed who else is going to rescue me? Klaus?”

  “I am not leaving you here! How can you ask me to do that?”

  “You don’t have a choice and neither do I!” She jabbed a finger at him. “You have to be in one piece, upright and conscious to save me.”

  Rick winced then set his jaw. “Rowan, I’m not leaving you alone with him. You don’t know what Tod
t is capable of.”

  Rowan set her jaw stubbornly. “Yeah, well, I’m learning...”

  “Rowan, I’m telling you right now, leaving you behind with that thing, is a really, shitty idea!”

  “Look, I agree!” Rowan threw up her hands and he let her go. “Are you happy now?” She turned her back and shook her head. “But, if I can’t break this spell, I have no one else capable of rescuing me.” Rowan could feel her eyes beginning to water. “No one else even knows I’m here.” She blinked, then rubbed the heel of her hand across her eyes. She turned to look at him. “I only have you.”

  * * *

  His hands clenched at his sides. “What if he takes you where I can’t find you?”

  “You will find me.”

  He winced at the absolute certainty in her voice. I can’t leave her. I won’t... He took an unsteady breath. I love her too much... He blinked in stark surprise. Love? When the hell did that happen?

  Abruptly he took a blindingly fast step and pulled her into his arms. She had a moment to gasp and then he kissed her. His mouth took hers and he desperately tried to say in his kiss what he was afraid to say out loud. That he loved her and that he was afraid. Afraid of losing her forever, and afraid of finally, finding her—after she had been changed into something that was no longer human.

  He pulled back and held her by the arms. She was trembling under his palms. “I am not going to argue with you.” He stepped back. “Do your hocus-pocus and let’s get out of here.” He strode for the massive fireplace and his shoulders knotted tightly.

  Rowan watched him stride away and blinked. Please Lady, don’t let him do something brave and stupid, and get himself killed. She closed her eyes against the sudden pain in her heart. I couldn’t take it.

  Draugar had warned her not to reach outside herself. Seated on the floor by the base of the barrier Rowan closed her eyes and turned her focus inward. This was not how she normally did magic. Normally she would stretch her power outward like questing fingers. Softly and politely she would use her magic to ask the elemental magics that breathed in all the swirling life around her to assist her in her need. Even her glowing radiance was in response to a call. Her brilliant glow was something that came from outside herself; a gift from the Goddess she served. What she was about to do was altogether different.