House of Shadows

by Morgan Hawke

  Gently, gently Rowan summoned all the power she had from within. Warm and velvety, like a sleepy cat, it uncurled and moved through her. Affectionately, her power filled her to the brim until it spilled over and raised a soft wind that lifted her red hair from her shoulders. It moved through her and around her, playfully batting at the gossamer strands of spell weaving that bound it to the web around the house.

  Rowan rose from the floor at the base of the barrier with her dagger in one hand and a fistful of odd herbs and resins in the other. She slapped her open hand against the barrier, ignoring the sting on her palm. Her eyes narrowed in determination and smeared the powdered herbs against the barrier, shaping an archaic symbol that meant: door. The symbol’s shape stayed frozen in mid air, embedded in the barrier.

  Rowan gripped her dagger with both hands and raised it. She took a deep breath, focusing her power into herself tighter and tighter. She braced both feet firmly and shouted the word for the rune she had used, the symbol that floated, embedded in the barrier right before her eyes. She stabbed.

  The dagger sunk into the symbol with a distinct popping sound. Gripping with both hands, she jerked the knife downward. The barrier parted, ripping like taught fabric. Rowan’s eyes widened. Holy shit! It worked! She jammed an arm through the hole then her head. She shoved a leg through. The rip began to squeeze around her. The barrier was healing itself.

  “Rick!” She waved her hand. “Quick, pull me through!” The barrier tried to squeeze her back into itself and she groaned. There was a blur of shadow and Rick suddenly had her by the hand.

  “I’ve got you...” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled sharply.

  She fell gasping into his arms outside the barrier. The barrier suddenly became whole with a hollow wobbling sound. “Thank the gods.” She struggled to stand but her knees were watery.

  Rick brushed the hair from her face. “Are you okay?”

  Rowan nodded. Everything felt a little fuzzy around the edges. “I’m just dead tired, gimme a minute to sit. I think I drained everything I had left.” She took a heaving breath and shuddered with exhaustion. “I didn’t have to break it. If we’re lucky, he didn’t feel the tear I made.” She held up her wrists and showed him her bracelets. “Can you break these?”

  * * *

  Draugar flung open the door to room where he was holding Rowan. “It is time to leave, I have destroyed the remaining revenants...” He stopped in mid-sentence and focused his silver gaze on Rowan. She was not within the barrier he had set; she was sitting on the floor by the fireplace.

  Rowan tucked her hands behind her back and bit her lower lip.

  He bespoke in his ancient language.

  Rowan blinked but remained where she was.

  His eyes glanced downward at her ankles. They were bare of his fetters. She had not only succeeded in slipping through his barrier, she had somehow loosed herself from his bonds. He raised a brow. “We have been clever.”

  Rowan gave him a small smile and a shrug.

  “Silly fool.” He pointed to the floor at his feet. “Come, now.”

  Rowan’s body unsteadily rose to its feet and took a shaky step toward him. Piss and firewater! The bracelets are gone, how the Hell is he doing that? Rowan shuddered, fighting the powerful compulsion to obey. She grit her teeth and made her body stop.

  “You should not be able to resist.” He frowned. “I said come. Now.”

  She gasped, feeling her exhausted power well up in response. He’s trying to use my magic against me! It took every ounce of her stubborn will not to take another step.

  “I can barely feel you, your energy level must be very low,” he said thoughtfully.

  She took a ragged breath. “Gee, that’s too bad for you.”

  Draugar sighed. “Regardless, we need to leave now.” He strode toward the fireplace.

  Rick flowed like living shadow from out of the deep recesses of the massive fireplace. “You’ll have to go through me to get her.” He stood between Draugar and Rowan and his body boiled with dark menace.

  A gun seemed to appear in Draugar’s hands. “There you are, Rickart Holt.” The barrel yawned black and wide. “I’ve been expecting you.”

  Rick loosed an inhuman snarl and his long teeth gleamed in the room’s dim light. “She’s mine.”

  Rowan peeked around Rick’s arm and projected to him. It’s not that I’m not grateful, but aren’t we being a little possessive here?

  Rick turned a swift hot glance her way. When you can stop bullets, you can have an opinion. Until then, I’m running this little scene. He gathered himself for a lunge. “If you try to stop us from leaving Todt, I’m going to enjoy ripping you apart.”

  “Use caution, vampire,” the Draugar warned softly. “Unlike the last time I shot you, these bullets are silvered and bespelled, and I am not limited by human reflexes.”

  Rowan turned to Rick in shock. “He shot you?” Rowan frowned. “Wait, the scar on your shoulder...”

  “Yep, that’ was it.” Rick’s eyes narrowed. “It was a long time ago.” Rick snorted. “Even silver bullets won’t kill me now, Todt.”

  “True.” Draugar nodded. “However, the spell on them is enough to make you very, very uncomfortable. Personally, I would rather not damage you.”

  Rick blinked in confusion. “What?”

  Draugar’s lips spread in a condescending smile. “I would have you both.”

  Rowan frowned. “You want both of us?”

  Rick loosed a deep rumbling growl. “Why the fuck would I want anything to do with the man that damned my soul?”

  Draugar’s lip curled. “You damned yourself.”

  Rick stabbed a finger at the draugar. “You ordered us into those Russian villages!”

  “Yes, I did.” Draugar cocked a brow at Rick. “However, it was your troop’s creativity in obeying orders that damned you.”

  Rowan blinked. What the hell are they talking about now? Russian Villages? Troops? Is this more world war two stuff?

  “Creativity—my ass!” Rick crossed his arms over his chest. “You made us into insane killers with that stuff you had us drink right before we marched.”

  Draugar shook his head. “The drug only enhanced what was already within them. I needed to be sure that they would voluntarily act out their violent inclinations. If I remember correctly, you were particularly creative in evisceration...”

  Rowan swallowed hard and refused to look at Rick. Evisceration? Gutting people?

  Draugar sighed. “Even when I was your commander, I had such hopes for you. Your human conscious was your undoing.”

  Rick shook his head. “There was no way in Hell, that I was going to put up with you drugging us into becoming psychopathic killers!”

  Rowan swallowed and felt something unclench around her heart.

  Draugar bared his teeth. “Which is why I shot you!”

  Rick ground his teeth, then jabbed a clawed finger at Draugar. “You shot me because I discovered your other ugly little secret, that you were feeding us—your own troops—to those unholy things that called themselves officers!”

  Rowan jolted. What?

  Draugar snarled. “It could not be helped. My officers needed to be fed or they would have become uncontrollable. They could not feed on the innocent. They needed the unclean, those tainted by the corruption that comes from self-willed atrocities.”

  Rick folded his arms across his chest. “And no one noticed that you needed frequent replacements?”

  Draugar smiled thinly. “Losses are expected during war. My entire core of officers needed only one every three days, far fewer lives than the average engagement.”

  Rowan’s hands fisted at her sides. Mother of us all! Is he saying that he had those zombie things for officers?

  Rick jabbed a clawed finger toward Draugar. “What was I supposed to do? Ignore the screams?”

  Draugar shook his head. “You were under orders to stay away from the officer’s encampment. That order was for your o
wn safety.”

  Rick shook his head. “That was my friend being eaten alive on that table by your officers, I had to do something!”

  “Your so-called friend…” The draugar’s voice was a low snarl. “Had a way with small children or he would have never ended up on their table.”

  Rick visibly flinched. “My God,” he whispered.

  “So, you did not know of your friend’s more interesting habits…” Draugar frowned thoughtfully then shook his head. “Your destruction was needless, you could have taken my offer instead and served me.”

  Rick hunched forward, teeth bared. “I could never be one of those…” Rick’s hands were balled into white-knuckled fists. “Things.”

  “The officers were merely tools given to me.” Draugar shrugged. “I wanted you for something altogether, different. Even as a mortal, power was within your grasp. You would have been safe from them as my apprentice in sorcery...”

  Rick snorted “And deal with you up close and personal, every day? Oh, hell no.”

  Draugar raised a brow. “And so, I was forced to shoot you.”

  Rick sneered. “What, I’m supposed to be grateful that you shot me?”

  Draugar snorted. “I offered you swift, clean death rather than put you on their table to be eaten alive.”

  Rick rolled his eyes. “Oh, gee, thanks...”

  “As to our current arrangement...” Draugar raised a brow “I have an enemy...”

  “We know,” Rick said and bared sharp teeth.

  Draugar snorted and shook his head. “Not that revenant vampire that dogs your heels...”

  Rowan and Rick exchanged startled looks.

  “He is of no concern, he cannot pass my boundaries.” Draugar smiled at Rowan. “Rowan may be free of the barrier, but she is still tied to the shield, and directly to me. No, what seeks me comes from our past, Rickart. Perhaps you will remember him?”

  Rick’s lip curled in distain. “Like I give a shit...”

  Draugar’s mouth set in a grim line. “You will give a great deal, when he comes to take you too. As it is, I can use you both.”

  “What? Both of us?” Rick frowned. “What the hell for?”

  “When I delved into her magic I discovered something interesting. Your powers seem to be intertwined and the power the two of you generate together is very potent.”

  Rick grabbed Rowan’s arm and took a step back from Draugar. “So?”

  Draugar snorted. “Shall I spell it out for you? I need Rowan’s sex-driven power at full capacity to break free of the binding set on me, and you’re just the man to keep her there.”

  Rick jabbed a finger at Draugar. “You are one sick fuck!” He stepped backward, shoving Rowan behind him toward the broken window. “We’re getting out of here now.”

  “Fool.” Draugar shook his head and smiled. “Can’t you tell that I already have both of you?” His eyes locked on Rowan’s. “Cast,” he whispered.

  Rowan felt her power spool out in threads. She grabbed for it, but something held her back. It slid through her hold to wind around Rick in a webbing of magic.

  Rick suddenly collapsed to his knees. “Son of a bitch!”

  Rowan was pulled to her knees behind him by his grip on her arm. Rick, Rowan projected softly. He’s using his connection to me to get to you. I can feel him using my power to do it, but I’m nearly burned dry. If you try, you can resist him.

  Rick nodded slightly then frowned in concentration. Staring Draugar in the eye, he got one foot under him and pushed slowly to his feet.

  Rowan felt her power thin further. The world began to lose color and her heart sounded loud in her ears. Her power was nearly gone...

  Rick took a single step back toward the broken window.

  Draugar raised his gun. “Stop or I’ll shoot,” he said pleasantly.

  “Fuck you,” Rick said distinctly and took another step back. The gun went off with a powerful explosion. Rick’s reflexes allowed him to twist sharply away from the bullet.

  Rowan felt something hit her shoulder like a punching fist and she was spun backwards. The air was knocked from her lungs. She felt Rick grab for her and catch her in his arms. She sucked air into her lungs and felt something gnawing on her shoulder with big teeth. “Ow, piss!” she hissed and grabbed for her shoulder.

  Rick hunched over her protectively. “Rowan, are you all right?”

  Rowan stared at the blood on her hand. “No, I don’t think so.”

  * * *

  Rick watched Rowan’s eyes flutter closed and she groaned. He lifted Rowan into his arms then whirled to face Todt. “You shot her!”

  Todt’s face was a mask of frustration. “I assure you, that was not my intent,” he bit out.

  The center window exploded and Rick leaped out of the way with Rowan in his arms to protect her from the knives of flying glass. Klaus unfurled in a mass of shredded darkness.

  Todt jumped back and emptied his gun in Klaus’s boiling darkness.

  “You know that bullets will not work on me,” Klaus hissed.

  “Damn you...” Draugar threw down the gun and his fingers elongated into curved daggers.

  Klaus bared his serrated teeth and an inhuman howl escaped his throat. He drew a pair of long, black-bladed swords from nowhere then launched himself at Todt in a blur of inhuman speed.

  Todt abruptly sank into the floor like it was water.

  Klaus dove for the floor after him and disappeared.

  Rick blinked. “Okay, that was weird...” He turned to look at Rowan cradled in his lap. Blood that smelled like sewage slithered from the bullet wound past his fingers. “Rowan honey, are you still with me?” Her eyes opened and they were dilated wide to black pits.

  “It hurts,” she said softly, then went boneless in his arms.

  Rick looked up to find Klaus rising through the floor. His swords had disappeared.

  Rick frowned. “Is he dead?”

  Klaus scowled. “No. He has retreated into the earth where I cannot follow.”

  “He’s escaped?”

  “Yes.” Klaus looked at Rick and frowned. “I smell blood that stinks of sorcery.”

  “It’s Rowan’s, she’s been shot.” Rick licked the wound and abruptly spat. The taste of her blood was painfully bitter and stomach-wrenchingly foul. There was no change; the wound continued to look angry and red.

  Klaus appeared over Rick’s shoulder. “You cannot heal her that way.”

  Rick nearly jumped out of his skin. “Shit, Klaus! Quit sneaking up on me like that!”

  Klaus ignored his outburst. “The bullet has been bewitched. It must be removed or she will die from the poisonous spell.”

  Rick touched the edges of the bullet hole. Rowan moaned weakly and blinked her unfocused eyes. He dug a finger into the wound and pain stabbed him sharply. “Ow, shit!” He yanked his hand back. “It’s like touching acid! Fucking son of a bitch…I should have taken that bullet.”

  “True.” Klaus nodded. “The draugar meant it for you. It would have made you ill and very weak, but her, it will kill.”

  “I won’t let her go.” He stared into her unseeing gaze. “I’ll make her one of us.”

  Rowan stirred and blinked up at Rick. “I don’t want to be a vampire …”

  “You’re not dying on me,” he said harshly.

  “No! You must not turn her,” Klaus snarled. “She must never be made vampire.”

  Rick bared his teeth at the elder vampire. “Why the Hell not?”

  Klaus pointed his finger at Rowan. “What she will become will kill us all.”

  “What?”

  Klaus paced before them. “She is a ved’ma. Ask her where her power comes from.”

  “Her power comes from sex, I already know that,” Rick snapped.

  Klaus curled his lip. “And she already feeds from your vampiric lust. Think fool! Do you imagine that the blood of a mere mortal will satisfy her as a vampire?”

  Rick shook his head. “What the Hell are you sayi
ng?”

  “Her unreasoning, new-born hunger will kill you before she can learn to control it.” He bared his teeth. “Even then, her vampire appetite will be such that she will be the death of every mortal and immortal she encounters. Even one as old as I would not satisfy her.”

  Rick stared at the blood seeping past his fingers. “I won’t lose her.”

  Klaus sighed. “Then you must retrieve the bullet and salt the wound.”

  “I tried, I can’t touch it.” Rick frowned. “Salt?”

  Rowan gasped in his arms. “Salt breaks the spell…” She whimpered softly. “You need my athame to get it out.”

  “What does she need?” Klaus moved away practically disappearing in the shadows.

  Rick looked about on the floor. “Her magical knife.”

  “It’s on my belt.” Rowan drew a sharp painful breath. “Salt is in the red satin pouch inside my red velvet shoulder bag.” Her eyes closed and she sighed softly.

  “Damn it, Rowan, stay with me!” There was a thump. Rowan’s red bag landed at his side.

  “I cannot touch her things,” Klaus whispered from nowhere. “You must do it.”

  “Fine, I’ll do it…” He felt along Rowan’s belt. “Where the Hell is that dagger?” Abruptly the black handle filled his hand. He pulled the sheathed, heavily carved dagger from where she’d tucked it at the center of her back. He set it on the floor beside him then grabbed the red velvet shoulder bag and dug though the bags, parcels, twists of paper and books that filled it. There were thousands of small cloth bags and the poor light made it hard to see the different shades.

  “Salt, salt,” he muttered and tangled his fingers on a string. He pulled his hand free and found that the strings were attached to a red bag. He opened the bag. It was full of white sand. He dipped a finger in the bag and tasted it. “Salt, good, great...” he set the bag by his knee.