Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6)

by K. F. Breene

  “Have you served time?” I asked. It was a personal thing to ask, but I needed to know the sort of guy I was thinking about taking back to the Mansion. Because I did have to take him back. A fighter with magic? Even if Cato wasn’t pushing the uniting of the species, he was still a prize

  He tried to roll his shoulders, but my spell wouldn’t let him move freely. “Yeah. Got out of the orphanage and didn’t have nowhere to go. Fell in wit’ a street crew. I did petty shit at first—stealin’ cars and stuff. I did ok so I moved up to the big time. I wasn’t runin’ no drugs, though. Packing shit around like a donkey? Dishin’ out to kids? C’mon, man. That shit wasn’t for me. I got lazy, got pinched, did some time in the clink, and then got out for good behavior. Never went back. Fuck that. I’m good at fixin’ cars so I do that. Not as much money, but screw it, you know? My mom didn’t sacrifice her life to have me in and out of jail.”

  “Your mom…sacrificed her life?” I put my hands in my pockets, trying not to look nosey. Charles, staring like he was, wasn’t trying at all.

  “Yeah. We had a hole-in-the-wall place. Caught fire when I was a kid. Real young. I don’t remember too much. She got me out and went back for my cousin. They didn’t make it out. That’s what they told me at that scum orphanage.”

  “And you didn’t get a foster family?”

  A sneer crossed his face for the first time. He spit. “I’m half black, I talked about invisible people, and I was huge for my age. Naw. Best I got was some joint homes, but got kicked out of a few of them before I got smart.” He spit again.

  “I learned to shut my mouth. I learned really quickly,” I admitted, stepping closer. I recognized that lost look in his eyes. The feeling that he’d never been loved. That no one wanted him. Utterly and completely alone.

  I’d been lucky enough to find Stefan. Then a father and a weird uncle with a staring problem. And a bunch of guys and gals who had pledged their life to me. I had family now. This guy was still trying to make it on his own. He was trying to deal with some crazy secrets while getting his life on track. It was commendable, and for better or worse, I was totally going to adopt him.

  If he didn’t try to kill me, at least.

  “Your mother was a human?” I asked, already considering letting loose those bands.

  “I’d think you were crazy for askin’ that shit ten minutes ago.” The man chuckled and looked away from me. “Yeah, she was human. Didn’t know my dad. Saw a picture of him once. Big, white fucker. He was standing in the shadows, staring at the camera. My mom said she didn’t know who he was.”

  “Then why’d she keep the picture?” Charles was still staring.

  “Jesus, Charles, grab some popcorn while you’re at it.”

  “What? This is some entertaining shit. Real life drama.”

  The man glanced at Charles before turning his focus back to me. “She didn’t want to let go of that picture. She had no idea why, neither. Had it framed and everything. Kept it by her bed. But had no idea who it was.”

  “Then how’d you figure it was your dad?” I asked softly.

  He shrugged and went back to staring away from us. “I was young, but always thought my mom being so interested in that picture was weird. It was just in the back of my head, you know. When I got older I tried to confront one of those big fuckers—a chick—I woke up in a park a few days later. Naked with a hard on and no memory. That freaked me out, you know? What the hell, right? I skipped out on a few jobs and just tried to make sense of that shit. Then, one night, it just…came to me. I woke up and I remembered fucking some chick’s brains out. Great sex. Kinky shit, too. I was with a few girls at one time. And that picture came back to me. My mom never recovered her memory—or if she did, she didn’t say nothing. But maybe there was some feeling there. Maybe some part of her realized where I’d come from. I don’t know. I lost her too early to find out.”

  Charles was right—this was fascinating. I cleared my throat. “Did you…ever seek them out again? Try to confront that chick?”

  The man looked at me in disbelief. “Are you for real? And have my memory stolen again? What if I couldn’t get it back the next time? Naw, man. I’ve thought about those chicks, sure. They were hot. And the sex was…” He glanced away from me. “Anyway, I didn’t want to risk it. I ain’t stupid.”

  “Ha! She was that stupid! Twice!” Charles pointed at me.

  “Can you ever keep your mouth shut?” I berated Charles. I also ignored the man’s stare. “Too bad we can’t find out if you’re right and prove your dad was really one of Charles’ kind.”

  I bit my lip, considering letting him go again.

  “Yes there is—I’ve heard of a few halvsies. It doesn’t happen that often, but occasionally…” Charles pushed me aside and stood directly in front of the smaller man. He bent down to be on eye-level. “Human male. I am going to bite your neck right on your vein and suck out some blood. Do not be afraid. There is nothing to worry about.”

  “What the—“

  “Charles!” I batted him away. “Would you stop? Let a pretty girl at the Mansion do it at least. Good God—he doesn’t want some guy… Have you lost your mind?”

  I faced the man. “Have you ever…like… really wanted something and the unexplainable happened?”

  “Sometimes my gun turns a weird shade of red…” the guy admitted in a mumble.

  “Awesome. Red will work.”

  “But it’s not great,” Charles mediated.

  “Charles, he’s human. If we teach him how, he can probably get a higher power brewing. I started out red, remember? Quit interrupting.” I wished I’d brought Jonas, who was usually quiet and left me to it when he could see that I knew what I was doing. “So, look. I can help you. You aren’t a freak or anything. Those guys in the shadows are real. Obviously--there’s one standing right next to me. And, you know, you had sex with one. Or many.” I cleared my throat again. Finding magical humans had never been this awkward before.

  I assessed the spell. “So… You aren’t going to do something violent if I release you, right?”

  “Try to kill her, human male. I will rock your world.” Charles’ tattoos lit up.

  I blew out a breath. “Taking him into the Mansion is going to suck. With that challenging stare, he’s going to have the whole place fighting.”

  “At least he won’t be worried about the orgies, though.” Charles smirked.

  True.

  I stared for a moment, then took a step back. “All right, well… I’m Sasha.”

  I released the bands.

  Nothing happened for a moment. Then the man rolled his shoulders. His arms drifted away from his sides. His gaze, full of wild, raw aggression, drifted to Charles. He flexed.

  “I’m your huckleberry. I won’t even use magic.” Charles’ arms rippled with muscle as they lost their color.

  The man smirked, then turned his gaze back to me. That fire still burned, but it was subdued now. Under control. “I’m Paulie.”

  My eyebrows were probably in my hairline. Is that it? I expected him to lose his shit just then. Most of the guys in the Mansion would’ve.

  I nodded with a turned down mouth, my version of asking what was next. “That’s Charles. Tomorrow we’ll meet the witches. They are human, too, and have access to their magic. Tonight, though, um…we’re just going to go back to the Mansion—to the place where guys like Charles live. I’m the Mage there. Do you want to come?”

  Paulie started to laugh. He looked up at the sky and shifted so he could look behind him at the mouth of the alley. “I’m going to end up back in the psyche ward. Shadows, mages, witches…what the fuck?”

  He let another chuckle out, put his hands on his hips and leaned over. It almost looked like he’d run a mile and was catching his breath. “Screw it.” He straightened up. “Yeah, sure. I’ll go wit’ you and check out all this fairyland bullshit. Why not, right?”

  “That’s the spirit,” I mumbled.

  I just hoped he d
idn’t pick a fight with someone and get himself killed.

  Chapter Two

  Still feeling a little awkward, I stupidly motioned Paulie along and set off at a brisk pace back to my car. “Exciting things,” I said to myself as we walked. I was trying to convince myself more than actually believing it.

  “What are?” Charles asked, walking beside me. Paulie was following along behind. Part of him wasn’t sure about going to the Mansion, I could tell. All of this was against everything that had been drilled into him at the mental institution. He’d been shut away from the world for believing this type of thing, after all. But curiosity was probably getting the better of him, like it had me. He wanted to know what really went bump in the night.

  He was about to get the crash course.

  “Humans with magic. I just love that we can match you fuckers,” I said as I turned and kicked out. Charles jumped away before it could land.

  “Really, Sasha? If you moved any slower you would’ve turned to stone.”

  I threw a punch at Charles’ jugular, and another at his stomach. He slapped away the first lazily and let the other land. My fist bounced off a rock hard stomach. A knuckle popped.

  “Ow,” I muttered, massaging my knuckle.

  “When are you going to learn your lesson?” Charles asked with a smile. “You are a human, and therefore weaker—”

  I zapped him with a pure shot of fire.

  “Ow! Damn it, Sasha!” Charles grabbed his chest where the magic landed and danced away.

  “You’re stronger physically, but weaker in magic, and a huge boob. Suck on that.” I sauntered ahead of him across the street and into another alleyway.

  “I asked for a transfer, did I tell you that?” Charles asked, hanging back with Paulie.

  “You tell me that every time I best you, idiot. And no you didn’t.”

  “I could’ve.”

  “You could’ve also grown a brain, but I see no evidence…”

  “Paulie, bro, don’t get on her detail,” Charles muttered. “You get the offer and you walk the other way. It’s just not worth the aggravation. Plus, you’d have to deal with Jonas, and he is a prickly bastard. If he smiles at you, you just keep walking. Seriously, bro. That’s not a place you want to be.”

  “How old are you?” I heard Paulie ask.

  I couldn’t help but burst into laughter as I exited the other side of the alley and turned left. I fished in my pocket for keys as my gaze fell on a white BMW. My eyebrows rumpled as I glanced up the block, looking for my Firebird. I turned around and looked at the building, spotting the bright yellow “sweet thang” painted on the wall over other graffiti. I stared back down at the BMW.

  “Where’s my car…” I glanced around again as Charles stepped up, the confusion I felt crossing his face. I was about to ask if I was losing my mind, and maybe we parked somewhere else, when my phone rang.

  Taking it out of my back pocket, I saw “Cato” written across the top. I put it to my ear. “Hello?”

  “Sasha?”

  “Yes. Hi Cato.”

  “Oh, Sasha, so lovely to hear your voice. How are you these days? Did you do anything interesting tonight?”

  Cato always opened the conversation with pleasantries. He could be under attack and he’d still chat about the color of the flowers on his desk. Being hundreds of years old, time meant nothing to him.

  “I found a human that is strong in magic. Uneducated, he is at red level, but I think I can get him higher. He looks mean and a little violent. I just hope he won’t provoke fights at the Mansion and get himself killed.”

  I heard a huff behind me. Paulie didn’t think much of that idea. That worried me more.

  “Oh fabulous, Sasha. That is great. You know, some people don’t follow through with their promises. They tell me they are working on things I deem of the highest importance, but unfortunately their attention wavers.”

  Because you sound harebrained most of the time. And I’m still not sure I’m doing the right thing. “Uh huh.”

  “Well, Sasha,” Cato continued. An edge crept into his voice. “Human magic workers are essential, as you know. You need to start working with them. Link with them, constantly. Constantly, Sasha. Start with a few people and work some spells. Then spread out into larger and larger circles. Bigger and bigger, do you hear me, Sasha? I want mammoth circles. You will be the pinnacle, and your human magic workers will stretch out below you like a pyramid.”

  “Okay,” I said hesitantly. I couldn’t help but hear the fervor in his voice. Just as I had previously worked with his assurance that we needed more magical humans in our ranks, now I was responding to the determination that we should form a huge link. “Why, though, Cato? This sounds…”

  “Sasha, above everyone, you’ve always had faith. Keep that now. The worst may not come to pass, but it may. And because it may, we must be prepared, you and I. You are my secret weapon. I am not the best on my own, Sasha. But together, I think we can be.”

  I opened my mouth in confusion, but didn’t get the chance to question him before he was rattling on.

  “Fare you well, Sasha. And keep your eyes open. The council is weak and the enemy are many.”

  The phone went dead. I stared down at the bright face, my ocean wave wallpaper now taking up the screen. “The guy is cracked. There are no two ways about it.”

  “Cato?” Charles asked, striding back toward me with a puzzled expression.

  “Yeah. He wants me to get all the humans together and practice forming huge links.”

  Charles glanced at Paulie, seriousness creeping into Charles’ expression. “He thinks trouble’s coming. The word at the council is that Cato gets a sixth sense when trouble is on its way. He sounds like a looney old male, but I’d do what he says.”

  “I’d planned on it, Charles, I just wished I knew a little more about the whole thing.”

  Charles cocked his head as he stared down at me. The shadows etched his striking features. “Are you sure?”

  The seriousness in his eyes reminded me of the challenges we’d had to endure at the council. Charles was probably right—perhaps I didn’t want to know more. Not yet. Not until I was confronted with it and could do something about it.

  “Good call. So, where’s my car?” The cool evening was turning into a hard bite of cold that seeped through my sweatshirt and raked my arms. I shivered.

  “Well, okay.” Charles turned to stare at the wall with his hands braced on his hips. “I remember those words. Remember? I said, ‘This spot was made for you, sweet thang.’”

  “Hard to forget, Charles.”

  “So it should be here.”

  “It musta got boosted. What kind of car was it?” Paulie asked, content to hang out on the sidelines and watch Charles and I scratching our heads.

  “It didn’t get stolen, bro. That thing was a piece of shit.” Charles looked out across the street.

  “It was not a piece of shit!” I was lying a little. My poor baby had deep, thick scratches down the body, a plethora of dents, a crack in the windshield, and other defects that only mattered if you cared about appearance. Since I only cared about a car with no car payments, and going fast, I was all set.

  Except for now, I was missing a car.

  “I’d think this was a joke, but Jonas has no sense of humor.” I stared at my phone, wondering if I should call him to ask.

  “Ann?” Charles’ gaze swung my way.

  I shrugged. “Possible, I guess. She even has spare keys. But she’d leave a clue or something. I doubt she’d just take it and leave us stranded.”

  “Human male.” Charles turned his attention to Paulie. “Do you have a car?”

  “Naw. Didn’t have the cash after going legit.” Paulie stared back at Charles. If he was embarrassed by that fact, there was no way to tell. The man had obviously been through the fires and had picked himself up, fixed his life, and moved on. He was a survivor, just like me. I hoped it showed in his magic. Cato would be tickled t
hat there was another human who wouldn’t say die.

  I hung my head. No sense ignoring the obvious. “Well, it’s gone, obviously. I really hope it’s a joke and hasn’t been towed. That would totally suck.” I sighed, staring at that white BMW for one more moment. “Alright, c’mon, let’s hoof it. I’m cold and I don’t feel like calling Jonas and begging for a ride.”

  “I’m your huckleberry,” Charles retorted, waiting for me to get to his side before crossing the street beside me.

  “Would you quit with that line?”

  An hour later we were most of the way home and Charles was starting to get jumpy. Movement was good, but without violence of some sort, his attention wandered. He was punching bushes and kicking at pebbles.

  He slapped a leaf and then did a low roundhouse kick to a flower. “I feel like Chuck Norris.”

  “I don’t think Chuck Norris got famous for ruining flora.”

  “Did you know that when Alexander Bell invented the telephone, he had three missed calls from Chuck Norris?”

  Paulie barked out a laugh. I couldn’t help my own chuckles as we came to a large park with an overgrown baseball diamond, nestled between voluminous trees and high grasses. We were in a poorer district just outside of town and it showed. Potholes marred the street, the uneven sidewalk tried to grab my feet where I walked and the park was in complete disarray. It was a shame that the city spent their money on people that didn’t need it as badly as this community. Way of the world.