Hunting Shadows

by Rain Oxford

  I decided to risk it and just when I stood to approach the cabin, I heard a car driving up the road and ducked back down. A moment later, a silver Corvette pulled up and parked right behind the Jeep. I cussed as Joshua and Janet got out of the car, went to the door, and knocked.

  It wasn’t my father; a stranger answered the door. I reached for my cellphone, but dropped it when a hand slapped over my mouth. I struggled, unsuccessfully.

  “I’m sorry,” my attacker said.

  Recognizing his voice, I froze. He pushed me down on my stomach and cuffed my hands behind me. “Why are you doing this?” I asked Nick. The cheetah shifter wasn’t as strong as a vampire, but he was more than strong enough to restrain a human woman. The handwriting in the letter had been familiar, but it was Nick’s handwriting, not Stephen’s.

  “Joshua and Janet aren’t working alone; they’re putting together a group of paranormal hunters.” He rolled me over an indicated the black collar around his neck. “If I don’t do as they say, if I try to run, or if I try to shift, they’ll kill me. I have to bring you back to them.”

  The last five years hadn’t been good to him. His cheetah-blond hair was long, dirty, and matted. His light brown eyes were bloodshot. Although naturally thin when he was captured, he was now emaciated. “I’m sorry they got you. Stephen sent some of his vampires to find you, but they couldn’t.”

  “I know. The Foxes are really good at covering their tracks.”

  “How did you know to address the letter from Stephen? How did you get into my room?”

  “I stole your apartment manager’s key. The Foxes have been watching you since you escaped them, even when they couldn’t get to you because of the vampire master.” He pulled me to my feet and forced me out into the open. “I don’t know what you did to them, but they really hate you.”

  “I didn’t do anything to them,” I said. He made me walk up to the cabin and opened the door. Janet and Joshua were sitting at the table, but the stranger was nowhere to be seen. The cabin was very simple, with just a bed, table, and kitchenette. There wasn’t even a TV or books. Obviously, nobody actually lived there.

  The hunter couple stood and Joshua pulled out a gun. “Good job, Nick.” He pushed the chair he was sitting in out and pointed his gun at it. I reluctantly sat. “Janet didn’t think you would actually show up. You really are an idiot.”

  “I just want to find my father. Why are you two such douchebags?”

  He smacked me with the butt of the gun. Fortunately, after five years of training from the vampires, I was able to keep my mouth shut. I wasn’t even afraid, although I probably should have been.

  “It’s our job to rid this world of the vermin paranormals.”

  “I’m not a paranormal!”

  “Either you are or your father is!”

  “You’re wrong!”

  He tried to smack me again, but I leaned back and kicked him in his armpit. He shouted and jumped back. The gun went off, narrowly missing Nick. I struggled to get out of the chair with my hands shackled behind my back before Joshua could get his bearings. Unfortunately, I wasn’t counting on Janet. She punched me in the face. “Shoot her!” she said.

  “Don’t kill me. I’ve never done anything to you.”

  “I doubt a bullet could even kill you,” Joshua said.

  “What are you talking about?! Of course a bullet could kill me!”

  “It didn’t last time.”

  I stopped struggling. “What?”

  “When you were two, we tracked down your father, who was working for the paranormals. He refused to cooperate with us, so we destroyed his lab and shot you.”

  “What?!”

  “I shot you in the head,” Joshua said. “We watched you die and then left your father alone with your tiny, dead body.”

  “Obviously you were wrong, and you’re fucking sick for even thinking of killing a baby.”

  “You survived, so you’re a paranormal and you deserve to die.”

  “How the hell does that make sense?!” Nick asked, appalled.

  “Shut up, you disgusting animal,” Janet demanded.

  Using the distraction, I bit Janet’s wrist hard enough to shed blood. As she screamed and jumped back, Nick punched Joshua in the face. With the same momentum, he reached around me to try to break the cuffs. Before he could, Joshua pulled a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button, causing Nick’s collar to shock him. The shifter collapsed, convulsing with pain as he tried to tear the collar off.

  Joshua had dropped the gun at one point, so I tried to wrestle the remote away from him, which was really awkward with my hands still tied behind my back. That was a huge oversight; a deafening bang filled the room and it felt like I was punched really hard in the back. It knocked the air out of my lungs and with every beat of my heart, the pain grew. Janet had gotten the gun.

  I was shot three more times in the back. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor and my entire body was burning in agony. I tried not to pass out because I knew I wouldn’t wake again if I did. Janet turned me onto my back. “Stay dead this time.” She shot me again in the chest.

  It wasn’t the end, though.

  I regained consciousness to find my mouth full of blood and Astrid was leaning over me. I tried to ask her what she was doing, but my mouth was sealed with her wrist. “Just drink,” she said gently.

  The pain was making me so nauseous I didn’t even struggle when she bit my neck. It was almost instantly soothing. The blood was making me feel warm and numb, and I soon passed out again.

  The next time I was aware of my surroundings, we were back at the coven. Over the next few days, I spent very little time awake, for I felt horribly sick. The wounds were painful and itchy, which was made worse by my constant heaving. I had a lot of strange, gory dreams involving blood, eating people whole, and sex. It was not pleasant.

  Finally, I woke one evening feeling great. Astrid was sitting next to me with a cup of blood. “Do you know what happened?” she asked, not looking at me.

  “You made me a vampire.” She nodded. “I’m okay. I know you saved my life and I’m grateful. How did you find me?”

  She handed me the cup and finally looked at me. “I followed you.”

  I set the cup on the nightstand and grabbed her hand. “I’m glad. I’m not going to hate you, and I’ll smack anyone who does. What happened to Janet and Joshua?”

  “They escaped while I was saving you and the cheetah.”

  “It felt like I’ve been sick for a month. Is that normal?”

  “You were only out of it for five days, and yes, that’s normal. Your body had a lot of changes and healing to do. Do you feel better now?”

  “A lot better. Am I going to be like Cody was when I met him?”

  “Everyone is different, but probably.”

  It was definitely a difficult couple of months. Cody tried to comfort me through it, but it was pretty obvious right from the start that the transition wasn’t as difficult for me. I continued to have weird dreams and when I was awake, I wanted to fight, fuck, or eat everyone. The worst part was that I had to develop a taste for blood; I didn’t like it automatically. One unexpected change was that I got over my major crush on Astrid and got much closer to Cody.

  Unlike Cody, I was able to conceal my fits of rage and I never lost track of time. Stephen theorized that this was because my mind didn’t change that much and I didn’t fight it. Cody had very strong human morality, whereas I spent many years living in the paranormal world before it was forced on me.

  After about two months, my dreams and emotions normalized. I knew my mind was different than it was when I was human, but I couldn’t figure out how. I couldn’t remember how I felt before.

  A lot of converted vampires never learned to use the thrall, or at least not accurately. Possibly because I was a pretty persuasive child, I picked it up automatically. Describing how to do it was impossible, but the results were something like hypnosis. My magic was able to bypass
their rational mind so that my words could control their subconscious. By doing this, I could make them do, say, believe, or feel anything I wanted, as long as I did it correctly.

  Fortunately, the thrall worked on paranormals and humans alike. While practicing this on fellow coven members, I made them forget how to speak English, bark like dogs, and forget their own name. When I tried to make one of Stephen’s butlers walk out into busy traffic, his survival instincts overcame my thrall. Then I convinced him he was immortal and tried the same command again. It worked. Stephen saved him and told me to stop torturing the staff.

  Knowing that it was possible to do it with my voice alone, I disobeyed and continued pushing my limits. Other vampires started retaliating, and that just made me stronger. I learned to anger or calm myself in order to break another’s thrall and I learned to thrall the other vampire faster than they could thrall me. The only one I didn’t stand a chance against was Stephen, but that didn’t stop me from trying.

  Instead of punishing me, Stephen made me a sentry. I saw it as an opportunity to get closer to finding my father, so I worked my ass off. When we weren’t working or training, I was practicing. We were trained to fight everyone, human and paranormal alike.

  I spent seven years in Stephen’s coven as a sentry, but never found my father.

  * * *

  Logan was quiet while he considered my story. Since we were sitting in the diner parking lot, it was a little awkward. “Did you want fries with your burger?” I asked. He shook his head, still deep in thought. I got out of the car by myself and headed inside.

  The same waitress from the previous night was there, and the diner had a whopping six customers. It had to be busier during the day or they would have gone out of business. The waitress turned to me and for just an instant, I saw something wrong with her face. Blood was dripping from her eyes like tears, her skin was pasty, and her cheeks were pulled up with invisible stitches, resulting in a forced smile.

  A split second later, her face was normal. She gave me a polite, fake smile that was seriously creepy after what I’d just seen. “Another order to go?” she asked.

  I forced myself to act normal. “Yes. Two steaks, rare, and a burger.”

  “Coming up.”

  “Did you hear any more information about your nephew?” I asked.

  She immediately dropped her fake smile. “No. I don’t think the cops are doing anything.”

  “Maybe not.” She went to put in the order and I took a seat, once again checking my phone for messages. Nothing. I sent off a text to Brandy.

  How’s everything going?

  Everyone is talking about the wizard council; apparently, they were just disbanded by a group of wizards, vampires, fae, and shifters working together. Nobody is upset about it because they were trying to tax paranormals.

  I actually meant with the bar. You said some vampires were asking about me.

  They stopped by again an hour or so ago and threatened to skin me alive. Everyone in the bar teamed up and kicked their asses.

  I moved my foot absentmindedly and froze when I heard a small crunch. I expected to see something horrific when I looked down, and I was right; the floor was crawling with cockroaches. Since no one else was freaking out, I knew it was just me who saw them. Some of the roaches crawled over my boots as I took a picture of them with my phone. On the screen, there were no bugs.

  The sound of Logan scooting the chair across from me almost made me jump; I hadn’t heard him come in. I didn’t bother to cuss him out for it. “Did you see that?” I asked instead.

  “No. What did you see?”

  “Bugs.”

  He shrugged. “They do exist. Are you afraid of bugs?”

  “I don’t want them in my dogs’ food, but no.” Insects and arachnids never bothered me. I told him about the waitress’s face.

  “That is interesting,” he said.

  “What is?”

  “It might be a distraction, but enough exposure to high magic can cause you to see the characteristics of one’s soul, especially when you have experience with magic.”

  “How would ‘bleeding eyes’ be a characteristic of the waitress’s soul?”

  “It’s a sign of tears shed from a broken heart.”

  “And the pasty skin?”

  “Fear.”

  “The fake smile is pretty self-explanatory. I see your point. That also fits with your theory that they’re being used as sacrifices if someone is trying to gain power through blood magic.”

  Logan didn’t look sure. “Did you ever defeat the Foxes?” he asked.

  That was a change of subject if I’d ever heard one. Once again, I considered using my thrall on him. Ultimately, I decided to wait. After all, a lie could be just as revealing as the truth. Besides, he was still sharing his knowledge of magic and, although he wasn’t telling me everything, I didn’t exactly have anyone else to confer with. “Yes, but it took eight years.”

  He didn’t push for more.

  After I left Stephen’s coven and opened my bar, I expected the Foxes to go after me again. They didn’t, but they still needed to be taken down. They were kidnapping paranormal children. About six months after I left, one of his vampires became pregnant, so we set a trap. Under close watch of all the sentries, Cody and I pretended the newborn was ours and took the baby to a motel.

  Fortunately, the Foxes were still watching me and took the bait faster than we expected; they broke in that morning and tried to shoot us with silver bullets. We were ready. A wizard friend of Stephen’s came with us and was able to shield us from the bullets. Thanks to their overconfidence, it took us about five minutes to incapacitate them. Then I used my thrall to make Janet take me and two sentries to their victims while the others pumped Joshua for information.

  We saved five children and returned three of them to their homes, but two of them were orphans. One of the orphans was a wolf shifter and was taken in by the local pack. The other orphan, who didn’t seem to be a paranormal, went back into state care and we had to thrall the kid’s case worker to prevent suspicion.

  * * *

  Half an hour later, Logan and I returned to the motel. Deimos was standing guard at the window, as usual, and didn’t bother to greet me as we entered. Phobos nearly knocked Logan down trying to get to his dinner. It’s like living with two teenaged boys sometimes.

  “Does it hurt you to eat human food?” Logan asked.

  I shook my head. “I can eat it, but I get all of my nutrition from blood. Now, you’ve heard quite a lot about me and all I’ve heard about your past is that you were a troublemaker.”

  “I’m afraid my past is not nearly as interesting as yours.”

  “Do you travel a lot for your work or do people just bring you stuff?” I asked.

  “If it’s something I want, I like to do my own dirty work. I find people are more likely to cooperate with me than someone who is only out to make money.”

  “So, you’re not just out to make money?”

  “No. I like to make connections.”

  “You like people in your debt.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you consider me in your debt?”

  “I did save you from the sunlight at the therapist’s office.”

  “You saved me from having to hide behind a couch all day.”

  “I expect that by the end of this, one of us will owe the other quite a bit.” His phone rang and he answered it. After a moment, he hung up. “That was Micah. He says that the creature is in the hospital.”

  Chapter 7

  We took Deimos and left Phobos to guard the room. Instead of heading straight to the hospital, we took a detour to the store and bought their brightest road flares, as well as some super-powerful flashlights. Once we left the store, it took about ten minutes to get back to the hospital.

  When I started to get out, Logan grabbed my arm. “Prepare yourself, Ms. Ares. This foe is much stronger than vampire hunters or reluctant shifters.”

 
“Physically, vampires are the strongest paranormals.”

  “Physical strength is nothing to magic. You said your coven taught you to---”

  “Stephen’s coven,” I interrupted. “I am no longer a member of his coven.”

  “Okay, then Stephen’s coven taught you to fight wizards. What did you learn?”

  “I learned to use wizards against each other, and if I do face a wizard alone, I should try to kill him before he can cast magic.”

  He grimaced. “That can bite you in the ass. There are a lot of death curses out there, whereby killing a wizard, you become cursed. Just be careful.”

  “That’s strange. It sounds so much like you care.”

  “You are of no use to me dead.” He grabbed the bag and got out.

  Even before we entered the hospital, I could see through the glass doors that the power was out. I had to force the door open and the hallway emergency lights gave the place an eerie appearance. The same nurse as before was still there behind the desk. We ignored her and headed for the stairwell next to the elevator.

  When we reached the kid’s room, it was empty. Even with the electricity out, I could see just fine, although Logan accidentally kicked the chair that was next to the bed. Logan walked around the room slowly, then crouched and stuck his hand under the bed. There was a cell phone on the bedside table. Deimos sniffed the bed and then growled before rushing out the door. “What did he say?” Logan asked.

  “He’s got a scent.” We followed him down the hall to a surgery room, which was very well-lit.

  “The kid’s pretty smart,” Logan said.

  Most of the lights were not hooked up to the backup generator because it would drain the power too quickly, but the surgery lights were vital. Unfortunately, they were all pointed right at me and I was forced to cover my eyes. “Micah?” I called.

  “Be quiet,” he whispered. “It’ll hear you.”