by G. R. Lyons
Illumined Shadows
Treble and the Lost Boys Trilogy, Book 3
G.R. Lyons
Cover design by
Designs by Dana
Copyright © 2018 G.R. Lyons
All rights reserved.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This story takes place in a fictional world. It pulls events and characters from the Shifting Isles series, yet can be read as a standalone. In the story, you'll find references to multiple gods and different names for days of the week, amongst other things. A glossary has been provided at the end for those curious readers who enjoy a little background worldbuilding.
Also, within the context of this book's setting, there is no arbitrary delineation between 'adult' and 'minor', thus the presence of teenagers in a night club would be considered perfectly normal.
TRIGGER WARNING
This story deals with traumatic incidents that may be disturbing for some readers. Caution is advised.
Prologue
Two years ago…
VICTOR LUCIUS clutched the blood-stained bracelet in his pocket as he walked through the hospital toward the long-term care ward. It was a path he could travel in his sleep. Every week, and sometimes more often, for over twelve years, he'd made his way down those same stark hallways and through those same swinging doors into the same cool room just to stop beside the same white bed. Not much ever changed. A few different nurses and doctors over the years, but one visiting day usually looked just like any other.
Except today would be different. Today, he'd have to tell Cam that he wouldn't be back for a few weeks, the longest he'd ever gone without seeing Cam since the incident. Vic was going to Erostil with Ryley and Zac for some music gigs, then he and Ryley would be staying on for work, trying to find out what happened to a kid who'd gone missing there some thirteen years ago. He had no idea how long that was going to take.
Of course, that was his job: finding people. He'd stay there as long as it took to find answers for his client, even if they weren't the answers the client wanted, even if it meant a longer separation from Cam. But he'd be back. He had to be.
Cam was the whole reason Vic had developed a career in finding people in the first place.
Vic nodded at a few familiar faces, then stopped at the door to Cam's room. He took a deep, bracing breath, and opened the door to let himself in, shutting the door softly behind him and pausing there a moment to take in the sight of the figure on the bed.
It never changed, but he kept hoping. Vic let out a sigh. Twelve long years. He ought to be used to this by now, but he couldn't help hoping that each visit might be different. That it might be the one when he found Cam awake.
He knew better, of course, but he couldn't help hoping. He had to keep hoping. Otherwise, the guilt would make him go mad.
Finally, he crossed the room, grabbed a chair, and sat beside the bed, taking Cam's limp hand between both of his own.
“Hey, kiddo,” Vic said, the term coming out automatically even though it really no longer applied. Cam was almost twenty-six now, no longer the fourteen-year-old boy he'd been when he first came to the hospital. Vic swallowed hard and forced on a smile. “You're looking good today.”
There was no response, but Vic hadn't been expecting one. Cam lay there as still as ever, the slight rise and fall of his chest—aided by a machine, since he couldn't breathe on his own—and the persistent beep of the heart rate monitor being the only signs that Cam was still alive.
“I talked to the doctors at the lab yesterday,” Vic went on. “They're so close, Cam.” He tightened his hold on Cam's hand. “So close. All the tests they've run are looking really promising. They're running a few more trials, but it looks like they'll be able to start the new procedure within a month or so.” Vic had already told Cam all the details, but he rattled them off again anyway, more to encourage himself than anything else since Cam probably couldn't hear him: “They're gonna use this nanotechnology to repair the damage to your brain, and they're pretty confident it'll be enough to get you out of the coma and on your way back to a normal life. It'll be a long recovery period, but I know you'll get through it. You were always such a tough kid. More than I gave you credit for.”
Vic paused, swallowing down emotion, the guilt of his own words from twelve years ago weighing heavily on his shoulders. Besides, he had to stay positive around Cam, no matter what.
“They're pretty sure all your memories are intact,” he finally went on. “At least, that part of the brain seems healthy. But they think you'll be able to wake up and eat and walk and talk again after some therapy and practice, and if you do remember everything…” He paused again, leaning closer and clutching Cam's hand like it would somehow help his words penetrate the coma. “Swear to gods, Cam, I'll get you the best therapist there is. I won't let it haunt you for the rest of your life. I promise. Whatever it takes.” Vic sighed and shook his head. “And if you hate me, so be it. I deserve it. But just know that I'll be there for you, no matter what, even if you never forgive me.”
Vic went on to talk about other, random things, trying to keep his tone light, mostly talking nonsense just for the sake of lingering there as long as he could, especially since he wouldn't be back for a while. Eventually, though, he knew he was going to have to wrap things up and get home to start packing. He took a deep breath and forced on a smile.
“So you remember I told you I'm going to Erostil for a couple weeks?” he asked even though he wouldn't get an answer. “Zac and Ryley and I are gonna play some gigs. Treble might even get a recording contract out of it if all goes well. How cool would that be? But I'll come see you just as soon as I'm back in town, I promise. And the doctors here will take good care of you while I'm gone. Maybe I'll have a lot of new, interesting stories to tell, not just the same old, boring crap about processing contracts at work.” He chuckled. “And I've got a case. A missing kid. A cold case, actually, so it probably won't amount to much, but if I can find some answers for his family, it would at least give them some closure.” He paused again. “Hells, maybe, by the time I get back, the lab will have called with a surgery date for you.” Vic smiled at the thought. “We could get you out of this hospital, over to them…”
He trailed off, unable to finish the thought aloud. They'd been waiting so long for any sort of hope that it seemed like jinxing it to even plan on it actually happening, but he couldn't resist at least considering the possibility. To have Cam open his eyes again? Speak again? Walk again? There wasn't anything in the world Vic wanted more than that.
Taking a deep breath to brace himself, Vic got to his feet, kissed Cam on the forehead, and forced on a smile as he gave that limp hand another squeeze. “I love you,” he murmured. “And I'll see you soon.”
Vic held his breath for a moment, then carefully rested Cam's hand back on the bed and tore himself away, not allowing himself to look back as he left the room. His hand went automatically to his pocket, his fingers brushing over the bracelet he always carried with him, the only thing Cam had been left wearing the night Vic found him, broken and bleeding and discarded in an alley like garbage.
And it was all Vic's fault.
His hands tightened into fists. It was just a few weeks. He could make it a few weeks without visiting, and then he'd be back. With any luck, he'd be returning home to some good news.
Chapter 1
VIC CLUTCHED the blood-stained bracelet in his pocket as he paced his living room. He checked the time again. Ryley and Asher were now twenty minutes late.
“Vic, relax,” Zac said. “They'll be here.”
Vic grunted a vague response and kept pacing, on
ly half paying attention to the sound of Zac tuning his violin. Ryley was finally back from Jadu'n for good, having gotten his magic under control, and Treble were supposed to be having their first official rehearsal with a view to performing regularly again. They'd had occasional practices on the days when Ryley had come home to visit over the past year or so, but they really needed to be at their best if they were going to try for a steady gig.
“Since when is Ryley ever on time for anything?” Adrian joked.
That almost stopped Vic in his tracks. Zac's shy, straight-laced boyfriend, who rarely spoke as it was, had said something in jest. The surprise of it was enough to make Vic laugh.
“Good point,” Vic conceded. It was one of the things about his ex-boyfriend that Vic had always found particularly irritating, though that was nothing when compared to Ryley's cheating. Still, he tightened his hold on the bracelet and checked the time again.
Finally, a knock sounded right before Ryley and Asher let themselves in, not even bothering to wait for Vic to go answer the door.
“We're here!” Ryley called, breezing into the living room with Asher strolling along casually behind him.
Vic closed his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. “Thank gods.” He looked up at Ryley, and couldn't help asking, “Where the hells were you?”
Ryley blushed as he dumped his violin case into a chair and scrambled out of his jacket, tossing it lazily aside. Vic winced, tempted to go hang it up properly.
“Sorry,” Ryley answered, not looking the least bit apologetic. “We were…you know…catching up.” He waggled his eyebrows. Behind him, Asher chuckled and shook his head.
“You're the one who scheduled this practice,” Vic pointed out.
“I know, babe, and I'm sorry, but–”
“You know I don't like it when people aren't where they're supposed to be.”
Ryley sobered, a look of understanding falling over his face. “Shit.” He moved closer and grabbed Vic's wrist, right above where his hand was still stuffed into his pocket and clutching the bracelet. “Babe, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think–”
Vic sighed, pulled his hand out of his pocket, and gave Ryley's hand a quick squeeze before letting go. His heart wasn't racing so badly now that Ryley and Asher were there. “No, I'm sorry,” he muttered, feeling like a fool. “I was worried, that's all.” Ryley nodded with understanding. “And I'm on edge.” He quickly looked at each face in turn, addressing them all. “Tomorrow will be two years since Cam died.”
Ryley winced. “Shit, babe, I didn't even realize…”
“You sure you're up for this?” Zac asked.
Vic waved it off. “It's alright,” he said, more to convince himself than the others. “I'll be fine. Besides, he's–”
Ryley yelped, his hair falling free of a loose tail as his hair tie got yanked away by an unseen force.
“–here, apparently,” Vic muttered with a laugh.
“Are you…” Zac began, looking at Ryley, “doing magic?”
“I–” Ryley started to answer, then stumbled as something invisible gave him a playful shove. Ryley laughed. “No, I think that's Cam.”
The hair tie zoomed about for a few seconds before it finally went still, and Ryley snatched it out of the air.
Vic chuckled. “Brat.”
A notepad—one of several that Vic had stashed around the house for Cam to use—floated up off the end table, along with a pen, and Cam wrote, You know you love me.
“Yeah, I do,” Vic said, smiling in Cam's general direction. He never quite knew if he was looking at Cam's face, but he tried his best.
“Oh my gods,” Zac exclaimed. “Your lives are so weird.”
Ryley laughed. “Right? There we were, all normal and boring, and now we've got magic and ghosts and…” He shook his head. “Who knows what's next?”
Vic chuckled along with the others even as a chill ran through him. Ryley's question sounded just a little too ominous. He could use a little more normal-and-boring. His life hadn't been free of at least some degree of weirdness in almost fifteen years.
He reached for the bracelet again.
* * *
VIC ALMOST sagged with relief when they halted practice an hour later. His fingers ached from so much playing after neglecting his cello for so long, having lost any reason to play regularly while Ryley had been away on Jadu'n.
It used to be he'd play for an hour every single night just for the enjoyment of it, but he'd lost the habit after he and Ryley had broken up and their trip to Erostil had come to nothing. Vortex Records had sent Treble on a trial tour on the tropical Isle, but the trip hadn't shown sufficient returns to justify a recording contract, and it wasn't long after that when Ryley had run off to get his magic under control. It seemed, for a while there, that Treble were done for good.
And Vic hadn't minded that as much as he'd thought he might. The experience of playing wasn't the same with he and Ryley no longer together. Their intimacy had always spilled over into their stage presence, their passion for one another coming out through their instruments, with Zac's violin adding another layer to the whole thing, tying it all together and making it even better. Vic could count on one hand how many times, on a night when Treble performed, he and Ryley had not fallen into bed afterward, since their expression onstage followed them home and exploded out of them in one final, intimate crescendo. Unless Ryley ran off for one of his hookups, of course, but that was a whole other issue. One that no longer mattered.
Still, without that connection as a foundation, Vic just wasn't feeling drawn to his instrument anymore.
“So,” Ryley began, pulling Vic aside, “I'm gonna totally let it slide since we're rusty and you're having a rough day…” He paused, giving Vic a frown of concern. “But it feels like you aren't even with us today.”
Apparently, his lack of connection showed.
Vic grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No, babe, don't apologize. Just…” Ryley blew out a breath. “We don't have to do this if you're not up for it.”
Vic shrugged. “I'm up for it.”
Ryley raised an eyebrow. “Now say it again, but with feeling.”
Vic snorted a laugh. “I'll get it back,” he promised. Somehow. “Besides, Zac really wants this.”
“Yeah, he does,” Ryley agreed. Poor Zac had been trying some solo projects over the past several months, but he'd been having trouble making any of them stick, not as passionate about any of them as he'd been about Treble. Zac was itching to get the three of them back up onstage. “Well, enough of that for now,” Ryley said, letting Vic off the hook. “Show me this house I've been hearing so much about.”
While the others chatted in the living room, Vic gave Ryley a tour. He'd bought the house several months back, part of a plan that he and Asher were working on, hoping to ultimately set up a therapy office and halfway house for rescued kids. Vic felt ridiculous, living in the house all by himself while he slowly worked toward putting that plan into action—Asher still had a few more years until he had his therapy degree, after all—but Vic hadn't yet had a rescue case with which to test the arrangement. So he continued to live alone in the sprawling place.
Alone, except for Cam, of course. Despite being invisible, the ghost's presence helped the house feel not quite so empty.
Vic showed Ryley the main living spaces, followed by the bedrooms—one of which he used as his home office—and their attached washrooms, then took him down to the basement. The space was unfinished, but since the plan for the halfway house was still years off, Vic was leaving that for last. He was still furnishing and decorating the main floor as it was.
He outlined the plan he and Asher had come up with in terms of turning the unfinished space into a therapy office and extra bedrooms, then took Ryley outside to show him the secondary driveway and parking area with direct access to the walkout basement, which would ultimately allow him to keep the residential part of the house separate. From there, Vic showed Ryley the backyard.
Ryley came to a stop, gaping at everything he saw. “Wow,” he breathed. “This could almost be Jadu'n.”
Vic nodded slowly. “That was sort of what drew me to it,” he admitted. The huge backyard was more a series of garden spaces, all walled off from the neighboring properties on either side and backing up to a wooded area that would never be developed. It was just the kind of tranquil retreat that his kids would need.
“Vic, this is totally cool,” Ryley murmured, his voice full of awe. He turned to look at Vic, shaking his head. “You're amazing, you know that?”
Vic shrugged under the praise.
“Come on,” Ryley teased. “You know you are. I'm sure your boyfriend would agree with me.”
Vic frowned. “What boyfriend?”
“Oh.” Ryley blinked. “I thought…a few months ago…you said you were seeing someone?”
“Who– Oh.” Vic nodded, then shrugged. “It didn't work out.”
Ryley grimaced. “I'm sorry, babe.”
Vic shrugged again. The quick breakup after the brief fling hadn't bothered him. And it was hardly the first time it had happened since he and Ryley had broken up two years ago. Vic had tried, off and on over the months, to start dating again, but no one ever really captured his interest enough to make an effort. He'd gone on a few dates with different guys, but nothing ever stuck, and when it came time for any sort of intimacy, Vic just couldn't get into it.
Not when Cam could show up at any moment.
Which meant the only action his cock had seen in the past two years was by his own hand.
And maybe that was for the best. Maybe that was what he deserved after his horrible failure with Cam.
* * *
THE BOY woke to pain, darkness, and motion. He groaned, then regretted it. The throbbing ache in his head grew to stabbing agony, but that was nothing compared to the rest of his body. His right side hurt from lying on it for so long, his neck bent at an uncomfortable angle. The carpet beneath him was rough, and the box that the carpet lined was so hard that it seemed to bite right into him.
