Born of Shadow (Shadow Walkers Book 1)

by Richard Murray

  The silence stretched taut as Marie rose from her seat and inspected my friend. All the while running through my head was the litany of curses for myself as I let it happen. It was wrong and I knew it was another thing I would be unable to forgive myself for.

  “You can get dressed now dear,” Marie said as she turned back to the couch opposite. Patrik turned fully away and released his hold on the knife hilt that stuck up over his belt, clearly visible with his back towards me.

  “See,” Evie said as she squeezed my hand in hers once more. “Wasn’t so bad.”

  “Why?” I asked Marie, still not quite able to look at Evie.

  “When a vampire bites you, it can be quite… pleasant,” she replied. “For some, it’s like a drug. Intoxicating and incredibly hard to resist. They become dependent and willing to do whatever they are asked so long as they can experience that pleasure once more.”

  “Junkies,” I said as I thought back to the emaciated girls in the club. The ones who’d seen me as competition, someone who would be chosen to be fed upon before them.

  “Indeed,” Marie said as she nodded agreeably. “If your friend had bite marks from the vampire she’d, admittedly unknowingly, been dating… well, we couldn’t have allowed her to remain here.”

  “But I don’t,” Evie said. “So it’s fine.”

  “Not quite,” Marie said and something in her tone caused my already tense muscles to almost go into spasm they were trying to tense up so much.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did he not bite you?” she asked. “It couldn’t be love. Those foul creatures have no such emotion left inside of them. Why then would it stay with you, and not feed?”

  I was suddenly very aware of the looming presence of Patrik behind us. The flash of silver in his hand as his arm surged past me towards my friend. I cried out and reached desperately for my powers but nothing came.

  “Don’t worry,” he said as he placed the flat side of the blade against her bare shoulder. “I won’t hurt her.”

  “No reaction,” Marie mused. “So not supernatural.”

  “Could be Shadowborn,” Patrik said.

  “Is she?”

  He frowned as he stared down at her and hesitated for a moment before shaking his head and saying, “nei.”

  “So not supernatural and not Shadowborn. Why then did he not feed?”

  Evie glanced at me, the barest movement of her eyes as she held herself rigid. The knife blade against her shoulder was very long and very sharp.

  “He was watching me,” I said, desperation in my voice.

  “Why?” she pressed.

  “I don’t know,” I said and spread my hands helplessly. “He just said he’d been told to watch me and that now he’d found me again he was going to take me to someone.”

  “Patrik,” she said as she waved one hand towards him. “Be a dear and go fetch us some tea.”

  “Of course,” he said and slid the knife back into its sheath as Evie released the breath she’d been holding in one great whoosh.

  “What the hell!” I snarled as I surged to my feet. “You can’t treat my friend like this.”

  “Oh be still child,” the older woman said. Her voice, while free of menace, still held something that warranted caution. A voice in the back of my mind was trying desperately to remind me she’d spent a lifetime as a hunter and was dangerous.

  “Lena,” Evie said as she pulled me back down beside her. “It’s fine. Really. They needed to know I wasn’t going to be a threat to them.”

  “Listen to your friend dear,” Marie said agreeably. “We cannot risk the safety of what we are doing for the sake of your sensibilities.”

  “But…” I said and looked to my friend. She smiled encouragingly and shrugged her shoulders.

  “It really is fine. Like visiting a doctor.”

  “See,” Marie said. “Now the first question we should be asking is who sent this vampire to watch you?”

  “How should I know?” I snapped back. “It’s barely been more than a couple of weeks since this whole thing began for me. I’ve killed a ghoul and a vampire, but that’s it.”

  “You killed a ghoul?” Evie asked and I nodded.

  “That’s why the police were wanting to talk to me.”

  “Speaking of them…” she said as she pulled her mobile from her jeans pocket. “Apparently you’re no longer a person of interest.”

  “What?” I asked at the same time as Marie did.

  “Yeah, I had this text from the very cute policeman who was looking for you,” she said with a smile that showed dimples. “He said that since they no longer needed to speak to you, he could ask me out.”

  “This bears investigation,” Marie said. “We don’t have any kind of pull with the police, so it wasn’t us.”

  “Why’s it a problem?” Evie asked.

  “Because I was the only one there,” I said thoughtfully. “No other witnesses, no other suspects, just a body.”

  “I shall check into this,” Marie said. “As well as who may have sent a vampire to watch over you. All you need to do is decide.”

  “Decide what?”

  “Whether your friend here wants to become a hunter.”

  ****

  I stared at the older woman, shock plain on my face before I turned to Evie. She appeared nonplussed and at a loss for words. The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile as she shrugged.

  “What?” I said and realised that I seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

  “Your friend here knows about what we do,” Marie began. “She knows the monsters of myth and legend are real and that you have powers. Her choices then are simple. Does she go back to her safe little life and pretend it all never happened or does she join us in the fight?”

  “Well… I…” For some reason, I couldn’t think of a response. Evie at least looked thoughtful and for one moment I held out the selfish hope that she’d do it. Become a hunter and join me fighting the monsters.

  Then the moment passed and I realised how truly selfish that was. To ask her to leave her safe life and join me doing… whatever I was doing. Hell, I’d not even fully decided what I was going to be doing.

  After Abe had saved me from the werewolf and opened my eyes to the truth, revealing to me that I wasn’t crazy. How could I go back to stacking shelves at the supermarket? I had no comfortable life to leave behind. No family or friends other than Evie to notice I’d gone.

  “No,” I said as I looked at my friend. “You need to go back to your life. University, your family and the chance of a life worth living.”

  “Hardly likely now I know the truth,” she said ruefully.

  “You’re not a fighter,” I said. “You never have been. You’re far too good-natured to ever hurt anyone.”

  “What was I studying at uni?” she asked and I blinked.

  “Erm, medicine. What does that matter?”

  “I was studying for a profession where I could help people,” she said firmly. “You say the world's full of these monsters hurting and killing people? Well, if I can help stop them that’s worthwhile.”

  “It isn’t just that,” Marie said. “There’ll be danger and hardships. You’ll lose people you care about and likely die young. Few of us reach old age.”

  “You did,” she said pertly and grinned at the sour look the older woman gave her. “The only real answer I can give is, how could I return to my life and live in fear of the things in the shadows?”

  “Good,” Marie said. “It’s settled. You can stay here for now and start training with the others. You two will make a fine team.”

  “Us two?” I asked and risked a smile for my friend. I didn’t want her to do this, but since she was, I could be happy having her close.

  “The teams we have work in pairs usually,” the older woman said. “A hunter and a Shadowborn.”

  “So what now then?” I asked.

  �
�We’ll set up a training regime for you both,” Marie said. “Patrik can help with that.”

  “He can?”

  “He was, briefly, training to be an armed forces instructor,” she said. “He’ll work something up.”

  “That’ll have to wait,” Jo said as she strode into the room and all three of us jumped a little at her sudden entrance. “I know where some of the vampires are.”

  Chapter 15

  “This is too easy,” Evie said for perhaps the fifth time. It elicited a scowl from Jo but little more as we waited in the cavernous entranceway of the hotel.

  I reached out for Evie’s hand and held it tightly in my own, giving a little squeeze of reassurance to help combat her nerves. It was my second mission with the team and I already felt like an old hand reassuring the new recruit. Weird.

  Jo moved little, though her gaze swept the entranceway every few seconds. Eyes never resting in one place for long as she looked for threats and assessed escape routes. It was fascinating to watch her, seated on a burgundy armchair, seemingly relaxed but alert at the same time.

  Both Evie and I sat opposite her on a couch upholstered in a dark silver that seemed to capture the light from the glittering chandelier above us. That same light illuminated the artwork on the walls and the bronze cast stallions facing each other on the wall above the front doors.

  “He’s coming back,” Evie said and I glanced over to the front desk. Patrik nodded once as he approached and from the corner of my eye, I saw Jo rise to her feet, scooping up the duffel bag from the floor beside her.

  “Two rooms,” he said as he walked past us towards the elevator. I rushed to join him and fell in behind Jo with my friend beside me.

  “Where?” Jo asked.

  “Top floor,” he replied and I winced.

  One look at the prices of the rooms had been enough for me to know I’d need to spend a week's wages on a first-floor room. The prices rose higher with each extra floor you went up and two rooms on the fifth floor would have cost our benefactors a pretty penny.

  “This place has a swimming pool,” I said as we passed a hallway with a sign pointing towards it.

  “And a spa!” Evie said. “Think we’ll have time to try it out?”

  “We aren’t on vacation,” Jo snapped as the elevator doors opened and we trooped inside. “We’re here for one goal. Keep focused and don’t fuck up.”

  That last bit was directed at me I was sure. She hadn’t quite forgiven me for the cock up at the club three nights ago. Hell, she’d spent the last few days beating the crap out of me in our ‘training’ which I’d hoped would have allowed her to get it out of her system. But no, she still said barely a word to me when she didn’t need to.

  “So where are these…” Evie began but trailed off at the glare from Jo.

  “Not here, wait till we’re in the rooms.”

  “Fine. Sorry,” she said and rolled her eyes before flashing me an impish grin. A good part of Evie’s time had been spent riling up the other woman exactly because Jo seemed to have an issue with me. I smiled back gratefully.

  The elevator doors opened on the fifth floor and we filed out along a carpeted hallway that must have run the length of the building. Doors with electronic card locks set into the walls beside them were spaced along either side of the hall and we walked all the way to the end before Patrik stopped and handed me a key card.

  “You’re here,” he said quietly. “Jo and me, we’re next door. Get settled and we’ll come to you in an hour.”

  I nodded once and he grunted before heading to the next door down. It seemed he too was caught up by the tension and had been a miserable sod for the entire journey. I put him from my mind as I slipped the key card into the lock and pushed open the door.

  “Holy crap!” Evie said as we entered the suite.

  “Now I’m really pissed we probably won’t be staying the night,” I told her as I dumped my bag beside the door. It landed with a heavy thud that matched the sound of the door as it closed.

  A king size bed, en-suite bathroom and a seating area with a leather couch set beside wide glass doors that led out onto an enclosed balcony. All set in warm, natural colours and a carpet so thick I imagined I’d sink an inch into it if I took my shoes off.

  “I call this side of the bed,” Evie said as she fell back onto it with a burst of laughter.

  “Fine,” I told her. “If I need the bathroom I’ll just have to climb over you.”

  “Try it sister,” she said with a mock growl. “I’ve been getting my ass whupped for the last couple of days. I could use a fight I can win.”

  “Hah!”

  “Don’t believe me?” she said as reached up and grabbed my arm, pulling with all her strength and dragging me down onto the bed beside her in a tangle of limbs. “See.”

  “Fine! You win!” I didn’t try to stop the laughter as I disentangled myself from her and settled down beside her. The bed was pretty darn comfy and I could have lain there quite happily.

  We lay there in comfortable silence for several long minutes, staring at the ceiling and enjoying the peace of each other’s company. It was with regret and a deep sigh, that I sat up.

  “We should get ready.”

  “I ache in every damn place I can ache,” Evie said petulantly. “We’ve been getting our butts handed to us for days while they took turns trailing these damn vamps. We can take an hour to relax, surely?”

  To be fair, the training we’d been given had been focused on self-defence, which apparently meant either Jo or Patrik showing us what to do and then beating us mercilessly until we managed to get it right. Evie wasn’t the only one who ached.

  Then after the non-stop training, Jo had informed us that it was time to take out the vampires who were staying at the five-star hotel in the centre of Manchester. Doing so, she said, would get us one step closer to finding Anahella and the others from the blood club.

  They’d been watching the hotel for days while they prepared. Of course, they’d kept most of the details from us for now. Apparently, we’d learn more of the actual hunting side of the job once we had the basics of combat drilled into us. I guessed there was no point doing much teaching until they were sure we weren’t going to panic or get killed on the first job we got.

  “Crap!” Evie said and I twisted my head to look down at her. She held her mobile before her and was rapidly tapping on the display.

  “What’s up?”

  “My mum again,” she said. “Wondering where I am.”

  “You told her you’re taking a break from Uni?”

  “I don’t have to,” she said as she clicked send on her message. “I’ve only missed one lecture so far and I’ve emailed all my professors to tell them I’m sick. A couple of friends are sending me notes and I’ve got assignments to do.”

  “Do you really think you can do a University course in medicine and be a hunter?” I asked incredulously. “I mean, just the training alone will be intense for a while, according to Patrik.”

  “Marie said it was fine. Said it would be useful to have the medical training.”

  “When did you talk to Marie?”

  “I called her a couple of days ago after speaking to Jo about it.”

  “You have her number?”

  “You don’t?”

  “No,” I said and tried not to sound too hurt.

  “Did you ask for it?”

  “Well… no.”

  “There you go then,” she said with a grin and let her phone drop onto the bedcovers. “Don’t ask, don’t get.”

  It shouldn’t bother me but it did. Anywhere Evie went, she fit in. Everyone wanted to be her friend. My first job had been at a call centre. Nearly a hundred people worked there and while, admittedly, I’d sucked at the job, I’d stuck it out for nearly six months.

  No one really knew me there. I didn’t go out with any of the little groups of friends that formed around me. I didn’t know ab
out anyone’s life outside of work. One day Evie came by to meet me. She’d been supposed to wait for me outside but had been early and, as usual, become bored.

  She’d come inside and within ten minutes, knew more about my co-workers than I did. By the time I was actually finished and ready to go, she’d been invited out to the pub by three different people who had all seemed surprised to see me when she’d turned up with me in tow.

  It was just part of who she was. In school, she’d been one of the popular girls that all the others wanted to hang out with. She’d get invited to all the parties, she’d been asked out by most of the boys at one time or another and if she’d wanted, could have ruled the school like some imperious little queen bee.

  But she wasn’t like that. When invited to parties, she made sure they invited me. If they didn’t, then she didn’t go. If anyone had tried to pick on me or commented on my frequent problems, she’d been the one to step to my defence.

  My life, as miserable as it had been, would have been a thousand times worse without her in it. So I tried not to let it bother me that everything came easily to her when I had to struggle so much. I tried because she was the one person that tried to make things easier for me.

  “You’ll be careful today, yeah?” I said. She looked up at me, her eyes meeting mine and the smile that came was full of warmth.

  “Damn right I will,” she replied cheerfully. “You better be careful too or you’ll have me to deal with.”

  I smiled back at her and lay back. Sod getting ready, I’d relax for the hour with my friend and deal with preparations when it was time.

  ****

  Exactly one hour after they’d gone to their own room, a knock came at our door. I was across the room and opening it in moments. Jo frowned as the door swung inwards and stepped into the room.

  “You should have checked before opening,” she said. Patrik entered behind her and nodded agreement.

  “Who says I didn’t?”

  “You opened the door too quickly to have taken the time to check and if you had checked you would have seen that the spy hole was covered and that should have given you pause.”