“Other creations?” Ryker joined me on the ground. “Like animals?”
Xavier chuckled. “Some could be likened to animals because they had no higher intelligence, but others were more than just sentient, they had the potential of great power. But our creator wasn’t satisfied. Time and time again, he purged the world of his creations, and we, his shades, would sweep over the world and drag the creatures to whatever prison he had created for them. Because, you see, he couldn’t bring himself to completely destroy his work. And so he kept his rejects locked up.” He tucked in his chin. “And he created man. We watched as this wondrous creature was brought to life with atoms of starlight and a breath of stolen grace, and he was so pleased with this new toy that he permitted us, his shades, to live amongst them, to walk in their wake. Over time, we became bonded to them. We became connected in a way that was almost intimate.”
“Shadows ... you became their shadows,” Ryker said, his tone hushed in wonder.
Was this why the only way they could access their host was via shadows?
Xavier nodded in Ryker’s direction. “Yes. It was a symbiotic relationship where we protected the host, and the host allowed us to finally experience the wondrous world: taste, true sight and smell. It was then that we realized how much he had held back from us—the colors ... all the colors that our eyes could not see, and all the flavors that our tongues could not taste. We made the fatal error of asking why? Of asking to be reborn. Of asking to be human.”
“He cast you out,” Ryker said. “Locked you away.”
“Worse than that. He replaced us. He created the winged and it was these new creations that tore us away from our humans and exiled us into an eternal prison. Betrayed.” He closed his eyes for a moment, as if the memory brought him pain. “We were betrayed. Our centuries’ of service was rewarded with a forever exile.”
But if that was true, then how come the winged hadn’t said anything? I glanced across at Ryker’s thoughtful expression.
“The winged didn’t seem to have any idea that you existed,” Ryker echoed my thoughts.
Xavier snorted. “I’m not surprised. He would have wiped any memory of our existence from their minds, just as he wiped us from human memory. I do wonder why he allowed them to keep their shadows—these imprints we’d left behind, these residues of our existence. It makes me wonder if it was his love for us that made him sentimental.”
Sentimental? Was he serious? Ryker, once again, on the same frequency as me asked the question hovering on my lips.
“It seems a bit harsh. Why get rid of you just because you asked to be human?” Ryker asked. “He could have just said no.”
Xavier’s smile was wry. “Yes. I suppose he could have, but, in the end, we were evidence of yet another failure—the creation that was dissatisfied with its existence. Our request probably reminded him that we were proof of all his previous failures. Locking us away, wiping memories, allowed him to start afresh with a clean slate.”
“Arrogance and pride are obviously not just a human trait,” Rivers said dryly.
He was referring to God, but his statement could easily be applied to the winged too. They strutted about believing they were the first of God’s creation, believing they’d been humanities only guardians. Pride and arrogance. It was impossible not to feel sympathy for the shades, but it was a short burst of empathy, because the past, no matter how unfair it had been to them, didn’t excuse what they were doing to Midnight in the present.
“I remember now,” Xavier said. “I remember what we were and what we stood for and there are others who are like me. We wish to protect humanity, to live, not inside them, but alongside them. Live like we once did. Asher only wants power. He wants to rule, and I won’t lie, there are shades who feel the same. There are many that agree with him, but the majority are either unaware of his real agenda, too afraid to act, or in league with the resistance.” He leaned forward. “You have to help me to liberate them. They don’t deserve to be used as cannon fodder in a fight no one will win.”
The spider-shade who could have killed me came to mind. He’d stopped and waited for me to end him. He’d wanted to be free. And now Xavier was telling me there were others like him, many others being forced into hosts against their will.
He stared at me, his gaze penetrating. “You do realize you cannot win.”
I held up my hands and wiggled my fingers. “I can damn try. Right now we have the upper hand. Arachne is dead along with her spiderlings. Nephs have been stripped of their shadows, and the ghosts that were weakening the humans are gone. The shades’ host supply just got cut off.”
“Not if Asher succeeds in finding a way to take winged hosts,” Xavier pointed out. “We liberated Abbadon from Asher’s clutches, but the samples that were collected are still in Asher’s possession.”
“They’ll degrade too fast for him to do anything,” Rivers said. “It’s a long shot.”
“But still a shot,” Xavier reiterated.
He was right. The winged needed to be warned and we needed to make more of a dent in Asher’s army, force him to think twice before making any kind of move.
I turned to Ryker. “We have to help them.”
“No.” Rivers said. “You have to kill them.”
He was referring to the power building up inside me, the fact that if I didn’t expel it, then it would kill me, but Xavier didn’t know that, and the horrified look on his face prodded the ready guilt in my chest.
Xavier gripped the bars. “No. You don’t need to do that. You don’t need to kill anymore shades. We can find a way to free the resistance; many of them have not even taken hosts yet. That will reduce Asher’s numbers and throw him off balance, and then we can end all of this by ending Asher. Once he’s dead, the threat will be over.”
That would be a great plan except ... “I can’t kill him. I tried.”
Xavier sat back, his shoulders sagging. “In the tower ... You tried to kill him then?”
“Yes, what the heck did you think I was doing? Moving in for a hug?”
He looked away, but not before I caught a glimpse of awareness in his warm, brown peepers. What wasn’t he telling me? What was he holding back? He’d told us a story—his story—but there was more he didn’t trust us with. And who could blame him? He’d tipped us off, helped us get Abbadon away from Asher and when he’d come to us, we’d locked him up. Maybe my suspicion was wrong. In which case, it was time to build a bridge. He needed a vote of confidence, and that would involve sharing a crucial piece of information. Information, that if handed to Asher could be used against me. Telling him would show we trusted him, that I trusted him.
I locked eyes with Xavier. “I need to kill shades to survive. If I go more than a few days without killing one, I’ll die.”
His head whipped up. “The power will burn through you.”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “If Asher finds out, all he’ll need to do is go underground with all the shades. He’ll wait you out until you die.”
“Yes.” My tone was soft. “There is no happy ending for me. Trust me. I don’t revel in the kill.” The lie was ashes on my tongue because, like it or not, the kill brought relief. “The ultimate goal is the protection of humanity, so if you know how to end Asher, you need to share it with me.”
Xavier’s expression smoothed out. He’d come to a decision and my body tightened in anticipation. “Asher’s host body is cambion and can be overcome from within.”
“What do you mean?” Rivers asked.
“A cambion is similar to an incubus. They feed off energy to survive,” Xavier said.
“A cambion feeds off a variety of energy,” Ryker clarified, “but an incubus requires sexual energy to survive.”
Xavier cleared his throat. “I believe that changes when a shade enters the body.”
How did he know this? My stomach dropped and then hope surged hot and potent through my veins. He knew because he was experiencing the same. My s
uspicion hadn’t been wrong after all. Ryker tensed beside me, and Rivers stepped out of the shadows to stand by the bars. They’d come to the same conclusion, and the air vibrated with expectation.
Xavier blinked and looked away. “I know because it’s happening to me.”
Bingo! My mouth was suddenly as dry as a dust bowl. This was what I’d been angling for—confirmation that Drayton was having an influence. That he was here, with us, listening. He’d steered Xavier to us, and it had been Drayton the wards had picked up on, not Xavier, because Drayton’s essence was now strong enough to mask the shade.
“He wrote the note, didn’t he?” Ryker asked. Thank goodness because my throat was too tight to speak.
Xavier shook his head sharply. “No. But he told me what to write.”
I exhaled in a rush. “Can he hear us? Is he here? Can we speak to him?”
Xavier’s expression shuttered. “Not right now, he’s ... away.”
“You’re lying,” Rivers’s voice was cold. “You’re afraid that if you let him out, you may not get back in the driver’s seat.”
Xavier’s jaw flexed. “You need me,” he said. “I can help you bring down Asher. The resistance will follow me.”
“Tell us exactly how to bring down Asher,” Ryker demanded.
Xavier’s gaze was suddenly steely and calculating, the general had finally come out to play. “If you help me free my men, I’ll tell you what you need to know to bring down Asher. I’ll tell you exactly how you can overpower him from within.”
I pushed up off the ground, jerked my head away from the cell, and walked off, indicating the guys to follow.
We stopped outside the basement doors. “What do you guys think?”
“It’s too dangerous,” Ryker said. “And he could be lying about knowing how to bring down Asher.”
“No,” Rivers said. “He was telling the truth about that. But he was lying about Drayton. He could let Drayton speak to us if he wanted to.” His expression was icy determination. “Drayton is alive, and once we have what we want from Xavier, we’re going to get him back for good.”
There was silence as we absorbed this fact. That this was real, that Drayton was here, back with us. My pulse fluttered in my throat, my hands fisted at my sides, the urge to pummel Xavier into giving us what we wanted was a living entity inside me, but hurting him would hurt Drayton, and whether we liked it or not, right now we needed Xavier and the manpower he could bring to the table.
“What now?” Ryker asked.
I exhaled away the tension. “We do the job he wants us to do. We liberate the resistance and get the key to bringing down Asher. Follow my lead.” I headed back to the cell and stood, feet shoulder width apart. “We’ve made our decision.”
Xavier pulled himself to his feet. “And?”
“We’ll help you get your men, but we want more than information from you in return.”
He watched me warily.
“You’ll tell us exactly how to weaken Asher, you and your men will join our ranks, and ... you’ll let us speak to Drayton.”
He sucked in a breath. “Yes to the first two terms but the last ... I can’t.”
“Yes. You can,” Rivers said firmly. “And you will. You owe it to us. After everything you’ve done, all the havoc you’ve caused, you owe us.”
Xavier hung his head and closed his eyes for several long beats. He cocked his head, as if listening to something, several emotions played across his face and then he opened his eyes and nodded slowly. “You have a deal. Half an hour with Drayton once my men are free.”
Had he just had a conversation with Drayton? My pulse was a staccato beat.
“There’s more,” Ryker said. “We need a couple of shades we can kill.”
Xavier froze, his eyes darting to me. “I can’t.”
“Ryker ...” I reached for him, shaking my head.
He brushed me off. “Deal or no deal?” he pressed.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t ask Xavier to sacrifice his people to keep me alive. “We’ll find another way.”
“We will,” Rivers said with confidence. “But we need to buy you time.” He crossed his arms. “Deal or no deal, Xavier?”
Xavier began to pace.
“Look, you said yourself not all shades are the same,” Ryker reminded him. “So help us get hold of some of the bad guys. Think of it as a necessary sacrifice.”
He was throwing Xavier’s words back at him, and it had the desired effect. Xavier paused in his trek and looked across at us, his jailers. “I can get you what you need. I think I have a way we can both get what we want in one fell swoop.” His gaze was calculating once more. He was thinking with his general head again.
“Do we have a deal?” Ryker asked.
Xavier nodded. “We have a deal.”
I stuck the keys into the lock and twisted. “Welcome to the MPD.”
Click on the image below to grab your copy today
Other Books by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
Defying Magick
Embracing Magick
Unleashing Magick
The Fearless Destiny Series
Beyond Everlight
Into Evernight
Under Twilight
Chronicles of Midnight
Protector of Midnight
Champion of Midnight
Secrets of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Savior of Midnight
Novellas
Blood Blade
Grotesque
The Shadowlands Series
Coauthored with Richard Amos
Shadow Reaper
Shadow Eater
Shadow Destiny
About the Author
Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy.
Shades of Midnight_an Urban Fantasy novel Page 17
