Shadowed Magic (The Enlightened Species Novella)

by Wendy S. Hales

  The darkening bruises surfacing on Aymee's delicate skin made him wish he’d followed his first thought and walked her out despite her assurance to his daughter, Umbrae, and Jess in the club that she was fine. Jess could see him shadowed but kept his secret. The female knew Eros or one of Umbrae’s brother were always with Umbrae. Tonight, he and his son Daniel had accompanied Umbrae and her friends. Daniel would see his sister got home to her bloodmate and babies safely.

  Eros had made a point to send his sons when Aymee spent time with Umbrae. His attraction to her had grown to the point he avoided the human woman. Her tough as nails, sexually confident demeanor in combination with her Asian/American features, lean muscular curves and sweet spirit had captured his attention the first time he met her. Aymee had sat calmly in Jess’s kitchen surrounded by Eros's six sons with no humans around and held her own, making wisecracks that put his sons in line. Her black shoulder length hair shone in the sun while almond shaped blue eyes sparkled with a love of life. All his wives had been human women. His attraction to them, especially those that were genetically capable of bearing him young, was well known. Aymee didn’t have the line in her palm of a human designating her Elven-breeding compatible. The ‘heredity’ line was curiously absent from her soft palm. He found her attractive anyway. More than attractive. Once he became acutely aware of his attraction to her, he'd avoided her.

  Tonight, as he’d watched her leave, with longing, he’d promised himself it would be the last time he would allow himself to be in her presence. She represented too much temptation. Tall for her heritage at five foot eight, he’d spent incalculable hours fantasizing about her long legs wrapped around him. The thigh high boots coupled with a daring flared miniskirt had nearly driven him out of his mind when she danced. The lower curve of her ass peeked out every so often making it impossible for him to tear his gaze from her. Aymee enchanted him.

  When the club door closed behind her he’d let out a sigh of relief and turned his attention to watching Umbrae enjoy her evening. His daughter deserved to have fun. She’d been through too much in her first ninety-one years. Permanent scars covered her body though her bloodmate Enlil had given her the confidence to pay them no mind … now. Umbrae brightened the world simply by being in it. He and his sons' world revolved around her and her children. They did their duty to the SOSC under the condition that at least two of them remain off-duty and available to Umbrae at all times. Discovering he had a daughter three years ago had been the only reason he and his sons has come out of their self-imposed exile.

  As Umbrae laughed with her friends, a cold sense of dread came over Eros. His eyes traveled back to the closed door of the club and the feeling intensified. Stay with Umbrae, he told Daniel telepathically. Receiving an ‘affirmative’ from his son, he shot out the door fully shadowed the next time it opened and followed the path Aymee should have taken to her car. He fully expected to see an empty spot where she’d been parked, but instead heard the sound of grunts and nails raking flesh from the alleyway. Blind fury enveloped him when he turned the corner to see her pinned to the ground with a filthy mongrel covering her. Ripping his shirt away, he extracted his wings and flew low to the ground at the men. The man groping between Aymee's legs would probably die from his injuries after Eros heard his skull pop where he threw him against the wall. The sight of Aymee’s exposed breast and sex drove him to the brink of madness. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d desired human blood on his hands. From the looks of the men, Aymee had fought like a wildcat before he’d gotten there. That luckily had given him the time to spare her the horror of multiple violations.

  Eros pulled his thoughts away from that memory before he did actually kill the men. Two more ambulances had arrived and were being loaded with two of her assailants. The ambulance carrying the man with the skull fracture blared off speeding him to the hospital. Investigators took pictures of the scene. Eros glanced in the direction the one that got away had taken. Aymee’s bloody heel lay on the sidewalk two blocks away.

  Walk the sidewalk. Follow the blood trail. Find the victim's shoe, Eros nudged the suggestion into the investigator’s mind. The investigator looked up, then down the street. He clutched Aymee’s non-brandished heel in his hand. “Hey. Has anyone come across the other heel?”

  Follow the blood trail, Eros nudged again. The investigator looked at the ground and began toward the discarded bloody heel weaving the pattern of the assailant’s trail. Eros pivoted his ears to pick up the human’s voice when he squatted beside the blood soaked boot spike. “Those stupid fucks pick the wrong victim or what?” The investigator's voice held admiration. Damn right they did, Eros silently agreed.

  The engine of the ambulance started and Eros stood. As it headed toward the hospital, he took flight following it. He could see Aymee through the windows on the back. It looked like she was cursing at the paramedic. He grinned. Feisty little witch.

  ****

  Zack walked into the emergency room, his mind scrambled to come up with a plausible explanation for the stab wound in his shoulder. It had to be a ghost! The image of his friends being thrown across the alley by unseen hands floated through his mind as did the terrifying growling sounds. No doubt nightmares were in his future. Something told him that bitch would be trouble. He’d tried to talk Kade out of going for her when she’d walked past the alley.

  He walked up to admin and told the gum-chewing intake nurse a lame-ass story about failing to see a tree limb on his skateboard. She gave him a curious lift of her brow, handed him a stack of papers, a wad of gauze and told him to take a seat. Zack replayed the night in his mind. Jesus, he took off just in time. A fact further proved when the doors swung open to admit a gurney with Kade on it.

  “We’re losing him,” the paramedic shouted as they sped past into the interior of the ER.

  “Fuck.” Zack muttered under his breath. He’d never heard of ghosts being able to kill.

  The ER door opened and a geek in a lab coat popped his head out, “Zack Brimley.” He looked around the room of sniffling kids and paranoid parents till he reached Zack. “You Zack?”

  Zack took a deep breath and stood. “Yeah.” He followed the orderly back to an area where the beds stood separated by sheets hung from the ceiling.

  The orderly handed him a gown. “Remove your shirt and put this on. The doctor will be in shortly.” He snapped the sheet closed behind him.

  Zack somehow managed to get his favorite metal band shirt off despite the burning pain in his shoulder. The shirt was ruined, completely saturated in blood. Zack scooted on to the bed and used the gown to absorb the blood oozing from his shoulder rather than wearing the stupid fucking thing.

  He listened in to the nurses talking on the radio to the other incoming ambulances.

  ‘Male, early twenties, stable condition, unconscious, possible pelvis fracture, multiple lacerations and contusions. ETA 10 minutes by ambulance.’ He heard a man’s voice announce. Which of his friends was that? ‘Male, early twenties, stable, multiple rib fractures, possible concussion, multiple lacerations and contusions. Patient is conscious and combative. ETA 15 minutes by police transport.’

  Zack felt his heart pound in his chest. Kade might be dead. Brad and Jake were totally fucked up. Christ. The next announcement stopped his blood cold. ‘Female assault victim, thirty years old, multiple lacerations and contusions, possible sexual assault. ETA 6 minutes by ambulance.’

  The bitch got off easy. How did she rate an ambulance when his buddy’s jacked up ribs got a police cruiser? Bet she planned to ‘poor me’ Zack and his buddies straight into the big house. Fuck. They were the victims! Zack’s mind shifted from fear to revenge. Fuck her goddamn ghost. Next time he saw her, it would be looking down the barrel of the 9mm his dad kept next to the bed.

  “Hello?” The doctor and a pretty little nurse entered the sheeted room. He double-checked the file folder for his name, “Zack? Lets take a look at this skateboard accident.”

  The nurse drew
blood from him while the doc plunged needles into him like a pincushion. “Hey man,” Zack snapped at one particularly painful injection.

  “It will hurt a lot more without the shots, Zack.” The doc continued his torture. He even poured orange looking crap through the whole in Zack’s shoulder like the fucking thing was a fountain. “A clean stab wound. You’re lucky.”

  He didn't feel very fucking lucky, he felt faint. Barely managed to mutter that it wasn’t a stab wound and received a disbelieving, ‘mmmm hmmm’ from the doctor. Asshole. “Okay. The post care is going to be difficult with this type of wound. Whatever went through your shoulder missed all the larger veins, however muscle heals differently. I’m going to stitch up the exit wound on the back then pack it from the front. You’ll have to clean it and repack it once a day. It will need to heal from the inside out.”

  The doctor made sure to complete Zack’s education of how to shove gauze into his own fucking flesh. By the time he was done, Zack wondered if he were the lucky one of his friends. The doctor rose a few minutes later though it felt like hours. “I should have your blood work back shortly, then I’ll be back with a few prescription and some supplies for you to take with you.”

  The doctor pushed the sheet open leaving a gap big enough for Zack to see the bitch from the alleyway walking into the ER. Walking! Plain cloths cops strolled beside her. Their little notebooks out, jotting down every word out of her lying mouth. The doctor who’d just sewed and packed his shoulder joined the group right outside his sheeted area. Zack tucked his face from view and listened.

  “You must be Aymee Yamamoto. We have this first room ready for you.” The doctor showed the bitch to a room with a door on it before his shoes squeaked away on the tile. Aymee Yamamoto. Bitch was too tall to be Asian, even if she did have black hair.

  She gets a room with a door and the stupid cops don’t even bother to close it. “Just to be sure I have my information right … can I call you Aymee?’ Man, the cops treated her like a rock star. “There were four of them …” They must have paused to note her nod her fucking head or something cause he didn’t hear her actually answer the question. “You heard the names Kade and Jake…” he imagined the head bob answer again. “You fought back.”

  “How many times to I have to repeat this.” Her voice grated on Zack’s nerves. That voice would join in his ghost nightmare for sure. “There were four of them. I made a point to scratch or rip hair from all but one of them and that guy, I stabbed with the heel of my boot. I heard two of them call each other by the names I gave you.”

  Zack snuck a peek through the gap in the sheet. A red headed uniform cop ran in and took the corner so fast his feet nearly went out from under him when he tried to stop. “Aymee!” The uniformed cop pushed past the plain cloths and knelt on the floor before the bitch like she were some kind of queen. “I took an extra shift tonight and heard the call on the radio. Are you alright?”

  “Officer Weedle, you know this woman.” Plain cloths asked the red headed uniform.

  “Yeah, I know her … and you know her to … at least by reputation. She and my sister Jess own The Ryu. It's the martial arts studio the academy contracts to teach the cadets.” Officer Weedle informed them … Zack too, thank you very fucking much.

  “You're Sensei Yamamoto?” The plain cloths cop had the sound of hero worship in his voice. No wander she'd fought like Bruce Lee. Maybe she'd thrown his friends … used the 'force' or some shit. That was a hell of a lot easier to believe than a ghost did it. More comforting too.

  “What happened?” The red head uniformed asked her, still crouched at her feet.

  “Eric, I’m fine, but I’m really tired of repeating myself. How about you do me a favor. Let them tell you what happened, then you can explain to them how it’s possible I fought four men and walked away the least injured, K?” Aymee smiled at the kneeling red head that stood and kissed her forehead.

  “You got it.” Red dragged the other cops out of the room like a properly trained lap dog. Loser.

  The doctor came back into view standing in the hall while the cops exited and gave him room to enter. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed Zack. “A few more minutes, alright Zack?”

  Zack felt himself nod stupidly, while riveted to the group inside the doorway. All the cops stepped out. One of them close enough to the dividing sheet his shadow appeared dark. The awestruck plain clothes near the open door used a too-friendly voice to make one last remark to Aymee. “We will have a female forensic tech in here shortly to gather the evidence and… take pictures. It’s the best way to build a strong case.”

  “I understand, Detective. If I don’t see you sooner, I’m sure we’ll see each other when I stop by the station tomorrow to go through the mug books.” Then the doctor slipped in and closed the door.

  If that bitch mentioned a shoulder stab to the doctor, Zack’s ass was toast. Fuck the prescriptions, he could just buy shit on the street. He quickly grabbed his bloody T-shirt off the floor and hit the exit, ignoring the call of ‘Sir you haven’t been released yet … Sir!’ from the nurse behind him. The main door swung open showing him the path of escape.

  Just outside, an SUV pulled up and five of the hottest chicks he’d ever seen poured out of it. The club wear was his first clue, the mention of the bitch Aymee’s name from one of them was another. Zack ducked his head and took a quick right outside the door hotfooting it away from the women, especially after a couple of them eyed him warily. That sixth sense thing his mother swore all women had might give him away. At a jog, he didn’t look back till he’d cleared the end of the building.

  Chapter Three

  Aymee let out a sigh of relief when Eric took the detectives out of the room. She just needed a minute to herself … well, mostly to herself. Eros made sure she knew he was there every few minutes. A light touch to her shoulder or the gently brush of her hair at her neck. His presence inexplicably lent her strength. The desired quiet minute was denied when the doctor came in and pulled a rolling chair over to sit in front of her.

  “No allergies to medicine?” He jotted down her answers to more questions. “The forensics people will gather their evidence then I'll remove the rest of that fingernail. You’ll need a couple of stitches in that finger, and I’m not sure about the other cuts until I get them cleaned up, okay?”

  Aymee nodded. The doctor gave her an encouraging smile and stepped out, closing the door behind him. “Eros?”

  “I’m here.” Deep and low, his voice came from the wall behind the bed. She tried to grin in his general direction, but tears flooded her eyes. Sick of sentences that began with who, what, where, how and when, she just wanted … him. His quiet comfort, silent understanding and compassion. She wasn't sure if her perception was real or just wishful thinking, but it didn't matter, she needed him.

  “Don’t leave, please. I know this next part is going to … suck. Just … stay with me.” Of all the people in the world to find comfort from, it shouldn’t have been Eros Sicarius.

  A thumb brushed her tear away. “You have my word.” His old word declaration filled her with warmth.

  She heard Jess, Irsu, Umbrae and Greycia arguing with someone in the hall.

  “She’s our friend …” Jess

  “… see if she’s okay.” Umbrae.

  “I’ll just be a minute.” The young girl wearing a dark jersey shirt with gold lettering that blared ‘Forensics’ slipped in. Aymee caught a glimpse of her friends' worried faces as the door closed. “Alright, Miss Yamamoto. I will try to do this as quickly and painlessly as possible. My name is Terri.” Terri sat on the rolling chair and set a heavy case on the floor. “First thing I’m going to do is scrape under your nails.” Once Terri was ready, Aymee set her hand over the catch paper while she started to chat. “One thing's for sure, your story has definitely encouraged me to enroll in self-defense. You said you weren’t raped, right?”

  Aymee could tell the tech was trying to put her at ease just in case she’d lie
d about the rape out of shame. “No, I wasn’t raped.” Then more small talk as Terri touched pieces of tape up each of Aymee’s arms and her thighs above her boots.

  “Ok. I know this is uncomfortable, but I need to collect your clothing now.” Terri opened and lined up brown paper sacks by the case.

  Here we go. Aymee let out a sigh. Terri pulled Aymee’s boots off one by one and put them into sacks. Her stockings followed. Then came the hard part. The tech had to help Aymee out of the tattered remains of her shirt. Her shoulder resisted the movement. Terri slipped Aymee's miniskirt down her bare legs. The tech's eyes halted and narrowed at the torn panties clinging to Aymee hips.

  “Are you sure you weren’t raped? I brought a kit. It will only take a second to do a swab.” She tried to be encouraging while sliding the ripped scrap of lace off Aymee to disappear into a bag with the rest of her cloths.

  “The guy groped me, he didn’t rape me.” Aymee repeated … again.

  The tech pulled out another piece of tape. “Okay. I’m going to pat you there for skin cells. Would you mind spreading your legs just a little?” Standing naked in a hospital room legs spread while a girl felt her up with tape was not how she’d pictured this night. “Hold that pose.” The tech put the tape into a small plastic baggie and pulled out a camera. “You’re pretty bruised down there for someone who wasn’t raped.” The flash of the camera blinded Aymee for a second.

  Her irritation blinded her more. “If I’d been raped, I would tell you. You ask me one more time and I’m going to kick your ass out of here … got it?”

  Terri's eyes widened then ducked behind the lens without another word. She had Aymee turn this way, that way. Took faraway pictures then a few close up of every bruise and cut. She had to bend over for the pictures of her scalp. That was the only time she wondered exactly where Eros had taken up his post. When she'd fantasized about Eros pushing up on her from behind, it didn't include the smell of ammonia or harsh florescent lights. Aymee looked down at her breast, it was black and blue with finger marks clearly visible. God, she could just imagine what her cheek looked like. The swelling in her eye had already starting to restrict her vision.