And if so, then why hadn’t she warned Sam that there was something potentially dangerous lurking in the shadows right behind her?
It was unlikely that Michelle, if she did know there was something down there, fully understood the level of its Power and the extent of its evil.
She let another sigh. “It looked like a shadow,” she said, meeting Jack’s eyes. He nodded his head as if she were making perfect sense, but she could tell that he didn’t understand what she meant, or what she was describing. As far as Sam was aware there was nothing in the supernatural world that took the appearance of a shadow. Not one that looked like that anyway. “Not like a shape though . . . more like, I don’t know . . . like mist or something. Black fog. And it came in through the walls and it attacked the lights and made it dark. I had to use Magic to light the room and scare it away, but . . . ”
“But?”
“It adjusted to the light and came at me. And . . . ” She chewed her lip nervously, looking at Jack from under her eyelashes before she told him what she should have told him when he first got back. “It wasn’t the first time I saw it. You weren’t here,” she spoke quickly, before Jack had a chance to get angry that she hadn’t told him right away. “And by the time you got back I just kinda convinced myself that I imagined it.”
“Right.” Jack slapped his hand on the desk and jumped over it, landing with more grace than a man his size should logically have. He stepped into the hallway behind the desk and stood outside the basement door. “Unlock it.” He pointed at the door, stepping up to it as if he wasn’t even slightly scared.
The thing down there wasn’t physical, Jack wasn’t physical, so the chances were that the thing in the basement could hurt Jack in some way. Maybe even kill him for good.
Sam shook her head. “You could die.”
Jack smiled. “Sam . . . Been there, done that. I’d have gotten you a postcard but there’s never any good ones.”
“No.” Sam folded her arms across her chest, letting him know that she meant it.
“One way barrier,” he said. “I’m going in, I just wanted you to unlock it so I could get back out.” Then without waiting for Sam to reply, he stepped through the wood.
Sam rushed to the door, throwing it open so fast it made a loud crash as it slammed into the wall. Jack stood on the other side of the door grinning at her. “Why Sam, I never knew how much you cared.” He wiped away a pretend tear and sniffled. “It makes me so warm and fuzzy on the inside.”
Sam scowled at him. “You suck.”
He just laughed.
Sam sighed and removed the barrier spell, following Jack down the stairs where he found the light switch and flicked the lights on. Sam stayed close behind him as he walked into the centre of the room and looked around. She saw his shoulders drop, as if he was disappointed when nothing happened.
Sam furrowed her brow in frustration as she looked around. Everything felt normal.
There were no dark patches, no shadows.
The air didn’t feel tainted.
She didn’t feel irrationally scared.
“I swear, it was here!”
“I believe you,” Jack stated. Sam looked at his face, his expression seemed troubled and confused. As if he didn’t know what was going on, and wasn’t sure what to make of what Sam had told him.
“What do you think it was?” she asked, as they headed towards the stairs.
Jack shrugged. “I don’t know . . . could have been someone playing mind games with you. Maybe your Vampire isn’t as nice as we thought and he likes to mess with people’s heads.”
“It wasn’t him,” Sam said surely. “First off, I’m immune to Vampire mind tricks. Secondly, I was in his head and he was freaked out when he saw my Magic.”
Jack shrugged again and sighed. “I don’t know then. I don’t know what it could have been. Maybe it was just some bad energy or something.”
“Maybe,” Sam said, nodding her head in agreement, while the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that what she saw was more than just some bad energy. What she saw . . . what she felt was something with a consciousness.
It was something that could think.
It was something that could feel.
It was angry.
It was evil.
CHAPTER 20
Michelle walked into the library slowly, the creak of the door echoing loudly in the empty room.
She’d worked at the library for over ten years. And in all of the ten years that she’d worked there she’d never felt as disturbed by the aura of the building as she had in these past few weeks. The room in the daytime was never the same as it was at night. And perhaps that was why she had never before noticed the voiceless whispers and the faceless shadows that seemed to haunt every crevice of the old building.
Since Jessie had taken the summer off and she’d been forced, for the first time in all the years she’d worked there, to work the night shift, she found that she had become terrified of not only being there alone, but of being there alone at night.
She switched the lights on and ventured in further, shaking off her fear as she repeatedly told herself that it was all in her head. These mantras had become a part of her daily routine, something she had to tell herself so that her legs would allow her to walk to the desk instead of forcing her to turn and run back home as they so desperately wanted to.
It was only when she got to her desk that she felt it.
The strong sense of Magic in the air.
She furrowed her brow and walked behind the desk. Only moving towards the residue of Power because she knew that the Magic she felt was Sam’s. Although she and Sam weren’t friends, given their age gap there were no social events that would cause them to ever hang out together, the younger girl had spent enough time in the library over the past few years that the sense of her Power had become a familiar thing to anyone in the town with a sixth sense strong enough to feel it.
This particular Magic was not leftover from some spell that Sam may have been casting the night previous, but was still actively working away at whatever it was she had formed it to do.
Slowly, Michelle turned to look behind her, gazing at the door to the basement where she felt the Magic was originating from.
On some level she was glad to have the extra protection of the barricades at her back, but then there was the small part of her that was completely overwhelmed by fear at the realisation that she had been right, there was something in the library that she should be afraid of.
And it was something so terrible that instead of using all of the Magic she was gifted with to kill it, Sam had only locked it away.
She didn’t know what was more terrifying.
The thought that there was a monster lurking in the shadows, or the thought that this monster was something stronger than Sam.
CHAPTER 21
It was the morning of the twenty-sixth and the sun had yet to rise when Jack left for Freya’s house. The Moirai had pretty much given him a play-by-play of everything that would happen over the next few months. They told him everything he had to do up ‘til the day he was supposed to bring Sam to Athens to see the Moirai for herself.
And they had assured him that before next summer came, his work for them would be finished. He would be free and they would grant him the one thing he wished for. To live again. And he would finally get to tell Sam all the things he’d been waiting so many years to tell her.
But for today, he was supposed to go to Freya and get an amulet from her. The one that had belonged to every female in Sam’s family going right back a few thousand years to when it had been Freya’s.
When Sam’s mother had been killed, the Moirai had given the amulet back to Freya and told her it would find its way to Sam when the time was right.
Jack felt that the Moirai should have told Freya what they really meant. Because what they really meant was, when the time was right for Sam to receive the amulet, they�
�d send Jack to go get it from her so he could bring it to Sam.
Jack had to use his ghostly Powers to materialise on Hunter land, near the house he used to live in and the house that his family still resided in. But he wasn’t allowed to see them, because that was against the goddamn rules. From there he had to corporealise, then walk a few miles to the river that separated his family’s property from Valkyrie territory. After that he had to cross the river, and walk another few miles through fields and forests to Freya’s house.
Because of the barrier spells that surrounded the Valkyrie’s territory, Jack couldn’t just materialise at the house. He had to walk all the way there in his corporeal form and get sore legs and feet.
Because the fucking bitches that called themselves the Moirai didn’t believe in the post office.
The branches of the trees began to thrash violently as Jack’s anger manifested itself in the nature around him.
As a Hunter his emotions had always been quite volatile, and as a Ghost they were much worse. Mostly because if he didn’t control his feelings, they would manifest around him, like they were now. Infecting nature and anyone close enough to feel it.
Jack took a breath to calm himself; every time he thought of the Moirai and all of the shit they put him through it made him so angry he could barely contain it.
He continued walking through the green fields of the Valkyrie’s territory towards the old brick house. The front door swung open before Jack had even reached it.
The woman standing on the other side was well built, just slightly shorter than Jack, which meant she was incredibly tall for a woman. But then, the Valkyries were built like warriors. She glared at Jack, her dark eyes watching him in a way that if he were living would have incited an extreme discomfort.
“What are you doing here Hunter?” Brynhild asked, her tone making it sound as though Jack’s very existence had ruined not only her entire day but her entire life.
“Actually, it’s Ghost,” Jack corrected. “I haven’t been a Hunter in years, and I’m here to see Freya.”
“Who says she wants to see you?” she asked rhetorically. “Why would she? You’re the reason Serenity was killed.”
Serenity was one of Freya’s descendants, and Sam’s birth mother. Jack physically flinched at the mention of her name. It was a low blow bringing that up. “He’s also the reason that Samantha is alive,” Freya said from across the room. Brynhild turned around, as if just noticing Freya’s presence for the first time. “Let him in.”
Brynhild begrudgingly stepped aside, keeping her eyes on Jack as he walked through the doors, past Brynhild, into the room where Freya was standing.
She turned and led the way to the living room, seated herself on an armchair and directed for Jack to do the same. He took a seat on the sofa across from her. “Is she okay?” Freya asked, wasting no time with small talk. “Is it time yet?”
“No,” Jack said. “The Moirai sent me to get the amulet.”
“Oh,” Freya mumbled, folding and unfolding her hands in her lap. Jack could see the disappointment in her expression even though she tried to hide it.
Freya looked a lot like Sam, and a lot like Serenity. Her skin was slightly darker than Sam’s, her hair was also about two shades darker and her eyes were a more vibrant shade of purple. But other than that they looked very much alike. If you were to put them side by side you would be able to see quite clearly that they were from the same family.
Even though Jack had spent all of his Hunter years living just across the river from Freya, he had never really known her. When he was younger he just thought of her as the woman who lived in this house. After a while he started to notice that she wasn’t simply a woman, she was actually quite a powerful Witch.
But it wasn’t until the last few months of his life that he had learned the truth about what Freya, and everyone related to her, really was.
And he couldn’t understand why someone with such an immense amount of Power—someone that far up on the food chain—would hide herself away, acting as though she were powerless instead of doing what she could to stop the war that had been started because of what she had created.
“Before next summer,” Jack said. Freya looked to him curiously. “That’s what they said. You’ll meet her before next summer.”
Freya sighed, nodding her head. “That’s not so long.” She stood up and walked out of the room. A few moments later she came back in, holding a silver chain with a clear tear shaped stone on the end. “I always thought she’d come here to get it herself,” Freya said as she handed the amulet to Jack. “It needs a drop of her blood to be activated, it won’t respond otherwise.”
“Right.” Jack put the amulet into his pocket.
“So,” Freya said and sat down, carefully folding her hands on her lap. “Tell me all about her.”
CHAPTER 22
It was eleven o’clock before Jack made it back to Sam’s house. Not that she even noticed he’d gone, since she was still sleeping when he arrived. She lay curled up in the middle of her bed wrapped in the duvet. “Sam,” he called. She stirred a little at the sound of his voice. “Sam. Sam. Sam.”
“What?” she mumbled without opening her eyes.
“Sam,” he called again. It was his firmly held belief that she wasn’t awake until she opened her eyes. “Sam. Sam.”
“What?” she asked again. More agitatedly than before.
Jack paused for a moment. “Sam. Sa—”
Sam opened her eyes. “WHAT?”
“Wake up,” Jack said. Sam groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes with her hands, smudging the remnants of yesterday’s make-up, creating dark circles under her eyes.
“Why?” she whined.
“I have a present for you.” Sam looked at him questioningly, probably confused because he had never given her a gift before, with the exception of the stuffed toy he had bought her when she was a baby. Jack pulled the amulet from his pocket and handed it to her.
She took it from him and studied it for a moment, turning it around in her hands so she could see it from the back and the front. “Thanks,” she said with a smile. “I don’t really wear jewellery though.”
“It’s an amulet. You need to put a drop of your blood on it to activate it,” Jack explained as he took a seat on the edge of Sam’s bed. “It was your mother’s.”
“It was?” Sam asked, as she examined it closely, as if she would find some clue to her past within it. Jack nodded. “Where’d you get it?”
“I can’t tell you that, not yet.”
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. “Of course,” she grumbled, her voice tinged with resentment. “Did you have it or did you get it off someone else?”
“Someone else,” Jack stated, trying not to be hurt by the obvious accusation in her question.
“Who—”
“No,” Jack interrupted. “You know the rules.”
“But if you know people who knew my parents, they probably know all about me too, so they could tell me things—”
Jack shook his head. “No,” he repeated. “You know that there are certain things you’re not allowed to know. Not yet.”
Sam sighed. “Well if I can’t find out yet, when can I find out?”
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
“Soon,” he repeated.
“Well soon isn’t soon enough!”
“Everything will happen as and when it’s supposed to happen,” he tried to explain, but Jack could see the doubt on Sam’s face. “Just trust me,” he sighed. She looked at him sadly, with her big indigo eyes. “Have I ever let you down before?”
“No,” Sam mumbled.
Jack corporealised, then wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tightly. Hoping the gesture would offer her some comfort or make her feel like she wasn’t as alone as she thought she was. “Then just trust me.” Sam hesitated before returning his hug. “If I could tell you everything right now, I would
.”
He let her go. She sighed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Life sucks.”
Jack said nothing in reply. His stomach clenched with the sympathy he felt for her; her life was so much tougher than it should be. Though he was proud of all of the things she could do and all of the things that she would accomplish, he couldn’t help wishing that the burdens that came with the amount of Power she had didn’t have to fall on her shoulders.
Nobody her age should have to worry about whether or not they were going to live to see tomorrow.
Jack shook away his thoughts. “It’s your birthday,” he said resolutely and stood. “And you are not going to lie around all day and do nothing.”
Sam sulked. “But that was my plan.”
“Well you can change your plan. Because I’m not going to let you stay home all day doing nothing.”
“I won’t be doing nothing all day,” Sam corrected. “I have to go to the library at six.”
“And you have more than six hours ‘til then, so what do you want to do?”
“Lie around and do nothing,” Sam said, then lay back down and pulled the duvet over her head.
“No.” Jack glared at the duvet momentarily, willing it to move; it flew off the bed and onto the floor.
Sam dragged herself into a sitting position. “Why not?” she whined.
“Because I said so,” Jack said sternly. “Why don’t you call Madison or Elle and ask them to do something?”
“Because one, those two never shut up. I can only handle talking to them for an hour or less. And two, I’m not friends with them anymore.”
“Then why don’t you call Jamie?” Jack teased. “I’m sure he’d be more than happy to spend a few hours . . . or his entire life with you.”
Sam gave him an unimpressed looked. “Because I just got rid of him a week ago.”
“Call Jade,” Jack said. “You always liked Jade.”
“I’d rather just lie around and do nothing,” she mumbled, absently tracing her finger over the birthmark on her wrist.
Immortal Souls: The Immortal Souls, Magic & Chaos (Book 1) Page 8
