Darkness Shifting: Tides of Darkness Book One

by Sarah Blair

  “It’s like he said, some things don’t have an explanation. You can’t question everything in this line of work or you’ll end up on permanent vacation in a padded cell.”

  “But—”

  “You’ll feel better after your bath.”

  He rattled the bars on the window to make sure it was locked tight while she climbed into the tub and sank under the bubble-filled water. The ache melted out of her muscles immediately.

  “You staying?” She rested her head against the back of the tub.

  It took him a few seconds to turn around and she wondered if he’d even heard. He came back and turned the water off, then picked up her clothes from the floor.

  “Want me to?”

  It was too quiet with the water off. The question hung in the air like the steam over the tub.

  Now that he was here, the answer was yes, and that was the biggest reason she wished he’d left her at the door. Mitch was twice her age, and her boss. Wanting him to strip down and join her in the tub was messed up, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t need to pay a therapist thousands of dollars to tell her that.

  She lifted her eyes to his. “Maybe you could check under the beds.”

  His shoulders eased down. “Don’t worry, Jean-Luc Gaspard killed the Boogey Man in Amsterdam, 1932.”

  The Boogey Man was the least of her worries, and they both knew it. The image of that creature in the subway came back to her. The ears and the fur, that long tongue and the mouth full of huge sharp teeth, reminded her too much of what stalked through her nightmares.

  “But there are other things.”

  “I know.”

  Sidney dried off and dressed in a plain long-sleeved t-shirt and some black yoga pants. She twisted her damp hair up in a knot. The smell of food led her to the table in the front room.

  “Chinese?”

  “Just arrived.” He unpacked little white boxes from a brown paper bag and set them out on the table. His dress shirt and tie hung over the back of the chair, and she took a moment to appreciate the cut of his arms in his white undershirt.

  He had wide shoulders tapering down into a narrow waist. It helped that he kept up his fitness level from his FBI days, jogging laps around the park most mornings. Occasionally they ran together, but Sidney preferred the solitude of swimming, with nothing but her heartbeat and breath to keep her company.

  “Feel better?” he asked.

  “The bath was nice.” She opened a box and made a face.

  He paused in his unpacking. “I thought Lo Mein was your favorite.”

  That man’s open chest and all the torn bits previously connecting his heart to his body flashed through her mind. She swallowed hard. “Not today.”

  Mitch opened two more boxes and offered them to her. “Beef and broccoli or sesame chicken?”

  “Vegetarian is a good plan for now.” She grabbed the beef and broccoli then sat down, using the chopsticks to pick out the tiny green trees.

  He set a white pill on the table next to a glass of water. Sidney paused, glanced up at him. He knew full-well about the lifestyle he’d rescued her from. The battle had been short, thanks to him.

  “Extra-strength ibuprofen.”

  She relaxed, sliding the pill back across the table. “Thanks, I don’t need it.”

  “You should eat some protein.”

  “I’m not hungry.” She shoved her chopsticks in the container and cracked open her fortune cookie. The advice on the piece of paper made her snort out a sardonic laugh, “It’s time for you to explore new interests.”

  He smiled a little. “Knitting?”

  “Yeah. Funny.” They spent a few moments in silence while Mitch ate. She rested her head back against the wall and shut her eyes. “What if they’re not extinct?”

  He finished chewing and swallowed. “They are.”

  “Renny says there’s something out there even the monsters are afraid of.” She opened her eyes and stared him down. “What if this is worse than we think?”

  “I spoke with Dimitrius. He assures me the werewolves are extinct.”

  “But what if he’s wrong?”

  Mitch set his chopsticks down and gathered the boxes. “Then we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

  “What if we’re already there?”

  He lowered his chin, his jaw ticked. Once. Twice. “I trust Dimitrius.”

  He put the boxes back into the bag and took it to the kitchen.

  Sidney followed.

  He opened the refrigerator, threw out a few old containers, and put the bag inside.

  “Mitch, what if whatever killed my parents is back?”

  The refrigerator door shut with a muted thud. He grabbed one of the leftover napkins and rubbed a spot on the laminate countertop. “That’s the thing about a run-in with a demon. It messes with your head, brings all your fears and doubts to the surface. It feeds off the ugly in your life and throws it back in your face. Give it a couple days, it’ll wear off.”

  “You think I’m paranoid?”

  “No, I think that due to demonic influences, you’re making connections where there are none.”

  “Hold on, you said it yourself this morning. You were ready to pull me off this case. Now I’m making connections where there are none?”

  “What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions without more information.”

  “Yeah, okay.” She went back into the front room and picked up pillows from the couch, rearranging them for something to do. Mitch followed her only as far as the edge of the kitchen.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorway. “I know you need closure, Sid. But at some point, you’re going to have to move on.”

  She froze with some files from the coffee table in her hand.

  “In this line of work, you’ve got to be able to accept there are things you might not ever get answers to. Strange things happen. Unexplainable things. You have so much going for you, here and now. You can’t get where you need to be if you’re too busy dwelling in the past.”

  The night she’d first met Mitch, when he’d introduced himself to her at the MET during some charity fundraiser, her grandfather had spoken almost the exact same words, ordering her to stop dwelling in the past. She glared at him now, determined not to let him see how much his words hurt.

  The difference was that he was okay with not knowing and she wasn’t. Maybe she didn’t want to know all the gory details, but whatever had torn her parents to pieces in their bed while she slept down the hall was still out there. If only she knew that the monster was locked up or dead, she might have an easier time sleeping at night.

  “Why did you even ask me to join the agency in the first place?” she wondered.

  His eyes darted to the floor before coming back up to meet hers. “I told you before, you’ve got what it takes to be great at this. Tenacity. Bravery. You’re strong in a way most people only dream about.”

  A knot blossomed in her throat. She wanted to believe in herself the way he believed in her, but after days like today, it wasn’t easy.

  “Unfortunately, those same strengths can get you into trouble when you don’t have the experience to back them up. That’s what you’re lacking. You’ve got to listen to me, Sidney. You have to trust me. I promised that I’d protect you when I brought you into this, and I can’t do that if you don’t follow my lead.”

  “You promised?” She frowned. “Who?”

  “Myself.” He rubbed his head with a sigh. “You.”

  “No, you don’t get to pin that on me.” She shook her head. “I didn’t ask you to make any promises on my behalf. I can—”

  “Take care of yourself? Yeah, you sure did a great job with that today.” His words stung worse than a bite from a pissed-off pixie.

  “Well, you’ve certainly fulfilled your chivalry quota for the night.” She tossed the folder on the desk and it landed with a slap. “Why don’t you go home and polish your armor.”

>   The second the words left her mouth, she wished they hadn’t. The way he refused to meet her eyes made her regret it even more. She turned around and hefted up the window, then stayed there facing the street so he wouldn’t see her cringe as pain shot through her newly repositioned joint.

  The cool night air floated in with the sounds of the city. Noisy laughter drifted up from a group of people waiting on a table downstairs. A cab honked over on Lexington. A street sweeper hummed by.

  The hardwood floor groaned against Mitch’s footsteps as he came into the room. Sidney glanced up at his reflection in the window, but didn’t turn around.

  “It’s been a long day for both of us.” He picked up his windbreaker, shirt, and tie. “Your keys and phone are here on the table. I checked the closets and under the bed. All clear.”

  She shut her eyes. There was a hollowness in her chest, same as if the demon had reached in and ripped her heart out.

  “Thanks.”

  “Call if you—” he cut himself short. “Get some rest.”

  She remained in her place by the window until the door shut, then she crossed the room and peeked through the peephole. He stood there, waiting. She turned all the locks and listened until his footsteps faded down the stairs.

  Turning to lean back against the door, she scanned the front room. Despite every light blazing, the apartment suddenly felt empty. No, void.

  She took her phone, tempted to call and ask him to come back. It would be nice to have a warm, strong body to curl herself around in bed tonight. There would be no sleep for her otherwise.

  Instead, she grabbed the remote and turned on the TV simply to feel like she wasn’t alone. The evening news anchors were too cheery for her mood, but just as she was about to change the channel a pre-recorded scene of a press conference outside the White House rolled. Her grandfather’s full head of crisp, white hair ruffled in the sunny breeze right behind the President.

  She grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

  “. . . Chairman and founder of Lake Industries, Alexander Lake was in Washington today for more talks centered around a new research and development grant awarded to the company in conjunction with the United States Army.”

  The next clip showed her grandfather walking through the White House Rose Garden, smiling and shaking hands with the President. Sidney clicked over to a show about moonshiners, and wrapped up under her thick throw blanket, suddenly shivering.

  Her grandfather had never been the sunny, playful sort like she imagined other grandfathers to be. He’d never used his thumb to pretend he was stealing her nose. He never bounced her on his knee, or told her stories of trudging to school in the snow uphill both ways. Distant, was the nicest word she could choose to describe him. Cold, calculating, megalomaniacal were probably the most accurate.

  After her parents were killed, he was all she had. There had been no words of comfort, let alone hugs or any kind of reassurance that she was safe in her own home. Instead, he’d continued on with business as usual, then shipped her off to boarding school in the fall. In school, she kept to herself and refused to form anything other than the shallowest of relationships. Of course, she fit right in with her classmates. The only difference was that their parents chose to be absent from their lives on purpose. She wasn’t really sure who had it worse.

  Mitch and Williams were the closest she’d been with anyone in over twelve years. Every day she woke up wondering if that was going to be the day when the other shoe would drop and she’d lose them, too. She stared at her phone again, thinking that was the real reason she’d let Mitch leave tonight. It was easier to keep him at a distance. Safer.

  She jumped when the phone rang in her hand. It took her a second to decide whether or not to even look at it. As if thinking the thought she’d just had might have brought tragedy forth into reality, but she checked the caller ID with a rush of relief, then answered.

  “Hey, Tom. What’s up?” She didn’t even bother trying to hide the tiredness in her voice.

  “I’ve got the vic from this morning out on the table.” The Medical Examiner’s breath came loud over the phone.

  “You okay?” Sidney sat up a little.

  “It’s amazing.”

  “Amazing, how?” She’d fallen for Tom’s brand of amazing before. The last time he’d been this excited, she found herself getting an intimate lesson on the reproductive organs of a merman.

  “It’s, uh, well—” Tom was never someone who was at a loss for words. “It’s a little unusual.”

  Sidney let the blanket fall from her shoulders as she stood up. “This isn’t the same as that vampire you thought you found, is it? Because those teeth were implants.”

  “No, no, no. You’ll want to see this.”

  “All right.” She could never say no to Tom’s enthusiasm. Besides, a night in the morgue was way better than spending a night alone with her own personal demons. “On my way.”

  Seven

  The cab dropped Sidney off in front of the building with the turquoise tiles on First Avenue. It housed the country’s original forensics lab, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, otherwise known as the OCME. During the day, the place was a bustling scene of doctors, police officers, detectives, lab techs, interns and lawyers.

  Sidney liked it better after hours when Tom brought out the weird stuff. It was quiet, like now, and they didn’t have to worry about being interrupted. Roy, the usual guard, wasn’t at his desk when she walked in, but everybody had to take a break to pee sometimes.

  Tom was expecting her, so she continued on to the elevator. The long hallway leading to the labs reminded her of The Shining. Every time she came she expected some kid on a Big Wheel to roll around the corner from the hallway leading out to the loading dock.

  A loud bang like a car crash startled her from her thoughts. The swinging door leading to Tom’s autopsy suite bumped open. Something slid to the floor with a heavy smack.

  Sidney instinctively crouched to the floor against the wall, making herself as small as possible.

  Tom lay halfway out the door, his glasses tilted at an unnatural angle, hand splayed out over his head. His eyes were open. Unblinking.

  She almost screamed but caught herself at the last second, so it came out as a choked whisper, “Tom!”

  Voices came from inside the autopsy suite and Tom’s body slid out of sight. Sidney took out her phone to call Mitch. She fumbled and dropped it with a clatter on the polished floor. She cursed silently, while she glanced back and forth between the door and her phone. She hit the speed-dial for Mitch, but the call failed.

  Just as she was ready to make a run for the loading dock to catch a stronger signal, the doors banged open again and two men exited, carrying a body bag between them.

  They were big guys. All muscle. Dressed in black. Close cropped hair.

  She froze, hoping maybe, if she was still enough and small enough, they’d go on without noticing her.

  The phone buzzed in her hand.

  The man in the back zeroed in on her.

  All she had was keys and phone, no weapon. Damage could be done with her keys, but that meant offering herself up for close contact. Not a smart idea.

  An unnatural growl rolled out from the man’s throat.

  “No. We have orders,” his partner said.

  Something in his eyes seemed familiar. Sidney couldn’t place what kind of creature she was looking at, but it wasn’t human. It made her feel like she was the prey and this man wanted to eat her.

  A popping, tearing sound, stopped her breath in her throat.

  The man’s fingers grew into long, sharp claws. His nose and jaw jutted out of his face with a crack while his canines protruded down over his lips. Clothes ripped and fell to the floor, as he came down to stand on all-fours in front of her.

  It was right out of her nightmares.

  All those years of dreams, and here the thing was, stalking toward her.

  Sidney squeezed her eyes shut,
and prayed she was dreaming. She waited to feel Mitch shake her, to wake her up.

  Hot breath blew against her face.

  Her hair stuck to the tears on her cheeks.

  The phone buzzed again and this time it didn’t stop.

  She jerked, just as the thing lunged. It smacked into the wall with a thud.

  Fight or flight instincts kicked in. She sprang to her feet and dashed for the autopsy suite. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a second pile of clothes in the floor next to the forgotten body bag.

  The other man was gone.

  She pushed through the door of the autopsy suite, and her feet went out from under her. Lights popped in her vision. It took a second to realize she was in the pool of Tom’s blood.

  The second monster snapped at her feet, and she jerked away.

  A pair of shears lay on the floor near an overturned tray. She grabbed them and brought them up as the thing pounced.

  It impaled itself in the soft spot under its ribcage. A whoosh of air left its lungs, and it choked. Sidney turned her head, narrowly avoiding the snapping teeth. Heavy paws pinned her injured shoulder to the ground.

  She let out a scream from behind gritted teeth.

  Jaws snapped down next to her ear.

  She twisted the shears and the thing threw its head back, writhing and howling.

  It rolled onto the floor. She yanked out the shears with both hands, then jabbed into its neck, twisted, and pulled out again.

  Blood erupted from the wound, squirting out intermittently like a lawn sprinkler.

  The other creature nosed around at Tom’s body.

  “Get off him!” she screamed.

  It lifted its head and growled. Goosebumps rose on her arms. She dashed behind an autopsy table.

  It leaped.

  She ducked and rolled under. The shears slipped from her trembling, blood-soaked hand. The thing tumbled over the top of the table, skidding into the cabinets.

  Sidney smashed the door of the fire-extinguisher with her elbow and grabbed the tank. The sting of glass radiated up her arm.