Shadow Thief (Flirting with Monsters Book 1)

by Eva Chase

  Even powerful shadowkind had trouble using their powers if they were bound with iron and silver. As for the rest… As Thorn grunted in agreement with Ruse’s account, a chill washed over my skin. I’d seen glowing whips in the past. A memory from much longer ago swam up: muttered commands, Auntie Luna’s cry, and the arc of searing streams of light swinging at her to bind her in place.

  That didn’t necessarily mean anything. If there were new weapons that could disable higher shadowkind, anyone who set out to capture or kill them would be using them, with no connection to any other group implied. But I was about to press the men for more detail anyway when Snap leaned over the railing on the bridge above us.

  “I think I’ve got something from that evening here,” he said, and then, I swear on a unicorn’s ass, he dipped his head lower and flicked his tongue across the concrete. It darted from between his lips farther than any human tongue could have, and he sucked in a breath with a snake-like hiss.

  “Um,” I said, momentarily lost for words.

  Ruse was smirking now. “I told you that you’d see. Omen brought him on board for a reason too. One of his kind’s primary talents is picking up impressions of the past from any object they encounter.”

  By “tasting”—right. I’d never heard of that talent among the shadowkind before. There mustn’t be many like him.

  The thought of licking that grubby cement made me wince, but it didn’t appear to bother Snap any. “Yes,” he said dreamily. “At least one of them was crouched here—she bumped her foot against this spot as they all vaulted over. A leather shoe, a little too tightly laced. Pushing fast.”

  “And probably no one else has touched that exact spot since then,” Ruse said. “That’s why Snap can still pick up something from that long ago. The most recent impressions end up overwhelming things from farther back.”

  Snap’s gaze refocused on us. An apologetic note came into his voice. “That’s all I’ve been able to find up here from the ambush. It doesn’t seem as if it’d help us find Omen.”

  “The actual battle happened on the ground,” Thorn said. “See if you can discover more beneath.”

  Snap leapt down to join us, landing on his feet more lightly than you’d expect from a guy that tall. He peered into the thicker gloom beneath the bridge. I found myself staring as his tongue flitted from between his lips to test one patch of wall and then another.

  “He can’t get sick from doing that, can he?” I asked Ruse. Lord only knew what microbes had taken up residence under there.

  Ruse chuckled. “As offensive as it might look, he’s not actually making contact, just tasting the energies clinging against the surface. As far as I know, they can’t do anyone any harm.”

  That didn’t sound so bad, but I couldn’t have said I was entirely offended anyway. A certain amount of fascination was involved too. Especially when the dreamy tone came into Snap’s voice again.

  “One knocked his shoulder here in the struggle—a spot where the armor didn’t cover his clothes. His shirt was torn. A piece falling. It might still be…”

  He dragged his foot through the scattered leaves, twigs, and other natural debris that had collected along the edge of the passage. With a victorious exclamation, he fished out a small scrap of fabric. As he held it level with his face, his tongue flicked out again, not quite close enough to make the scrap stir with the motion. He inhaled deeply.

  “Cotton. Blood from a cut underneath—Omen’s claws. The one wearing it bought it—I can see the store—All Military Surplus.”

  I’d been in that place once or twice—a big warehouse type store on the industrial side of town. “That doesn’t narrow things down much. There’ve got to be thousands of people in the city who’ve shopped there.”

  Snap’s face fell. He looked so disheartened that I had to add, “It’s amazing that you can tell all that in the first place, though.”

  “I can taste more when there’s a stronger emotional association,” he said. “He didn’t care about this shirt very much.”

  “You’re giving it your best shot,” Ruse reassured him. “Anyway, that tidbit could end up being useful in some way we can’t anticipate yet.”

  “I’ll see if I can find more.” Snap turned and ventured farther along the passage.

  I turned to the others. “Can you remember anything else about the people who staged the ambush—any identifying details at all?”

  The incubus spread his hands. “Unfortunately, my skills are fairly short range. I didn’t get a detailed read on any of them—nothing beyond the expected aggression and fear.”

  Thorn studied our surroundings again as if searching for something to jog his memory. “Their faces were mostly covered. From their movements, they were thoroughly trained in combat. A few of them carried silver daggers as well, and one had—I’m not sure what to call it. Like a metal stick that shot electric sparks from one end.”

  “Some kind of taser.”

  “I don’t know that word.” His forehead furrowed. “It had some sort of symbol on it, didn’t it? I only saw it for a second—it was mostly covered by the fighter’s hand. But the swords in the design caught my attention.”

  Another, sharper chill prickled through me. “A symbol with swords?”

  “Yes. Like a five-pointed star, but the two most horizontal points were drawn as the blades of a sword with a simple joint hilt in the center.”

  He picked up a stick from beside the path and dug its end into a clear patch of dirt. With several strokes, he sketched out an image so familiar it made my stomach flip over.

  The star with the sword points. The hunters who’d come for Luna—I’d caught a glimpse of that symbol on one of the metallic bands they’d worn around their heads. And never found any reference to it since, even with all the searching I’d done in the first few years after her death.

  I’d given up on getting justice for her, other than in the roundabout way of striking back against hunters and collectors in general. But the people who’d come for her hadn’t just been a particularly vicious group of hunters after all. The symbol connected them to the trained fighters who’d come for the trio’s boss as well, eleven years later.

  They’d only captured Omen, not slaughtered him, as far as his companions knew. Maybe they hadn’t been attempting to kill Luna either. What were they doing with the higher shadowkind—and what else had they been up to in the decade in between?

  My three lost puppy dogs might be the key to getting answers, and to more questions than I’d even known to ask until now.

  My heart had started thumping faster. “After they captured him, didn’t you follow to see where they were taking him?”

  Thorn let out a huff. “As far as we could. We can move quickly through the shadows, but not swiftly enough to keep pace with your mechanized vehicles.”

  “They drove off in a big truck,” Ruse clarified. “No logos or anything useful there.”

  Snap emerged on the other side of the passage under the bridge. His tongue darted toward a spot at the corner, and he hummed to himself.

  “One leaned back here briefly. Breathing hard. But he was pleased. Very pleased and a little relieved. They must have bound Omen by then.” He paused with another flit of his tongue, and a faint smile crossed his face. “He said something—quietly, to a man next to him. ‘Let’s get it back to Merry Den.’”

  Both of his companions stepped closer. “You could hear that?” Ruse said.

  “Yes. The sound’s blurry, but—he was so eager, the words stuck. Is that good?”

  Thorn clapped Snap on the shoulder, so forceful in his enthusiasm that the slimmer guy both beamed and winced. “A name is excellent! The name of where they were taking him.” He looked at me. “Do you know a ‘Merry Den’?”

  The bastards who’d come hunting didn’t stand a chance now. I rubbed my hands together as a waft of elation filled my chest. “I don’t, but you’d better believe I can find it.”

  8

  Sors
ha

  Given that we had pretty much no idea who we were dealing with other than that they were formidable as fuck, discretion seemed wise. I held in all other questions until we returned to my apartment with the door shut and locked behind me.

  “That symbol you saw on the one man’s weapon,” I said to Thorn. “The star with the sword points. Have you seen that anywhere else before? Any of you?” I cast my gaze to include the other two shadowkind.

  Snap shook his head, a slight crease forming on his brow. Of course, from the way he responded to most things in the mortal realm, I didn’t figure he’d seen much of anything on this side of the divide before this recent visit. Ruse contemplated the question for a few seconds longer before indicating no as well.

  “I can’t remember a time,” Thorn said. “Why? Do you think it’s especially significant, m’lady? Have you come across it before?” As he studied my expression, his near-black eyes darkened even more.

  My chest tightened. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell them about that part of my life. I’d never gone into much detail with Vivi and the rest of the Fund members, even though they were the ones I’d run to—the ones Auntie Luna had told me to run to—after I’d lost her. My shadowkind guardian and I had kept so many secrets for so long, it was hard to break the habit.

  But while I could hardly call these three friends, and they were by at least some definitions of the word monsters, they’d shared everything they could about their own catastrophe with me. I’d seen them at their most vulnerable, pinned by spotlights in giant cages. It wasn’t as if sharing the story could hurt me other than the pain that came with remembering those times.

  What I did know wasn’t going to help us all that much on its own, though. Before I started making inquiries farther abroad, I should see if I could dredge up anything else from the past that might guide that search.

  “I think so,” I said. “Just once, a long time ago. But all I can tell you for sure about the people who had it is that they came after a higher shadowkind just like your bunch did. I don’t know why or even what they meant to do with her. But maybe…”

  I glanced at Snap. Ever since I’d seen his talent in action, the thought of other ways he might put it to use had been niggling at me. “Would you be okay with testing a few things I have here with your power and seeing what you can pick up from them?”

  He brightened at the suggestion. “Of course,” he said. I could see now how carefully he spoke so that his forked tongue barely showed. One of the first things all higher shadowkind seemed to learn was how to disguise their true nature among mortals. “What would you like me to examine?”

  “I’ll get the things. Why don’t you sit down in the living room?” It’d be less cramped than my bedroom, especially since the other two would want to observe.

  He tipped his head in agreement, his golden curls jostling against each other, and all but bounded through the doorway. You’d have thought I’d offered him a year’s supply of ripe bananas, not asked to put him to work.

  I ducked into my bedroom to dig into the back of my closet shelf. From what the trio had indicated, Snap’s ability mainly picked up the most recent impressions. For there to be any real chance of him gleaning something about Luna’s life, I’d need to give him objects I hadn’t handled much in the past eleven years. I grabbed an Amazon delivery box I hadn’t gotten around to tossing yet and plucked up a pair of sparkly sneakers and a purple scrunchie to set inside so that I didn’t have to touch them too much now as I carried them over.

  My attention stalled on a small, pearly box tucked in the corner of the shelf. There wasn’t any practical reason to have Snap test that…

  I wavered, a lump rising in my throat. Then, not letting myself second-guess the impulse, I wedged it into one of the hip pockets on my cargo pants. If I changed my mind in the moment, I didn’t have to take it out at all.

  In the living room, Snap had sat down on the plaid sofa, giving off definite eager puppy vibes. Ruse dropped into the not-at-all-matching polka-dot armchair that stood kitty-corner to the sofa; Thorn leaned against the wall by the doorway with his arms crossed. I set my box down on the wobbly coffee table in front of Snap and turned to the CD rack next to my little TV. I was pretty sure that at least one of these…

  Ah ha, that one would be perfect. I slid the case out, touching as little of its surface as possible, and added it to the box.

  “It doesn’t matter what order you go in,” I said. “Just see if you can pick up anything about someone who used them other than me. There might not be anything, but… it seems worth a try.”

  Snap set his godly face with such determination that his gorgeousness made my pulse flutter despite my nerves. “I’ll do my best.” He picked up the scrunchie first, giving it a curious look before raising it closer to his mouth.

  Luna’s devotion to ‘80s culture had included not just music but all forms of art and fashion. I’d rarely seen her without her light auburn waves pulled high in one of those contraptions. The purple one had been mixed up in my emergency-bag clothes—I’d only found it days after I’d fled. I didn’t know how often she’d worn that one, but I’d never used it.

  Snap’s tongue flicked from his lips, and his moss-green eyes hazed. I stood beside the coffee table, trying to keep a relaxed stance, but my shoulders kept stiffening despite my best efforts.

  I’d told him to look for impressions that didn’t involve me, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t still pick those up. When I’d pulled the thing out of my bag eleven years ago and realized what it was, I’d bawled for a good half hour.

  The chance of him seeing that was worth the embarrassment if he also sensed anything that might tell us who’d been after my guardian—and what they’d meant to do to her.

  Snap drew in a breath and paused. The corners of his mouth tightened. He shifted the scrunchie in his grasp and tasted its energies again. A restless itch crept under my skin.

  Then his eyes widened. His voice came out as dreamy as it had at the bridge. “A shadowkind wore this. Yellowish-orange hair. A light sort of energy—she was fae. She fixed a flower into her hair with this once: an iris. Purple goes with purple—I can coordinate at least that well.”

  His voice wasn’t at all like Luna’s high soprano, but he hit the melodic cadence just right. A shiver ran down my back, equal parts thrilled and pained. I hadn’t expected to be offered an echo of the past quite that potent. What I wouldn’t have given to really hear her voice—to have her still with me. What would she think of the woman I’d finished growing into?

  Thorn stirred, his jaw flexing as if he wanted to say something, but he held himself in check while the other shadowkind continued his inspection. Finally, Snap set the scrunchie back down. When he looked at me, I saw more than just an apology in his gaze.

  The lump in my throat came back. Everything else he’d gleaned must have had to do with me. Not surprising after all that time.

  He might have been clueless about a lot of mortal things, but he was shrewd enough—and kind enough—to keep whatever private moments he’d uncovered to himself, no acknowledgment other than that hint of sympathetic sorrow. “I couldn’t find anything else from her,” he said. “She’s the one you were hoping I’d reach?”

  I nodded, not totally trusting my voice to stay steady. Thorn cleared his throat imperiously before Snap could reach for the next item. “Who was this fae? Do you believe she was captured by the same group that took Omen?”

  I inhaled slowly, making sure I had a grip on myself, before I met his demanding gaze. Stick to the facts, keep it short, and there was no need to get emotional about it. All of this was more than a decade past anyway.

  “My parents died when I was three,” I said. “They were involved in the same kinds of activities the Fund is—helping the shadowkind. One of those was a fae woman named Luna. I don’t remember much from back then, but I know they stayed close friends with her. She came by the house a lot, played with me… She was with me w
hen my parents were attacked, and she got me away from there.”

  That day had become reduced to a few fragments in my memories: chasing fireflies in the backyard, their glow and the beat of their wings against my hands, a scream carrying through the back door, my mother’s ragged voice crying, “Luna, go!” Luna’s skinny arms around me as she’d leapt up with supernatural speed to carry me over the fence and away.

  “Luna didn’t like to talk about what happened, but from what I gathered, some hunters found out that my parents had interfered with their business and came after them in revenge. After that, she raised me. We moved around a lot because she was always nervous, but no one bothered us for a long time… When I was sixteen, she somehow knew people were coming—we grabbed the things we had packed to run for it—but they’d already reached the house.”

  “They captured her as they did Omen,” Thorn filled in.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what they were planning. At the time, I thought they were trying to kill her for being a shadowkind passing as human. They came at her with those whips of light like you said, and one of them had the star symbol on his clothing… They’d almost managed to bind her up when she must have decided she’d rather die on her own terms than theirs—and distract them so I’d have more chance to escape.”

  That knowledge came with a pang of guilt. I swallowed hard and managed to go on. “With her magic… She burst apart, like a firework.”

  It had been stunningly beautiful and horrifying at the same moment. I’d been so stunned myself that I’d frozen in place. Thankfully Luna’s last act had also literally stunned her attackers, who’d stumbled around dazed for long enough that I’d remembered I needed to get the hell out of there if I’d wanted her sacrifice to mean anything at all.

  “Maybe they were only going to capture her, though,” I added. “If they were the same people who ambushed your boss. Hell, if they’ve been up to some kind of larger scale illicit dealings for even longer, it could have been their operations my parents disrupted—they could be the ones who murdered them too.”