Shadow Play_A Dark Fantasy Novel

by Jill Ramsower

  I finally spoke. “I do, actually. Haven't you ever heard the term 'armed with information'? Just knowing for certain that these creatures are Faeries would be a great start.”

  “Fine, let’s get some answers. Yes, the draug is a Faerie, but the important question is, why was the draug after you, Rebecca? Is he even the first Fae you've seen? Those are not questions I can answer, but I bet you can.”

  My lips pressed together involuntarily, giving him the confirmation he needed, but just to be clear he added, “Now who’s keeping secrets?”

  I wasn’t ready to share with him my suspicions about the necklace so I redirected our conversation. “The draug called you 'hunter', what did he mean by that? Does that just have to do with the Huntsman or is there more to it?”

  He leaned forward considering me, resting his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers. He was quiet for so long, I was just about to get up and leave, thinking he wasn’t going to answer my question, when he spoke. “My organization keeps tabs on Fae activity. Ireland, and sometimes Scotland, happen to be the only places on earth with the ability to support portals from Faery and, while those portals should be closed, every now and then, one is opened and something comes through. In this case, the draug is an exceptionally dangerous Faery and cannot be allowed to roam free. We'll hunt him down, that is what we do, we are hunters.” His eyes scanned my face, gauging my reaction.

  “Are you guys part of some kind of secret border patrol agency? Do you work for the government?”

  I had a bad habit of asking more than one question at once. My mom used to chastise me to slow down and let a person answer before I peppered them with another question, but when I was emotional it was hard to remember.

  “We have ties to the government, but we're an independently run organization, and that's as much as I'm willing to tell you about us.” His brow arched in warning with his last statement.

  “It seems odd to have a law enforcement agency running a bar.”

  “Normally things are quiet, the club affords a level of entertainment. Plus, the Fae are drawn to human emotion and sexual energy—a gathering of drunk, horny humans is the perfect environment for keeping a pulse on Fae activity.”

  “What do you mean they're drawn to human emotion and sexual energy?”

  “They feed off it.”

  “What does that even mean? Like when little kids get hyper and feed of each other, make each other even more hyper?”

  “No. It’s a complicated answer—there are all kinds of Fae and each has different interests and tastes. They absorb energy from the emotions, it fuels the magic.”

  “If they feed off of sexual energy, does that mean they have sex with humans to feed off of them?”

  His eyes flashed and he was suddenly eerily still. “Some do, yes.”

  An image of the vampire woman’s beautiful projection came to mind. “Is it consensual? Does it hurt the humans?”

  “Just like human sex, there are times it's consensual, and it can be quite pleasurable for everyone involved, but there are also times that it isn’t. You seem awfully interested in Fae sex—thinking of branching out?”

  “I just want to know what the dangers are. I've seen how strong the Fae are and how savage they can be, but if there's also a danger of them trying to feed off of me, I'd like to know in advance.”

  “Such a naïve little girl.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?"

  “You can't even see through Ronan's games, let alone defend yourself against those Fae that would use their powers to seduce you.”

  His words were unsettling. How was I supposed to defend myself against magic?

  “Why do you seem to hate Ronan so much?”

  He slowly rose to his feet and with his palms on the desk, he leaned toward me with a sneer on his face, eyes blazing. “How I feel about Ronan is none of your business. I've known him for longer than you could imagine, seen the depravity he’s capable of. I've warned you once about him and I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, if you fall for his bullshit, that's not my problem.”

  “If you feel that way, why do you still work with him?”

  He stood to his full height and peered down at me. “It's my turn to ask questions. Have you ever seen any Fae before coming to Ireland?”

  “Not that I remember. I’m not sure if I ever came across any or if I’m just now able to see them.”

  His chin dropped in acknowledgement. “Aside from the draug, what else have you seen?”

  “The first thing was this little greenish man on my kitchen table collecting crumbs.”

  “Sounds like a brownie, harmless, and although they are not technically supposed to be here, they are not necessarily uncommon. Is there more?”

  I dove into explaining my incident with the vampire creature. Just thinking about her made me want to crawl into bed and never come out. I wrapped my arms around myself protectively as I spoke.

  “You encountered her out on the street, by yourself?”

  “Well, there were other people farther down the ends of the street, but where we were, it was just us.”

  “You observed her openly, and she made no attempt to harm you?” His eyes narrowed.

  “I told you, I was standing against the wall and she didn't see me, maybe she was like a T-Rex and could only see movement—I have no idea.”

  “I seriously doubt that, Rebecca. What you are describing, that creature, is absolutely ruthless. Had she known that she was being watched, especially by someone as defenseless as yourself, you would have been dead in minutes. What aren't you telling me? Or do you even know?” His arms crossed in his interrogation pose and his insinuation had me rising to my feet in self-defense.

  “I don't know what you're implying. She. Didn't. See. Me. That's all there is to it.”

  The air once again charged with intensity as he came around the desk to stand before me. “Don’t get your hackles raised with me, I might push back,” he growled in my face.

  I threw my hands up the air, eyes skyward in a plea for patience. “I'm not keeping anything from you! I have no idea why she didn't kill me!” I yelled in his face.

  Before I knew what happened, he had grabbed my hands and spun me around, pulling my back to his chest with my hands held tightly between us. And then, as if everything wasn't weird enough, he smelled me. Not like a small, discrete sniff, but a full-blown scenting of my hair and neck. It was so unexpected and foreign but somehow also erotic and despite knowing I should have been appalled, my breath hitched and then released on a ragged sigh. He paused before swinging me back around to face him.

  His voice was coarse when he spoke. “Well then, Rebecca, let me know when you figure it out.” His hands released me and our eyes locked in a silent battle.

  I gathered the small amount of self-control and dignity that I had left and walked away.

  After stress eating enough carbs to feed a small African village, I called my mom about the necklace. My mom’s cheery voice answered after several rings.

  “Hey Momma, what are you up to?”

  “Hey Bec! We had the most amazing moon rise the other night—it was a harvest moon, and a blue moon, AND a blood moon all at the same time. I just had to paint it so I'm neck deep in oils.”

  The skies in West Texas are one of its best features—you will never, not ever, see sunrises or sunsets as amazing as you can out there. Some people hate the flat ground and lack of trees, but it just means more horizon. Unobstructed views and only a handful of cloudy days means you can start and close almost every day with a unique masterpiece in the sky. Same goes for the moon and stars when the skies are clear. Way down on the horizon when a big fat harvest moon rises, you feel like it's so close you could reach out and touch it.

  “That's awesome Mom, I can't wait to see it when you're done. You guys doing okay? How's Dad?”

  “It's all good here. He's still buried in his latest mystery, you know how he gets. I make him come up for air and maybe
a sandwich every few hours.”

  “That sounds about right.” I had to laugh a bit. That was my dad in a nutshell, and it was reassuring to talk to Mom and hear that at least things back home were normal. Some things never changed, and I hoped they never did. “Hey Mom, you know my necklace?”

  “You mean the only one you've ever worn?” Her question was dripping with sarcasm.

  “You make it sound like I refused to take it off.”

  “Honey, I did try but you would have none of it.”

  “You tried to get me to take it off? When? Why?”

  “One question at a time, remember? Not for a long time now, but when you were younger. One time I remember you receiving another necklace as a gift, can't remember from who, but I tried to get you to wear it. No way, no how, you were not taking yours off for any reason whatsoever. After a couple times dealing with the fit you threw, I let it go, it wasn't worth fighting over.”

  “Really,” I said exhaling, more a statement of surprise rather than a question. “I don’t remember that at all. I was just thinking about the necklace lately and was wondering where I got it, I was hoping you remembered.”

  She made a humming noise while she dug into her memory banks. “It's been so long—I know it was on one of our trips, but I can't honestly say which one, I'm sorry.”

  “It's not a big deal, Mom, just curious.”

  “Okay baby, you all settled in? You just let us know when we should visit, and I'll start making plans.”

  “Sounds good, Momma. I'm still getting situated but I'll let you know,” I said, smiling.

  “All right sweetie, I'll talk to you soon, love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  I hadn't learned much, but at least I got a little peace of mind knowing that my parents were safe and happy back home.

  I texted Ashley to check in but got no response, and I assumed she was still asleep, which was how I ended up sitting at my computer that evening searching for more answers. I planned to scour the internet to see what I could dig up on the stone that was in my necklace, or even possibly the necklace itself. I figured the majority of information that I would find about magic jewelry would be Dungeons and Dragons type lore that wouldn't mean crap for me, but somewhere out there might be a nugget of truth. I had no idea how I was going to identify that nugget, but I certainly wouldn't find it if I didn't even try. My second objective was looking up ‘draug’ and all things Fae. I was going to stick to what I knew, rather than falling down a rabbit hole chasing random possibilities.

  Starting with my necklace, I used a hand mirror to examine the pendant. I wanted to see if there were any defining characteristics I might have overlooked that would help me research the piece. The chain was thin but not overly delicate—I had always assumed it was silver, but it never tarnished so perhaps it was white gold or platinum. The stone itself was dark, but not quite black, more of a smoky grey and uniform in color. It was opaque, no shimmer or sparkle, and cut into a flat, rounded shape. The surface was smooth but on the back there was a small carving that I had almost forgotten about. As a child, I used to rub my thumb up and down across the indentations of the carving as a source of comfort. Similar to rubbing a blanket or favorite toy, it was a method of self-soothing that I had used when I was upset.

  I had assumed that the mark had been made by the artist as a type of signature on his work. Now that I was analyzing the necklace, I realized that it was odd that after all these years the carving didn't seem the least bit worn down and could still be clearly seen. It consisted of three crescent moons back-to-back with a solid circle in the middle between them. There were also three Celtic-looking shaft designs protruding outward between each moon.

  Turning back to my computer, I began to search for black stones with carvings. This brought up a number of the findings for Indian and Asian sculptures out of an unnamed black stone. Needing to go a little smaller, I specified carved black stone necklace, which brought up a ton of images of carved obsidian. The obsidian was solid black and shiny, unlike the flat charcoal of my pendant, but I made a mental note in case I needed to go back to it.

  Changing up my search again, I tried antique carved black stone. Even though the necklace had been new to me, there was a possibility that it was much older than I realized. An image came up of a stone pendant made of black jade with a dragon carved into it and I inched closer in my seat with anticipation; however, both the jade used, and dragon design indicated an Asian origin, but again, it was worth noting.

  Deciding to take another tack, I entered black stones used for carving jewelry and I scanned through the results. Down toward the bottom of the page was a Wikipedia entry for Jet(Lignite) that had some promise. It had been used since the Neolithic period, so that would make it plenty old, and it had been found in the Anglo-Saxon area including a 'massive resurgence during the Victorian Era'. The stones pictured were slightly darker than my stone, but otherwise very similar and I figured every individual specimen was going to be different, so the coloring might not be critical. I spent another half hour or so learning about the stone but wasn't able to find anything about a specific necklace or amulet that sounded similar to the one I wore.

  Feeling like I was making decent progress, I began to research draug and the Fae. Of course, there was so much information and I had no way to verify what parts might be accurate and what was complete fabrication. The draug was linked to Norse mythology and sounded like a kind of zombie creature that had a thing for treasure, which would explain his need to have my necklace. They were noted for rising from graves as wisps of smoke and having super strength—both of those facts were consistent with what I had witnessed. However, I also read that they stank badly, and I hadn’t noticed any particular stench. None of the articles tied the draug to the Fae, but otherwise the descriptions seemed consistent.

  Turning to the Fae, the name alone had a variety of spellings and the etymology was diverse. I noted all the historical references, associated charms and legends before I got to a section on the 'Tuatha De Dannan' and the 'Aos sí,' which I took particular interest in as they were both legends of Faeries originating from Ireland. I wasn't sure how much of the legends pertaining to each were true, but surely some of the stories had been founded in truth. After a while, I started to feel like a dog chasing its tail. I gave up researching the Fae and attempted to see what I could learn about Lochlan and the Huntsman.

  At first, all that came up were the same pictures of the club and articles I had seen previously. But when I entered 'Huntsman Fae', what came up made my palms tingle and my heart race in my chest. The first thing I saw was the Wild Huntsman Legends—the Wild Hunt—why hadn't it occurred to me before? I felt like an idiot. It wasn't like I hadn't read books about Fae and heard the legends. I wasn't nearly as well versed as Ashley, but studied at a liberal arts school, I'd read a handful of books about the Fae, including a Midsummer Night’s Dream which I had studied extensively. I was generally familiar with fairytales and legends, but I had never entertained the possibility that they had any truth to them, therefore I hadn't put the two together.

  I wondered what other mythological people and creatures that I had dismissed as fiction were out there walking around in plain sight. Trying to recall legends about the Hunt and its members, a burning question sat in the forefront of my mind—did that mean Lochlan and Ronan were Fae? I lowered my head into my hands.

  Of course they were, Rebecca, how naïve can you be?

  What was it Lochlan had said? We have ties to the government.

  I had assumed he meant our human government, but now I doubted that was his intent. Just like in the myths, apparently the Fae were master manipulators and I was going to have to listen very carefully from now on.

  They were all Fae, and our interests were not aligned. As soon as Ash headed back to the States, I’d be alone, a sheep among wolves. Granted, I was a sheep with a magic necklace, and as sheep go, that put me a step above the rest. But I was still a sheep, no
netheless.

  The deeper I dug into this new world, the more entrenched I became and I was convinced that I had a purpose here. There was a reason for it all, I just had no clue what it was yet.

  10

  By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I didn't want Ashley to have to be alone in the hospital so I got ready to make another visit. She had not responded to my text earlier, so before I left, I tried one more time.

  Me: Hey honey, I'm about to head your way

  Ash: Really not necessary, just got meds

  Me: I don't want u to have to stay the night alone there

  Ash: Not so bad, hot doctor that stops in, trying not to drool

  Ash: Literally

  Me: Nice! I don't mind, I swear

  Ash: Nah. They said I can go in the morning, just come get me then

  Me: If you're sure

  Ash: Def

  Me: K, I'll be there first thing

  Ash: ??

  The next morning, I took a cab to the hospital and retrieved Ashley. She was instructed to get with a doctor back home to monitor her recovery and remove the cast, but for now there was nothing to be done besides rest and heal. We went back to the apartment and settled in for a day of movies. Between Ashley's pain meds and the overwhelming events of the prior forty-eight hours, we were both ready to lose ourselves in a mindless distraction.

  “Before we start watching anything, Bec, please tell me you reconsidered and will come home with me next week.”

  “No, Ash, nothing has changed. If anything, I just feel more compelled to get answers.”

  Her head fell back onto the couch and she sighed. “All right, I know how stubborn you can be. I just wanted to make sure.”

  Earlier in the morning I had started to debate whether I should tell her all of what I had learned. I wanted her to understand why I felt the way I did, but I also figured the less she knew, the safer she would be. I hated seeing my friend hurt, and while I couldn't seem to escape this shit show, she certainly didn't have to be dragged into it. Selfishly, my desire to have her understand where I was coming from won out and I explained what I had learned.