Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3)

by S. H. Kolee

  It would be so easy to just let go, but I resisted. I could feel my body trembling but I felt disconnected from the physical part of me. Even when my body started to shake uncontrollably and levitated almost a foot off the ground, I watched it happen as if I were an outside observer instead of the one experiencing it. I gathered all the energy I had left and tried to use it to push my father out, but it barely made an impact on the force invading my body.

  I was fading rapidly and panic gripped me. My father was winning. He would become unstoppable with the palladium and iridium disk and I was the one who had handed it to him.

  Fury and desperation drove me to try again and I funneled together every essence of my being that was left. It was nothing but a flicker of energy, but suddenly that flicker exploded into a fiery ball of power that burned brighter and hotter than I had ever experienced. I wasted no time in slamming it against my father. My body abruptly fell back to the ground as his energy collapsed onto itself. My soul rapidly filled my body and I was barely able to see my father’s spirit burst into the air and then shatter like tiny shards of glass before I started to lose consciousness.

  The last thing I was aware of was a voice inside my head that sounded like Jenny.

  “I knew they would be listening,” she told me gleefully and then I blacked out.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I groggily opened my eyes only to find a gun pointed at me. I looked beyond Philip and his gun to see my father’s lifeless body on the ground. My attention turned back to Philip when he spoke.

  “You killed him!” He sounded like a plaintive child but the murderous look in his eyes told me that he was capable of far more dangerous behavior. Cecelia walked up next to him, no longer looking amused but furious.

  “Don’t think you’re safe just because he’s dead,” she spat out. Her look of fury was slowly replaced by a smile. “Actually, this works out perfectly. A seer should be in charge of this world, not a damned vardoger. You thought you were so smart to have your father use the palladium and iridium to destroy himself when he tried to overtake your body. Sure, it worked against him because he was a vardoger, but I’m not.” Her sinister smile grew wider. “I’m a seer and I think I’ll be able to wield its power.”

  “Shut up,” Philip spat out, glowering at Cecelia. “You’re not in charge of anything. This world is for vardogers, not seers. We’re only using you because you’re useful.”

  Cecelia laughed at Philip and I could see his rage growing. “You’re just a lackey; a follower. You did everything your leader told you because you can’t think for yourself. I was like that once, but never again. I’m the leader now and you’ll follow my orders.”

  The look of surprise on Cecelia’s face when Philip turned the gun on her and shot her in the chest would have been almost comical if it wasn’t so gruesome. She fell to the ground and Philip turned the gun back to me.

  “You’re next,” he said but before he could shoot, Simon crashed into him and they both fell to the ground. I heard grunts and the sound of flesh hitting against flesh. I tried to stand, to get up to help Simon, but my body felt like it was boneless. I was so weak that I could barely lift my head to see Simon slamming Philip’s head into the ground. I looked away when I saw Simon grab the gun. Despite my hatred for Philip, I didn’t want to see another death and the crack of the gunshot was enough to tell me that he was dead.

  Before I knew it, Simon was crouching over me. I winced when I saw his neck. It was badly abraded, the skin almost shredded where the rope had cut into him and blood was dripping from his wounds. But seeing him leaning over me, bloody yet alive, was a beautiful sight.

  “Caitlin.” His one word was strained and I imagined that it must be excruciating for him to speak.

  “I’m okay,” I rasped. “Help me up.”

  He grabbed my arm to support me as I started to prop myself up. His hand gently touched my face but his expression was pained. “What the hell happened to you? Who hurt you?”

  I had forgotten how bloody I was from Ryan’s earlier attack, but I didn’t want to get into it now. I just shook my head and said, “I’ll tell you later.”

  My gaze went to my mother who was still tied to the barn wall. Her eyes were closed as if she couldn’t take the brutal scene. I didn’t blame her. Four bloody bodies littered the floor and only the desolate location of the barn saved us from having the police breaking down the door. The two nameless seers were gone. They had probably run off the first chance they got, since their cooperation seemed to have been coerced.

  I struggled to stand, grateful for Simon’s support. It was amazing how strong he still was despite what he had been through. Questions of how he escaped the noose ran through my mind, but first I had to free my mother.

  “Easy,” he warned as he helped me walk. I doubted I would have been able to make it across the barn by myself in my weakened state.

  My mother’s eyes opened when she heard us approach. The glazed look of fear transformed into relief when she saw me. Simon gently helped me down so I was kneeling next to her before he started working on untying the rope around her wrists.

  “Caitlin,” she whispered as her eyes studied my face.

  “Mom?” My voice was unsteady. I never thought I would ever say that word out loud to another human being. I thought my opportunity to call someone my mother had been irrevocably lost when I was five years old. But here she was, alive and looking at me like she would never let me out of her sights again.

  When Simon was able to finally release her wrists, I tentatively moved toward her. I wanted to hug her, to feel for myself that she was real, but I didn’t want to scare her. She had been through unimaginable torture for so many years and I didn’t know if she would welcome my touch. My question was answered when she embraced me in a fierce hug, her arms strong around me even though I knew she must be incredibly weak.

  “I never gave up,” she whispered. “I always knew I would see you again. It’s what kept me alive all these years.”

  I couldn’t stop the tears from coming and for the first time in my memory, my mother held me while I cried. It was the most beautiful moment of my life.

  *************************

  We got out of there as quickly as we could, but not before Simon made quick work of cleaning the scene of our prints. I was amazed that even with everything that had happened to him, Simon was always thinking ahead.

  It was hard to leave Ryan’s body behind, but I knew I had no choice. We were hoping that the police would think it was a disagreement turned deadly and that they wouldn’t look beyond the four bodies lying in the barn.

  We were forced to leave Ryan’s car behind since we didn’t want any questions of it being found elsewhere, although we made sure to clear it of our belongings, as well as our prints. It was a long walk in the cold, especially since none of us were in the best condition.

  It took two hours but we finally reached a gas station, and by that time we were frozen solid. Simon had lost his cell phone during his ordeal and my battery was dead, so we were grateful to use the payphone. He called a cab and we waited inside the small store for it to arrive. My mother didn’t say much throughout all of this, but she would periodically take my hand and squeeze it as if she had to reassure herself that I was really there.

  We took the cab to the nearest motel since we had nowhere else to go. I was just grateful that we had money; otherwise I didn’t know where we would have gone. I called Sarah to let her know what had happened, although I didn’t go into detail. She was silent for a few moments after I was finished, and then burst into tears and begged me to come back to Rochester immediately. I told her I would call her the next day but that, for now, Maxwell was on the backburner.

  We spent the next few days recovering at the motel. We stayed in one room with two beds without having to discuss it. I think we were all scared to have each other out of our sights.

  Simon explained how he was finally able to wriggle free from the rope t
ied around his wrists. He had lifted himself out of the noose just in time to stop Philip from shooting me.

  Simon was enraged when I finally revealed the truth about Ryan. I think a part of him regretted that he hadn’t been the one to end his life. I reminded him that in the end, Ryan had sacrificed himself for us, but that didn’t placate Simon in the least.

  I explained how Cecelia had been able to see and hear everything I had experienced while under hypnosis. Neither of them laughed or doubted me when I told them about hearing Jenny’s voice before I lost consciousness. I knew that she had helped me defeat my father. Somehow she had known that Cecelia was able to hear everything and had tricked them into believing that my father could use the palladium and iridium disk to overtake humans and become immortal. Instead, the metals mixed together had worked against him and destroyed him when he had tried to push out my soul. I wondered if the other things she had said were true; that it could be used to kill even the strongest vardogers and that it could also free humans that were trapped in bodies along with their vardogers by expelling the shadow without hurting the human’s soul. I kept the metal disk close to me because I was determined to find out the answer in the future.

  Simon pointed out that I hadn’t been wearing any iridium when I had resisted my father from overtaking me, but I didn’t know whether that had more to do with the mix of palladium and iridium destroying my father rather than my own powers. But the thought of me not needing iridium to use my powers was a heady thought, and it was hard to contain my excitement when I tried to funnel my energies without it and felt the familiar thrumming of power gathering. If my life was going to be dedicated to fighting vardogers, not having to worry about wearing iridium just made it easier. I doubted I would get many breaks in the future.

  My mother slowly opened up during those days. She didn’t want to talk in detail about what she had gone through all those years, but it was enough to know that she had suffered deeply. Yet, there was still warmth and humanity in her eyes and I vowed that I would never let her be hurt again.

  I told her about seeing her in my dreams and while under hypnosis because I was curious if she had really been sending me messages. She told me that she had thought of me every day and prayed that I was okay, but she had no powers beyond motherly love and hadn’t sent any messages. Despite her words, I was beginning to realize how powerful maternal love could be, and I couldn’t completely dismiss that it had been her thoughts that had reached me.

  I questioned her about the palladium coin that I had found at the scene of her supposed accident. She confirmed that the car crash on the bridge had actually happened with a helping hand from my father. She told me that the coin had been given to her by Aunt Brenda. She didn’t believe that my aunt knew anything about the powers of palladium because she had found it during one of her many frequent scours through antique stores and had given it to my mother simply as a pretty necklace for one of her birthdays. Whether she knew anything about the powers of palladium or not, it was another instance of my aunt helping me and I thanked her silently, convinced that she would hear me.

  The police ended up calling me although I wasn’t sure how they had gotten my cell number. They were appropriately somber when they told me my father had been murdered in some kind of scuffle that had gotten out of control. I was relieved that they didn’t seem to suspect anything beyond that. There were too many strings that tied me to the situation. I not only was connected by my father, but Ryan had been staying with me at Maxwell. The police in Rochester knew that since we had been questioned in Jenny’s death. I doubted that they had to dig deep to find out that Cecelia had been a friend of my aunt’s. I just prayed that they shut the case without following the strings that led to me. I declined going to the morgue to identify his body, explaining that we were estranged. While they sounded surprised, they accepted it without question. They told me they would be in touch if they needed me.

  I was in constant contact with Sarah to reassure her I was okay. Simon called his family and pretended that everything was fine and that he was still in school. I felt guilty that he had to lie to his family but there really wasn’t much of an alternative.

  Days turned into weeks and we began to realize that we couldn’t stay holed up in the motel forever. We needed to continue on with our lives, whatever that meant. It was daunting to step out into the real world but I was ready to face my future and whatever it brought.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Morning,” Simon said as he turned off the alarm clock. “Time to wake up.”

  I groaned as I burrowed my head under the covers. Morning had come too quickly and the last thing I wanted to do was go to class.

  My sleepiness vanished when I felt Simon’s hand moving beneath my shirt and stroking my stomach. I was wide awake when I felt his hand move higher until he was caressing my breast and teasing me with his fingers.

  I pulled my head from out of the covers. “I’m awake,” I said breathlessly as my body reacted to his touch.

  “Hmm, I can see that,” he teased as his fingers continued to arouse me. My breath caught in my throat when he lifted up my shirt and replaced his fingers with his mouth.

  “I’m going to be late for class,” I protested weakly, but that didn’t stop me from arching my back to encourage him. He didn’t need much encouragement and soon there was nothing between us except the heat of our feverish bodies as we explored each other with our hands and mouths.

  I never felt more complete as when he was deep inside me and I pushed against him impatiently, wanting it harder and faster. He complied and soon we were nothing but a tangle of arms and legs as we strained together, our bodies sweaty as we gasped and moaned until we exploded together.

  “Now I’m really going to be late for class,” I grumbled after I had caught my breath. Simon was partly lying on top of me and he just grinned and kissed me thoroughly until I was breathless again.

  “Some things are worth being late for.”

  “Sure, sure,” I groused but I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face. It was tempting to lie in bed all day with Simon but I forced myself to sit up. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  He leaned over and kissed my hip, an action that had my body tingling all over again. “Any visions last night?”

  I nodded. “The same one as before.” I had been having a vision of a girl being smothered to death and as jarring as it was, I was getting more and more used to my visions. It helped that it was a means to an end. I needed the visions to stop vardogers from overtaking humans.

  I thought about how much life had changed in the past few months as the hot water sluiced down my body in the shower. I was back at Maxwell and the semester was almost over. Simon and I ended up having to do a lot of make-up work to catch up on but the school administration had been sympathetic since my father had died, and I had explained how Simon had taken time off to help me through it. Fortunately, nothing more had come out of the grisly scene at the barn in Connecticut and the case had been closed.

  My aunt’s house ended up going to my grandmother. I had been too preoccupied with everything going on to remember that my aunt had told me her mother was still living. It turns out that she had been another victim of my father and had been held hostage by vardogers under his orders. I felt guilty that I had never tried to find her but she reassured me that she hadn’t been physically harmed. Emotionally, she was trying to come to terms with so much. Not only did her daughter and son both die, but she learned that her son hadn’t been the person she had thought he was for a long time. I knew it would take her a while to come to peace with what had happened, but she welcomed my mother with open arms. My mother was now living with her in my aunt’s house and I visited them frequently. I think they were helping each other heal and I was relieved that my mother wasn’t left alone while I finished school. Otherwise, I would have ended up moving her into my apartment.

  Marcus was still mourning the loss of Jenny, as all of us
were. I was relieved that the rumors about my involvement in her death had died down and Marcus, along with Jenny’s family, had scoffed at the mere suggestion of it. I wished that I could tell Marcus what had really happened, about how she had saved my life before crossing to the other side. She had been pivotal in helping me defeat my father and I wanted everyone, especially Marcus, to know how brave and amazing she had been. But it was better that he didn’t know. It would be too much for him to handle, and even without me telling him the truth, he already knew how brave and amazing she had been.

  Sarah and Grant had cautiously accepted Simon although I knew Grant still had problems thinking of Simon as his cousin. I just hoped with time they would realize that Simon was as human as the rest of us.

  Marie had contacted me and I was relieved she was okay. She had been incredulous when I told her about Ryan, and her incredulity quickly turned into anger. But I explained to her how he had sacrificed himself when it had mattered and she was able to make peace with everything that had happened. We promised to keep in touch, although I wasn’t sure if that would actually happen.

  Ryan’s death was bittersweet. I could never forget his betrayal but he had lost his life trying to protect my mother. I had a feeling that he had done it for me, to show me that he cared, and I felt the loss of his camaraderie and guidance as a seer. My feelings for him had gotten muddled in the process, but I knew it was nothing compared to what I felt for Simon. It had more to do with the circumstances we found ourselves in and the closeness we were forced into because of the situation, rather than real feelings. But Ryan had become a friend, and even with his duplicity, I chose to remember the good things about him. I still kept his mother’s iridium medallion he had given me in my jewelry box. It was a memory of someone who had helped me when I had needed it the most.