A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One

by Sheehan, Bilinda

  Chapter 18

  Hurrying down the street, I contemplated calling Graham. What little I had learned about the case I could share with him; despite what he had done and the anger I’d felt at the time, he could help me.

  The only problem was that we were both off the case.

  Officially, of course, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t do my own out-of-hours legwork.

  Scooping my cell phone from my pocket, I stared down at the screen. It would be so easy to call him, to let him apologise and to accept it.

  He’d endangered me; there was a limit to my abilities and the last time I’d allowed myself to become completely burned out, I’d very nearly lost my own life.

  It would have been easier if the magic had taken me. It certainly would have been easier to deal with—well, there wouldn’t have been any dealing. I’d have been dead.

  Pausing across the street from Elite, I stared up at the building and swallowed back the bitter memories that fought to surface. The last thing I needed to do right now was let my masquerade slip because I was too emotional.

  The tight rein I had on my emotions needed to remain very firmly in place.

  Shoving the cell back into my pocket I crossed the street and pulled open the front door.

  The offices were quiet and very empty.

  Glancing down at my watch, I swore silently. The offices were quiet because there was no one here; they had all gone home, the thing I should have done as soon as I finished with Madeline.

  The evening had closed in and cast odd shadows across the walls as I crept through the silent office towards my desk. Dropping down into the swivel chair, I flipped on the computer screen, the glow lighting up my workspace as I rifled through the files.

  The Sidwell case hadn’t been a random vampire attack, that I was now positive about. I’d been pretty certain before; what I had seen in the vision when I’d walked the scene had set off alarm bells in my head.

  The only problem was that what the Elite could do with their spell to help them walk the scene and what I could do with a vision, well, the difference between the two may as well have been chalk and cheese.

  I couldn’t very well come and say that the vampire had known Joanna by name. If I did that then they would know there was more to me than just rookie officer.

  However, I couldn’t ignore it either, and I needed to find something, anything, that might point me in the right direction.

  Typing “Sidwell” into the search bar only brought up the crime scene photos, not that I needed to see them again. The memory of Joanna and her family was seared into my brain.

  The blank look on Joshy’s face….

  Pushing aside the memory, I continued to search.

  Madeline had mentioned that the other person involved had a hold over the vampire that had murdered Joanna, but from everything I’d learned about vampires, nothing could control them.

  Not like that, anyway.

  A hand clamped down on my shoulder, making me jump, and I spun around on the chair.

  Jon stared down at me, his expression a mixture of irritation and something else I couldn’t place.

  “What are you doing here so late? I thought you went home hours ago,” he said, his eyes studying my face carefully.

  “I did. I came back; I’d forgotten to input my report properly,” I said, silently praying under my breath that it would be enough to make him go away.

  “I think perhaps we need to have a little chat,” he said, with a sigh.

  His hand fell away from my shoulder and he grabbed another chair from behind one of the empty desks next to mine.

  “Why did you join the Elite, Amber?”

  I stared at him. I’d been working here for months, wasn’t it a little late to be asking me those sorts of questions?

  “I want to make a difference, to help both the humans and the non-humans that need it.”

  He nodded thoughtfully and steepled his fingers up in front of his face. “And what do you think of them?”

  “Them?” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not sure I follow.”

  “Oh, you follow all right; you think they’re monsters, don’t you?”

  I shook my head again and dug my finger nails into the palm of my hand. “No, I don’t. When they commit crimes, when they murder each other and humans, then they’re monsters. But they’re no worse than humans who murder each other.”

  “Amber, I know what you really think of them; you don’t need to hide it from me. You and I, we’re more alike than you realise.”

  “Sir, I don’t think….”

  He placed his hand on my thigh, cutting my words off. He’d lost his mind, officially let all of his cheese slip off his cracker. This was the man who hated me, at every turn made my life as miserable as he possibly could, held me back from entering the field.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I said, my voice dropping several dangerous octaves.

  I’d had enough with people and things manhandling me today to last me a lifetime. If he thought I was going to let him put his hand on my leg and do nothing….

  “I’ve tried to protect you from them, but I know now that was wrong of me. I heard about what you did to Joanna Sidwell; I know you finished her off, that you’re capable of looking after yourself out there against them.”

  “Get. Your. Hand. Off. My. Leg.” I said, gritting the words out from between my teeth.

  “Don’t be coy, Amber. I’ve seen the way you watch me; I know you want to get out into the field more, I know you want to get back on this case, and….”

  I didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence. Grabbing his hand, I twisted it around, pushing him up and back, forcing his hand up higher, bending the bones in directions they weren’t made to move in. He went with me, the expression on his face flipping to one of pain as he struggled in my grip.

  “What are you doing, I….” He trailed off with a howl of pain as I jerked his hand up again, bending his fingers back on themselves.

  “I am nothing like you, and I have no interest in being blackmailed into getting back on a case.”

  “I thought….”

  “You thought wrong, Jon,” I said, taking a sliver of satisfaction from the expression on his face as I twisted his arm a little harder. “Now, this is going to go one of two ways: I can either twist your arm around until it snaps like a twig….”

  “Or?” he said, gritting his teeth.

  “Or you can you let me and Graham back on the case, no questions asked….”

  Jon nodded, the first couple of tears beginning to trail down over his cheeks.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that?” I said, tightening my grip.

  “Fine, you’re back on the case. I’ll inform Mo and Julian,” he said, his voice taking on a higher pitch.

  I released him suddenly and he collapsed backwards over the swivel chair he’d been sitting on. The urge to hop around the place and punch the air was almost overwhelming, but I held it inside.

  “You’ve made a huge mistake here, Amber,” Jon said, his beady-eyed gaze never leaving my face as he nursed his arm from his position on the floor.

  “I don’t think so,” I said, gathering up my stuff from the desk and stepping over his legs.

  “The other women knew their place, Amber; they knew when to bend. They knew that making friends was a far better plan than making enemies, and I promise you now, you have made an enemy of me.”

  His words made me sick to my stomach, not because he was threatening me and certainly not because he was declaring me his enemy. It was what he had insinuated about the other women on the Force.

  The Elite was made up predominantly of men, and it was very much a man’s world, there had never been any question about it. The other women on the Force always had to work twice as hard, be twice as tough, and twice as smart as their male counterparts. That was the world we lived in; not a fair one by any stretch of the imagination, but it worked in its own lopsided off-
kilter manner.

  But to think Jon had been using his position of authority to bribe the other women, that he had been using his authority to manipulate and coerce the other female rookies….

  It left a nasty taste in my mouth and it took all of my strength not to bend down and break his arm just for sharing the information with me.

  “I could have you kicked off the Elite for what you’ve shared with me,” I said, staring down into his pain-filled face.

  “Who the hell is going to believe you? You’re just a pretty face; I’ve been here the longest and I’m in charge of this division.”

  Turning on my heel, I made it as far as the door before he called out to me once more.

  “I’m going to make you wish you had taken my offer, Amber, and before I’m done with you, if you’re very lucky and beg very nicely, I might just take pity on you.”

  His words sent a flare of revulsion and anger ruffling over my skin.

  Who the hell did he think he was?

  Fine, the Elite was mostly a man’s world, and fine the majority of them seemed to have their ‘asshole-o-meters’ turned up high but Jon was in a whole league of his own.

  He was a dangerous creep and something needed to be done about him. I just needed time to come up with a suitable punishment.

  Chapter 19

  Standing outside Graham’s apartment, I stared up at the drab grey exterior. It looked more like a den for drug addicts or rogue preternaturals, and yet it was the address the Elite had on file for him.

  Starting across the street, I climbed the front steps that led up to the porch and peered at the grid of apartment numbers with tiny buzzer buttons next to them.

  Picking out number fifty-seven took longer than I’d wanted, but when I found it, I sat my thumb across the button.

  “What!” Graham’s gruff voice pierced through on the speaker and I released the buzzer.

  “Graham, it’s Amber. Can I come up?”

  “I thought you wanted nothing to do with me?” His voice was filled with suspicion and I could practically see him pushing his hand back through his hair.

  “I changed my mind. Let me in, all right?”

  There was silence and for a second I considered the possibility that he’d walked away. What if he didn’t want anything to do with me?

  He was a desperate man; he wanted his daughter home but that didn’t mean he would choose to work with me after the way I’d treated him. I’d been unnecessarily cruel, I hadn’t listened to what he had to say, and….

  The sound of the door clicking open made me jump.

  Pushing the door open, I paused in the entryway and stared around. The light was broken and, as the door swung shut behind me, the darkness crowded in around me once more.

  It was the perfect spot for something nasty to launch an attack, but as I tensed up, nothing moved in the dark. The elevator stood at the opposite end of the hall, but from the way its steel door was bent and half-shredded open, I figured it probably wasn’t working.

  “Stairs it is, then.”

  I took them two at a time; Graham’s apartment was on the fifth floor and the sooner I got up there, the sooner I would be out of the encroaching darkness.

  As I climbed the stairs, it reminded me of the darkness surrounding Madeline, the way it had crowded around her as though waiting for her to do something interesting.

  But wherever Madeline had built Sanctuary, the laws of magic were different from what could be achieved here. In the mortal realm, shadows didn’t have substance and they sure as hell didn’t have form. They were nothing but shadows and, by themselves, there was nothing to fear.

  A doubt niggled at the back of my mind and I picked up my pace, gripping the railing as I swung around the banister onto the fifth floor.

  Fifty-seven was at the end of the hall and right on the corner of the building. Graham’s door already stood open and I pushed through into the warm yellow light that had half-spilled out into the hall.

  Graham stood in the centre of the room, his gun drawn and aimed squarely at my chest for the second time that day.

  “Graham, seriously, put the gun away!” I said, raising my arms above my head, the irritation in my voice unmistakable.

  He lowered it slowly and eyed me carefully. “Just needed to be sure it was really you,” he said, his voice heavy with suspicion.

  “It’s definitely me, who the hell did you think it was?” I asked, kicking the door shut behind me.

  He shrugged and put the gun back in the weapon’s holster hanging from the back of a high-backed kitchen stool.

  “In this neighbourhood, it could have been anything. I’ve had mimics at the door before.”

  There was so much I didn’t know about him, so much I wanted to find out about him, but if I allowed myself, I’d ask him so many questions there wouldn’t be much time for anything else.

  “Mimics. That’s a new one….” I said instead, trying to keep a lid on my curiosity.

  “Demons,” he said, dropping down onto the couch.

  Glancing around the apartment, surprise had me suck in an audible breath. Graham glanced up at me and smiled but it was a weary one. And not at all like the man I’d come to know at work.

  “Not quite what you expected, eh?”

  There were pictures everywhere, many of them family photographs, happy memories of times gone by. But others were of places, almost like surveillance pictures.

  “How long have you been doing this?” I asked, moving slowly around the room, drinking in the details in the pictures.

  There was an entire wall dedicated to me and my gut twisted in response to some of the images. This was how he knew what I was…. He’d been following me, snapping pictures and keeping a record.

  “A few months. It was entirely by chance. I was taking an extra course at the Elite training grounds when I saw you. You’d lost your temper over something. I don’t know what, but I saw it…. The spark of your magic, along the edges of your fingers…. You fought so hard to control it. You’ve gotten better.”

  “Why would you do this? If anyone sees this….” I cut off, the hurt and anger in my voice wrapping around each of my words.

  I wanted to hit something, to let go of the careful control I’d developed over my power, but I didn’t.

  Swallowing it back down, I turned to face him once more and all of the anger I’d felt washed away.

  Graham sat on one of the kitchen stools, his face buried in his hands, and I could see his shoulders as they heaved up and down.

  He was crying, actually crying….

  “I thought you could help me. I thought if I couldn’t convince you to help me find her, then I could blackmail you, but….” He trailed off, his voice lost beneath the emotion that swamped him.

  He was a broken man. The loss of his daughter had very obviously ripped his life apart. How could I hold this against him? All he wanted was my help and, well, I knew I wasn’t particularly easy to convince of anything.

  “Graham, I….” What was I supposed to say to him?

  My secret was important to me; my life depended on it, but I couldn’t blame him for what he had done. Desperate people went to desperate lengths to get what they wanted.

  What wasn’t I willing to do to catch the one who had murdered my father?

  “I know, and you’re right. I’ll burn everything, I promise you….”

  “I’ll help you,” I said, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

  The vision I’d gotten from Jessica’s silver cross was still fresh in my mind. There was no denying what I’d seen, what I’d felt, and I wasn’t altogether convinced that she was still alive anymore.

  The way the cross had burned my hand….

  It was normally an indication. The connection I forged with the victim was a powerful one, and the connection with Jessica had been a fleeting one. Disjointed and filled with fragments….

  What I was supposed to make out of it, well, I had no clue. But it didn�
�t mean I couldn’t help Graham get some closure over his daughter and what had happened to her.

  “What?” he said, spinning around on the stool to face me. There was a look of pure shock and disbelief on his face. “You mean it? You’ll help me?”

  “I can’t promise anything. The vision I had….” I trailed off and Graham swallowed hard, but it didn’t dampen the look of happiness that flooded into his gaze. “I’ll help you find closure; we’ll find out what happened to her.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  His question caught me off guard. Why was I doing it? I could just as easily have stormed out of there, cut him off from the case, and refused to have anything to do with him.

  But unlike Jon, Graham was one of the good guys. Granted, his actions didn’t paint him in that light, but I was willing to overlook them as the actions of a father who would do anything to protect his child. There was no way I could hold that against him.

  “Because I want something in return,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

  “Right….” The suspicion I’d heard in his voice earlier was back.

  “I want you to help me with something. I want you to help me find something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Well it’s more of an ‘it’, really. It murdered my father and I want to find it.”

  Graham had the good grace to look shocked before his expression clouded over with sympathy. “I didn’t know that,” he said.

  “No, it’s not something that would come up in your surveillance of me. I’m not exactly from around here.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Ireland.”

  Graham’s mouth dropped open and I couldn’t help but smile. He knew the implications of what I was saying. As a member of the Elite, he knew what it meant to be from that country, and the suspicion it would have raised had I admitted to the truth.

  “How did you hide that one?” he asked, the shock registering in his voice.

  “My mother had some good friends who swapped over my passports, sorted out my necessary papers…. Plus, I moved over here when I was thirteen, cultivated my accent.”

  He nodded as though everything I was saying made perfect sense. “And no one ever suspected you were Irish?”