Chasing Shadows

by ERIN BEDFORD

“It’s a good thing you were here then,” Kat gave me a small smile and then frowned, “I wonder what is out there.”

  “Not anything good, I can assure you.” I walked us over to the door to the human world and twisted the handle. Opening the door, I gestured her inside with a lopsided grin, “besides, don’t you have enough on your plate, Miss Moderator?”

  “Don’t call me that.” she scowled at me and punched me on the arm before dragging me inside the portal with her. Finally, we were on our way home.

  Epilogue

  THERE WAS ONE thing I could say about my life now. It’s never boring. Not only was I a Seelie Princess, but I was also the moderator for the Fae dwelling in the human world.

  What I thought would be an easy job quickly turned into one instance after another. After the initial shock of the Shadows had faded, some of the Fae had gotten it into their heads that it would be okay to do whatever the hell they pleased.

  After a few months of jumping from state to state via the mirror portals, I eventually turned to the council in the Underground for help. Together with them, we created another council that would help moderate the Fae on the human side. Now, I was no longer judge and jury but sort of like a bounty hunter. Except without the leather jacket and mullet.

  After that, life became a bit easier, and I almost started to have a sense of normalcy. Sometimes I did get called in on random cases by the government. They had since made nice after a visit from the queens’ and the council. Seems like my mother knew how to charm the Underground but also presidents as well.

  I enjoyed getting called by them on jobs. They were always something fun and exciting. Not like the times my mother asked me for help, which usually involved something painful. Also, they actually paid me. Thank God for my human parent’s income, or I'd be out on the streets.

  I had been right about Alice. She was a natural born leader. The moment she stepped in to take over as the representative of the Fae community, the easier everything became. I still had to step in every once in a while to knock some sense into those who got out of line, but for the most part, I left everything to her.

  Thankfully, Alice eventually moved out of my grandmother's house and into a place of her own in town. Hatter and she were shacking up, not that it was a surprise to anyone. They publicly dated now, but anytime they hold hands or show any kind affection in public, Alice flares up like a firework. It’s pretty hilarious since Hatter seems to do it more and more just to get a reaction out of her.

  My own love life? It’s not too shabby if I do say so myself. Which I do. While I’m the moderator on the human side, Chess took up his position once more as moderator in the Underground. When we both aren't hunting down mischievous Fae we spend our time at his willow tree or at my grandmother's house.

  I hadn’t heard from Dorian, but I had heard from his mother. She said he was off with his father, still trying to hunt down the Shadows. They were slippery buggers that was for sure. I didn’t envy him one bit. I just hoped they kept them in the Shadow Realm this time; I needed a bit of peace and quiet in my life. Not that my human mother didn’t keep me hopping with the rest of them.

  The best day of my life was the look on her face when Chess showed her his true form for the first time. Her eyes got as wide as saucers; she looked him over, and then pointed at him while looking at me. “Is he…a cat?”

  I had gleefully nodded and then almost jumped for joy when she promptly passed out on her Persian rug. My mother was still cautious around Chess to this day. Which was fine with me, because that meant less time for her to pester me into doing talk shows and the like. It was the little things in life that kept things interesting, really.

  My grandmother finally came home from Florida. It took her long enough. I swore she had died and no one thought to tell us. Or maybe they just couldn’t find the body.

  The moment my grandmother had stepped through the door she wrapped me in a hug and then waved a finger in my face. “I had to find out on my own that my granddaughter was a faerie princess through the television. Why didn’t you call me?”

  Anyways, she had heard about the Fae incidents on the news and someone had leaked a picture of me that they were broadcasting all over the world. Of course, it was the most atrocious picture they could find. It was one from my senior year at high school, when I’d been going through my Goth phase. So, of course that meant I was in all black and had a scary look on my face. God only knew what the world thought of the heathen that kept the Fae in line. Or, well, tried to.

  After apologizing profusely for letting her get blindsided, she wanted to know all the hairy details. How it started. Who the lovely gentleman gracing her living room was? She didn’t even try to hide the way her eyes greedily took him in.

  I chuckled and exchanged a look with Chess who was already well on his way to charming the pants off of her, and I said, “Well, it's a long story. You see, it all started one night with this damn rabbit.”

  THE END

  * * *

  Kat and Chess’ story might be over but there is still more to tell. Dorian’s story still needs to be told!

  Coming Summer 2017

  Shadow Chaser

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  Marked By Hell

  Angels are experts when it comes to demons. Mary's no different.

  Los Angeles isn’t just a playground for those searching for a new start. It’s darker and more dangerous than they’ll ever know. So, when the L.A.P.D. comes knocking on Mary’s door with a case that could give her a chance at revenge on the demons that took her wings, she is hard pressed to say no.

  Mary has her hands full trying to play human while looking for a way back home. Throw in an irate ex-client's spouse and exorcised demons wanting pay back, and she will be lucky to find time to polish her halo. With a mysterious half-demon who has his own secret agenda for her new case, her life becomes infinitely more complicated.

  If Mary wants to get her revenge and save the friend she lost her wings for, she’ll have to put her angelic morals aside and start playing by their rules. But how far will she fall before she becomes too tainted to return to heaven? And does she even care?

  Read the first chapter on the next page!

  Chapter 1

  MAN, DID SHE hate churches. The extravagant stained glass windows, the statues, and the constant need for absolution were more than she could handle. Not to forget, they always depicted her as a wingless man.

  That thought made her hand inch up to touch her shoulder where one of the scars on her back ended. The sound of screams and laughter permeated her mind, causing her to wince. It had been years since she had lost her wings, but the very thought of it still caused the old scars to ache. She shook her head clear of the images before she could fall into the memory completely. It wasn’t the time for self-pity.

  “Miss Wiles?”

  Her blonde head jerked up from where she sat in the church pew to the priest. Father Patrick was a normal enough looking guy, with dark brown hair and matching eyes. He wasn’t remarkable by any accounts, but she supposed in his field of work looks weren’t everything.

  “Please call me, Mary.” She quickly removed her ankle boots from the kneeling ledge in front of her to stand.

  “Very well, Mary. Father Dominic will see you now.” The priest nodded to her and gestured for her to follow him. Mary moved out of the pew and trailed along next to the father.

  Saint Paul Catholic Church was one of many Catholic churches in Los Angeles. It also wasn’t the first church she had been to on a case in the last month. Hell, in the last week. For a city named after holy creatures, it sure had its fair share of supernatural crap, which is probably why Mary had been drawn to it in the first place.

  “You know, Mary,” Father Patrick started, keeping his voice low and his eyes on alert. “When I had first heard about your service I had to
say I was a bit skeptical. Is it usual for a Private Detective to take on such cases?”

  “I assure you, Father, this is right up my alley. It is kind of my area of expertise.” Mary smirked to herself. The good father didn’t know just how much it was her area.

  Mary’s business card said PI for hire, but what it really should say is supernatural expert. She handled anything from cheating spouses to exorcisms. Unfortunately, she received more jobs for taking pictures of cheating husbands than for demons. While she didn’t get called in on them often, lately the number of cases coming in for demon exorcisms and hauntings weren’t as rare as she would have liked.

  Father Patrick stopped before an office door that had a nameplate reading ‘Father Dominic’ on it. He didn’t open the door but rubbed his hands together in a nervous gesture.

  “You must understand our worries, Miss Wiles.” His eyes darted around them, his voice as low as possible while still audible. “We’re priests. It’s in our job description to deal with the forces of darkness such as this, but with Father Dominic…” he sighed and ran a hand over his face. “It is a delicate situation that my brothers’ and I have found ourselves unable to confidently say we could handle ourselves.”

  “It’s all right, Father.” Mary patted him on the shoulder, knowing the touch would help put him at ease. “Like I said, this is what I do.”

  The older man nodded his head and stepped aside leaving her to open the door herself. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted her leather coat and knocked on the door. When a faint beckoning sound answered, she twisted the handle and prepared for the worst.

  Now most of her cases usually just involved lower level demons. Those who couldn’t do more than influence the host, but sometimes there were ones who could take over the host’s bodies completely. Those were a bit trickier.

  Father Dominic’s case had been described as a textbook possession. He had started off fine going about his duties like normal, and then he began to seem a bit off. He became moody and unfocused. Then it had warped into distant and secretive.

  Many would just say he was going through a crisis and it was a cry for help. But when Father Patrick had called her about one of their parishioners stealing money from the church, she had a feeling it was demonic. Now as she stood in front of Father Dominic and felt his dark aura seeping out of him and into the room, she had no doubt that she had been right.

  “Miss Wiles,” the father’s deep, timber voice called out to her. He stood with his back to the door, his shoulders hunched down, the graying hair on his head the only feature standing out. “How can I help you?”

  Kicking the door closed behind her, Mary plopped down on one of the wooden chairs, propping her feet on top of his desk. She sat there rocking back and forth on the legs and waited. She didn’t answer his question because that was what he wanted. Childish? Maybe, but demons were all about getting what they wanted, and the moment you refused to do so was when they showed their true colors.

  It wasn’t surprising when it didn’t take more than a few moments of silence before Father Dominic’s hunched shoulders straightened out and a slight shudder passed through him. The dark aura that had been more of a glow became a void that filled the entire room. If a human had been in the room, the very feel of the aura pressing down on them would cause such a physical reaction that they’d empty their stomach’s contents onto her shoes.

  Mary wasn’t human. Not really anyways. She might walk, talk, and act like a human, but she wasn’t any more human than the demon currently wiggling its way to the top of Father Dominic’s consciousness.

  “Muriel,” the name hissed out of the father’s throat, no doubt burning his esophagus in the process. Father Dominic, or what was once him, she had little doubt he was dead now, took slow, agonizing steps around his desk until he stood beside her. She didn’t know what his eye color had been before, but the eyes that looked down at her now were filmed over, though, sightless they were not.

  Mary rocked back and forth in her chair once more before setting it down on its legs. Her lips quirked up at the sides as she angled her head toward him. To the passerby, it would look like she was checking him out, when in fact she was watching the demon inside of him fight for control over the body’s inhabitant.

  The souls of many who are possessed are usually cast out almost instantaneously, and even those who hang on only do so for a day or two. Father Dominic must have a strong soul indeed if he was able to stay alive this long. Bad news for the demon, but also for her too. It made her job that much more complicated.

  “What are you doing hanging around here? Don’t you have a sink hole to furnish?” She crossed her arms over her chest. The interrogation part of the process was always the most fun.

  The demon wearing Father Dominic’s face watched her for a moment before throwing its head back and laughing. The sound of it was like worms wiggling inside her ears. It shortened her patience and made it a lot less fun.

  “I don’t see what is so funny about it. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Neither should you. Fallen one.” It chuckled at her once more, its eyes roving over her.

  Blech demons were such lechers.

  “I’m not fallen,” she snapped, dropping her feet from the desk. Her five-foot-nine height barely reached the Father’s eyes. “Falling implies you had a choice.”

  “Choice or not, you are still stuck here like the rest of us. Why don’t you leave us be? You could do with some of us on your side.” He tried to sound persuasive, but he didn’t know he was barking up the wrong angel.

  “I wouldn’t want you on my side if it was the only side.” As nonchalant as possible, her hand reached into her pocket drawing out a necklace. On the necklace wrapped in a piece of an olive branch was a feather. One of the only remaining feathers from her once beautiful and immaculate wings. She had it made for her by a gypsy priestess as a way to harness what was left of her holy powers.

  On her own, she could remove a demon, sure, but it was a dirty and brutal process that required her to use her own holy aura to overtake the demons. The process, while effective would destroy the host’s soul, and she didn’t like to do that if she could help it. Thus, the talisman helped to give a gentler nudge than the Jaws of Life.

  “We could help you, you know,” it continued, not paying any mind to the way she wrapped the chain of the necklace around her hand, the talisman lay in her palm.

  “Oh really?” Trying to keep the demon talking so they’d be off their guard. It made it so much easier when they didn’t know it was coming.

  “Yes.” Its white filmed eyes leered at her, thinking it was getting to her. “We can help you get your revenge. To find—Ramiel."

  Mary’s hand paused mid-wrap. Did they really know where he was? It wasn’t a secret she was looking for him, so they could easily be lying to save themselves. Then again, if they weren’t lying, then she would have destroyed a perfectly good chance to get the information she needed.

  “You know, you make a compelling argument.” She watched as the demon let Father Dominic’s shoulders sag, and she almost smiled before taking a step toward them. “But the problem is. I just don’t trust demons.”

  Before the demon realized what she was doing, she pressed the talisman to its forehead and pushed her aura into its focal point. Each piece of her seeped into the father’s body, pushing the demon out. She could feel it scream and claw at her, causing little rips and tears. It hurt enough that it caused her to back off a bit, and that was all the invitation the demon needed. It beat at her with renewed strength; pushing her back out the way she came and with her aura it spilled out of Father Dominic and into her.

  If you’d ever experienced what it was like to be claustrophobic, having another being inside you at the same time was like that. Except a million times worse.

  If she had been human she would have been in trouble, but since she was only pretending to be human once the demon found its way in, it
couldn’t find a way out. Mary doubled over, gripping her stomach where the demon was bouncing about in a wild and frantic manner. Now that it was out of the good father’s body, she didn’t have to be so nice, but it was still going to hurt like hell.

  Steadying herself on the floor, she drew all of her aura into herself. Pushing her holy powers to their limits to purge her body of the intruder. It wouldn’t kill it, because demons without a corporeal body couldn’t really ever be killed, which made them a lot like roaches. She could push holy power onto it until judgment day but they’d keep coming back. She just had to remember to be ready for them next time.

  When the demon finally gave up the fight and was forced out of her and back to the hell fire it belonged, an overwhelming need to pass out filled her. She glanced up at the petrified Father Dominic, whose eyes were a lovely shade of cerulean blue.

  “Well, that sucked.” Were the only words Mary could get out before she collapsed on the floor of the dumbfounded Father Dominic’s office.

  * * *

  FATHER PATRICK AND the other parishioners were so relieved to get Father Dominic back they had no problem calling Mary’s assistant, Trisha, to pick her up.

  “I still don’t know why you don’t just get a driver’s license.” Patricia, or Trisha for short, threw her keys down on her desk back at the office. Her blonde hair had been colored black, which she wore in pigtails with hot pink extensions. Mary was surprised the Fathers’ had even let her in the church let alone take her away.

  “Why would I do that when I have you?” Mary trudged along, her strength after the demon samba still MIA.

  “And you’ll always have me, Mare, but what happens if some day, I’m not saying when, I’m not able to get you?” She crossed her arms over her black on black corset top. Trisha was what the humans liked to call quirky. Though, Trisha liked to call it individualism, her clothing ranged from tight corsets and fishnets to plaid school girl skirts and Mary Janes.