shadows of salem 01 - shadow born

by hamilton, rebecca

  “Talk,” he snapped once the door was closed and my window was rolled up once more. I pressed another button and locked all the doors, and he raised an eyebrow. “That serious?”

  “I wouldn’t have dragged you out here in the middle of the night if it wasn’t.” Grabbing the wheel, I finished parking the car, then shifted the car into park and turned in my seat to face him. “Shelley came to my apartment just minutes after you dropped me off. She says her son is missing.”

  Something flickered in Maddock’s eyes, but the emotion passed too quickly for me to analyze it. “How do ye know he isn’t just partying with his other goth friends?”

  “Because I went to Shelley’s house and searched his room. It’s been marked.”

  Maddock’s eyes widened. “How did ye discover that?”

  “I used the same spell you did to uncover the mark,” I said, a little smugly. I didn’t need Maddock Tremaine for everything, now did I?

  “No, not that.” He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes. “I meant how did ye know where to apply the spell? Trial and error?”

  “No.” I paused, thinking back. “I just got a feeling as I approached the bed. I guess you could call it some kind of spidey-sense. I’ve had it a couple times now, and always whenever there was something magical nearby, so I made an educated guess and did the spell.”

  “Hmm. A second-sight for magic…” Maddock flicked his gaze away, staring out into the pitch darkness. “Yer powers are getting stronger,” he muttered, almost to himself.

  “What was that?”

  “How did yer discovery of the mark lead ye here?” Maddock’s voice was hard now. “Did ye touch the mark and get another vision? Because I assumed ye’d have learned from the last time —”

  “I didn’t touch the mark,” I snapped. “I’m not stupid, okay? I found out about this spot another way.”

  “How?”

  I gave Maddock a summary of my visit to the witch shop. When I told him I went there to see if any of the staff recognized the symbol or knew anything about it, he snorted derisively, but his expression grew thoughtful when I told him what I had discovered.

  Without outright lying, I was careful to frame the story vaguely enough that he’d assume I got the information from the docent. I wasn’t sure why, but I had a feeling telling Maddock about the old woman wasn’t a good idea.

  “So ye think that the Onyx Order has a residence somewhere in these woods?” Maddock asked. “And ye decided to rush here to check it out now, without any reinforcements?”

  “I brought you, didn’t I?”

  “Aye, but if I’d known what we were getting into, I would have brought a few of my men.” Maddock glared at me. “I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or flattered that ye’d think I’m capable of taking down an entire coven of witches by myself.”

  My cheeks flushed, mostly because I knew he was right. It would have been better if he’d brought his reinforcements. The thing was, I wasn’t used to having people I could count on in situations like this. Whenever I’d had to deal with anything vampire-related, the only person I’d been able to call on was Tom. Right this very second, in a professional sense, Maddock was my Tom. And it hadn’t occurred to me that he might want to bring anyone else along.

  “Well, we’re already here,” I said evenly. “We can’t just turn around now. Why don’t we just go there and see if we can at least do some reconnaissance? Find out what we’re dealing with. And then we can go back for reinforcements.”

  Maddock grunted. “I highly doubt this will work out the way yer suggesting. But I am curious to see if the directions ye were given lead to anything at all. The covens were always very meticulous about hiding their locations. I’ve never known where the Onyx Order kept their residence.”

  “What, you couldn’t just use your fae magic to find out?”

  He slanted his gaze at me. “We may be god-like, but few of us are all-powerful or all-knowing.”

  I snorted as I unfastened my seatbelt. “If that was supposed to be a humble-brag, I’m not sure you succeeded.”

  We got out of the car, and I checked to make sure my weapons were in place before locking up the Jeep.

  “Ye should be wearing something more substantial than that.” Maddock growled as he eyed my blazer. “It’s bloody freezing out here.”

  I shrugged as I buttoned up. “The cold doesn’t bother me.” I lifted my face to the stiff breeze whistling through the night, enjoying the way it tugged at my silver curls. “I kind of like it, actually.”

  “I can see that.” Maddock regarded me for a moment, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. I wondered why he found my affinity for the cold so fascinating. “Are ye going to stand there posing all night, or are we ready to go?”

  “I was waiting for you,” I grumbled, my cheeks heating again. I pulled my phone from my pocket, checked the directions again, then pointed north. “We’ve gotta head a couple miles that way.”

  We walked silently, the only sound coming from our frosted breaths and our boots whispering along the dirt path. I’d learned long ago to tread softly no matter what sort of footwear I sported, and apparently Maddock possessed the same skill.

  He’s thousands of years old. He probably possesses lots of skills.

  I glanced sideways at him as we walked. His face was mostly cast in shadow from the canopy of trees, but dappled moonlight spilled through the branches, highlighting his sharp cheekbones and the brilliant green of his eyes.

  A part of me wished that I could question him more, to pry more knowledge out of him about this strange world that I was never more than a sideline member of. But even if I thought he’d answer, now was not the time to talk. The glare from my phone’s screen was already alerting enough attention as it was, and if not for the fact that I needed it both to see where I was going and to guide us to our destination, I would have hidden it away.

  The occasional rustle sounded through the brush every so often, making the hairs stand up on my neck. But it was always some sort of nocturnal animal—a raccoon foraging for its breakfast, a hedgehog scurrying through the undergrowth, a bat chasing a moth through the trees. Once, we even saw a bear picking what was left of the blackberries off a bush not five yards away. But even though it turned our way and stared for a moment, it largely ignored us and went back to its nighttime snack. I had a feeling Maddock was responsible for that—I felt a strange tingle that suggested he was using magic, maybe to keep some of the bigger animals from attacking us.

  I could imagine doing this with Tom, walking hand-in-hand through the darkness, surrounded by silence and peace and nature. Of course, since Tom didn’t have Maddock’s mojo, we probably would have gotten eaten, or at least almost eaten. But still, it was a nice thought.

  Except for the fact that he’s gone, and you’ll never get the chance to do anything like this with him again.

  My throat swelled with tears, and I pushed back the familiar swell of grief. Now wasn’t the time for that. And besides, there was a good chance that finding the Onyx Order would also lead to finding out what happened to Tom. He’d been looking for missing children, and the Onyx Order was kidnapping people. Surely there was a connection there. Occam’s razor and all that jazz.

  After about three miles, we came across what we were looking for. The path didn’t change, but to our left, the trees gave way to a wide clearing. The opening was about five feet wide, large enough for me to get a good look, and though plenty of moonlight illuminated the clearing from above, I could see nothing but grass. But I felt that tingle again—the one that told me magic was near.

  “It’s here,” I murmured, taking a step forward. A glint of silver caught my eye, and I looked down to see a lone earring half-buried in the dirt.

  “Detective…” Maddock warned, but I was already crouching down, my fingers digging it out.

  Boot prints in the ground suggested somebody had stepped on it, and recently, too. There were definitely people here.

  A dark, win
dowless room with a single, bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Beneath the lightbulb, a steel table. Chained to the table, a naked, black-skinned creature with a forked tail and cloven hooves. He was thrashing and screaming, his body lit with an unholy red glow as a pale woman in a black dress pressed both hands to her palms. Her ice blue eyes glowed unnaturally in the darkness as she siphoned his power. Anger and terror swirled in the air, emanating from the chained fae, but he eventually sagged under the weight of defeat—he was powerless to stop this woman.

  The scene shifted to another dark room, this one with more lightbulbs, but still dim. Cages lined the walls, filled with various humanoid fae. Glittering, scaly skin and glowing eyes caught what light there was, but it was hard to see more.

  A flash of fang caught my eye, and I blinked in shock at the sight of a vampire curled in the corner of his cage, looking more than half-dead. An extraordinarily large cage sat in the corner, and as my vision shifted its way, enormous hands gripped the cages and shook the bars. The bars turned poker-red, the hands started smoking, and a roar of fury split the air.

  Another scene change. This one outside. Four men and a woman walked along a forest path. Reddish gold light filtered in through the trees, sunset lighting their way enough that flashlights weren’t necessary. Jason was being carried on a stretcher between them, bound hand and foot. His black hair was matted with blood on the side of his head, and his pierced lip was swollen and bloody.

  The path widened, revealing the same clearing Maddock and I had just discovered. This time, I could clearly see the colonial mansion that lay beyond, but before I had a chance to get a good look, Jason’s eyes popped open.

  Instantly, he began thrashing against his bonds, surprising the men enough that they dropped the stretcher. Somehow, he managed to roll free and get to his feet. The wild look in his eyes made my stomach drop with sympathy and fear.

  “Stop!” a voice ordered from out of sight. The earring’s view neared Jason, and I realized the voice was the one wearing the earring.

  Jason twisted, his bound hands swinging out, and he knocked her a good one toward the earring—or rather, the person wearing it. The view tilted, then there was a blur that ended with the earring’s view of a woman overhead—the blonde from earlier.

  My brow furrowed. How had the silver earring recorded her in its memory earlier, if she’d been wearing it? Unless—

  Oh. The realization hit me hard. The first visions must have been someone else. Had they been spying and wound up dead, and if so, what kind of sicko wears the earring of one of their victims?

  Before I could process another possible scenario, the earring showed me the rest of the vision. The blonde staggered backward, and the other men grabbed Jason and started beating him back into submission…

  The vision broke, and I stared at the little silver earring in my hand, my gut roiling with emotion. I wanted to crush it in my fingers, and then I wanted to find its owner and grind her into the ground with my boot until she was reduced to ash.

  “What did you see, foolish woman?” Maddock whispered softly.

  “A phoukas,” I murmured, slowly rising. “She was chained to a table, and a blonde woman was siphoning her power. I also saw fae and other supernaturals in cages. And I saw Jason, right here, struggling against his captors. He’s here, Tremaine. I know he is.”

  “Then we’d best retrieve him.”

  CHAPTER 24

  I didn’t tell Maddock that the last person who’d spied on this house and its happening had likely wound up dead. Or that apparently these people liked to keep belongings from the people they killed. I figured painting the witches out to be violent creepers might not surprise him, but wouldn’t inspire him to move forward, either, and I couldn’t waste time waiting for his backup—not with Jason’s life potentially on the line.

  “There’s supposed to be a house here.” I turned back to the empty clearing and glared at it, as if I could will the structure to appear. “A colonial mansion of some kind. I saw it in the vision with Jason. It’s got to be here.”

  “It is here,” Maddock said. “I can see it right now.”

  I scowled at him. “How the hell can you see it but I can’t?”

  He smiled smugly. “A fae of my age and power can see through most illusions without relying on the use of incantations or other devices.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s great, O’ Powerful One. Think you could help bestow some of that great power unto little ole me?”

  To my surprise, Maddock’s lips twitched. “I thought ye’d never ask.”

  He grabbed my hand, and I gasped as a surge of energy shot through my arm. Fire blazed through my nerve endings, but even though it was hot, it didn’t hurt. It felt…good. Like I was glowing from the inside out, incandescent with power.

  No, not ‘like’ I was glowing from the inside out. I literally was. The white light radiating from my body reflected in Maddock’s eyes, and I caught my breath as I noticed the look in them. His eyes were warmer than I’d ever seen, filled with not just desire but…admiration? As if I were somehow awe-inspiring?

  “Brilliant,” he said softly as the glow faded, and I was glad for the darkness right then, because my cheeks were probably redder than burning coals—they were certainly about as hot. “Ye don’t seem to be able to access yer power at will for some reason, so I’ve given you some of mine to tide ye over for now.”

  “Oh.” My insides squirmed with guilt, and before I could think better of it, I reached out and touched his arm. “You don’t have to do that. You should take it back.”

  After seeing how tortured that phoukas had been, as well as how violated Maddock himself had been when I’d stolen his power in a past life, it didn’t feel right to take his magic.

  “And then what?” Maddock arched an eyebrow. “If ye run in there with a gun as yer only weapon, ye will force me to spend all my time acting as a shield for ye. We’ll be more effective if ye use some of my power. Think of it as splitting ammunition between two people instead of only one having a gun.”

  “Good point.” I took a breath and let it go. The glow had faded, but the power still thrummed in my veins, and it felt damn good. It would have been hard to give it back, and I understood the witches a little better. I didn’t agree with what they were doing. But if I was raised my whole life to believe that a fae’s power was for the taking, and I knew what a rush it was every time I did so, I would damn well be siphoning it off them every chance I got.

  Such a thought made me wonder if that’s the kind of person I’d been in my past life. Had I taken power from the fae whenever I’d felt like it? Or had I only done it in moments of great need, as the memory Maddock had shared with me seemed to suggest?

  God, it was still so weird to think I even had a past life. A whole other timeline I couldn’t remember at all.

  Either way, I didn’t feel good about what I’d done, and I vowed silently to myself that I wouldn’t be that person this time around. I wouldn’t go out of my way to steal power from the fae.

  But man, I hoped whatever power Maddock thought was hidden inside me would hurry up and manifest. I hated relying on others. In the human world, that’d never been an issue for me, but the supernatural world was a whole other thing.

  “Okay, so what now?” I asked, staring hard at the clearing. It remained stubbornly empty. “I’ve got your power, but I still can’t see anything.”

  Maddock chuckled. “I only gave ye a fraction of my power, Detective. Yer going to need much more than that, and practice, before ye can see through illusions the way I do. Until then, you’ll need an incantation.”

  “Well, hurry up and tell me already!”

  He told me the words, and I repeated them. Like the other spell I’d mimicked from him, the words were thick and strange on my tongue, and it took me a few tries to get it right. But once I did, the air in front of me shimmered like a heat wave, then cleared to reveal the mansion I’d seen in the vision.

  T
he two-story structure was dark and foreboding, with steeply pitched tile roofs, a solid stone exterior, and casement windows with the drapes drawn tight.

  “Jesus, this looks like something straight out of Colonial times,” I murmured, staring at the mansion in awe.

  I mean, yeah, I knew it was supposed to be there, but knowing that in my mind and watching it appear before my eyes were two different things. I really needed to get used to this magic stuff.

  “It is something straight out of Colonial times.” There was a touch of amusement in Maddock’s voice, and I glanced sideways at him. Was the cantankerous bastard actually warming up to me? “Now are ye going to stand there and gape at it like a tourist, or are we going in?”

  “And here I was thinking you were actually being nice,” I muttered.

  Maddock’s expression turned stony. “Don’t make the mistake of letting yer guard down around me, or any other fae, Detective. Humans are little more than chattel to my kind, a fact ye would do well to remember.”

  I stiffened. “I’m not human, remember?”

  His cold eyes blazed. “Even more reason for ye to be on yer guard. We tend to annihilate anything that could potentially be a threat.”

  An icy shiver slid through me, and I turned away. So much for getting along. Maddock seemed determined to remind me that we were immortal enemies, or at least that we were supposed to be. Whether I was human or supernatural, it was apparent that I was still the enemy unless he needed me for something.

  I scowled inwardly. Maybe that’s why Previous Lifetime Me didn’t care so much about using him. We approached the clearing, treading softly along the path that clove its way through the tall grass and up to the front entrance of the house. The sense we were being watched through the sightless windows crawled up my spine, and the feeling grew more intense the closer we got. But there was no stopping now. We were here.