The Company of Shadows (The Company #1)

by Olsen, Lisa

  The tension drained away, even as a secret corner of her mind wailed in protest, preferring to hold onto the terror to this easy capitulation. “You don’t?” she breathed as his hand let up on her mouth.

  “No.” His fingers stroked the side of her cheek tenderly. “I only want to know you.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. It actually sounded pretty good, and Cady’s head dipped in a slow nod. Something nagged at her sub-conscious though. “Why?”

  “Why?” he repeated, his head tilting to one side.

  “Yes, why do you want to know me?”

  A low chuckle rumbled through him and she felt it everywhere his body pressed against hers. “Can’t you guess?” His fingers brushed down the side of her neck, tracing the line of her collar bone and continued down over the swell of her breast.

  Naked desire shot through her like a bolt of electricity, but Cady fought it, clinging to the mistrust of her response. “I don’t want to.”

  “Your body tells another story. Listen closely…” His hand snaked around her waist to catch hold of her hair, tugging gently, effectively tipping her head back. Before she could protest, his lips covered hers, taking and giving in the same breath. And then she didn’t want to protest anymore. She didn’t want anything but to give him everything he sought and more.

  His fingers probed under her top, splaying over bare skin and Cady arched under his touch, no longer caring where they were. The tug on her hair grew sharper and she moaned against his mouth, pleasure mingling with pain until she realized he’d stopped. Stopped kissing, stopped touching, stopped everything. She opened her eyes, only to see him frozen in a rictus of pain. The handle of a dagger protruded from his back, low, near the kidneys. Cady stared at it stupidly, not understanding where it had materialized from.

  Claudio made no move to pull it out, he made no moves at all, scarcely breathing. “Help… me…” escaped from his lips, mutated by lack of movement. Without pause, she grabbed hold of the hilt, surprised at how easily it slid from his flesh.

  “No, don’t!”

  Head snapping up, she caught sight of her neighbor, approaching at a dead run. She stared at him in shock, not comprehending why he could have possibly thrown a dagger at another man. And then it hit her like a cold slap in the face as Claudio’s influence slid away and her free will returned. In that same instant, he spun her around, using her as a human shield, one hand fisted tightly in her hair and the other at her throat. The cop slowed, approaching warily.

  “Let her go,” he demanded, hands coming up slowly.

  “I could end her now. That would be more blood on your hands.”

  “My hands are clean, yours are the ones stained with souls,” her neighbor scowled, and Cady licked her lips, finding her voice.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Shh,” Claudio purred in her ear. “It will be over soon.”

  But Cady found no comfort in his words, the spell broken. She gripped the dagger loosely, her hand slippery with his blood. Should she do something? Did the guy have another weapon? Why didn’t the cop draw his gun?

  “Don’t take another step,” Claudio growled. “I would hate to mark this tender flesh.” Cady felt a sting at her neck as his middle finger scraped across her collarbone, drawing blood despite his words.

  Heedless of the warning, the cop continued his advance, producing another blade. “I’ll go through her if that’s what it takes to stop you. You know I will.”

  “How prettily he defends you,” Claudio chuckled. “You may kill this body, but you can’t stop me. Haven’t you learned that by now?”

  “This is crazy…” The world began to spin and Cady sucked in a greedy breath, realizing she’d been frozen in place with fear for far too long. It started to look like she was dead no matter what happened, whatever feud between the men too all encompassing to care about a little thing such as her safety. All at once she remembered she had the knife in her hand, and Cady plunged it into Claudio’s thigh. At the same instant she let all of her weight crumple to the floor, as if her legs wouldn’t hold her any longer, and slid from his grasp. Expecting pursuit, she was stunned to find him completely frozen again.

  Not so was her neighbor, who closed the distance faster than she thought possible. Cady expected him to kneel at her side to see if she was okay, or to call for back up or even handcuff Claudio. He did none of those things. The black blade of his second dagger flashed once and Cady watched in horror as he impaled Claudio’s hand through his own. The blade pinned them both to the car, palms pressed together, their blood mingling to run down the hood.

  “Oh my God…” Her lips moved, but no sound came out as she stared at them in a shocked stupor.

  The blonde grunted against the pain, but kept them steadfastly pinned together as he began to chant. “Immundus spiritus, audite et scire timor.”

  “What are you doing?” Cady’s scalp ached from the pulls to her hair, and the scratch on her collarbone oozed blood, but other than that she’d manage to escape relatively unscathed.

  He ignored her, continuing to chant. “Hostis humani generis, vitae raptor, tu malorum radix vitiorum seductor hominum…”

  Whatever he was doing, Cady saw real terror in Claudio’s eyes. They beckoned to her and she quickly looked away, not wanting to get caught up in his spell again. A flash of movement caught her eye as she trained her gaze down; Claudio’s fingers scrabbled at the hilt of the dagger buried in his thigh. “His other hand is still free,” she called out in warning, but her neighbor gave no sign that he even heard her, continuing to speak in the strange language that reminded her of being in church. “The knife,” she managed to squeak only seconds before Claudio pulled it free with a lurch, immediately plunging it into the cop’s unprotected side.

  He sank to his knees with a groan of pain, the black dagger still trapping both their hands against the car. No longer frozen, Claudio tried to free his own hand, but the cop somehow found the strength to fight him. Their hands worked free of the car, still pinned together, and the blonde man’s lips moved, resuming his chanting.

  With a cry of anguish, Claudio reversed his struggle, clasping the other man’s hand and pulling instead of pushing. It sent the tip of the dagger against his own unprotected neck. The blade cut through sinew and tendon, and the dark man didn’t stop until it sliced through the thick artery at his own throat.

  Cady watched in horror as Claudio’s blood spurted in a great arc, landing at her feet by his own design. “I didn’t choose this,” he rasped, his voice thick and burbly as he settled his shadowy gaze upon her. “Remember that.”

  The cop chanted faster, his words tripping over themselves, but as the light faded from Claudio’s eyes, he lost his steam. “No…” he pounded weakly on the man’s chest. “Goddamn it, not again…”

  “Is he… dead?” Cady asked in a small voice, not sure if she should remind him of her presence or not. His comment to go through her to kill the guy still loomed in the back of her mind.

  “I lost him,” he replied dully, rolling onto his back with a groan. “I lost him,” he repeated.

  It was a struggle to comprehend what he’d expected when bringing knives into the equation. One moment he’d seemed hell bent on stabbing the guy to death, the next he looked ready to weep at his demise. So much blood… part of that was her fault for stabbing him in the leg. Her own involvement in the struggle made her feel queasy, the adrenaline still pumping through her veins lending a tremor to her hands. For the moment, she decided to forget about trying to process it all. Just because Claudio was dead and gone, didn’t mean the danger had passed.

  “You’re bleeding pretty badly, I think we should call an ambulance,” she suggested, pushing up to her knees to get a better look at his side. Anything to avoid looking into Claudio’s sightless eyes.

  “No ambulance,” he grunted, pulling the black dagger free of their hands and wrapping a strip of cloth around the wound.

  “Are you kidding me?
You have not one but two stab wounds.” The puncture of his hand might even need surgery depending on the thickness of the blade.

  “No ambulance,” he repeated, lurching to his feet with more resolve than she would have thought possible. “And no police. Have to get out of here.”

  Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I thought you said you were a cop?”

  “I said… something like that.” His lips twitched into a smile that quickly became a grimace as he coughed painfully. “Leave now, before he comes back…” He took two staggering steps forward before he went down on one knee, swearing against the pain. Cady rushed to his side, insinuating herself under his arm.

  It didn’t make sense… before who came back? The dead guy? Or did Claudio have a partner out there waiting for him to bring home a girl or two? But what was she supposed to do, leave him there bleeding in the deserted parking lot after he’d saved her life?

  “Okay, we’ll leave,” she agreed without further argument, helping him back up to his feet. “What’s your name?” She couldn’t keep calling him “the cop” in her head, not anymore.

  “Sh-Shaw. Ethan Shaw,” he murmured, his jaw growing slack.

  “Nice to meet you, Ethan, I’m Cady,” she replied, gritting her teeth as she took on more of his weight. They wouldn’t get far on foot. “I don’t suppose you have a car?” she asked glibly. Nobody had a car in their neighborhood, not unless they were willing to have it broken into on a regular basis. Maybe if he was from one of the richer neighborhoods to the north where people could afford to rent a private parking space, but not around the Tenderloin.

  “Black Challenger one block over. Keys in pocket.” His head lolled forward, and it was all she could do to keep them moving. Thank goodness they wouldn’t have to go far. Cady managed to keep them both upright, her arms wrapping around to hold him tightly.

  “I’ve got you, you’ll be okay.” She repeated little reassurances to him softly, over and over, in an effort to convince herself as much as him. He looked bad, his skin waxy and pale, like he might pass out at any moment. What would she do then? Drag him the rest of the way to the car? “Come on, stay with me. I see your car, we’re almost there.”

  Finally reaching the car, she propped him against the passenger’s door to fish inside his coat for the keys. “See, it’s okay, we got here.” She kept the steady litany of comments coming. Digging the keys free, she awkwardly got the door open and tried to help him inside as painlessly as possible, but she knew every movement had to be an agony for him.

  Cady laid him across the back seat, tucking his legs in after him. The black dagger clattered to the pavement from the movement, and she realized he’d been gripping it the whole time. As an afterthought, she tossed it on the floor by his feet, blood and all. His upholstery was screwed enough with the steady flow coming from his wounds.

  Safe in the cocoon of the driver’s seat with the engine running and the doors locked, Cady took a deep, cleansing breath. “You can do this,” she said aloud, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror.

  Chapter Five

  The farther away she got, the easier Cady found it to breathe, and her nerves settled enough for her to focus on the task at hand. Her eyes strayed often to the form lying across the back seats, but she didn’t initiate any conversation with him, figuring he needed to rest, not answer the zillion questions churning around in her mind. This was so not where she’d though the evening would take her!

  Once well away from the scene, she focused more on trying to find an elusive parking space near their apartment. There was a parking garage under the building itself, but it was too much to hope that he could afford one of the spaces -- they had been known to command the same price as a studio apartment. Still, she had to try it after circling the block twice with no luck. After feeling around on the sunshade, she found a small square box and aimed it at the gate, tapping her toes in excitement when it started to roll up. “We’re here!” she called out with undisguised relief.

  Ethan didn’t stir, but moaned slightly when she pulled him out of the car. Somehow she managed to get him up to the fifth floor (thank God their building had an elevator!) and into his apartment. Barely able to keep him upright, she looked for a good place to set him down.

  “Bedroom,” he murmured, and she took it as a good sign that he seemed to know where they were. The layout of the apartment mirrored hers, one open living room/kitchen space and two bedrooms. The first door they passed was locked, but the master bedroom door stood open, his queen sized bed tidily made.

  Worry puckered Cady’s forehead once she set him down and watched the blood instantly seep out to stain his bed. “Do you have a first aid kit or something?” she asked, looking around for something to staunch the flow of blood. What little medical knowledge she had could fit into a thimble, but common sense told her they had to get pressure on the wound and the knife needed to come out. Well, what he really needed was the ER, but seeing as how that didn’t seem to be an option, her own limited know how would have to do. “Ethan?” she prompted when he didn’t answer. “First aid kit?”

  “Bathroom,” the single word escaped his lips.

  Cady found the adjoining bathroom easily, already knowing the floor plan. Dropping to her knees in front of the single sink, she pawed through the cabinet before spotting a gray Tupperware container filled with medical supplies. Grabbing the whole thing, she brought it back to the bedroom. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got in here,” she said aloud, digging through the kit. Gauze, scissors, bandaids… mostly suited for smaller wounds, but she’d have to make do. “You know we have to take that knife out,” she said softly, her eyes darting to his face to see if he could still hear her.

  “S’too bad, starting to get used to it,” he replied, though his eyes were still closed. Surprised he had the strength to joke, she took it as a good sign and tried to keep things light.

  “Let me know, I could try to work around it. It might be a nice place to hang your keys. Could make it tough to go through metal detectors, so you’ll have to drive everywhere from now on,” she chattered, peeling back the sodden layer of his coat and cutting away the shirt with the scissors she found in the kit.

  “Drive…” he wheezed, and she realized it was a laugh cut off by a grimace of pain.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to make you laugh,” she winced in sympathy. “Try not to talk unless you have to.” Once she got a better look at the wound, she started to think she was in way over her head though. “That’s going to soak right through the gauze,” she blanched.

  “Towel… over gauze,” he instructed, sounding like he’d done this before. There would be plenty of time to think on that later, for the moment Cady was too busy steeling herself for having to inflict more pain on him in his current state.

  “Towels, gotcha. I’ll be right back, don’t move a muscle.”

  “Be right here,” he promised, his eyes opening briefly to scan her face before sliding shut again.

  Cady was back in two shakes with a stack of fluffy white towels under her arm. And then it was go time. No more lame attempts at humor, no more pleas to call for a real doctor, she had to suck it up and pull the damn thing out. “We’ll do this on the count of three,” she warned, receiving his curt nod. Carefully, she placed the gauze near the wound and held the towel in position.

  “One…” You can do this… “Two…” The hand poised over the knife started to shake, and she made a tight fist and released it. “Three.” The last word came out barely a whisper as she pulled the knife out as straight as she could manage, letting it clatter to the floor in her haste to get the gauze and towel over the wound. Ethan made no sound except for a series of short, staccato breaths like he was in childbirth. At least until she applied pressure with both hands and he let out a howl of pain.

  “I’m sorry, so sorry,” Cady repeated, eyes tearing slightly in sympathy. “Just try not to move,” she added unnecessarily, as if he didn’t already know that. Tho
ugh it might have been a blessing for him to pass out, she was glad he was still conscious. It was a good sign that he hadn’t lost too much blood, wasn’t it? Feeling like she was in way over her head, she held steady on the towel until the bleeding showed signs of slowing. It was bad though, really bad. What he needed was stitches, and probably not only on the surface.

  “I really think we should get you to the hospital,” she said softly.

  “No, the worst is over. Now that it’s out, I’m already feeling better,” Ethan replied, and his voice did sound stronger.

  “I think you’re overestimating the body’s ability to heal,” Cady shook her head. “And there’s the chance of infection, not to mention internal damage to your organs.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he insisted stubbornly. “But I need you to do a couple of things for me.”

  “You mean besides keeping you from bleeding to death?” she snorted. “Sure, what is it?”

  “I need you to get the duct tape from the hall closet, and the pitcher of iced tea from the fridge.”

  “Are you sure a tea party is what you need right now?” She raised a single brow.

  He gave something between a cough and a laugh. “You were right about infection, the wound has to be cleansed. The tea has… antibacterial properties.”

  “Do you have any booze? That would probably work better.” At least it always did in the movies. “I could run next door and see what we have on hand,” she offered.

  “No, thank you. The tea will be fine.”

  “Oh, and the tannins, I getcha.”

  He stared at her blankly.

  “The tannins in the tea, they promote blood clotting, I get it.” At least she remembered reading something to that effect.

  “Right,” he said slowly, and she had the impression he wasn’t sure what she was talking about. That explained the need for tea, but duct tape? It took her half a moment to figure out what it was for, but then it made perfect sense.

  “Sure, I can get you those things, but do you think you can hold on to this by yourself?” she asked doubtfully.