The Company of Shadows (The Company #1)

by Olsen, Lisa

  “Is that all I get? How about a real kiss for luck?” she smiled hopefully, rewarded when he bent to do a more thorough job of it. As much as she didn’t want to let him go, Cady gave him a brave wink before closing her eyes.

  All around her she heard chanting and sensed movement circling her body, a curious shaking sound accompanying the motion. Her ears popped uncomfortably and the sounds grew fainter. No amount of yawning or swallowing cleared the pressure change, and soon she didn’t care. It was hard to care about anything. She felt… calm, loose, as if nothing touched her.

  With a lurch she floated free, drifting out of her body and into the air. When she opened her “eyes”, Cady clearly saw her body lying below, the pair of men kneeling outside the circle, Ethan rocking gently in place. It didn’t bother her though; she knew it was supposed to be happening, and in her relaxed state she didn’t worry about it. She didn’t worry about anything.

  Enjoying the sensation, she hovered above the room, amusing herself by pushing away from the ceiling and drifting back again with only a flex of her will. Once when the ceiling pressed at her back, she passed through it into the floor above, and Cady marveled at how easily she could explore with no walls to hold her.

  Dimly, she knew there was something she was supposed to be doing, but it was hard to focus long enough to recall it. There was someone she needed to meet. If only she could remember who it was.

  Ash.

  The name reverberated through her consciousness and she tried it on her “tongue”. “Ash…” It was close, but not quite right. “Ash, Ash, Ash…” she repeated the mantra, feeling her concentration swirl tighter with the focused name. “I have to find Ash. No… Asherik. I need to find Asherik. Asherik…”

  Cady felt the answering cry and all at once she spiraled higher, moving faster and faster, too blurry for her to see the direction. And then bam, just like Gobi warned, Cady felt her spirit coalesce into a version of her own body, feeling solid and more herself. Remembering her true purpose.

  “Asherik?” she said again, and a man stepped from the shadows, his eyes alight with pleasure. Cady didn’t recognize him, but realized he bore a slight resemblance to Ethan, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

  “You came to me!” he beamed, reaching for her hands. “I knew that you would.”

  “I did,” she nodded, trying not to flinch when he held her hands, but easing somewhat when he didn’t press for more. “I thought maybe we should talk.”

  “I’ve missed our talks,” he nodded, leading her to a padded window seat. “Would you like to sit here, or should we go to the park instead?”

  “No, this is fine,” Cady answered quickly, taking a seat beside him, trying to get a good look at the place. It looked like a single family home instead of an apartment, with an old fashioned woodstove tucked into the corner. The décor was masculine, heavy on the earth tones, with nothing but a few cheap prints on the walls. Despite the clutter, there were no personal photos or features that gave a clue as to who lived there.

  “Is that what you look like now?” she ventured, doing her best to commit the appearance to memory.

  “You don’t like this body? I thought you would find it pleasing,” he frowned, and she shook her head, eager to get him to stop hopping from body to body.

  “No, I like it just fine. It’s um, very handsome,” she added awkwardly. It felt so strange, sitting there with him the way she had night after night, baring her soul. No, not like those nights. That was before she knew what he was. The longing she’d felt for him sickened her now, and yet, a thread of the connection was still there. Cady pulled her hands from his, fearing what that said about her.

  “What do you want?” she asked boldly, not sure how long the dream would last.

  “I want you.”

  “You want me to do what?”

  “I want to be with you, that’s all,” he chuckled, reaching for her hand again.

  “You don’t want to carve me open and snack on my insides?”

  “I’ve no doubt you’d prove sweet,” he lifted her hand to his lips for a brief kiss. “But no, I mean you no violence.”

  “But you are violent. You’ve killed.”

  “That has nothing to do with you and me,” he replied with an utter lack of guilt and Cady pulled her hand back again.

  “How can you say that? You killed someone last night.”

  “I did.”

  “Why? Why do you have to kill?” she asked, trying hard to reconcile the pleasant man she sat opposite from with the memory of him busting through her wall in a rage.

  “I didn’t choose this life, it’s what I am now,” he shrugged. “I was summoned here by human intent, not my own design. I’ve stopped thinking about returning to what I was before, I’ve accepted my life now. You should too, especially now that we’ve found one another.”

  “You’re stuck here?” she blinked, ignoring the press of his leg against hers. “Where did you come from?”

  “I hardly remember it now, only that it was a different place. We had no bodies such as you, no need to surround ourselves with so many things. I’ve come to enjoy this realm though, the pleasures, even the vices.”

  “Would you go back if you could?”

  “Why would I want to?” His brows drew together in puzzlement. “Now that I’ve found you, I see that this is where I belong.”

  Balls. Just when she’d thought she was onto something, he brought them right back to where she started. “You can’t keep killing people though. You can understand why, can’t you?”

  “Because it upsets you?”

  “Because it’s wrong.”

  “If it’s wrong, then why is it so prevalent here? All the world over people maim and kill for varied reasons. Why not for hunger?”

  “I thought you didn’t need to eat people.”

  “There are all kinds of hunger. I can feed from love as well as fear, but I must feed to survive. If I did not have the right to feed, then why would I have been created thus?”

  That sparked a theological discussion that Cady felt ill equipped to argue. Once more he displayed a sharp mind and a witty tongue, reminding her how much she’d enjoyed their talks. Round and round they went and she felt no closer to making her point. The one bit of play she had was in his desire to make her happy. “You could choose to stop killing though, if you wanted to?” She seized upon that single fact.

  “If I had your love, I think I could. I did not kill while you came to me in your dreams. It was only after you were kept from me that I… slipped.”

  So, if she kept coming to him the world would be safe. Awesomesauce. “Ash, do you ever think about why you feel the way you do about me?”

  “No, I only think about being near you, to drink in your beauty,” he replied, fingers trailing along her shoulder to brush lightly against her neck.

  “I hate to break it to you, but you don’t love me, you only think you do. It’s nothing more than simple chemistry. See, what happened was…”

  His fingers hovered over her lips, stilling her words. “If this is not love, I don’t know what is. You said you needed love to give yourself to me. I’ve respected that wish, have I not?”

  What did he call busting through her apartment wall? Taking a hold of his hand, Cady met his blue eyes, speaking as gently as she could. “I don’t love you.” Having steeled herself for the worst, his crooked smile caught her off guard.

  “I realize my mistake in choosing that last body. I thought only of getting close to you, not your attraction for it. If this one is not to your liking, we’ll pick the next body out together, shall we?”

  “No, it’s not about the body. Ash…”

  “I know there is a part of you that loves me,” he interrupted with a confident twist of the lips. “You wouldn’t have come to me otherwise.”

  “I came to ask you to stop the violence.”

  “And to see me again,” he grinned. “You’ve missed me, haven’t you?”

  “N
o, I…” The lie died in her throat. Christ, part of her had missed him, even as she’d known there was something wrong with him all along, she’d still craved the time with him in her dreams. Cady swallowed, trying to hold tight to the knowledge that the charming smile masked a taste for violence.

  “What can I do to prove my love to you?” he asked, kissing her fingertips.

  “Stop killing people for one thing,” she snapped, snatching her fingers away even as she recognized that she had to take control of the conversation back. “And no more trying to frame Ethan for your crimes.”

  “I will, I won’t kill so much as a fly,” Ash promised, laying a hand over his heart. “I won’t even eat red meat.”

  “And Ethan?”

  “I’ll leave the reaper alone unless he comes for me. Then all bets are off.”

  There wasn’t much she could say to that, she doubted he’d be willing to lay down and die to prove his love. “And stop trying to hunt me down. No more jumping into my boss or my friends. If you try to trick me again I won’t forgive you.”

  “Will you come to me again?”

  The thought both pleased and terrified her, which in turn, scared the crap out of her even more. But how could she say no, knowing she could keep others from dying by giving him this one thing? “Yes, I’ll come to you again. Maybe not every night, but I’ll come.”

  He caught her up in his embrace and Cady closed her eyes, wondering what she’d just agreed to. “I’ll be waiting,” he pledged. Slowly, her hands moved to return the embrace, to keep him happy, she told herself. “Don’t abandon me.” His lips moved along the shell of her ear, sending a shiver across the fine hairs on her neck. “I can be the man you want me to be.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “What did you promise him?”

  Cady sucked in a deep breath, dizzy from the speed with which she slammed into her own body. Ethan stood over her, his brows drawn together into a single, angry line. “W-What?” Her mouth was dry and no matter how much she swallowed, it didn’t seem to help.

  “Dude, chill.” Gobi elbowed him out of the way, a red plastic Iron Man cup in hand. “Here you go, Cady-bear, have a pull on this.”

  “What…” she croaked.

  “It’s just Kool-Aid, man. But I got something stronger if you’d rather.”

  Cady took a sip of the sickeningly sweet punch, moistening her lips. “No, what made you call me that?” she asked when her voice cooperated again. Gobi just waggled his eyebrows at her, a goofy grin on his face.

  Ethan knelt beside her, his face anxious. “Are you alright? Just take it easy, it’s normal to feel a bit loopy for a while.”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she replied taking another sip. “Listen, I had an idea while I was in there. What if we try to send him home? He said he’d been summoned by a human -- doesn’t that mean we can send him back?” It would solve everything, and someone at his Company had to have the know how to pull it off.

  “No dice, it’s way too dangerous.” Gobi made a face and Ethan nodded grimly beside him.

  “Opening a portal between worlds is tricky. You never know what else might come through. No, the only chance is to bind him. Did you find out anything useful about where he is?

  She hadn’t thought of it that way, but from the way they both immediately shot that idea down, she understood it might be more trouble than it was worth. “No, I don’t think so, I moved way too fast between there and here to see anything.”

  “Think back, where were you?” Ethan prompted, helping her up to a sitting position.

  “Ah, it was dark, so I couldn’t see out the windows, but it felt more like a house than an apartment. I can describe the window curtains to you, the color of the couch… but nothing that will tell us where it is.”

  “Did you hear anything?”

  “Not really…” she thought back. “I guess that means it’s away from the street noise.”

  “That cuts out this neighborhood,” Gobi said, picking up his pad of paper and turning to a new page. “Do you mind?” He offered her his palm, asking for her hand.

  “Sure.” Cady drained the rest of the cup, setting it aside to take his hand, watching closely as his pencil moved over the page, his vacant stare unsettling. This time he only spent a few strokes on the loopy coils, immediately sketching clusters of shapes of descending sizes. It was hard to make them out until the fourth or fifth pass and she clued into what they were.

  “Russian dolls,” she called out excitedly. “That’s what those are. I think maybe he was in my boss’s house. He said something before about collecting Russian nesting dolls. I didn’t notice them in the clutter, but that’s what they must be.”

  “Do you know where he lives?” Ethan asked, his body tensing to stand only to be deflated by her response.

  “No, I have no idea.”

  “Shit,” he muttered in disgust. “What good does that do us then?”

  “I don’t know man, I just work here,” Gobi blinked, coming out of it.

  “It seems like we should be able to find a record of it somewhere, he’s a business owner, a regular upstanding citizen,” Cady pointed out, unwilling to give it up so easily. Why was Ethan being so negative? “Maybe he’s even in the phone book?”

  “Alright, we’d better get moving.” Ethan rose, pulling her up beside him and she clung to his arm for support for a moment, her head still wonky.

  “Are you sure you guys can’t stick around for a while? I could make some brownies, the kind you like.” Gobi gave Ethan a conspiratorial wink, his grin making the gesture ridiculous. Ethan ignored it, pulling out a thick sheaf of bills and thrusting it at him.

  “No, thank you. We need to be on our way.”

  “I see how it is, F you very much then,” Gobi shook his head in disgust.

  “Thank you for your help,” Cady offered, feeling awkward with the abrupt exchange. Weren’t they friends? “It was really nice meeting you.”

  “Come back any time, especially without him.” Gobi kicked a foot in Ethan’s direction, but he didn’t seem to mind if he’d bruised the psychic’s feelings.

  “Bye,” she smiled, offering a last wave as she trailed along behind Ethan. He didn’t speak at all, leading her back to the car without stopping for anything. “Where are we going?” she asked when he started the car.

  “To find your boss’s address.”

  “Okay.” She decided to try and draw him out, maybe she’d figure out what had his panties in a wad. “What did he mean about the brownies, the kind you like?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Ethan Shaw, have you been eating magic brownies?” she grinned, poking him in the shoulder. “I never would have guessed you were the type.” Not that she seriously thought he might be a stoner, he was way too focused.

  “It’s not like that,” he muttered irritably. “Sometimes they help with the visions.”

  That made sense, but she continued to needle him, trying to get him to look at her. “Uh huh. Tell me another one, Smokey McPott.”

  Nothing.

  “Geez, and I thought potheads were supposed to be mellow,” she mumbled, giving up. Whatever it was that had him in a lousy mood was catching, and Cady was in a much more subdued frame of mind as they pulled to a stop. “The DMV? Isn’t it a little late to try that? They’ve been closed for hours.”

  “That’s the point.” Ethan pulled a tablet device out from under his seat, tapping the touchscreen with rapid movements.

  Cady gave up trying to see what he was doing on the little screen when he didn’t offer to tilt it towards her one iota, and focused her attention on finding a decent radio station. Peppercorn came on, and she sat back, letting out a long, bored breath.

  “I’ve got his address here,” he reported, handing her the tablet as he started the car again.

  “Awesomesauce,” Cady replied, the boredom replaced by a quiver of anticipation. Was it really that easy? What had Ethan been so grouchy about then? The address wasn’t far, t
hey could be there in less than ten minutes without traffic. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” she ventured, but Ethan resisted the attempt at conversation. Was he trying to psyche himself up for battle? “Hey, what’s going on? Are you alright?” she asked point blank.

  “Nothing, we’re back on track now,” he answered without looking at her.

  “Um, no… we’re not, actually. We’re going in the wrong direction. Fell is that way,” Cady gestured to the south.

  “I’m taking you back to the apartment, you’ll be safe there.”

  “The hell I will. I’m not staying there while you go after him alone.”

  “I’m not taking you with me and I’m not leaving you in the car. It’s far too dangerous.”

  “Yeah, for you. He won’t hurt me, he thinks he’s in love with me.”

  “So I heard,” Ethan muttered.

  “I think we should use that to our benefit, don’t you?”

  “I don’t see how without letting him take you, and that’s far too risky.”

  Cady sat in silence, taking the seeds of an idea and forming them into an argument before she spoke again. “What happens if you find him there tonight?”

  “I’ll bind him and this will be over.”

  “Or he might get away again and we blow our advantage,” she pointed out. It wasn’t like he had the best track record against Ash so far. “Not that I’m saying that will happen, but it’s a distinct possibility, isn’t it?”

  “Is there a point to this, or are you just trying to damage my calm?” he growled, and she held her hands up in a supplicating gesture.

  “Hear me out. I was thinking. What if I had him in the astral plane, would you still be able to bind him?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Say I went back to see him again, like I did tonight, only you knew exactly where he was first to mount an ambush. If I had him distracted in the astral plane, would you be able to bind him, or is he separated from his human host when he’s with me?” She had his attention now, she could see it in the way the pinched look faded from his brow to be replaced with a curious pucker.