by R. L. Weeks
My intuition tells me to stay out of sight. I duck under the window and listen intently.
Miss Kaye’s voice is hoarser now than ever before. “The use of dark magic is draining me. It’s a struggle to keep her away. She comes to us in her dreams.”
Adrenaline spikes through me. I remember some of the dreams, but some are very hazy and slip away from me when I wake up.
Amelia huffs. “I need her dead. She’s too much of a risk. If we want to bring our family back…” I peer over the window ledge. She’s holding her mother’s hands. “We must kill her.”
Miss Kaye sighs and removes her hands from her daughter’s grip. “She is too powerful — if she has even recognised her own power yet.”
“Then we must get to her before she realises her power. I have already turned Emmett. He would never go with her again for fear of hurting her. She’s desperate and alone.”
Miss Kaye looks at Amelia anxiously. “How is he adjusting?”
Amelia waves her hand. “So-so. He hates being a vampire, and I know he blames me for turning him, but I had no choice.”
Miss Kaye shakes her head. “You always have a choice, my child. Are you sure this is what you want? Is he want you really want?”
“Yes,” she says with absolute certainty. “I loved him once, and I won’t have him taken away from me by that Raven.”
She says my name like it’s the dirtiest word on the planet.
“As long as you’re sure. You can’t just get bored with this one and toss him when you feel like it.” Miss Kaye leans in and lowers her voice to a whisper. “He is strong. He already hates us for trying to kill her once.”
Amelia scoffs. “Which he wouldn’t have known about if you had been more discreet with where you place your journals.”
“Speaking of,” Miss Kaye says, “I had hoped the venom would stop Raven in her tracks, but if she did read the whole grimoire, then she may already know how powerful she is.”
Amelia slams her fists down on the table. “Can you be any more useless?”
Miss Kaye closes her eyes, tears brimming in the corners. “I have done everything to protect you.”
“Yeah,” Amelia snaps. “Good job!” Her voice is thick with sarcasm as she leaves the room, slamming the door behind her.
I’m shaking when I stand back up. Before I turn away, I catch a glimpse of Emmett. His trousers are rolled up to his knees, and he stands in the sea looking out over the horizon.
His aura swirls with black, blue, and grey. Sadness coils around him. I want to reach out, touch him, help him, but just as quickly as the thought comes, I am pulled out of the dream.
Twenty-One
I sit upright in my bed and look over at the window. It’s barely dawn. I rub my eyes and step onto the cold floor. I can’t believe what I saw. I remember this dream with perfect detail and recall it over and over in my mind so I don’t forget it.
They’re afraid of me. I’m not sure why, but I bet it’s partly because of what I did in the cemetery. Perhaps my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me after all and I did heal that bird. It was like the bird knew what I was. It came to me, trustingly. Then there were the red eyes between the branches. Are there vampires in Highgate Cemetery?
I hurry to the bathroom and fill the sink with water. I splash some on my face and wash my hands. “Morning.”
Tom leans in the doorway.
I dry my face with the towel. “You’re chirpy, considering last night you stormed out on me.”
He shrugs. “I realised something.” He puts a finger in the air. “You’re right, you need a friend, and I’m happy to be of service.”
I’m not convinced. I put two fingers in the air. “One, why are you suddenly so okay with that?” I put one finger down. “And two, where is the harpy seer, Jane?” I plaster on a smile.
He looks up. “Don’t call her that. She’s gone to stay at her father’s estate in North London. She needs some time to think. I don’t blame her.”
I push the towel back on the hanger. “She did attack me. You can’t expect me to be okay with her?”
“Don’t you see?” He pauses. “Seers look after each other. Personal feelings don’t come into it. She’d never actually hurt you.”
I laugh heartily. “Wow. Seriously. You had me there. So like a sisterhood?” I laugh again. “Jane and I can go dress shopping together and…and” — I wave my hand in the air — “get our hair done together.”
“Don’t be sarcastic.” He tsks. “Now, in answer to your first question, I haven’t forgotten everything you have been through and all you have sacrificed. The way I see it is, the best man will win. If I don’t win your heart, then I will back away.” He tilts his head and raises an eyebrow. “But I won’t go out without a fight. I love you, Raven. Nothing you say or do is going to change that. Jane knows that too.” His lips set in a hard line. “I feel bad for leading her on.”
I grab the brush and run it through my hair. “Then why did you?”
“I was lonely,” he admits. “I felt hopeless until I got that letter. After you died, I went back home, but I felt like a traitor for doing so. I knew Emmett would let me stay even though he didn’t exactly like me.” He looks at me with annoyance. “He is a good man. It’s frustrating.”
I almost smile. “He was. He’s a vampire now.”
Tom almost chokes on his breath. “You left that out.” He gestures to the bedroom with his head. “Come talk to me.”
I drop the hairbrush and reach down to pick it up, but Tom reaches it first. I look up at him, take the hairbrush, and blow my hair out of my face. “Show-off.”
He smirks. “It’s a family trait.”
The word ‘family’ resonates with me. I hadn’t really asked much about his family. I guess I never really thought about Tom’s or Emmett’s lives outside of the weird group thing we had going on.
“Do you miss them? Your family I mean.”
He pushes his hands deeper in his pockets and shrugs. “A little, but my older brother, Jacob, is their pride and joy.”
“I didn’t know you have a brother.”
He half-smiles. “You never asked.”
I bite my lip. “I guess we can chat for a little.”
I lie on the bed laughing. I told Tom everything, and the conversation went from planning how to stop Amelia and Miss Kaye, to Tom telling me the strangest things about being a vampire.
“I honestly thought you didn’t need to use the bathroom once you were a vampire.” I laugh.
He drops down next to me. “Where did you think all the blood went?”
I pull a face at him. “I don’t know. Throw it up or something.”
He laughs loudly. “Wow. Just wow.” He taps his head. “Good job you’re pretty, eh?”
I grab the pillow and hit him with it. “Hey.” I moan. “I’m not that stupid.”
He pulls a face. I hit him with the pillow again. “It’s not funny.”
“Stop laughing then,” he says.
I throw the pillow back to the head of the bed, turn on my side, and lean my chin on my hand. “So what do we do about Amelia?”
“Kill her.”
“Like I said, Tom, she’s afraid of me. They think I’m powerful.”
He looks me up and down. “You are. Maybe we should get that grimoire you spoke about. I can get it. It can’t hurt me.” He holds his hands up. “Already dead.”
“You’re right.”
I pause for a minute. There’s something I’ve been wanting to say. “All of this has led me down a really confusing path, but I realise now that it’s my path. I think I’m meant to help people with my gift.”
He smiles. “Calling it a gift now instead of a curse.”
“Things feel different,” I say. I can’t explain how, but it really does. I want my gift of Sight back. I want to find Elizabeth too. I want to bring her back. First, I need to grow my powers.
“You’re okay with helping me?”
He looks up.
“Uh, kill your enemies and bring the man you also love back to London with us?”
I bite my lip.
“I am,” he says honestly. “How can I ever even have a chance at winning your heart if half of it belongs somewhere else? This way, you’ll be able to decide without anything standing in the way.”
I hold my breath. I feel uncomfortable. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We all learn something new each day.”
I sit up. “Let’s get to work then. What about Jane?”
“Let me talk to her.”
I almost feel bad for her. Almost. “Okay. I’ll meet you at the shop.”
He nods and grabs my arm. “No touching anything. Got it?”
“Got it.” I huff.
Twenty-Two
I push all the cards and crystals from the table and lay out the grimoire, being careful not to touch the cover. I throw down the cloth I used to the move the book and search the pages.
The rituals are hard to understand. There are all sorts of things written in Latin and other languages I don’t recognise. There are different uses for a dozen or so plants, many of which were in Emmett’s apothecary kit, under various cycles of the moon. I rub my temples.
There’s an herb that can supress your Sight. It says Sight can also be lost for a number of non-chemical reasons. Travel between both sides can be one reason. I died and was brought back to life, so I guess that counts.
I drag my finger around the pentagram on the page. Suddenly, I feel a light shine through me. I feel as light as a feather. A warmth dances around my fingertips, and the pentagram on the page lights white. My eyes widen, and I jolt my hand back.
Did I do that?
Then, it all happens too quickly for my mind to process.
A thousand memories of London flick through my brain like a book. The faces of those who I have lost and some I don’t recognize float into my mind.
I try to catch my breath and hold my head. The light grows brighter on the book until the whole shop is filled with light.
I fling my arms back, and my eyes roll back into my head. I can see the other side, all around me, like a watery veil. I can almost touch it.
That’s when I see them — the shadow men. Their hollow eyes look at me through the veil. They are creeping around the edges of the veil, their bony fingers caressing it, their stretched, inky-black mouths open.
“I wish you could hear me,” a voice says from behind me.
“Elizabeth!” I squeak. The veil and the shadow men slip from my vision, and all I can see is Elizabeth standing there, looking down at her feet sorrowfully.
Slowly, she raises her head to look at me. “You can see me?”
I nod. “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry—”
“No.” She runs toward me and wraps her arms around me. I’m shocked I can feel her. “I’m so glad you can see me again. I was so lonely.” She sniffs. “That devil,” she says, referring to her ex-husband, “gave his new bride all of my old affects. It’s as if he has forgotten all about me. He promised me forever.” She cries. “I came looking for you, and when I finally found you, you couldn’t hear me, and I was so alone.”
I hold her tightly and stroke her hair. “It’s okay, Elizabeth. I know how to help you.”
She steps back, holding me at arm’s length. “I’ve been watching you. Your gift of Sight has grown into so much more, and then the vampires… Who knew?”
I smile ear to ear. “Elizabeth, I can bring you back to life.”
She looks over at the book. “You saw them, didn’t you? I saw them. The shadow men. The demons of the dark. They have been waiting for you. How did you get your Sight back?”
I look at the pentagram on the page and shiver. What did I just unlock?
***
“Don’t go again,” he says, repeating his argument. He grips my arm. “It’s dangerous.”
I roll my eyes and walk into the cemetery anyway. Elizabeth follows me through the headstones until we reach her grave. “Are you ready?” I ask.
Tom folds his arms in front of his chest. “I think this is a bad idea.”
I point my finger at him. “You didn’t when it was bringing me back to life. I want to bring her back!”
He shakes his head and throws his arms up in the air. “Stubborn arse.”
I give him a look before turning back to Elizabeth. “When you reach the white light, you’ll need to choose to turn back to us. If not, you’ll move on. You won’t be able to remember much, but just keep the feeling that you’ll need to turn back, okay?”
She nods. “Okay. You got it.”
I start the ritual, humming and then repeating the mantra from the grimoire. I bind Elizabeth and myself to her headstone as a totem between the two worlds.
Elizabeth slips under. That’s when they come. The shadow men. To take her away. Panic seizes me.
They look at me with their black matte eyes. “Missed us?” They hiss in unison.
Elizabeth looks at me wide-eyed as they grip her arms and legs.
I go to reach out, to reach through the veil, but I can’t quite reach them.
“No!” I scream when I realise what this is. Punishment.
Tom looks over at me blankly as Elizabeth is dragged into a dark abyss.
I see betrayal in her eyes, as if I’ve done this on purpose, before he soul is shattered out of existence.
Twenty-Three
“Raven.”
I am shaken awake by Tom.
I look around and jump up as the reality of what just happened washes over me. “Elizabeth.” I gasp.
Tom hangs his head. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” I say through tears. “NO!”
I scream and scream until my throat is sore. “I need to bring her back.”
He looks at me with the same look you give someone who can’t be helped. “She is gone. Her soul is shattered.”
My chest heaves as I sob. “There must be a way. I can find a part of it maybe and…” I look around desperately. “Use her bones to bring her back, or perhaps turn her into a vampire.” I sniff. “I don’t know but I can’t give up on her.”
Tom exhales slowly. “Once a soul is shattered, I don’t believe there is a way to bring them back.”
My pain quickly turns to rage. “They wanted to punish me! I could see it etched on their disgusting, demonic faces. I should have never brought Elizabeth here.” I hold my hand over my heart. “I shouldn’t have come back to life.” I look up at Tom. “How many times can one cheat death, until it comes back on them?”
He shakes his head. “I guess we all have debts to pay.”
“Is this the payment for me coming back to life.”
He opens his mouth to talk but closes it again. I’m at a loss for words myself. The guilt over Elizabeth’s demise is too much to bare. This is Miss Kaye’s fault. She’s the one who did all of this. Her and her horrid daughter. If it wasn’t for them, Emmett would have never sent Tom to come and save me, and he wouldn’t have found Jane and become a vampire. I would have stayed dead like I should have, and Elizabeth would still be here – even as a ghost. She didn’t deserve any of this.
I look at Tom coldly. “Miss Kaye said I was powerful. Well she was right. I am.” I grind my teeth. “I am going to kill her and her daughter, and I am going to make sure that those demonic creatures are banished for good along with them.” I clench my fists. “I’m going to finish every single last one of them if it is the last thing I do!”
Tom looks hesitant, almost afraid. “You’re angry right now. Don’t do anything rash.” He reaches out to touch me but I step away.
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!” I feel my powers surge through my body all the way to my fingertips. It is not a light magic. I understand it now. I belong to the darkness, if only to destroy it.
Tom steps forward again. I look at him with the will only for him to get the hell away from me. I can’t have him stopping me. As I look at him, he grabs his throat
and gasps for air. After a few seconds, I look away and he drops to the ground.
He breathes in several breaths before looking back up at me.
I can’t think about him right now. He will only get in my way.
“Don’t try and stop me. Don’t come after me.”
I leave him with the warning and walk through the cemetery feeling more powerful than ever.
I have had enough of playing nice and having everything taken from me. I look over at the headstones. All creatures, alive and dead, give me a wide berth as I leave the life I had behind.
Raven’s Heart
Raven’s Shadows Book Three
Out September 1st, 2018
Read on for an excerpt.
Raven has given into the darkness that has followed her throughout her life.
After watching her best-friend’s soul get obliterated out of existence, Raven is out for revenge. She believes Miss Kaye and her daughter Amelia to be the reason why it has all happened, and she won’t rest until they pay the same price as Elizabeth.
With her powers threatening to take over, Raven grows darker with each passing day. Miss Kaye and Amelia are just in reach, but they won’t go down without a fight.
After tracking them down in Romania, she runs into more trouble.
Emmett and Tom have followed her on her quest for revenge and have found themselves on the receiving end of Transylvania’s Vampire Hunter.
Will Raven give up her revenge and quest to rid the world of the shadow men to save the men she loves, or will the darkness consume her?
One
I crane my neck to see past the canopy above my head. Birds circle above the leaves. Magic pulsates down the century-old tree trunks, through the tangled roots sprawling through the uneven ground, and into each leaf, rock, and plant in these vast woods.
The sweet smell of decaying plants mingled with wet moss and rain permeates through the clearing.
As I move into the darker part of the wood where the undead dwell, the trees become barer, stripped of their bark from forgotten storms and strangled by poison ivy.
