by M. D. Massey
“Stop right there,” she said. “We go in 50-50 on everything—is that clear?”
“Yes, that’s fine. Just tell me how much my stake is, and I shall write you a check immediately.”
“That’s good to know,” she said with humor in her voice. “Because I already signed the lease on our office.”
I spent the remainder of the day seeing to my personal needs, resting and rebuilding the cage that held my shade captive within my soul. He had agreed to allow me to reign supreme for a time, but it wouldn’t be long before he challenged me once again—and as he’d said, I might not have the upper hand when that happened. I needed to find ways to make my elixir stronger, and perhaps discover how I might separate myself from the creature permanently—if that were at all possible.
However, those concerns weighed less heavily on my mind than the horrors I had seen while in Underhill. While Hemi and I had managed to help the abductees escape and get back to Earth, the psychological trauma they’d been through would not easily be overcome. Hemi would see to it that the humans were mind-wiped and then sent back to their families, hopefully with little damage done. But in my experience, such horrific experiences could not easily be erased from the spirit. You could wipe the memories from the mind, but deep down, the scars would always remain.
In the years to come, they would wonder why they jumped at certain noises, or why they felt compelled to check their doors twice before going to bed at night. They would always and forever be afraid of the dark, or of certain people who looked at them in a particular way. From now until the day they passed, everyday life would set off alarm bells deep within them that they did not and would not understand.
Yes, memories could be taken away, but the scars always remained.
I wore my scars proudly—not the ones on the outside, of course, as they were a mark of shame to me. But the scars I had on the inside? Those I had earned. In many ways, they were my strength, a reservoir I could draw on when I had little else upon which to rely.
And now, I had a choice—to find my family and see if the information Griff had given me while under duress was in fact real. Or I could forget about them and leave that part of my past behind… forever.
One thing was for certain: Mother was coming for me. And when she arrived, I needed to be ready. After contemplating this truth for most of the day, I finally came to a conclusion. If I wanted to be rid of her, I needed to take the war to her doorstep.
However, that would be no easy task, and it would take months—nay, perhaps years—of preparation to be successful at such an endeavor. If I wanted to survive a confrontation with the bitch, I had to find her weaknesses. To do that, I would need to look into her operations here on Earth. Once I found her soft underbelly—if it did indeed exist—then I would attack.
And sadly, one of the best ways for me to do so would be to find my family and discover what had happened the night I was taken.
“Hey! Is anyone out there?” Monty’s ridiculous stoner voice echoed from the cell down the hall, disturbing my meditation session.
Drat. I was hoping he’d died while I was gone.
“Three days I’ve been in here, man—three days!” he whined. “The shitter’s full and I’m out of weed. Come on, let me out. I promise I won’t try to escape.”
Well, at least that means I have more than one lead, I thought as I trudged down the hallway. I wonder… could I train Nameless to empty chamber pots?
This ends Book One in The Shadow Changeling Series. Crowley’s story will continue in Book Two, Shade Hunted.
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About the Author
M.D. Massey is the author of over twenty urban fantasy and paranormal action adventure novels. He lives in the Hill Country outside Austin, Texas with his family and a rather large collection of sharp, pointy objects. When he’s not in his office cooking up another Druidverse urban fantasy novel, you can find him out on the local hiking trails, or in his garage knife fighting with his friends and pummeling inanimate objects. For more information and to connect with M.D. Massey online, visit his website at MDMassey.com.
