As the sun dipped below the horizon, I turned to Barry and offered a strained smile that he didn’t return. Just stared back at me with those dead eyes of his and I held back a shiver.
Marie seemed to think I could do this. Get Barry over the wall, through a screen of trees and across to the security building without being seen by any of the Jurat guards. She’d explained the concept but I really did think she was nuts and it wouldn’t work.
Of course, it didn’t seem to matter whether I thought it would work or not. Marie had given the instruction that I had to do it and the others had apparently never questioned her orders. My protests had fallen on deaf ears as Barry led me around to the back wall.
Barry pulled a serrated, black carbon steel combat knife from the sheath beneath his left arm and looked at me expectantly. I held back a sigh as I reached for my power, only to have it slip away, refusing to be caught.
Fear was keeping my anger at bay and without that anger, that fury that was needed to use my power, I was stuck. Unable to do anything but feel the heat colouring my cheeks as my companion stared at me impatiently.
“Your friend,” he said in a voice that sounded like he was chewing rocks. “Will probably be dead soon.”
“What?”
“Before that though,” he continued, a slight smile playing across his lips. “They will take her and use her. They might leave her mind free, but more likely they’ll make her beg for every degradation before they finally feed on her life-blood.”
“Shut up!”
“Vampires are soulless creatures.” His eyes seemed to be fixed on mine as he shoved each word home. “They enjoy hurting others. Watching them squirm and scream as they do all those things that humans want to do but are afraid of unleashing.”
Without really thinking about it, I thrust out my arm and he was knocked backward against the wall, held there by the roiling shadow tendrils that extended from my hand. I blinked in surprise and he grunted.
“You’re angry now it seems.”
“Bastard,” I spat and he nodded.
“I am,” he agreed though there was strain in his voice and his breathing was shallow as he fought to expand his lungs while pressed back against the wall. “But you needed it.”
At a silent command, the shadow tendrils flowed back towards me, joining and darkening the mist that surrounded me, flowing over my skin like water. It seemed that I had a finite amount of shadow under my control and it rested comfortably over me until I used it.
Without speaking, I held out my hand and he grasped it in his. As I concentrated, the shadows that covered me thinned out, spreading outwards over his hand and along his arm. His eyes widened slightly and he turned his head away as the shadows swept over his body and up his neck. It was my turn to smile mirthlessly as his breath quickened when the shadows crept slowly over his face.
Fully embraced by the shadows, the world around me dimmed. It appeared as though everything was in twilight. Shadow covered everything and where there should be shadows, was a darkness deeper than anything I’d seen before.
It was towards the nearest patch of darkness that I moved, holding fast to Barry’s hand as he was pulled along in my wake. I paused before it and pictured in my mind the security building as I’d seen it in the photos Jonah had taken as he’d observed the place.
Much smaller than the main house, it was tucked away behind a screen of bushes beside the main gate of wrought iron. A single door was set into the brick wall on the western side and deep shadows were cast behind it. Those shadows were what I focused on as I stepped forward into the darkness beside the wall.
There was an absence of light. Not just darkness, but an absolute lack of light as though it had never shone in that place. Silence surrounded us as the sounds of the world faded after the first step.
On the second step, I was aware of something moving around us, something vast. On the third step, the world came back into view as we left the deep darkness cast by the security building and I released my hold on Barry’s hand, the shadows retreating from him and back to myself.
He stared at me wide eyed and I managed a smile before I fell to my knees clutching my stomach, pain shooting through me. It was pain unlike anything I’d felt before, like tiny slivers of lightning flashing through my body.
My shadowed veil fled, dissipating as it retreated back to wherever it went when I didn’t need it and I spat a splash of crimson blood onto the manicured lawn.
“Here,” Barry said and handed me an energy bar that he pulled from his pocket. “You need food, fuel for your body.”
“Damn!” I whispered back as I hugged myself, body shaking. “Hurts!”
“I saw Jonah like this once,” he said as he tore open the wrapper and held the bar before me. I reached up to take it and bit a large chunk from it. “He’d used too much of his power and it ripped him up inside.”
“Didn’t expect this,” I muttered as I swallowed the first bite and took a second.
“You just did something… well, it must have taken a lot of power.” He shook his head as he pulled another bar from his pocket and passed it over. “Wait here.”
He disappeared around the corner of the building as I finished the first bar and tore open the wrapping of the second. I was beyond hungry. It felt like I’d not eaten for a week.
I’d finished the second bar and was pushing myself slowly to my feet as Barry returned, his knife wet with blood and a grim smile on his face.
“Eaten them both?” he asked and I nodded as I hoped my legs would hold me upright if I let go of the wall. “Good. You just did something incredible and if you try it again it’ll probably kill you.”
“Kill me?”
“Yeah. You just used a lot of energy. Your body can only do so much. Give yourself a week or more rest and you can try it again. Until you’ve had a night’s sleep and a good meal, I wouldn’t even try to use your powers.”
“Great so I’m bloody useless just when I need to be at full strength!”
“Not useless,” he said as he wiped his blade clean on the grass. “You have a knife, use it.”
He indicated with a nod of the head that I should follow him as he rounded the corner of the building. I did so, although somewhat shakily. As I turned the corner, Jo and the others were just coming through the gate.
Blood stained the gravel driveway and deep furrows had been made that showed where the bodies had dragged away to lay at the side of the drive like discarded rubbish. It didn’t feel right, even if they were serving the vampires, they were still human and deserved better than that.
“You did splendidly,” Marie said to me with a wide grin. “Truly splendid.”
“Yeah you did,” Jo muttered half-heartedly. It seemed even travelling through god alone knows what that place had been wasn’t enough to impress her. “You all know your tasks, get to it.”
And with that, she was off. Leading Patrik, Barry and Jonah away. Nazia Shared a look with Daz and something passed between them, some unspoken communication that only they were privy to. I guessed it was a husband and wife thing.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Are you going to be okay here?” Nazia asked Marie. The older woman glanced up from the dead guard she had been studying and flashed a bright smile.
“Absolutely dear. I’m still a tough old bird you know.”
“I know,” Nazia said with a smile of her own and then another shared look with her husband. “We’d best get going then.”
“Of course. Abe and I will be fine.”
“Come on then love,” Daz said. “Can’t let them lot have all the fun.”
He seemed to almost glow and I guessed he’d grasped his power as a noticeable heat shimmer rose from him. I bit back on the pain and straightened myself up. Determined to be of use and more importantly to be there for Evie.
“Wait,” Abe said as his hand grabbed my upper arm. I frowned back at him as his eyes flicked once towards Marie and his voice lowered. “Whatever happens in there, we need to talk.”
“Why?”
“Just,” his eyes moved towards Marie once more and he faltered as he saw her watching him. “Be careful and if you need to, you can find me at the place I took you that first night. You understand?”
He seemed to want some kind of response so I nodded and he released his grip. He was certainly acting oddly and I figured it was as much nerves as anything, but still, the way he glanced at Marie set my teeth on edge. With one last look back at him and a nod to Marie, I set off after the others.
The house was dark as we jogged over the lawn towards it. Well, Nazia and Daz jogged, I did my best to keep up with them but my ass was dragging and the coppery taste of blood was in my mouth.
Marie hadn’t said that shadow-walking would take so much out of me or that it would hurt like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It honestly felt like someone had tried to scoop out my insides with a dull spoon and left a ragged hole in its place.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and tried to follow along as well as I could. The two of them moved like bloody ninjas with barely a sound made while I seemed to pound the ground with each step.
Nazia stopped beside the garage and held up her free hand. Daz immediately stopped and dropped into a crouch, head moving from side to side as he scanned the area. I did the same, panting a little from even that brief jog as I craned to see what had caused her to pause.
A suited man stepped out of a side door that I hadn’t seen was set into the garage wall. He rubbed his hands as though brushing dirt from them and didn’t look our way as he turned towards the house, letting the side door close behind him.
Moving silently, Nazia was behind him in an instant. One arm went around his neck to cover his mouth and stifle any cries as the great knife she bore slid easily between his ribs. He fell without a sound and Daz was moving immediately to help lift the body.
As his wife went through the side door into the garage to check for other threats, he went through the dead man’s pockets. He pulled a gun from a shoulder holster as I approached and I gawped at him stupidly.
“I thought guns were a bad idea,” I whispered and he grinned at me.
“For us yeah. Nothing stopping these buggers using them.”
He slid the gun behind his belt and lifted the body over one shoulder as Nazia stuck her head out the door and waved us forward. I followed behind Daz as he carried the body inside where a black Mercedes waited with the boot already open.
“Dump him in there,” she instructed her husband who grunted an acknowledgment.
“Holy hells,” Daz said after he dropped the body in the trunk and looked around. “Is that an Aston Martin?”
The second car that he’d seen in the garage parked beside the first, sat low to the ground and was all sleek curves set in crimson that cost at least a hundred and fifty grand. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy since I would be hard pressed to find enough cash between my couch cushions to afford a coffee.
“How the heck are these people always so rich?” I asked and Nazia smiled in response.
“It’s easy to have money when you live forever and lack any morals.”
“Is it wrong that I want to slash the tyres just to piss them off?” Daz said.
“Do my love,” Nazia said with a quiet laugh. “But later. First, we need to finish the job.”
“You mean find Evie,” I said.
“Sure,” she replied with a confident smile that didn’t mask the way her eyes flicked towards her husband.
As Nazia headed out the door, her husband following, I couldn’t help but wonder if they had any intention of finding her, let alone rescuing her. If that was the case, I’d need to do it myself.
The back door was unlocked, which was somewhat worrying until I realised the Jurat Nazia had just killed had likely left it open as he went into the garage, fully expecting to return moments later. I still held my breath as the slipped inside and only released it when no sounds of violence or alarm followed.
Music was playing somewhere close by. The faint sound of a cello could be heard from somewhere in the house. A hauntingly beautiful sound that seemed out of place in the home of an evil creature like a vampire.
Somewhat louder was the sounds of a busy kitchen from further along the hall we found ourselves in. There were three doors in the opposite wall and next to the door we’d entered through, a set of stairs that led down.
Daz stepped out of the first of the doors and shook his head. “Study,” he said as Nazia nodded and silently crossed to the next door.
I’d no idea what I was supposed to do, but reached behind my back and gripped the handles of my daggers. One in each hand and drew them out with a faint hiss of metal sliding over leather.
“Downstairs,” Daz whispered as he stepped past me to the stairs. I paused a moment and glanced at the door Nazia had disappeared through and then followed him down.
Much to my dismay, the basement wasn’t particularly dungeon like. I’d expected cages, chains on the walls and weeping prisoners begging for a saviour. Instead, we found rows of wine racks beneath rows of arc lights.
“This is good stuff,” my companion said as he pulled free one of the bottles of wine. “Wasted on those damn fangers though.”
“I thought they just drank blood.”
“No love,” he said. “As long as they drink blood regular like, their bodies are the same as ours. They can eat, drink… fuck.”
His salacious wink as he said the last was a little off putting but I put it down to nerves as much as anything.
“You know what’s bad for wine,” he said as his grin widened.
“No what?”
“Heat.”
The shimmer around his hands grew more visible as he reached out and touched bottles seemingly at random, holding them for a moment as he heated their contents. A short burst of laughter came from him as he gleefully performed his minor act of vandalism.
Footsteps on the stairs made me look back the way we had just come in alarm just as Daz grabbed my arm and dragged me in between the wine racks. He pressed one finger to his lips as he stood pushed up against me in the narrow space and the twinkling in his eyes was more than a little disturbing.
Someone entered the basement, skipping the last step as they whistled a jaunty tune. I tried to see but the bottles of wine prevented that. I did get to hear what sounded like a man talking quietly to himself as he moved along the racks searching for a bottle of wine.
“Ah, here we have a pretty little number,” the voice said almost right behind me.
Daz wore a wolfish grin as he slipped out from between the racks and a moment later there came a yelp of surprise that was immediately cut off. I poked my head hesitantly around the corner of the rack.
A slim man who looked to be barely into his twenties was held in one of Daz’s meaty fists as his other hand was pressed over the man’s mouth. Panic filled the man’s eyes and he struggled against the hands that held him.
“Must be fairly new,” Daz said and I looked at him, eyebrow raised questioningly.
“New?”
“Yeah, a new vamp. Not that strong yet.”
“They get stronger over time then?”
“Oh aye love,” Daz said and glanced back to me. His eyebrows waggled as he made a face. “Filthy freaks start out just a little more than human but get stronger, more powerful, the longer they feed on humans.”
“Should we…” I looked down at the silver blade of my dagger and back to the youngish looking vampire whose eyes widened as he followed my gaze. He didn’t seem particularly evil or monstrous. Just a young guy in a tuxedo.
“I’ll show you my power shall I,” Daz said with a dismissive look at my blade, or perhaps at me.
“What do you…?” I trailed off as the shimmer around the hand over the vampire’s mouth grew, the heat making the pale skin of the vamp blister as his struggles increased. Muffled sounds of pain and distress came to me and I had to look away as I swallowed past a suddenly dry mouth.
In a few short seconds, those muffled sounds grew to be almost loud enough that I feared we’d be heard and I risked a look back. The bottom half of the vampires face was a ruined, blistered mess and pleading filled his eyes as Daz chuckled and increased the temperature.
I had to throw one hand to my mouth and fight the urge to gag as the sweet smell of burning flesh seemed to fill the air around us. I raised my dagger and took a step forward, only to stop as the other Shadowborn turned to look at me and I saw the imminent violence clear in his eyes.
“Enough!” Nazia hissed.
She stood at the bottom of the stairs, her knife held in one hand and gaze fixed firmly on her husband. She didn’t wear a look of disgust or horror, just one of impatience that disturbed me almost as much as what he was doing.
“Daz,” she said. “Play later. Just finish him.”
“Whatever you say, my love,” he replied and fire engulfed the vampires head, spreading from the hand pressed over his face. A few more seconds of agonized screams, muffled by Daz’s hand and that now familiar fire swept through the vampire, beneath its skin and a cloud of ash fell amongst the blackened bones where he’d stood moments before.
“What was that?” I demanded. Anger overruling my need to keep quiet. “You were torturing him.”
“Just a filthy fanger,” Daz said calmly as he wiped his hand on his shirt. “Nothing to worry about.”
“They’re vampires,” Nazia said as I looked to her. “Not like they’re human.”
She indicated for us to follow her with a tilt of her head and she moved stealthily up the stairs. Daz shot me a look as he passed. Madness danced in his eyes and I understood then what they’d meant when they spoke of the chaotic nature of some Shadowborn. That need for violence and misery they… we had.
For the first time since joining them, I was having doubts. Killing vampires was one thing but torturing them for the fun of it was entirely another. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I followed after them.