shadows of salem 01 - shadow born (23 page)

Instantly, he began thrashing against his bonds, surprising the men enough that they dropped the stretcher. Somehow, he managed to roll free and get to his feet. The wild look in his eyes made my stomach drop with sympathy and fear.

“Stop!” a voice ordered from out of sight. The earring’s view neared Jason, and I realized the voice was the one wearing the earring.

Jason twisted, his bound hands swinging out, and he knocked her a good one toward the earring—or rather, the person wearing it. The view tilted, then there was a blur that ended with the earring’s view of a woman overhead—the blonde from earlier.

My brow furrowed. How had the silver earring recorded her in its memory earlier, if she’d been wearing it? Unless—

Oh. The realization hit me hard. The first visions must have been someone else. Had they been spying and wound up dead, and if so, what kind of sicko wears the earring of one of their victims?

Before I could process another possible scenario, the earring showed me the rest of the vision. The blonde staggered backward, and the other men grabbed Jason and started beating him back into submission…

The vision broke, and I stared at the little silver earring in my hand, my gut roiling with emotion. I wanted to crush it in my fingers, and then I wanted to find its owner and grind her into the ground with my boot until she was reduced to ash.

“What did you see, foolish woman?” Maddock whispered softly.

“A phoukas,” I murmured, slowly rising. “She was chained to a table, and a blonde woman was siphoning her power. I also saw fae and other supernaturals in cages. And I saw Jason, right here, struggling against his captors. He’s here, Tremaine. I know he is.”

“Then we’d best retrieve him.”

CHAPTER 24

I
didn’t tell Maddock that the last person who’d spied on this house and its happening had likely wound up dead. Or that apparently these people liked to keep belongings from the people they killed. I figured painting the witches out to be violent creepers might not surprise him, but wouldn’t inspire him to move forward, either, and I couldn’t waste time waiting for his backup—not with Jason’s life potentially on the line.

“There’s supposed to be a house here.” I turned back to the empty clearing and glared at it, as if I could will the structure to appear. “A colonial mansion of some kind. I saw it in the vision with Jason. It’s got to be here.”

“It
is
here,” Maddock said. “I can see it right now.”

I scowled at him. “How the hell can you see it but I can’t?”

He smiled smugly. “A fae of my age and power can see through most illusions without relying on the use of incantations or other devices.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s great, O’ Powerful One. Think you could help bestow some of that great power unto little ole me?”

To my surprise, Maddock’s lips twitched. “I thought ye’d never ask.”

He grabbed my hand, and I gasped as a surge of energy shot through my arm. Fire blazed through my nerve endings, but even though it was hot, it didn’t hurt. It felt…good. Like I was glowing from the inside out, incandescent with power.

No, not ‘like’ I was glowing from the inside out. I literally was. The white light radiating from my body reflected in Maddock’s eyes, and I caught my breath as I noticed the look in them. His eyes were warmer than I’d ever seen, filled with not just desire but…admiration? As if I were somehow awe-inspiring?

“Brilliant,” he said softly as the glow faded, and I was glad for the darkness right then, because my cheeks were probably redder than burning coals—they were certainly about as hot. “Ye don’t seem to be able to access yer power at will for some reason, so I’ve given you some of mine to tide ye over for now.”

“Oh.” My insides squirmed with guilt, and before I could think better of it, I reached out and touched his arm. “You don’t have to do that. You should take it back.”

After seeing how tortured that phoukas had been, as well as how violated Maddock himself had been when I’d stolen his power in a past life, it didn’t feel right to take his magic.

“And then what?” Maddock arched an eyebrow. “If ye run in there with a gun as yer only weapon, ye will force me to spend all my time acting as a shield for ye. We’ll be more effective if ye use some of my power. Think of it as splitting ammunition between two people instead of only one having a gun.”

“Good point.” I took a breath and let it go. The glow had faded, but the power still thrummed in my veins, and it felt damn good. It would have been hard to give it back, and I understood the witches a little better. I didn’t agree with what they were doing. But if I was raised my whole life to believe that a fae’s power was for the taking, and I knew what a rush it was every time I did so, I would damn well be siphoning it off them every chance I got.

Such a thought made me wonder if that’s the kind of person I’d been in my past life. Had I taken power from the fae whenever I’d felt like it? Or had I only done it in moments of great need, as the memory Maddock had shared with me seemed to suggest?

God, it was still so weird to think I even had a past life. A whole other timeline I couldn’t remember at all.

Either way, I didn’t feel good about what I’d done, and I vowed silently to myself that I wouldn’t be that person this time around. I wouldn’t go out of my way to steal power from the fae.

But man, I hoped whatever power Maddock thought was hidden inside me would hurry up and manifest. I hated relying on others. In the human world, that’d never been an issue for me, but the supernatural world was a whole other thing.

“Okay, so what now?” I asked, staring hard at the clearing. It remained stubbornly empty. “I’ve got your power, but I still can’t see anything.”

Maddock chuckled. “I only gave ye a fraction of my power, Detective. Yer going to need much more than that, and practice, before ye can see through illusions the way I do. Until then, you’ll need an incantation.”

“Well, hurry up and tell me already!”

He told me the words, and I repeated them. Like the other spell I’d mimicked from him, the words were thick and strange on my tongue, and it took me a few tries to get it right. But once I did, the air in front of me shimmered like a heat wave, then cleared to reveal the mansion I’d seen in the vision.

The two-story structure was dark and foreboding, with steeply pitched tile roofs, a solid stone exterior, and casement windows with the drapes drawn tight.

“Jesus, this looks like something straight out of Colonial times,” I murmured, staring at the mansion in awe.

I mean, yeah, I knew it was supposed to be there, but knowing that in my mind and watching it appear before my eyes were two different things. I really needed to get used to this magic stuff.

“It
is
something straight out of Colonial times.” There was a touch of amusement in Maddock’s voice, and I glanced sideways at him. Was the cantankerous bastard actually warming up to me? “Now are ye going to stand there and gape at it like a tourist, or are we going in?”

“And here I was thinking you were actually being nice,” I muttered.

Maddock’s expression turned stony. “Don’t make the mistake of letting yer guard down around me, or any other fae, Detective. Humans are little more than chattel to my kind, a fact ye would do well to remember.”

I stiffened. “I’m not human, remember?”

His cold eyes blazed. “Even more reason for ye to be on yer guard. We tend to annihilate anything that could potentially be a threat.”

An icy shiver slid through me, and I turned away. So much for getting along. Maddock seemed determined to remind me that we were immortal enemies, or at least that we were supposed to be. Whether I was human or supernatural, it was apparent that I was still the enemy unless he needed me for something.

I scowled inwardly. Maybe that’s why Previous Lifetime Me didn’t care so much about using
him
. We approached the clearing, treading softly along the path that clove its way through the tall grass and up to the front entrance of the house. The sense we were being watched through the sightless windows crawled up my spine, and the feeling grew more intense the closer we got. But there was no stopping now. We were here.

By unspoken agreement, Maddock took the back of the house while I took the front. There was nobody around, not so much as a mouse scurrying through the grass. It was impossibly quiet, like the calm before the storm that was sure to break as soon as we entered the house.

Maddock circled back around to the front and gave me the all clear signal. I drew my weapon, checked that it was loaded, then approached the front door. The porch creaked beneath our boots, and the wind picked up speed, whipping my hair in a frenzy around my face.

And then the door burst open.

A woman with long, fiery red hair rushed out. She was dressed head-to-toe in black, and her outstretched hand glowed with yellow-red energy that she flung in my direction. I squeezed off a shot, and she staggered back through the open doorway, a bloody red hole in her forehead. The energy died in her fingertips as she collapsed into the darkness of the house, and I blinked, surprised that I’d actually killed her. I thought she’d use her magic to deflect the shot or something, but apparently not.

I guessed bullets worked on witches, too.

“Fuck,” Maddock hissed. He grabbed my free hand and pulled me through the door, leaping over the body of the dead witch as he did so. Inside was a large foyer, and past that a main hall with couches and chairs and tables from another time.

Curved stairways led to a balcony on the second floor, and more women rushed down the stairs, their faces illuminated by wall sconces that held flickering candles. Their hands glowed with energy, and I raised my gun, hoping I could take down a few more before they launched their magical missiles at us.

“Stay back!” Maddock growled, shoving me out of the way.

He raised his own hand and spoke quickly. A large blue shield shimmered into existence, surrounding us in a protective cocoon. Just in time, too, as several of the witches loosed the glowing balls of energy they’d been building in their hands. Purple, green, orange and more splashed against the shield as they converged on us.

“Shoot them!” Maddock yelled. “Take them out while I cover you!”

I did as I was told, aiming for the closest witch. I took her out with a shot to the heart, and she crumpled, revealing angry brethren just behind her. Planting my feet wide, I squeezed out shot after shot, taking down as many as I could while Maddock simultaneously deflected their blasts and returned fire with his other hand. I needed to focus on the fight, so I tried not to think about how awe-inspiring he was. But it was difficult. After all, it must take an extraordinary amount of energy to simultaneously defend and attack.

“You think you’re so powerful,” one of the witches spat as she pushed herself to the forefront. Anger burned hot in my chest as I realized it was the blonde I’d seen in my visions. “But you are only one, while we are many.” A wicked smile curved her perfect red lips as she eyed Maddock up and down. “You will fall, fae, just like the many who have come before you.”

She joined hands with her sisters, and they began chanting. Maddock tried to blast them, but other witches closed ranks, deflecting Maddock’s blows and returning them with more blasts. One of the blonde’s blasts, however, sliced right through Maddock’s shield with such resounding force that the explosion of energy catapulted us to opposite sides of the room.

My shoulder crashed into a wall, shooting pain all the way down into my hands so suddenly that I nearly dropped my gun. Through the chaos and the crowd of witches, I couldn’t see Maddock from where I’d impacted the wall.

I lifted my gun despite the pain in my shoulder and shot two more. But as I tried to shoot a third, my gun clicked empty. Frantically, I grabbed for my second magazine, fumbling in my efforts to reload as fast as possible. I fired enough shots to take down some of the witches between Maddock and I, then bolted to his side. He started trying to get the shield up, but that was the same moment a blindingly bright glow surrounded the chanting witches, and it just didn’t take.

Maddock looked at me and shook his head, and he didn’t have to say it. I knew. That shield wasn’t going back up until Maddock’s energy regenerated. The witches advanced now in hordes, and I aimed my reloaded gun right at them.

“Oh, no you don’t!” I shouted, as I shot one of them in the throat. I aimed again, but somebody sideswiped me and I staggered, thrown by the unexpected blow. My gun clattered to the floor.

“Enough with the bullets.” A witch with black hair and burgundy lips sneered. Her eyes glowed red in the darkness as she lifted a blazing hand toward me. “Let’s see if you’ve got what it really takes to be one of us.”

“To
be
one of you?” I shouted as I ducked her blast. I tried to make a grab for my gun, but another witch kicked it across the room, advancing on me as well. “Why the fuck would I want to do that?”

“Because you
want
to belong, and the only place you belong is among us.”

More witches approached, closing ranks around me, but strangely enough, only the blonde raised her hand again. The rest stood at the ready, clearly able to attack if needed, but not making any moves. Not that I was complaining—but why hadn’t they killed me already?

As I glanced over at Maddock, who was fighting off his own pack of wolves—or rather, witches—the blonde scoffed.

“Why do you worry about him?” she snapped. “He is not on your side, Brooke Chandler. He is fae—he is our enemy. You belong with us.”

I turned slowly to face her. “I don’t know who I belong with, but it’s most definitely not with you.”

Her expression turned ugly, and she blasted me, shouting the words to some kind of enchantment. I threw myself to the side, but the blast grazed me, and my left arm went numb. The witches I stumbled into shoved me back into the center of the strange little mosh pit we’d formed, and somehow I knew that the spell the blonde tried to hit me with was intended to paralyze me.