The Shadows Trilogy (Box Set: Edge of Shadows, Shadows Deep, Veiled Shadows) (51 page)

“I’m not going to leave you here, David. It’s my fault you are in the Afterlife to begin with. Look, I understand that there’s a lot of stuff that we need to figure out, but we can do that together at the waypoint. I have a plan, or least, the beginning of a plan. Like I said, we’re still working out the details.”

David took Ellie’s hands in his and then his eyes lifted to hers. “Ellie, you aren’t understanding what I’m telling you. I don’t
want
you to try to save me.”

Ellie thought for a moment that the blow to her head was affecting her hearing. “What do you mean, David? Why would you want to stay here?”

David looked over her shoulder and Ellie had that scary sense of déjà vu again. It made her want to turn her head and see what he was looking at. “You made your deal with Mikel. I made my deal with Lillian, and I’m fine with it. It’s for the best.”

He started to pull his hands away, but Ellie grabbed them. “What are you talking about? What deal with Lillian? Lillian’s dead. Mikel killed her when he brought us into the way point, remember?”

Ellie felt her throat clench. If Lillian Bradford was alive, that was not a good thing for Ellie. Not a good thing at all. Lillian was the type of woman to hold a grudge, and Ellie was certain that with the part that she played in Lillian’s unseating as the Guardian of the Bradford waypoint, she would be out for blood. Ellie’s blood.

David’s hands slid from hers and Ellie immediately felt hollow inside. His touch kept her grounded. He stood and took a few steps, putting space between them, before turning to face her. “Lillian is not dead. She’s very much alive. She helped me see that this is where I belong.”

“You belong with me, and we belong on the Other Side,” Ellie said firmly. “You don’t belong here.”

“No,” David shook his head. “I’m sorry for whatever I led you to believe was going on between us, Ellie, but you have to know by now that what we had wasn’t real.”

Ellie stared at him in shock. “Wasn’t real? Are you saying that you don’t love me? You couldn’t have been faking that. The way we felt about each other gave the waypoint the energy it needed. Your aunt may have set things in motion, but I fell for you nonetheless. There’s nothing false about how I feel about you.”

David averted his eyes from her face. Ellie stood and was shocked to watch David take a few more steps back from her. “It wasn’t any different than Joseph and Lillian. They cared about each other in their own twisted way, and that was enough for the waypoint for awhile. Why do you think Mikel forced you to reap psychic gifts after you arrived? He knew that what we had was like a dying battery. He needed you to be strong with the collected psychic abilities to do what you and I couldn’t do because what we had wasn’t built on anything real. It wasn’t sustainable.”

“Why are you saying this?” Ellie’s voice was a whisper. She had gone numb. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that David would brush her aside.

“I’m saying this for your own good, Ellie,” David said. His voice held no emotion. “If you had just stayed away, like you were supposed to, you would have been able to keep your romantic dream of what you and I supposedly had together. It’s your own fault that you tried to do something so stupid as to come here to
save
me. That’s pretty arrogant, Ellie. Mikel really blew your head up about how special you were, didn’t he?”

David’s words cut Ellie to the bone and her anger flared, but she kept it in check. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do mean that. You are running around and putting your nose where it doesn’t belong. I mean really, you’d think you’d learn. That’s what got you into this mess in the first place. You were an easy target. You almost made it too easy. Lillian was right about you. You are weak.”

The sound of the slap rang out and bounced against the walls of the small room. Ellie saw her handprint outlined on David’s cheek. “Now that your memory has returned, I see that you are more like Lillian than I ever imagined, cruel and malicious. I am not weak. If anything, the little games you played at my expense have proved that to me because I am still here and not some crumbling mess in the corner. I don’t need you. If this is where you want to be, then may you rot here or in Hell with your psycho aunt. I don’t care.”

“Everything okay in here?” Lucy’s eyes appeared on the other side of the small slit in the door.

“I’m ready to go, Lucy,” Ellie said. “Now!” She refused to cry in front of David and let him see how deep his words cut her, plus it was a sign of the very weakness that she said she no longer suffered from. Lucy was through the door and next to her before she could blink.

Ellie held up her hand. “Quick. I’m ready to go home.”

Lucy shook her head. “I can still feel your blood mingled with mine. You need a minute to say goodbye?”

“I do not,” Ellie snapped. She grabbed Lucy’s hand. “Chant. Now.”

Ellie closed her eyes and pretended that she couldn’t still sense David’s presence right next to her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him. She would forget that he ever existed. The warmth enveloped her again, but this time Ellie was ready for the tiny pinpricks of pain that accompanied the teleportation and she welcomed its distraction.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself staring into Lucy’s wide, confused eyes. She collapsed to the floor with tears streaming down her cheeks. Ellie was lost.

CHAPTER FIVE

David lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He felt as if his heart was being ripped out of his chest every time he recalled the horrified expression on Ellie’s face just before she slapped him. His cheek still tingled, and he wondered if he’d have a bruise. Ellie packed a hell of a wallop with the supernatural strength that came as part of being a Guardian. He deserved it. What he didn’t deserve was her.

Ellie was good and sweet and kind, regardless of what Mikel had done to change that when he sucked her into the dark place that was the Bradford mansion waypoint. David grew up in the waypoint, and only recently had those memories restored after his return from the Other Side. The people he knew as his parents, Joseph and Lillian Bradford, were evil people who stole him from his real parents right after his birth. The dark ritual that bound them all to the waypoint also threw David’s soul into some kind of spiritual limbo. Now he was told that he wasn’t even supposed to exist. He wondered how anyone was supposed to deal with that kind of mindbender and not go a little crazy.

It was David’s fault that Mikel trapped Ellie. David had been the lure, which Ellie fell for hook, line, and sinker in her vulnerable state after her divorce. It made David sick. His wish when Braz brought him to Purgatory was that Ellie would forget him. Her sudden appearance in his cell told him that she had not, and that was dangerous for both of them. Their love made them targets, so the sooner that bond was broken, the safer they would both be, but it hadn’t made it any easier for him.

Ellie left him no choice but to lash out at her. She had to let him go and move on. Keeping any ties to him could destroy her, and David would not let that happen. Now that he knew the danger he was to her, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even if it meant breaking her heart.

He was a bastard. The whole situation made him feel like he was swallowing a gallon of liquid bleach. It burned, and it wasn’t the only thing. Anger swelled inside of his chest. It was unfair. He hadn’t asked for the life that was thrust upon him. Everyone that loved him had been taken away. He was left with darkness, and in that darkness, there was Lillian.

As if her name crawling across his mind summoned her, the woman was standing at the foot of his bed looking down at him. David shot to his feet. “I wish you’d stop doing that,” he snapped.

Lillian looked perfect as she always did. Her naturally blond hair now moved toward silver, but it was pulled up in a smooth bun at the base of her neck. Even in her sweeping black blouse and slacks, she looked as ready to attend a luncheon as a trial in Hell. The skin of her face was unlined, even though she was over a hundred years old. Lillian’s life goal had been to escape death and stay young forever. So far as David could tell, she was doing a bang-up job succeeding in that, regardless of what that meant she had to do to achieve it.

Lillian Bradford was cold, ruthless, and evil. David couldn’t take his eyes off her for a second for fear he’d find a knife in his back. Whereas Lillian’s existence seemed immortal, he was fairly certain even though his was intertwined with hers in some dark way that his was not. Until he knew what the Afterlife meant to do with him, he needed to be vigilant.

Lillian’s mouth opened and then her eyes narrowed as she sniffed the air. “Have we had a visitor, David?”

“Unfortunately, only you,” David lied. He knew how Lillian felt about Ellie, and he didn’t dare mention her appearance. Ellie was supposed to be safely ensconced in the waypoint.

Lillian’s head swung around the room and settled on the spot where Ellie’s body hit the floor when she arrived. “I am almost certain that I smell a familiar perfume.”

David shrugged. “Probably yours. What do you want, Lillian?” He had to distract her from Ellie. He feverishly hoped that Ellie had gone back to the waypoint and not somewhere else. At least within the waypoint, David was confident that the rules of the Afterlife ensured that Lillian couldn’t touch her.

“Is that any way to greet your mother?” Lillian asked, holding her arms open.

David took a step backwards.  The thought of her touching him made his skin crawl. “You’re not my mother.”

Lillian’s arms fell to her sides, and a sour look crossed her face. “I raised you. I gave you a perfect childhood. You have a chance at immortality. I’d say I provided for you better than your real mother ever could have.”

“Well, I’ll never know, will I? You made sure of that.” David’s birth mother had been Lillian’s sister, Emma. The fact that he shared any blood relation with Lillian twisted at his insides. “And that perfect childhood included being possessed by a minion of Hell on a regular basis. Thanks for being so wholly unaware of that fact, by the way.”

It was Lillian’s turn to shrug. “So Mikel was keeping an eye on me.  I should have guessed. So what? You obviously suffered no ill effects from it.”

“It was an invasion of my body!” David yelled. “You used me in your little ploy to live forever. My blood. My soul. My life. You belong in Hell!”

“On that, at least, we agree,” Lillian said with a slow smile. She moved around the bed and sat down, lounging on it as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “They are close to deciding on Mikel’s successor, as soon as his trial is over it will be done. That one got a bit big for his britches. He has some serious explaining to do. I, of course, will be doing my duty in reporting his atrocities towards my family and me. Should be an easy decision.”

“You seemed to be willingly doing his bidding for the last hundred years. Or do you plan to try to sweep that under the rug?”

“I was biding my time, dear. You don’t get anywhere by acting like a bull in a china shop. I waited, watched, and learned. Unlike my dearly departed husband, I have patience. When I take over Mikel’s position, I will be a powerful ally for you. It would do you well not to forget that.” Lillian picked at a piece of imaginary lint on her pants.

David didn’t believe her coy act for a second. Lillian wanted David’s allegiance so that when the time came, and she made a far larger move, she would have him at her side. He didn’t understand why yet, but he knew he was an important cog in a much larger wheel.

“You are going to be asked to testify in Mikel’s trial,” Lillian said casually.

David could tell that she was watching his reaction carefully. “I will not.” David crossed his arms. “I want no part of anything that has to do with that
thing.”

“I’ve heard rumblings that they are going to require Ellie’s attendance as well. The allegations against Mikel are serious, and they’ll need further corroboration of what I’ve told them.”

David turned, not wanting Lillian to see the expression of hatred that crossed his face. His hands balled into fists. Images flashed through his mind of Mikel, while he was in possession of David’s body, touching Ellie and caressing her skin. Mikel manipulated Ellie into caring about him. When Lucy cast the spell that freed David from Mikel’s influence, David watched Ellie kiss Mikel to distract him from David’s sudden impenetrability. But David saw affection for Mikel in her eyes that she tried later to deny.

Then David was staring down at his bloody fist. He had driven it into the wall in his anger. “She shouldn’t be exposed to him any more than necessary. He’s done enough damage,” he said through clenched teeth.

Lillian’s hands covered his fist and a chill ran down the length of his arm. At that proximity, it was almost impossible for him to tear his eyes away from hers. “My poor David. Had I known what an impure and unworthy soul Ellie Coulter was, I wouldn’t have allowed Mikel to use you to draw her to us.”

David pulled his hand out of hers and took a step back. “It wasn’t Ellie’s fault. She thought she was saving me. How was she supposed to know that Mikel could possess my body? He was wearing my face when he interacted with her, how could she not feel something for him?”

Lillian raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t act like you though, did he? And yet, Ellie went along with him. Regardless of what Little Ms. Innocent says, she was drawn to Mikel, the
real
Mikel. He was encouraging her to embrace her darker gifts, and that is an incredible temptation. In a way, I understand it. He certainly is quite handsome and charismatic. But for a woman who was supposedly already in love, I found her behavior to be quite off-putting. Really you’re better off forgetting about her. I just wanted to warn you that she would be there.”

“You’re right,” David said. He felt a small measure of pleasure seeing Lillian’s jaw drop. He sensed that she wasn’t surprised often. “I did what you wanted me to do, which was draw her in so that you could siphon her energy. She proved herself to be fickle at best. I have a much larger destiny, and that is what I need to be focused on. Not some two-faced Guardian bitch.” The words tasted bitter, but he got them out.

Lillian slowly nodded and David watched the confusion dance in her eyes. “That’s right. I have to admit, David, that I am surprised at this sudden about face. You’ve been quite set on our little Ellie.”

David prowled the small room, eager for the chance to put some space between himself and Lillian. He was afraid she’d be able to see right through him. He sighed heavily. “I’m ready to get out of here. I’m ready to move on. Ellie is the past. When are they going to make a decision about my future here?”

“Soon, David, soon. Once I have taken Mikel’s position I will be able to speed that decision along. You have to trust me. I have no intention of leaving you in here for eternity.”

“Why can’t they let me out now? It’s not like I can go anywhere.”

“Braz feels it’s safer for you here. There are others out there who would do you harm, and the rumors have already begun to spread.”

That news drew David up short. “How?” He thought that he knew, but he was sure that Lillian wouldn’t admit to it. It would be just like Lillian to stir up trouble hoping to find an advantage that she could use to her benefit. “I thought this was all top secret, hush-hush.”

“Braz is pretty upset about it,” Lillian said shaking her head. “He can only assume that one of the guards said something. But it’s a good thing, in my opinion. This forces them to move faster than they might have before.”

“What exactly do the “others” think they can do with me?” It was the question that had plagued David since his arrival in Purgatory. He didn’t think that Lillian would tell him the truth because Lillian didn’t know how to tell the truth, but he still had to ask.

She looked away from him as if deep in thought. David knew that she was calculating exactly what to tell him, weighing each word for its potential impact, and trying to decide what information would ensure his continued cooperation. Then her blue eyes met his full on, piercing him deep. “If the wrong people got their hands on you, David, they would use you to poke a hole into the very fabric of the Afterlife and reach through to the Other Side.”

Chills ran down David’s spine listening to Lillian’s words. “The waypoints already do that.”

“The Council rules the waypoints and all things that touch them. The entry of souls into the Afterlife, and out of it, is carefully monitored and controlled. Imagine the power someone would have if they didn’t need the waypoints. They just needed
you
.”

He wished he could tell if Lillian was telling the truth. “How could someone do something like that? And if that was the case, why didn’t Mikel do that?”

“Mikel already had access to the waypoints. He was saving you for other purposes. Plus Mikel is smart. He was looking to stage a coup of the Afterlife. But who knows? Once he accomplished that he may have planned to use you to move to the Other Side.”

Like drawing Ellie in
, David thought.

“I still don’t understand how that is possible,” David said. “Everyone keeps saying I’m not supposed to exist, but clearly I do. I am a person, a human being.”

Lillian glided to his side and put a hand on his arm. His muscle twitched, but he resisted the urge to pull away. “You’ve never been human, David. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

As her words rolled over him, he felt the wild desire to strike her. He wanted to wipe her fake sympathetic smile off of her face. He couldn’t reconcile what she said with his image of himself. It didn’t fit, which is why he refused to believe it. Just as he was getting ready to retort, Lillian’s head cocked to the side. A frown blossomed on her face.

“Braz is on his way. He is likely coming to tell you about Mikel’s trial. Remember what I said, David. The sooner we get Mikel’s trial out of the way, the sooner I can help get you out of here. Be cooperative. You only need to speak the truth, and I’ll make sure to take care of the rest.”

David was surprised when Lillian stepped close to him and wrapped her arms around his chest and pulled him close. He didn’t return the embrace, but didn’t push her away even though he wanted to. He smelled lavender. It was Lillian’s signature scent. Goosebumps spread across his forearms.

Then she pulled away from him with a slight frown and then faded away right in front of him. David shook his head, wishing that he had imagined the last hour. Between Ellie’s hurt and Lillian’s manipulations, he felt like he was going to go crazy.

“How are you today, David?”

David saw Braz’s friendly eyes looking at him through the slit in the door. Braz stopped by every day. As much as Braz was his jailor, David was coming to like Purgatory’s representative to the waypoint Council.