The Shadows Trilogy (Box Set: Edge of Shadows, Shadows Deep, Veiled Shadows) (30 page)

Suddenly, David found himself pinned against the back wall, choking for air. Mikel’s fingers were wrapped around his windpipe and David’s toes were barely touching the ground. David felt his skin warming underneath Mikel’s fingers, and then it started to burn. He cried out, unable to help himself. Then he was free and he fell heavily to the floor. He grabbed at his throat and winced as he found the raised skin. He glared up at Mikel, who was watching him with a small smile on his face.

“At some point I am confident you will remember that threatening me, or things that are important to me, is not your wisest course of action. Consider that a gentle reminder. I can see that you aren’t ready yet. I’m going to leave you to think things over a bit longer. Perhaps next time, you’ll be more amenable to talking with me.”

With that, Mikel was gone. And the window was gone. And if it was possible, the room was hotter than it was before. David slowly got to his feet and stumbled into the bathroom. In the mirror, he could see the clear outline of five fingers across his throat, burned into his skin.

David started to shake. He was afraid for himself, but now more than ever, he was afraid for Ellie.

CHAPTER FOUR

After hearing Jeffrey’s toast, Ellie was stunned and speechless. As if sensing that she was on the brink of a devastating epiphany, Jeffrey refilled her tea cup and left the room, saying something about making her dinner. Ellie barely acknowledged him. Her mind was full of the implications of what he had said.

It was true that Ellie didn’t have a lot to return to her previous life for, especially if David was here with her. Whether she cared to admit it or not, when she was taking care of the mansion for Lillian it had quickly started to feel like the home she always wanted. It was frightening how the house resonated with a place deep inside her.

The walls vibrated with a warm energy and a promise of something far grander than her small little life. There was a part of her that wanted it, that craved that feeling that she belonged. What did that mean for her? What did that mean about her? She shuddered to think that the mansion and its inhabitants had exploited her weakness and used them against her so neatly. There was so much more that she didn’t know about herself and that idea scared her.

She tried to still her hands as she reached over to grasp the tea cup, but cried out as midway to her lips the cup was upended. Just before it hit the carpet, a hand appeared from nowhere and caught it. Ellie found herself staring into the greenest eyes she had ever seen. A red-haired man was there beside her and set the cup gently into her hands. He smiled.

“You are looking a bit lost,” he said.

The voice was familiar, but Ellie couldn’t quite place it. The man was so close to her that she could smell his aftershave. It reminded her of citrus and wood. Though it wasn’t unpleasant, she scooted down toward the other end of the couch.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m not usually so clumsy. Do we know each other?” It seemed a silly question given the circumstances, but Ellie couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere.

The man settled on the edge of the couch, giving her plenty of space. Ellie tried to figure out where he had come from. Strange things happened around the mansion, so figures appearing suddenly should have been nothing new to her. Ellie had seen ghosts emerge from its walls. Was he another ghost that she hadn’t met yet? He just smiled at her.

“I’m sure Jeffrey is going to be right back,” she said as she carefully placed the tea cup back on the coffee table. Could someone run from a ghost? She craned a look over her shoulder at the door leading to the hallway, willing the old man to appear.

“I’m so sorry. I have such bad manners of late,” the man said. He stood and offered his hand to her. “Ellie, I’m your host. You may call me Mikel.”

Ellie was on her feet backing away from him before he even finished saying his name. He followed her with a small smile on his face, like a panther stalking its prey. Ellie’s back hit the bookcase, indicating she had reached one of the walls. She couldn’t go any further, but she slid down the wall toward the corner, never taking her eyes off of Mikel.

“Ellie, it hurts my feelings that you are acting this way,” Mikel said as he continued to slowly approach her. “I have done nothing to you to warrant such a reaction. I saved your life. I thought we were partners.”

Ellie shook her head. “Where’s David? What do you want?” She reached the corner where the bookcases met and by this time Mikel was standing right in front of her. He leaned in and put his arms out on either side of her. Ellie stood as still as she could. She didn’t want him to touch her. But his eyes wouldn’t let hers go.

“Oh, Ellie. You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you,” Mikel said. He studied her face and Ellie felt faint. She had no idea what to do. While it was true that Mikel had not harmed her, he had maneuvered her into a lose-lose situation. He had a hand in Jake’s death. He was the enemy.

Then she saw it. It was so transparent that she almost missed it, but it was there. Mikel had an aura, an aura that burned bright red all around him. Ellie didn’t have to be even slightly gifted to understand what that meant and it only confirmed what she already knew. Mikel was dangerous, and Ellie was in trouble.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ellie said. Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Of course you do,” Mikel said. “You may not remember right now, but lucky for you I am a patient man. I have all the time in the world. You and I made a deal, and now I’m ready to collect.”

Ellie felt the force of his gaze push deep inside her, as if he was trying to squash every bit of resistance he could find. At the last moment something burst in her mind and compelled her to duck under Mikel’s arm. She bolted back to the center of the room.

Taking a deep breath, she spun back to face him and was shocked to find that he was right behind her. He moved fast. She put up a hand but was careful not to actually touch him. “Stop,” she said.

Mikel cocked his head as if he misunderstood her. “What?”

“I said, stop,” she repeated. Ellie had no idea where the will to resist him was coming from, but she knew that he was someone who likely always got his way. She had to fight back, because if she gave in to him now she’d be lost forever. Even though Ellie didn’t know her purpose yet, she understood that based on his words, she had some kind of leverage. Leverage she could use to negotiate. This was the time to do what she had to do to gain the biggest advantage for herself. She knew she was gambling, but Ellie was ready play the game, for her and David’s sake. She had to be.

Mikel took a step back and Ellie felt a small flash of satisfaction. He hadn’t expected her to fight back. He thought she was weak. And for most of her life she had been, but the stakes were too high for her to back down.

“You made a deal,” Mikel said soothingly. “I know that idea may scare you, but a partnership with me is hardly a bad thing. I am going to give you everything that you ever wanted, and what I ask for in return is so small it’s hardly worth mentioning.”

Ellie had a feeling that “small thing” was going to give her nightmares. She nodded. “I know. I made a deal to stay here and help you. In exchange, you would spare my life and David’s by getting rid of Lillian and Joseph. But surely you don’t think that my agreeing to help you was any kind of acceptance of who you are and what you do.”

“Ah,” Mikel said, shaking his head. “It’s a bit late to be negotiating, Ellie. I already saved your life. And your precious David’s. You will do whatever I ask like a good little girl.”

Ellie felt a flutter of fear in her stomach because she knew that he had a point. In that last terrifying moment, as she was staring at Lillian and knowing that she was about to die, she didn’t have time to understand what the consequences of her decision would truly mean for her. She had to achieve an understanding with Mikel; otherwise, she might as well be dead. Which gave her an idea.

“I am sure that things would be much easier for both of us if I go into this willingly. You need me. You’ve said it yourself. I won’t fight you on anything as long as you agree to a few small conditions of my own.”

Ellie paused to let her words sink in. Then she put on her most charming smile and perched on the arm of the couch. She let her leg swing casually, and said a silent thanks to Roni for forcing her to learn to use even a small part of her feminine wiles. Although Mikel was something far darker, he walked in a man’s body. She had to assume that he had the same human male weaknesses.

Mikel seemed unsure of himself for the slightest fraction of a second. Then the smile returned to his face and Ellie’s stomach sank. “I would agree, Ellie, that things are much easier
for you
if you willingly participate. You forget that I hold all the cards and currently, you hold none.”

The meaning of the threat was obvious. Mikel had David. The last thing that Ellie wanted to do was put David at risk, much less put him in a position where his life was held by the thread of Ellie holding up her end of the bargain. But living life as a slave to this demon wasn’t really a life at all, and Ellie hoped that her gamble would now pay off. She needed to push and find out the real boundaries for her here.

Ellie turned and fled to the fireplace. She threw her hands into the fire. Immediately, the flames licked her skin and caught like a million hungry mouths but she bit her lip to stifle the scream. Then rough hands were dragging her away from the fire and she felt the tingle of a cool mist calming her burned skin. She looked down and saw that her hands rested in Mikel’s grasp. She shivered and looked up. He was staring intently at her.

“What are these small conditions, Ellie?” His voice was weary, with none of the anger that she anticipated.

“I want to know that David is safe. And I don’t want to kill anyone for you, ever,” she said softly. “I am not like Lillian. I will never be like Lillian, and no one, not even you, can make me do that.”

There was a long pause, and Ellie wanted to pull her hands from his, but couldn’t. There was just enough firmness there that she knew he would fight her. He wasn’t done with her yet. He kneaded her flesh for a few more moments and then released them. A shade of a smile flitted across his face as he saw her look of amazement at the glowing, healthy skin that had replaced the burned tissue.

“I know you aren’t like Lillian, Ellie. I wouldn’t have chosen you if you were. You are so much more than she ever could be. David is safe, and I promise you will see him again soon. You have my word. Killing isn’t necessary for what I require from you. Perhaps it was just that Lillian and Joseph got a bit…overzealous over the years,” Mikel’s eyes seemed to grow larger and Ellie gulped and looked away. “Is there anything else, Ellie?”

She looked over her shoulder and shook her head.

“Then I can count on you to listen closely to everything that Jeffrey tells you, and do everything that he says?”

Ellie nodded slowly. Suddenly her chin was in his hand and she found herself staring into his eyes again. An electrifying wave of warmth shot down her spine.

“Ellie, you must not ever try to do something so stupid as to harm yourself again. I don’t think you fully understand the ramifications of that action, and so I am going to be blunt. You are not dead here, in this place. And if you ever expect to cross over to a plane of existence that would fit the description of heaven that you humans so love to talk about, then you cannot end your life in a place such as this. You would forfeit your right to that garden of eternal bliss. Do you understand?”

Ellie realized that she was playing a dangerous game indeed, but Mikel had just answered several questions that had been spinning around in her mind. Unfortunately, he had also just given her about a dozen more. But now wasn’t the time to ask questions.

“Yes,” she said simply. Moments later she found herself sitting on the couch once again, right where she had been when Mikel had first appeared. Mikel was framed in the doorway that led to the hall, watching her.

“Until we meet again, Ellie,” he said, mockingly bowing his head toward her.

“Ellie?” Jeffrey’s voice called from the other room. “I have prepared some food for you. I expect you’re hungry.”

Ellie’s stomach growled in response and she put her hand to her stomach and the other to her chest. Her heart was racing. She had rolled the dice and won this hand. Now it was time to watch, listen, and learn. All things she was very good at. Ellie stood up and found Jeffrey standing in the doorway with a look of concern on his face.

“Thank you, Jeffrey. I am feeling a bit famished,” she said. She felt invisible eyes watching her as she left the room, but she didn’t turn around.

CHAPTER FIVE

David was still berating himself for letting Mikel get the better of him. His perception of time had once again phased to nothing more than a bitter understanding of the experience of heat and ice. He dreamed of being stranded on a polar ice cap. He hoped that his brashness hadn’t cost him ever seeing Ellie again. Instead, he focused on trying to fill the holes in his memories. Now he knew that they were there. It just required him to scrape beneath the surface of whatever spell had been cast to keep them away from him.

Even though he couldn’t see a landscape beyond the confines of the walls of the room, his inner circadian rhythm told him that it was nighttime. He didn’t know if he could trust it or not, but he was grateful for any reminder that he was still bound by a somewhat normal human existence. When he felt that tug, he slept. It was a small thing, but one that comforted him.

He sat in his corner staring at the wall where the window had appeared during Mikel’s visit. The wallpaper looked exactly the same as it had when he entered the room, but he sensed something different about it. Unable to focus now, he found that his eyes kept returning to that spot. He curled up on the floor, ready to give himself over to another dreamless sleep, but his eyes fluttered open to stare there. It was like his subconscious was trying to tell him something, but he didn’t understand the message. He forced his thoughts toward sleep and a welcome escape, faulty sham as it was, but an escape. That was when he saw it.

He sat up and peered in the gloom of the room. He thought it was his imagination, but then he saw it again. The wallpaper bulged ever so slightly from the wall and then returned to its previous flat state. Suddenly he was certain that he wasn’t alone anymore. Was this one of Mikel’s tricks?

David slowly got up from the floor and moved toward the wall. He took a step back, watching with wide eyes as the wall bulged again, this time very clearly pushing several inches into the room. It wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him at all. Something was on the other side of the wall. Then the wall sank back into itself, as if nothing had ever been there.

Tired of unanswered questions, David strode to the wall and placed his palm on the spot. “Who’s there?” he demanded in a voice that sounded more confident than he felt.

As if to answer his question, the wall pushed out against his hand. He snatched his hand away and then watched the paper split right where his palm had rested seconds before. David took in a deep breath as the wall returned to its flattened state. He waited for a few more minutes, but nothing else happened. He took his hand and traced the split in the paper, which looked to be about six inches long. Cautiously he took one side of the paper into his fingers and pulled.

A thick piece of wallpaper about two inches wide pulled away from the wall easily and David dropped it on the floor. Underneath the wallpaper was a black-and-white shiny surface, but he couldn’t make out what it was. Excited, he started to rip away at the paper and moments later, he was rewarded with an image. It was a photograph of two people, a man and a woman. Judging by the clothes, the picture had been taken a long time ago. But the resemblance of the man in the picture to David’s own face made him feel like someone had sucker punched him. The woman in the photograph he recognized, having seen her ghostly image with Ellie on that last night. The woman was his mother, which meant that he was staring at a picture of his parents, Henry and Emma Decatur. He had never met them.

His parents had been killed the night he was born by his aunt and uncle, Lillian and Joseph Bradford, in a blood ritual that ushered in the whole dark cycle that eventually closed itself around him and Ellie. As far as he knew, that same ritual where they perished had bound him to the Bradford mansion. His destiny was intertwined with it. David slammed his palm into the wall above the picture and stared into his mother’s face.

“Why?” he asked, not expecting a response. He hated that everything he knew about himself was a lie. David had no idea what was real in his head and what might have been plugged in there, and that thought was terrifying.

Then he saw it. A small sharp corner that touched the bottom of the photograph. He realized that there was more hidden under the wallpaper. Even though it caused sweat to intensify and stream down his body, that discomfort was soon forgotten as David hacked and pulled and shredded the paper on the wall in front of him. Soon he had cleared away the entire section from the corner to the fireplace. As he stood back in the piles of shredded pale blue paper at his feet he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

There were pictures everywhere. In every one of them, David saw an image that he recognized as himself. It was a gigantic collage of his life. David as a toddler, David as a young boy, David as a teenager, and as he approached the photos closer to the fireplace, David found images of himself at or near the age he was now. His life was captured there in front of him. There were pictures of all shapes and sizes, showing an obvious shift in time from the first pictures to the last. But the only thing that remained constant was that each picture was taken inside the Bradford mansion.

If David had required any further proof that every memory he had prior to arriving on the doorstep of Ellie’s coffee shop had been a lie, it was on the wall in front of him. But along with his face, hundreds of others stared back at him that he didn’t recognize. He took a step closer to the wall and scanned the photos. It didn’t take him long to find them: Lillian and Joseph were there with him in more than half of them. But while David’s face was always normal, he saw what looked like a superimposed image of a skeletal face over each of theirs. He traced the pictures across the wall, watching himself grow, and Lillian and Joseph age and get young, age and get young. But always their bones and red eyes sat there, right beneath the surface.

David touched his own face in one of them. He guessed that he was eight or nine years old, and he was sitting on the grand staircase in the front foyer of the mansion. Lillian sat on the step below him, looking up at him with a smile on her face. He was laughing and pointing at something behind the camera. He looked...happy.

He looked at another one. In this one, he was slightly older. He was sitting in the library with a huge book settled across his lap. A man he didn’t know sat beside him and it looked like David was reading to him. The man had a lowball glass in his hand and was looking intently over David’s shoulder pointing at something in the book. In the background, David could see a woman reshelving an armful of books. He had no idea who she was either.

David reviewed the pictures quickly, looking for any clues to his life, but saw nothing but a life that looked normal. He looked happy and was often smiling. But the multitude of strange faces in the pictures with him gave him great trepidation. He knew that Lillian and Joseph had been serving Mikel in the mansion for a long time, but was he not only looking at a visual past of his forgotten childhood, but a roster of Lillian and Joseph’s victims?

“What part did I play in all of this?” he whispered. David was afraid of the answer. When someone is raised by soul-sucking monsters, how is it possible not to be as nefarious and evil as they were?

His knees buckled and he fell to the floor, wrapping his arms around his torso taking it all in. He had expected to see a sign that he was a victim to his fate. But there was nothing like that in the pictures at all. He was left with two conclusions: either Lillian and Joseph had hidden the truth of what they were and what they were doing from him for all of those years, or he had willingly participated in their schemes to rip people’s souls from their bodies and feed them to any one of the attending parties that seemed to require that kind of energy.

The implications of the latter weighed heavily on him. David’s pretend life, as he was starting to think of it, was dedicated to helping people rid themselves of sickness and disease. He loved being a doctor. He vividly remembered the looks of gratitude on the faces of his patients when he told them that they were going to be okay. It was the best feeling in the world. That person, the person that he thought he was, couldn’t have been someone who would have helped Lillian and Joseph cause these people an infinite amount of pain.

In his ears, David could still hear Jenny Marks’ screams when Joseph took her soul and the soul of the infant son that David had just delivered. Even though he had been deep in a calming trance Lillian had cast on him, the horror of witnessing that event was branded on his soul. It was not something that David wanted any part of ever again, but he didn’t know if he was going to have any choice. He wondered if Ellie was going to be forced to do something like that now, and he worried about her.

“Oh, my poor conflicted Jack.”

It was like David’s thoughts had brought Lillian Bradford into being. David shot to his feet and found her there, studying him.

“My name isn’t Jack. And you’re in hell,” David said warily. “I watched that
thing
banish you. So it’s not possible for you to be here.” She looked just like David remembered. Her white hair was elegantly drawn up into a bun at the base of her neck. Pearls encircled her throat, and she wore a pale red pantsuit. She looked ready to go to an afternoon ladies’ brunch. Lillian had always overdressed for every occasion. David wondered how he ever could have believed that a woman like this would have been content working in Ellie’s coffee shop. Obviously an ulterior motive had been involved.

Lillian shrugged and then smiled. That was when David saw the monster lurking there underneath her smooth skin. It was just like in the pictures. Then it was gone. “You will learn soon enough that Mikel will use you as he sees fit and only while you are useful to him. When that ceases, he will cast you aside without a second thought. But that doesn’t mean that he won’t come back and take you if he finds use for you again. Joseph and I, we are bound to Mikel forever. In hell or whatever plane of existence we find ourselves on. That was the deal we made for ourselves.”

“The same deal that Ellie made?” David choked.

Lillian’s eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t privy to that bargain myself. Seems Mikel became infatuated with her. I should have known. All of the effort he put into finding and securing that piece of weak trash makes me sick.”

David’s fists balled at his sides. “Don’t talk about Ellie like that.”

Lillian stepped closer to him with a concerned look on her face. “Jack, dear, I’m not here to talk about Ellie. I’m here to talk about you. To help you.”

David retreated to the far corner of the room. “I seriously doubt that. Whatever game you are playing, I’m not interested. I’ve got other things to worry about right now than you trying to sway me to your side.”

Although her lips pursed and she frowned, Lillian said nothing. Instead, she turned to the wall of photos and David watched her run her fingers over several of them until they came to rest on the one of his parents. She pulled it from the wall and looked at it for several moments. “We gave you a life that my sister never could have dreamed of. You have immortality within your grasp. You can have your every desire fulfilled and you don’t ever have to want for anything. It’s a heady thing, Jack. It’s what I always wanted for you.”

David lunged forward and swiped the photo from her hands. “I wouldn’t have chosen this life. The person who would want all of those things isn’t who I am. And my name is David, not Jack.”

Lillian threw back her head and laughed. Then she pointed at the pictures on the wall. “Who you are is my son, Jack. You were born and raised in our house. Believe what you will, but you were by my side every step of the way. You were marvelous at twisting those we needed just the right way so that Joseph and I were able to squeeze every last drop of vitality from them. I was so proud of you.”

David put his hands to his ears. “No.”

Then she was there in front of him pulling his hands down. She smelled like lilacs and peppermint, and it filled his nostrils. In an instant it all flashed before him. Every memory, every thought, every laugh, every game. Because that’s all David had ever known it to be: a game that he played with his parents. Then the images were gone but it was like the hole in his head was no longer there. He remembered.

“This can’t be happening,” he moaned.

Lillian reached up and stroked David’s cheek. “Don’t despair, my dear one. I’ve given you back everything you wanted. You do not have to be lost anymore.” She put her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. He didn’t have the strength to push her away.

Over the top of her head, David saw Joseph standing there in front of a door. It was next to the door that went into the bathroom. Joseph opened it and gestured to it. Lillian stepped to the side and gave David a small push against his back.

“Go on, now,” she said. “You’ve been waiting to see your beloved Ellie.” Her tone was sour, but David suddenly didn’t care. If Ellie waited on the other side of the door, he would do whatever they asked.

As he passed Joseph, he glanced over and saw the monster’s face had fully emerged on the man’s shoulders. He gasped and shot through the door. He was greeted by a blinding light.