The Shadows Trilogy (Box Set: Edge of Shadows, Shadows Deep, Veiled Shadows) (62 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

David fell back in his chair and stared at Alain. He felt better seeing an equal expression of shock on Lillian’s face. At least he wasn’t the only one who had been thrown for a curveball.

“Alain, you’ve never mentioned your…relationship…with Ellie before,” Lillian said. “This is quite a surprise.”

“Why would I have told you, especially given your own interest in her?” Alain said with a small chuckle. “I had been content to let things play out where my granddaughter is concerned, although I have tried to insert some influence here and there to ensure that when the time came, she would choose to align herself with Hell.”

“That’s why you didn’t interfere when Mikel pulled her into the Afterlife,” David said.

“Intriguing topic. Mikel,” Alain said, pushing his chair back from the desk. He moved over to a side table and opened a small wooden box, pulling out a fat cigar. “Would you like one?” he offered to David.

David shook his head. His mind was trying to fit all of the pieces together. He wondered if Veronica knew about this man’s connection to Ellie. Then he wondered if he had been set-up again.  “I don’t smoke.”

“Shame. I enjoy celebrating with a good cigar. It is one of the few finer things I have found offered on the Other Side,” Alain said. He busied himself snipping off the end and then seemed to take forever lighting it.

Then Alain walked around their chairs, and both David and Lillian were forced to shift to watch him. “My granddaughter seems to have an innate ability for attracting darkness into her life. I’d like to think that is a credit to my lineage within her. Her mother was the same way. I had hoped for a much different life for her. So tell me, David, how does Ellie feel about Mikel?”

The mention of Mikel’s name made David angry. “She hates him and everything he stands for. He used her and manipulated her to make her do things that she wouldn’t have done on her own. She sees him for what he is, a monster.”

“Quite a passionate response for one who is ready to pledge his allegiance to the same side that Mikel serves. Does that make you any less of a monster?” Alain asked with a raised eyebrow.

Talking about Ellie distracted David from what he was supposed to be doing, and Alain’s subtle reminder made his spine straighten. He saw that Lillian was also watching him closely. He was being tested.

“Ellie was able to see past his physical use of my face. She did spend time with him, and I think may have forged an uneasy bond with him,” David said stiffly.

“You may have heard that Mikel escaped from his cell,” Alain said, taking a slow puff of his cigar. “I have reason to believe that it was Ellie who helped him.”

Although David wanted to declare that such a thing was laughable, he remembered that Lucy had been able to bring Ellie to his cell. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that their forays included a visit to Mikel.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” David said. “I’ve been held in Purgatory until quite recently as you already know. Then I made my way here.”

“With the assistance of Dane, yes, I heard,” Alain said. His nonchalant demeanor felt more threatening to David than if the older man had been staring him down. “So if my sources are to be believed, and Ellie did indeed manage to spring Mikel loose, why do you think she did that?”

“I don’t know,” David said through gritted teeth. “I haven’t spoken to her, so there is no way I would know.”

“Is it possible the bloom has fallen off the tree?” Alain now turned his full attention to David. “Lillian said that you and Ellie were completely in love with each other. This development is…noteworthy.”

David realized that his actions in pushing Ellie away may have very well set off a chain reaction that led her right into Mikel’s open arms. He wanted to kick himself. But he couldn’t tell Alain and Lillian about Ellie’s visit. He had to do what he could to protect her, even if he didn’t agree with her decisions.

“I have no hold over Ellie. In fact, I told her that right before Braz took me to Purgatory. She is free to make her own choices.”

“How noble of you,” Alain said. “Well, I wish I had the ability to see such things as what is going on in my granddaughter’s head. Unfortunately, I do not. I was hoping that when news reached Ellie’s ears that you declared loyalty to Hell that she would more easily be swayed to our side. But if her interests now lie with Mikel, I am going to be forced to cut a deal with a traitor. Not something I’m in the business of doing.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Lillian asked. “I can take him to her, and we can find out once and for all how she feels.”

While David’s heart leapt at the idea of seeing Ellie, that wasn’t his main focus. He had other things that he needed to do, and those things involved the two people in the room with him.

“So I’m assuming you are the one responsible for Ellie’s parents’ death?” David asked. He let the words fall and then waited. The silence that followed was deafening.

Alain stopped his pacing and then slowly walked around so that he was standing in front of David. Being seated, David was at a distinct disadvantage. Alain loomed over him, and his eyes had turned to the color of fire. “You dare make such an accusation of me? Do you know who you are talking to, boy?”

Although David’s insides were quivering, he didn’t let it affect his voice. “Actually, I have no idea who I’m talking to other than an old man who prefers to wait in the shadows and have other people do his dirty work for him.”

The strike came as David expected, but he was still unprepared for the brute strength behind it as it upended his chair and sent him flying across the room. His body struck the hard wall next to the door, and he bounced off and fell hard to the floor. It had sucked all the breath out of his lungs, but he was amazed to realize that other than the shock of the impact, no other part of him appeared to be injured. That was good. He stood and slowly shook himself to release the particles of dust that had attached to him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that he could make out the faint outline of where his body struck the wall. Alain packed a punch.

Alain was across the room in a flash and David found him standing toe to toe with him. With just inches separating them, he could feel the heat rolling off the older man. Alain’s eyes were blood red and David felt slightly off kilter staring into them.

“What is it that you think you know?” Alain asked. Although his voice had gone soft, casual even, David knew that it wasn’t an actual question but a demand.

“I can’t imagine you would have been happy finding out your daughter was in love with someone from Heaven,” David said. “Then they escaped to the other side to be together; the ultimate betrayal.”

“Milla was special. She had a bright future here, even recruiting souls like Mikel’s for the legions of Hell. It was an unfortunate turn of events when she was blinded by that upstart,” Alain spewed. “What happened is unnatural. What they produced is nothing short of an abomination.”

“Yet an abomination that you want on your side,” David said. This time, expecting the strike, he ducked and pivoted out of the way. He heard Lillian’s cry and he moved again just as Alain’s fist jutted past the space where his jaw had just been. He put up his hands. “You’ve got it all wrong, Alain. I’m just trying to get a sense of who I’m going to be working for here. I’m not judging.”

Alain held his fist up, ready to strike. “I could use magic against you, you know. But I prefer the hands on approach.”

“You could use your magic to blow me to smithereens. I get it,” David said trying to sound conciliatory. So far Alain’s actions had confirmed every suspicion he had. Even if the man didn’t admit it out loud, he was the reason Ellie ended up an orphan. “Like I said, I think we got off on the wrong foot. You asked about Ellie. You have to admit that it isn’t all that strange that I would be curious about the influence you’ve had in her life, especially as you say you want to coerce her into the darkness.”

Alain slowly lowered his fist. He seemed to be considering. Then his face broke out in a wry grin. “You are clever. Lillian boasted more than once about that.”

David was relieved. Lillian sidled over to David and rested a hand on his arm. “Yes, Alain, my David has always been inquisitive. You have to forgive him for being impertinent. He’s been that way since childhood.”

“Now I understand your interest in Ellie,” David said. “If you would like me to help you in your efforts to win her over, I will be happy to help, especially if that would result in a benefit for me.”

Alain laughed. “Are we negotiating?”

Lillian clucked nervously. “David! You are being too forward.”

“Nonsense,” Alain said waving them both to sit down again. “I like a soul with spirit. You’ve raised him well, Lillian. It is because of his state that his inquisitiveness is not stifled.”

“My state?” David asked as he settled back into his chair. “You mean, the fact that I’m not supposed to exist.” They had taken a roundabout turn to get there, but David found they were finally settling on the key topic at hand. The fact that he was able to confirm Alain’s part in murdering Ellie’s parents was an unexpected nugget of information obtained.

“The sections of the Afterlife have been busy investigating your case,” Alain said. “We’ve exchanged information.”

“What kind of information?” David leaned forward.

“Each section reviewed its own individual roster of souls for the time period when you born. Regardless of this particular instance of re-incarnation, it was important to identify where your soul belonged before.”

“What?” David was shocked. He had never considered the possibility that his soul had existed
before
being born to Henry and Emma Decatur.

“It is an important clarification, isn’t it? You weren’t supposed to live as Henry Decatur, Jr. Your soul was supposed to return to the section it came from, but instead, it remained within you and you have gone on living and breathing to this day.”

David let Alain’s words sink in. He wondered why Veronica hadn’t told him this. He wasn’t a complete freak of nature. He didn’t exist within a vacuum. It led him to his next question, which he was almost afraid to ask, but had to know. “Where did I come from?”

“Your most recent incarnation in the Afterlife found your soul in Purgatory,” Alain said. “But while that question is of course the most obvious, you realize you are missing the most critical ones.”

“Which are?”

“Who were you before and who were you supposed to be next? What life or lives have you foregone because of this unfortunate incident that trapped you and made you a Lost Soul?” Alain’s voice was mesmerizing.

David’s head was full. He had been thrown for a complete loop. He wasn’t sure how to fit what he heard with what Veronica had already told him. He wasn’t sure who to believe or what version of the story was true.

“Do you know the answers to those questions?” David finally asked. He couldn’t even look in Lillian’s direction. She was almost wholly to blame for where he now found himself, and he was certain that the depth of his hatred for her would be apparent on his face.

“I do,” Alain said. “But by pledging your allegiance to Hell, all of that becomes irrelevant. You have a most envious path ahead of you, David. Your right to choose, completely outside of the Afterlife’s purview, is a distinct and heady advantage.”

Alain had no intention of telling him, David realized. It was yet another test of his loyalty, but now he agonized that by striking a bargain with Veronica, he had possibly forgone his true destiny.

“If I refuse?” David asked softly.

Alain sat back in his chair. His lips pursed. “If you refuse, you leave me no choice, but to finish what Mikel and Lillian started. You will die. Of course, by dying in this way, I cannot guarantee that your soul will go anywhere. It is possible that it will simply dissipate to the far reaches of the Afterlife where it can never be retrieved.”

“That’s really not a choice at all, is it?” David said.

Alain shrugged. “I’ve offered you the opportunity of several lifetimes, David. To me, if you truly want to go places and advance your potential, you are right, there really is only one choice.”

David had to hope that Veronica knew what she had done to him and the ultimate consequences. He had to think about Ellie too, and so in the end, he stood and extended his hand out over the desk to Alain.

“Guess I’m your man.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“What makes you think that I can find a way out of this mess?” Ellie asked Jake. She was on edge, expecting Christopher to throw open the door to the closet at any moment and find her and tear her apart. “From what Mikel said, those
things
are nearly indestructible.”

“They draw their power from the darkness, that is true,” Jake said. He paused, and Ellie could see that he was struggling to tell her what he needed to tell her. “Ellie, do you remember when I told you that I got mixed up in some stuff that was pretty bad when we were together?”

“Yes, how could I forget?” Ellie said. “It appears that incident set all of this other stuff in motion.”

Jake hung his head and sighed. “I didn’t know what they were at the time, the things that were playing with my head. But it was those demons you saw out there. I had somehow opened myself so that they were able to mess with my mind, even if they couldn’t physically manifest on the Other Side. But they work for someone else. The more they touched me, and my mind, the stronger the bridge they built between me and the one who controls them. That was their intention all along. When I got too close to you, they were able to exert enough influence to ensure that I died. But when I crossed over, I found that I couldn’t pass on because I was tied to him.”

Ellie was horrified. “What does that mean?”

“It means that unless I find a way to break free, I’m going to keep changing into something that is dark and evil,” Jake said. “He’s breaking down every barrier I’ve put up and makes me do things that I don’t want to do. And every time I do it, every time I give in, I am more and more damned.”

Ellie understood what that felt like. “Mikel used a similar strategy on me when I arrived here,” she said. “He used my feelings for David to manipulate me into taking people’s psychic abilities for him. Each time it was easier, and I got better at it, but then I killed someone because I couldn’t control it. I can feel a hunger inside me for something that I can’t even explain.”

Jake nodded. “He was conditioning you for the darkness, Ellie. The more they extinguish the light inside you, the things that make you good, the more you empathize with that side.”

Ellie thought about her feelings for Mikel. What Jake was saying made perfect sense. There was nothing about Mikel that was right for her, but after his manipulative onslaught on her soul, she had softened toward him. The thought made her angry. But then she remembered the fact that her parents had come from opposite ends of the Afterlife. “My mother was from Hell.” Saying the words out loud was surreal. “My father was from Heaven. It’s possible that I wasn’t changing to be darker but that Mikel was able to manipulate the darkness that already existed there.”

“Think about it, Ellie. Isn’t that exactly what Hell would want you to believe?” Jake said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “They want you all to themselves. That’s why those demons out there haven’t killed you. Their master wants you.”

“Who is this Master you keep talking about?” Ellie asked. “The Devil?”

Jake shook his head. “It’s not the big boss man. But it’s someone nearly as bad, trust me.”

“Who?”

“I can’t tell you,” Jake said averting his eyes.

“You need to tell me, Jake!” Ellie said.

“I can’t,” Jake’s voice was strangled. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but if I do, I will die.”

“That’s a bit melodramatic,” Ellie said.

“No,” Jake said. “It’s dark magic that ensures I’ll keep those kinds of things secret. It’s necessary in Hell. There are many dark plots going on all the time.”

“Then why are you telling me everything else?” Ellie asked. “Shouldn’t this dark magic stop you from helping me?”

“I was supposed to return once the Scolosi had you,” Jake said. “I haven’t yet because I think that you may be able to help me break free. I saw that you were able to resist some of the effects of their poison. You’re different, Ellie. I don’t want to be like this forever.”

Ellie was annoyed and frustrated. She thought that Jake did care about her well-being, but it was also obvious that he had self-preservation at the top of his priority list. Which meant that at any point in time, if he saw a shift in power, he could swing his vote to the other side. She had to be careful with what she said to him.

“Okay,” she said. “If I’m going to be able to do anything, I need Lucy.”

“They burned out her power,” Jake said. “She can’t do anything, plus they are immune to magic.”

“So I’ve been told, but her magic can still help us. So we need them to believe that her power hasn’t returned,” Ellie said. “Lucy could be our game-changer. So first, we have to save her. Then, we’ll tackle how to take down three demon children who apparently have the ability to scare even the most steadfast evil things in Hell.”

Jake shivered. “You haven’t seen what they can do, Ellie. They are depraved animals.”

“I’ve seen enough,” Ellie said, shuddering as she remembered how Melissa was peeling Lucy’s skin from her body. She hoped that Lucy had the same kind of recuperating powers as she and Mikel did, she had never thought to ask her. “Look, are you going to help me or not?”

“What do you want me to do?” Jake said with a sigh.

“You are a ghost. Go find out where everyone is,” Ellie said whirling her hand around in the air. “And Jake?”

“Yes?”

“If you turn me in, I swear I will find a way to kill you again,” Ellie said with her most menacing tone. “Get back here as soon as you can.”

Jake faded into the darkness, and Ellie started to think about her options. She could burst out of the closest and find all three Scolosi demons waiting for her, in which case she’d probably end up dead. She had already determined that if they caught her again, she would do whatever she had to do to make them kill her. She had no desire to be taken back to Hell.

Assuming Jake was able to find Lucy, and she was able to get to her, Ellie had to hope that enough time had elapsed for the witch to get her magic back. When they spoke earlier, Lucy had no time frame in mind. Ellie was counting heavily on being able to use Lucy’s powers.

A kind of plan started to form in Ellie’s mind. She knew that when she and Lucy linked, it amplified her own power. She wondered if the same worked in reverse. If she could make herself a kind of power plant for Lucy to draw on, she thought they may be able to break the conjuring spell and send the demons back to Hell. That would buy them the necessary time they needed to regroup and come up with another plan.

Resolved to either option, Ellie was ready when Jake materialized. “So?”

“Bobby almost caught me,” Jake said grimly. He’s in the basement again. Christopher has him guarding the way line down there so that you can’t use that to escape.

“That’s good. That means we only have to worry about Melissa and Christopher,” Ellie said brightly. She was going to take every piece of good news that she could get.

Jake grimaced. “I’d hold off on declaring that a win quite yet. I haven’t told you where Lucy is yet.”

Ellie stilled her mind. Dozens of awful possibilities ran through it, but she willed herself not focus on any one of them in particular for fear it would match what she was about to hear. “Where?”

“They’ve got both her and Mikel in the foyer,” Jake said slowly.

“What aren’t you telling me, Jake?”

“They’re hanging from the chandelier,” Jake said.

In her mind, Ellie saw the thin metal filaments hanging from the chandelier when she crossed the landing earlier. At the time, she had no idea what they were, but now she did. “They’re both alive though?”

“Yes, as far as I could tell, for now,” Jake said. Christopher and Melissa appear to be doing a sweep of the house, but they keep getting…distracted…in the foyer.

Ellie could only imagine what Jake’s words meant, so she decided not to ask. She needed to get down there and save Lucy.

“Okay,” Ellie said. “We need to get them as far away from the foyer as possible. So we’ll have to create a diversion. Do you have any handy tricks up your sleeve?”

“Like what?”

“You are a ghost, Jake. I know you can disappear and reappear at will. You can walk through walls. You can make yourself invisible. Can you do something like look like something else?”

“What do you mean?”

“If they don’t know you are still here, then obviously you can’t show your face. But what if you were able to show mine?” A wild idea grew in her mind. “You could draw them out into the greenhouse.”

“Why the greenhouse?”

“It’s the farthest point from the front foyer,” Ellie said. “If we brought them up here, they’d be able to see the chandelier move when I cut Lucy free. The basement is right below us. You have to draw them all that way. Then I can get Lucy and get out of there.”

“I’m not sure this is going to work, Ellie,” Jake said.

“Try it,” Ellie suggested. “Try looking like me.”

Jake shrugged and closed his eyes. Then his face scrunched up, and he grumbled under his breath. Ellie was shocked, and delighted seconds later to be find herself staring into her own brown eyes. “That is cool and very strange, Jake.”

Jake stood up and made his way to the long mirror at the back of the closet. “Surreal,” he said as he examined himself.

“Are you ready to do this?” Ellie asked.

Jake looked pained again. “As ready as I’ll ever be I guess.”

“Get their attention and then run for the greenhouse. Once you’re inside, get back to the foyer and help me. I’m going to need to move fast.”

Ellie made way to the closet door. She pressed her ear to the door. “Here goes nothing.” She opened the door and stepped outside. She was alone in the huge empty room. She quickly crossed to the closed door that led out to the third floor landing. She looked around the room. Something slipped into her hand, and she looked down to find a pair of wicked looking shears there. She looked up at Jake.

“I found those in the basement. I figured they’d come in handy.”

“Thanks, Jake,” she said. “Can you tell if they are out there?”

Jake made the top half of his body invisible, and then Ellie watched in discomfort as he appeared to push his body through to the other side of the door. His upper half reappeared. “Coast is clear.”

Ellie nodded and then put her finger to her lips. She carefully opened the door a few inches so that she could step out into the darkened hallway. Jake followed her. She stopped just short of the bannister. She could see the glints of the filaments gently swaying and it made her stomach roll knowing that Lucy was at the bottom of one of them. She gave the thumbs up to Jake, and then he was gone.

Goosebumps ran up her arms when she heard Christopher’s voice yell from directly below her, “There she is! Quick! Get her!”

The thumps of their running footsteps covered up her own as she bolted around the landing and took the stairs two at a time to the second floor landing. As she whirled around the corner and was able to see down the grand staircase to the foyer below, she bit her lip from screaming as she skidded to a halt.

Mikel and Lucy hung suspended in the air, their feet just a few inches off the ground. A massive pool of blood covered the floor and Ellie felt her chest constrict as her eyes followed the liquid upwards.

At first, the only way she knew who was who was simply based on their size. Otherwise, the rips and tears in their skin obscured all of the other details. Ellie forced her feet down the stairs. Jake said that they were still alive, although she had no idea how he was able to determine that. It was obvious that the Scolosi demons had been enjoying their time with her friends, and it made her ill.

As she reached the bottom step, she whispered, “Lucy?” She reached her hand out, but didn’t know where to touch that wouldn’t cause her friend more pain. “Lucy! Can you hear me?”

Howls of rage came from the back of the house, and Ellie knew that her time was running out. She had to get Lucy down. She glanced at Mikel and found his blue eyes piercing her. Jake materialized next to her. “They will be back here in minutes, once they tear that greenhouse apart.”

“Help me!” Ellie said. “I can’t get over her head.” She handed the shears back to Jake and then reached out just far enough to grasp the edge of Lucy’s shirt. She was able to turn the chandelier so that Lucy was fully in reach without stepping into the blood on the floor. They wouldn’t be able to hide for long if they left a trail of blood behind. Ellie pulled Lucy into her arms and felt her friend’s shuddering breath.

“Run, El, don’t worry about me,” Lucy croaked in her ear.

“Like hell,” Ellie said. “Now, Jake!”

She watched Jake float upwards off the floor and seconds later Ellie felt the full weight of Lucy’s body fall into her arms. Without her supernatural strength, she knew she would have toppled over.

“What about me?” Mikel rasped. “You can’t leave me here.”

Ellie had heard the plea before, but this time, she didn’t have time. “I’m sorry,” she said. “They can’t kill you. Christopher said so himself. Right now, I have to get Lucy out of here. We’ll come back if we can.”

Ellie turned and shot back up the stairs. She felt Jake’s presence keeping pace with her. She was on the third floor when the shrieks ripped through the air. “Where is she?” Christopher howled.