Shadows of the Past (10 page)

“Oh
, yeah he is. So big and feral, and you just know he could pick you up by the ass and nail you against the wall.”

Amet
hyst blushed and swallowed hard. “Thanks for putting that image in my head.”

“What image?” Adam asked with a raised brow
as he slid into his seat.

“Don’t ask
.” Danika giggled. “I didn’t think I’d be able to make the woman who pierced three dicks and a clit in a single day blush, but I did it.”

“Right
, I think I’m scared.” Adam kissed Danika before handing Amethyst something green. Her head tilted and he shrugged. “You said fruity. It’s a Scooby Snack, just taste it.”

First sip and she grinned
. “Mmm, it is yummy.”

Tomahawk came through the door with a tired looking Darla, and Amethyst relaxed a little. Maybe if they were showing up, Hayden would too.

Instead of driving to the bar, Hayden drove straight to the site of the accident. He wasn’t sure which made him feel worse, skipping out on Amethyst and that game of pool, or playing peeping Tom.

He pulled onto the ro
ad and came to a stop before the barricade. It was the same damned road where he’d found the wrecked van when Fallon had been abducted a few weeks before. Stacey’s minivan was wrapped around a tree across the street from the previous crime scene.

Erik
saw Hayden coming and looked up with a nod. He was another officer, and was also a necromancer. It took Hayden months to get used to the fact that he was a good guy despite his gift for manipulating the dead. There just weren’t that many necromancers, and in Hayden’s experience, they were generally worse than dark mages who had lost their connection to their own magic and were forced to tear magic from Others.

“
How is Simons?” Hayden asked.

“He’s a mess.” He
shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “What do you expect? His wife was in bad shape when I got here. They had to cut her out of the van.”

“You didn’t see him lose it the other night. I had to drag him away from that shitty little hotel before he slaughtered the little prick
who was banging his wife on the hood of his damned car.”

Erik nodded.
“He saw her bloody and unconscious. He’s over whatever happened. He just wants her to be okay.” There was an understanding in Erik’s dark gaze.

Hayden wasn’t sure he believed that, but that was Simons
’ decision to make. He changed the subject. “Do we know what happened? Stacey doesn’t have so much as a speeding ticket.”

“There
were no other cars on the road when we found her. It doesn’t look like anyone else was involved in the crash. I don’t know, Hayden, it just feels wrong.”

That it did. He could feel the lingering hint of something
primal and dark, but he couldn’t place it. “I’ll take a look, but do you
sense
anything?”

“I sense
something bad, but I can’t even begin to place it. It doesn’t feel like any human magic I know of.” He would know. He’d been through the Silver Council’s enforcer training as an experiment to include other casters in their ranks. It fell through, but Erik had a wealth of arcane knowledge.

“I’ll take a look.” Hayden moved past him to the cut open
driver’s side. There was a black inky substance mixed in with the blood. He froze as he stared at it, trying to remember where he had seen that before.

He reached toward it, and the black moved toward his finger.
He felt the shock of magic try to push into his shields before the black substance pulled away. Hayden stood up and placed his hand on the roof of the car as an old memory swept into his mind.

His father stood on the battlefield. There were bodies everywhere, and there was black sludge mixed with the blood. It tried to move to whoever came close enough. A buzzard landed on a torn apart body and the
inky substance wrapped itself around the bird. Then it flew at him with a terrible cry.

Xenu cleaved his
axe through the buzzard and stepped aside, letting the blood splatter the ground and not him. The shadows that overtook the buzzard melted into the blood.

Shadow
Fae, demons, or whatever in the Abyss they were. Hayden knew they were older than the fae, primal creatures that fed off all dark emotions and the chaos they caused. The Shadows needed a host to walk in any realm for more than just a moment. The old tales claimed the Shadow Fae were looking for a catalyst to return them to their true form.

The
Shadow Fae were one of the few things he feared. He had never personally dealt with the Shadows because his father had helped rid Faerie of the vile creatures when he was still an infant. The stories his parents told him gave him nightmares.

The only people he knew on Earth w
ho had any experience with the Shadows were Paavo Lakes and his man Mathis Rivers.

It appeared he needed to call Amethyst’s brother.
While he was at it, maybe he would pry into what happened to Amethyst back in San Francisco.

Erik’s concerned voice broke into his thoughts.
“That look on your face doesn’t leave me feeling any better. What the hell do you think this is?”

“
Let’s hope I’m wrong,” Hayden answered hastily as he walked back to his SUV. He wanted to check on Stacey before calling Paavo.

* * * *

Preston dropped into his seat in First Class and checked his phone one last time. He had a text from Robert.
I would have dropped you off in Edenton.
And Preston would have been sick. He’d had enough of being translocated over the last month.

Laying his head back, he
closed his eyes. He felt bad for leaving Jamie the way he had. For once in his life he didn’t want to mess up a good thing. She was everything he wanted and he was ready to be what she needed.

Preston missed her like crazy, and he hoped he hadn’t fucked everything up with the way he kept
leaving after promising to spend some time with her.

“Preston
?” a familiar voice called from the seat just in front of him.

He raised his head and
found Paavo Lakes. “Hi, Paavo. Have you talked to Amethyst?”

One corner of his mouth tipped up. “Yes. Sounds like you really came through for her.”

Mathis nodded in greeting before taking his seat next to Paavo. The two half-sirens were inseparable.

“You know I wouldn’t let Jarvis touch her. I did what I could to keep Amethyst safe.”

“I know.” He stepped back into the aisle and took the seat next to Preston. “I went by Carl’s after the photo shoot today. Did you see the mess?”

Preston nodded. “Yeah, I uncovered it. You have any clue
what caused that?”

Paavo nodded. Mathis leaned over the seat.
“Shadow Fae. Carl didn’t kill himself, the Shadow did. It felt like Izackarus.”

“
Izaca-who?”             

“The worst of them.
The Earth Fae found a way to lock beings away in a prison realm. A warrior named Xenu helped Sapphire find the spell. I know there’s a way to call a being from that realm though. Was there a scroll?”

Preston nodded. “I gave it to archives to see if they could find more out about it.”

“I doubt they would know. The shadows were only in Faerie. They were never here in this realm. Did you happen to take a picture?”

“Yea
h.” He pulled the picture up on his phone and handed it over. “I recognize a few symbols, but I couldn’t tell you what they are.”

Mathis took the phone. His brows lifted as he looked to Paavo. “It’s him al
l right. He’s coming for her, Paavo.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he answered and turned to Preston. “I’ll understand if you don’t
want to get involved in fae business, but trouble’s coming for Amethyst.”

Preston g
lared back at him. “Have I ever done anything to make you doubt I would protect your sister any way I can?”

“No,” Paavo answered
immediately. “Even though you desire her, you’ve stayed away because she was so young. You do realize she isn’t so young anymore. Don’t you?”

Preston shook his head. “Don’t. I don’t ever want to hurt her. You know that.”

Mathis rolled his eyes. “You did hurt her, but I understand why. You humans have some weird assumptions about age. By fifteen she could have handled you better than you can ever imagine.” He turned around and sat down.

Preston felt the heat in his face as he turned his attention to Paavo. “Look, your sister is an amazing young woman. I am too old for her
. Besides, I have a woman who makes me happy.”

Paavo nodded as he moved back to his seat. “How is
Jamie?”

“She misses me, but she knows why I had to leave. It’s okay
. I’ll be in Edenton until after my case is over, and then I’m taking a leave of absence so I can spend some real time with her. I won’t have to disappear for days at a time for a while.”

“About time you found yourself someone,” Paavo said.

* * * *

Zack stood in the parking lot with his eyes closed and took a deep breath.
There were so many darker emotions to draw power from. Humans and werewolves were quicker to anger than the fae, faster to judge, easier to compel. They should be anyway.

Normally he could push his will on others, twisting their emotions higher, making them lash out and causing their own wave of chaos. In Edenton, he was closed off from many individuals, and met with resistance he’d never seen. He could still feed off the residual energy from emotions, but he couldn’t influence very many of them.

He shrugged off the questions rattling around his head and walked into the bar. Hiding in shadows, he took a look around. So many people filled the place, but he found Amethyst sitting next to a blue haired woman.

Amethyst
was even more beautiful than his host’s memories. She gazed down at her drink with a pout as she swirled the straw. She was adorable, and the back part of his brain was sure her sadness was because she missed him.

From what Zack
saw of his host’s memories, the little lady wanted nothing to do with him, but he couldn’t disregard his new bodies’ desires. She was sensual and captivating though, and he himself desired her.

He was going to enjoy crushing her hopes and dreams before breaking her. The nymph was a feast he
planned to savor for as long as he could before he finally took her heart blood.

Zack
strolled to the bar and headed for Dacia, the same bitch who had thrown him out that morning. She sat at the counter, leaning toward the blond bartender.

“This prick had the gall to try to slap me after an extremely disappointing night. He was just so tiny.” Her mouth twisted into a sneer. “Like this.” She held up her little finger
.

The blond shook her head
and wore a smirk as she poured Dacia’s drink. “Well, I hear he was the same bastard who fucked Simons’ wife the other night.”

“I can’t see why. I’m sure with
Simons’ size, he has more than plenty to rock her world. Whoever said size didn’t matter obviously hasn’t had a big dick pounding into them.”

He took a seat beside
Dacia and leaned in to whisper against her ear. “Hello, sexy. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

She whipped around in her seat to glare at him.
“You? What do you think you’re doing here? If you think that was a bad mood, stick around, because I have news for you. That was nothing compared to what I’ll do if you think that little, pathetic,” she held up her hand and put her thumb and forefinger barely an inch apart and dropped her gaze to his lap with a look of disgust, “excuse for a pecker is getting anywhere near me again, you are utterly wrong.”

A writhing mass of anger flo
wed from her, wrapping around him, soaking into his pores. She was just full of bitterness, jealousy, and self-disgust. Of course he was drawn to her. Her energy was completely untethered and he could absorb it all day and night. Too bad she was so disgusted with him.

“Now that’s just mean,” he replied lightly
.

“In case this morning wasn’t a good enough hint, last night was clearly a mistake I do not plan to repeat. So take your scrawny ass and move it on down the line.”

The bartender snickered. “She’s PMSing. You may want to take her advice and choose another seat.”

He nodded and moved to the corner of the bar where he could watch Amethyst moping at a table full of people. He recognized the redhead from his host’s memories. In fact the bartender was familiar too, but he couldn’t quite place her.

He took a seat and the blond moved to him.

There was fire in her eyes. “For the record, Zack, there are a lot of people who are ticked at you, including myself for what you did to tear apart a happy family. Now, I’m not putting all the blame on you, but I already heard what you did down at the diner. So don’t expect any sympathy from me.”

One more person whose emotions he could feel but when he mentally tried to push her anger, he was once again blocked.

Zack sighed.
“Can I get a Pabst Blue Ribbon?”

She snorted
, but brought him a can and a glass. “Enjoy.”

His gaze swung back to Amethyst as he popped the top.

* * * *

Hayden was still warring with his own
conscience after spying on Amethyst while he walked down the hall to Stacey’s room. Three missed calls because he couldn’t tear his eyes from
his
little nymph.