Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3) (29 page)

He
raised th
e gun and pointed it at
my mother. I reacted without thinking, running towards hi
m, desperate to get between the gun
and my mother.
But Ryan was faster and he rushed passed me straight towards my father. He had almost
reached him when my father swung the gun
towards Ryan and shot him point blank in the head. I watched in horror as he fell
to th
e ground, blood spurting from
the wound in his head. My dreams rushed into reality as I watched a pool of blood
spread quickly beneath his head, but this time I wasn’t asleep. I was actually watching
him die.

I made a choked sound as I ran to him, not caring what my father would do. I kneeled
at his side, tears running down my cheeks as I watched helplessly as his life seeped
out of him. I gripped his hand,
desperate for him to not
feel alone. His eyes were glazed with pain but they looked straight into mine.

“Trust yourself,” he whispered so softly I had to lean closer to hear him. “Trust
your instincts. You’re strong enough to get through this. Live the life you were meant
to. I’m sorry for everything. It’s for the best that my sister and I can finally find
peace.”

His eyes fluttered closed
and his body started to shake
.
His hand gripped mine so hard that I was afraid he would break it. His body bowed
violent
ly
and his eyes shot open as an animalistic scream ripped from his throat. I
frantically pulled my hand out of his grip
and scrambled back away from him. I knew it wasn’t Ryan making those sounds. His
head turned towards me and
his eyes burned through
me with
such hatred that a chill went down my spine
. His body them slumped back onto the ground and his eyes turned lifeless, still staring
at me.

“What the hell?” my father said with a frown. His frown deepened as he surveyed the
scene. “Enough of this playing around shit.” He nodded towards my mother who was still
lying
on the ground, frozen in shock. “Tie her up,” he told Philip. “I’ll figure out what
to do with her once I get my answers.” He turned back to me. “Try anythin
g else and I’ll make sure you
get to watch both your mother and boyfriend be tortured on your behalf.”

I felt defeated as I watched Philip tie my mother up to a wooden plank on the side
of the barn. Simon’s eyes were open and watchful as he kept his ga
ze trained on me. It was hard
not
to
panic every time he lost his balance a little and
fought to regain it
.

“Get the others in here,” my father told Philip once he was done tying up my mother.
I stood shakily
as Philip exited the barn, only to return shortly with two other people.

I had never
giv
en a
moment’s
thought to Cecelia, the other
seer from my aunt’s inner circl
e that had betrayed her. I
had always thought of he
r as weak and
nothing more than
Lenore’s follower b
ut she looked anything but weak as she strode in with two other women. The other w
omen looked deathly scared
but Cecelia was smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world.

My father handed Philip the gun when he came back
in
. “Stand guard over her mother. If I say the word, shoot her.”

Philip nodded and walked over to her, training the gun to her head with a steady hand.
My mother still looked terrified and her eyes moved from me to the gun pointed at
her.

“Hi, Caitlin,” Cecelia said as if we were old friends. “Remember me?”

“Why are you helping him?” I asked, confused by her demeanor
. “Lenore’s dead.” Cecelia had been under Lenore’s
thumb and I
thought she had
only
been
helping my father because she was afraid to disobey her. But Lenore was gone and
Cecelia was seemingly still helping my father. And she didn’t look afraid. In fact,
she looked cheerful.

“Everyone thought Lenore was the powerful one.” Cecelia shook her head like we were
all idiots. “What people didn’t realize
was
that she wasn’t the powerful one; I was. I was just too stupid to put her in her
place. Instead, I let he
r use my powers and claim them as
her own.” Cecelia smiled widely at me. “She wasn’t the one who manipulated your visions
before. It was me. Just like I changed your visions of Jenny.”

I clenched my fists at the mention of Jenny, wanting to throw myself at this cowardly
woman and scratch her eyes out. “What did you have to do with Jenny’s death?” I asked
through gritted teeth.

Cecelia shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing besides changing your first vision so that
you saw someone else besides Jenny. Philip was the one that charged her vardoger with
some of his power.” She glanced at him in admiration before turning back to me. “It
was amazing to see. He was able to transfer some of his energy into her vardoger,
making it unbelievably strong.” She giggled like a child. “It even affected Jenny
since she was connected to her vardoger. When those two boys tried to help her, they
were electrocuted by the combination of the charge and the water in the pool. It was
amazing!”

I wanted to slap the look of amusement off her face. Lenore had been power hungry
but Cecelia was straight out insane. You couldn’t reason with insanity so I just ignore
d her, not wanting to give her the
satisfaction of a response.

“Shut up.” My father seemed irritated by Cecelia. “We’re not here to talk. Hurry up
and put her under hypnosis.”

My father grabbed my arms and pulled them painfully behind my back. He spoke close
to my ear. “Fight it and I won’t hesitate to kill your mother. Your boyfriend will
be close behind.”

I nodded my assent but I was afraid that my panic would prevent me from
being able to go
under. Cecelia and the other two women surrounded m
e and started chanting. I glanced
up at Simon and he looked furious but I co
uld als
o see his frustration due to
his inability to help me. I mouthed the words “I’m okay” to reassure him, but that
seemed to pain him even more.

My eyes fluttered closed as I felt a heaviness in my limbs. I was sinking lower and
lower until I felt weightless
,
like I was floating in the air. The women’s chanting sounded farther and farther
away until their voices disappeared completely. I opened my eyes and strained to see
in the darkness.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”

“Caitlin.” The voice was barely a whisper across my subconscious, but I recognized
it immediately.

“Jenny?” I strained my eyes, trying to find her, but there was nothing but blackness.

“You won’t be able
to see me. I’m too far away. I’m almost to the other side but I had to make sure you
were okay.”

“I’m not okay,” I
said,
desperation making my voice raise
. “My father is holding
Simon and my mother
hostage
,
and he’s going to try to
use my powers to make himself immortal. I
melted down
palladium and iridium
together
like you told me
to
, but what can I do with it?”

“In your hands you can use it to destroy e
ven the strongest vardoge
r, including the ones that took over their humans
a long time ago and have a strong hold on them. It can also save the humans that are
trapped inside their bodies
along
with their vardoger
s
. You can destroy the vardoger without destroying the human soul.” Jenny’s voice dropped.
“But in your father’s hand
s
, it can be used to realize everything you’re trying to prevent. Don’t let him have
it.”

I was grateful for her explanation but I was desperate for more information. “Does
that mean my father can use it to en
ter the bodies of other humans and get rid of their souls?”

“Shh!” Jenny’s voice sounded scared. “Don’t talk! They can hear us!”

“Jenny!” I called out, but she was
gone. There was nothing except
the emptiness of my own mind.

I gasped when I surfaced
. My shoulders were aching and I realized my father still had my arms pinned behind
my back. I struggled to free myself, but that only caused him to wrench my arm
s further back until they felt like they
were going to pop out of their sockets.

“What did you see?” Before I could open my mouth to answer my father’s question, Cecelia
spoke.

“It was her friend
Jenny. They talked about mixing palladium and iridium together. It’s how you’ll be
able to overtake any human body you choose. But be careful because Caitlin can use
it to destroy you too.” Cecelia continued to direct her comments to my
father but she swung her gaze to
me with a satisfied smile. “She said that she’s already melted some down together.
She must have it on her.”

I was horrified by the realization that Cecelia had been able to see and hear everything
I had experienced while under hypnosis.
I moaned in pain when my father shook me, causing my arms to bend back even more.

“Where is it? Give it to me!” He sounded unhinged and didn’t w
ait for me to answer. He started searching through my pockets
and my heart sank when he pulled out the palladium and iridium disk. He threw me to
the ground and I tried to brace myself with my hands as I
hit
the floor.
I scrambled to stand up and backed away from my father, but he stepped closer to
me, his eyes looking unnaturally bright.

“I’ve finally found the answer.” He advanced on me slowly, a feral expression on his
face like he was stalking his prey. “And my first test will be on you.
I’m hoping some remnants of your powers will remain once your soul is expelled. It’ll
make me even stronger.”

“
Caitlin! Use your powers
!
You’re stronger than him!
”
I focuse
d on my father but Simon’s words renewed my courage and I swore to myself that I would
never g
ive up until the last breath
left my body
.
I reached up and ripped the palladiu
m necklace off my neck
. Even though I no longer had any iridium on me, I would
try as hard as I could
to ward off my father’s attack.

I started gathering my powers but I was slammed to the ground by a force that knocked
the breath out
of me. My father’s energy was
oppressive and
felt
nothing like when other vardogers had tried to possess me. Pain wasn’t the right word
for what I felt. It was a lack of being.
Instead of my soul being pushed out, I felt as if it were evaporating right inside
my body.

It would be so easy to just let go, but I resisted. I could feel my body trembling
but I felt disconnected from the physical part of me. Even when my body
started to shake unc
ontrollably
and levitated
almost a foot off the ground
,
I watched it happen as if I were
an
outside
observer
instead of
the one experiencing it.
I gathered all the energy I had left and tried to use it to push my father out, but
it barely made an impact on the force invading my body.

I was fading rapidly and panic gripped me. My father was winning. He would become
unstoppable with the palladium and iridium disk and I was the one who had handed it
to him.

Fury and desperation drove me to try again and I funneled together every essence of
my being
that was
left. It was nothi
ng but a flicker of energy
, but suddenly that flicker exploded into a fiery ball of
power that burned brighter and hotter than I had ever experienced. I wasted no time
in slamming
it
against my father. M
y body abruptly fell back to the ground as his energy collapsed onto itself. My soul
rapidly filled my body and I was barely able to see my father’s spirit burst into
the air and then shatter like tiny shards of glass before I started to lose consciousness.

The last thing I was aware of was a voice inside my head that sounded like Jenny.

“
I knew they would be listening
,” she told me
gleefully
and then I blacked out.