Light the Shadows (A Grimm Novel) (19 page)

Micah was awake, but hadn’t opened her eyes yet. She felt drained, like even lifting her eyelids would take too much energy. For now, she was content to just
lie there and listen to Sully and Anna bicker.

“Wait, where are you going?” Anna’s voice was high and panicky.

Sully’s footsteps carried him to the doorway. “To look for Thomas. He’s become a shadow, and the others took him.”

Finally, Micah opened her eyes. Sully’s back was to her. Though she loved the view of his ass in those jeans, she really wished she could see his face. Something had changed between them. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it was evident in the way he looked at her and touched her. It was almost like he was memorizing her every detail because he was about to say goodbye forever.

“You can’t just leave her like this,” Anna said with a hint of resentment in her voice. “She needs you.”

His dark chuckle held no humor. “Maybe I’ll see you around, kid.”

Micah struggled to push the suffocating blankets off and sit up. Her throat was dry and scratchy. She wasn’t even sure her voice would work. “Sully, wait!”

Too late. The front door shut with a soft bang behind him. His boots thumped a quick rhythm down the front steps and possibly out of her life forever.

She felt hung over, or in a medicinal daze like she’d felt when she’d first awoken from the coma. Her limbs were heavy and sluggish, her mind foggy. “What just happened?”

Anna frowned at her then eased onto the corner of the bed. “I’m not sure. Sully said you did too much, too soon. Maybe you used too much energy?”

Micah threw her legs off the bed then waited for the room to stop spinning. “He’s coming back, isn’t he?”

“Didn’t sound like it.” Anna didn’t meet her gaze. She also didn’t sound too torn up about it.

Micah’s voice crackled with emotion. “I need him.”

Anna pursed her lips, but said nothing in response. Instead, she drifted over to the bedroom window and peered out the blinds.

Micah showered then dressed. She’d just chowed down on a granola bar and apple when Anna reappeared in the kitchen. The ghost followed her out the front door and watched in silence as she dialed Sully’s number. It went straight to voicemail.

“What are you doing?” Anna asked as she got into the car with Micah. “Sully said you should rest.”

“Since when do you listen to anything Sully says?”

“He’s in love with you.” Anna said in her most matter-of-fact voice. “And he’s right. You do need to rest.”

Micah’s cheeks heated, and she turned her face away. “If he’s in love with me, why does it feel like he walked out for good?”

Anna stared out the window at the buildings as they blurred past. “I don’t know, Micah. Maybe it had something to do with your tirade about wanting a normal life that didn’t include
Reapers and shadows.” She sighed then said, “Or ghosts.”

Micah smacked her palm against the steering wheel. “Damn it, Anna. I didn’t mean it literally. You know I didn’t.”

“Yeah, I know you can be a little hotheaded,” Anna said as Micah blew through two yellow lights then stopped in front of Thomas’s apartment building. “Maybe Sully’s just giving you some room to breathe.”

Micah released a slow, calming breath. “Yeah? Then why does it feel like I’m suffocating?”

When she opened the car door and threw a leg out, Anna’s cool ghost touch fluttered down her arm. “Sully isn’t here. His bike is gone.”

Micah frowned, wondering just how he’d gotten here in the first place. He’d driven her home in the Mini Cooper last night. Seeming to read her mind, Anna said, “
Reapers have their little tricks.”

Anna followed her up the stairs and looked around as though someone might see her lurking in the hallway. “Let’s just go, Micah. You’re supposed to meet your mom and dad for dinner tonight, remember?”

“This will just take a minute,” Micah said as she jimmied the door’s lock with two bobby pins.

“How the hell do you know how to do that?” Anna asked as she followed Micah inside.

“Maybe I was a burglar in a past life.”

“We shouldn’t be here.” Anna drifted along behind her, casting wary glances all around. “What if the shadows come back?”

“Then I’ll deal with them.” Micah hurried to the study. There was a book that had caught her eye last time she was here, a journal of Thomas’s life as a Grimm. She snatched it up then tucked the thick book beneath her arm. “Thomas, if you’re here, I really need to talk to you.”

She and Anna turned in a tight circle to survey the room. Micah smoothed a fingertip across the frame of a fallen photograph. It depicted a smiling Thomas and a smirking Sully in what appeared to be a bar. Thomas’s arm was thrown around his friend’s shoulders
, and he was holding up a pint of beer in salute. She would find Thomas, damn it. Maybe then Sully would see how much he meant to her. Sure they’d only known each other a short time, but somehow he’d gotten under her skin. Like it or not, she needed him in her life. She just needed to make him see that.

“Thomas? I’m not here to harm you.” Micah waited a heartbeat before trying again. “I have questions. Please?”

Anna stepped backward and bumped against Micah, sending a cold chill up her spine. She said, “We have company.”

A girl of about twelve, the same one they’d seen before, stood just inside the other room. She simply stared at them, a neutral expression on her young face. Running hands over her dirty, bedraggled dress, she took a step forward. Micah gasped then backed up so fast that she stepped through Anna. The residual feeling made her shudder. Anna cast a scornful glance in her direction.

The girl’s bruised arms and throat appeared dark against her nearly translucent skin. Dark hair hung in limp strands around her oval shaped face. What Micah had first thought was dirt on the youngster’s dress now appeared to be dried blood. Her dead doll eyes turned toward Micah. “Why have you come here?”

“I’m looking for Thomas St. Clair.” Micah said. “I need to speak with him.”

The girl’s mouth quirked in an odd little smirk. “He’s no longer here.”

Another shadow separated itself from the dark corner near the bookshelves. A middle-aged man with miserable eyes shambled toward her. There was an indention along the left side of his skull
, and dried, crusty blood ran from the wound all the way down to the front of his shirt. Tears left trails of clean skin down the man’s cheeks. “I hoped you would come back.”

Micah’s gaze flicked between the two shadows. When she looked to Anna for clarification, her friend met her with wide, wary eyes. Her voice was quiet and full of reserved fear. “We need to get out of here, Micah. Right now.”

The girl remained where she was, but the man moved closer. Although an overwhelming amount of sadness rolled off of him in waves, Micah didn’t sense any menace from him. The little girl wasn’t close enough for her to get a “feel” of her emotions, and her face had remained expressionless so far.

“I don’t want to be here anymore. They’re all gone. Everyone I ever cared about is gone.” He swiped at his eyes then glanced at Micah. Desperation swept over him and leaked over her. “It’s not fair. I didn’t know it would be like this.”

“What did you think it would be like?” Anna asked, with just a hint of snark.

The guy glanced in her direction and sniffled. Instead of answering the ghost, he took several quick steps toward Micah. His features softened. “Please, I want to see the white light.”

“And what about you?” Micah asked the girl. The kid was seriously creeping her out with those dead, black eyes. “What do you want?”

The girl’s answer was a snarl
, and then she took two steps closer.

Micah didn’t like the thick, suffocating malevolence that suddenly seemed to ooze into the room. Goosebumps had risen on her arms
, and a chill trembled down her spine. The dagger slipped into her hand, and she marveled at how it had just appeared when it might be needed.

Lashes lowered, the child’s dark eyes were downcast as she studied the floor between the toes of her once shiny shoes. “More. I want more souls.”

“What are you talking about?”

The smallest smile tipped the corner of her mouth up. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me,” Micah said in challenge.

The girl dashed forward, her tiny fingers hooked like claws.

The man gasped and watched with frightened eyes. He shouted, “Natalie, no!”

Anna screeched a warning then flickered. She didn’t fully disappear, but she was more translucent than before. She dashed in front of Micah, but the girl burst through her.

“Stop. Stay back!” Micah stumbled backward.

The girl’s lips pulled back from her teeth in an ugly snarl full of hatred. She roared in anger as she tried to grab Micah’s arm. “I will rejoice as you draw your last breath.”

Micah’s arm whipped up, and the book tumbled to the floor. The dagger arced toward the child. The tip of the blade nicked the girl’s palm, and the separated skin shimmered as if fire burned within the girl. Just as quickly, the puckered skin sealed and was restored.

Micah’s voice trembled when she said, “What the hell?”

The girl’s chin tilted upward in defiance as she cradled her injured hand against her chest. She took several hurried steps backward, her scuffed Mary Janes tapping on the wooden floor. “You’ll be sorry.”

Micah narrowed her gaze on the shadow. Things were starting to make sense now. The dagger hurt the shadows, destroyed them when delivering a killing blow. She suspected it was only to be used as a last measure, or at least she hoped so. Pointing the dagger at the girl standing only feet from her, she said, “I don’t want to use this on you, but I will.”

“You and that Reaper don’t stand a chance.” The girl laughed. “We’re getting stronger.”

“How?”

“Our numbers are increasing. Our abilities grow stronger.” The girl pursed her lips. “We’ll bring as many of you as we can over to our side.”

“Why?” Micah struggled to understand. Were the shadows gearing up for a war with the living?

Anna planted her hands on her hips and sneered at the dead girl. “You’ll still be dead.”

With a frustrated growl, the girl’s spirit disappeared. This only left the sad
-eyed man.

Micah turned to face him
, and the dagger disappeared. His gaze traveled from her now empty fingers to her face. He licked his lips then met her gaze. “About that white light…”

“Not so fast,” Micah
said. “What are the shadows up to?”

“I’m not sure,”
the man said. “They’ve been preying on the weak, convincing them to take their own lives. Or even worse, commit murder.”

Micah cast a concerned glance at Anna then returned her attention to the man. “What’s the end game?”

He shrugged. “I just do what I’m told.” When he noticed Micah’s frown, he said, “But I don’t like it. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore.”

Anna touched Micah’s arm. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

“I just want it to be over,” the man said in a soft, remorse-filled voice. “Will you help me?”

“Of course.” Micah held her hands out to him, palms facing up.

His hands slid against hers, and he shut his eyes. He took a deep breath, let it out then said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Micah allowed her shoulders to relax as light encompassed them both. It swirled around her arms then fully surrounded the man. Within seconds he was gone
, and Micah was left with a sense of peace and contentment. It was a strange feeling, knowing she had sponged it off the spirit she’d just helped.

When she turned to find Anna, she was waiting on the balcony. Apparently, the shepherd didn’t like getting too close to the white light. Micah didn’t blame her. Who knew what might happen to the friendly ghost?

“Are you okay?” Micah asked as her friend came back into the study.

Anna nodded solemnly. “Yes, that was a little too close for comfort. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Moments later, Micah parked outside the real estate office. She’d left her planner at the office, and truth be told, she felt a little lost without it. It might also prove useful if she got the visitors’ guide out of the lobby and acquainted herself with the area’s attractions. The client she was scheduled to meet tomorrow was from out of state, and it would be awesome if she could at least point them toward a few neat things to see and do. She’d have to hurry though. She was due at her mom and dad’s anniversary dinner in less than fifteen minutes.

Micah unlocked the door and moved quickly toward her office at the back of the building. Once she was in the hallway, she heard something within Ben’s office. Something had fallen from the desk
, and then someone moaned. Was he hurt?

“Ben? Are you a
ll right?” Micah asked as she pushed the door open.

Her stomach dropped past her knees
, and bile rose in her throat. Karla was bent over her boss’s desk, skirt bunched at her waist and panties around her ankles. Ben was at her back, pounding against her so hard that everything on the wooden surface shimmied and rolled.