rogue shifter 05 - caught between (6 page)

Liam nodded at Farrell, who stood gracefully. "I'll return tomorrow. Thanks Kellie." He popped out of the room, fae style. Isaiah was enjoying the drama.

Liam sent to me, still frowning at Isaiah. "
Call me instantly if you need me
." They took the lines and I was once again alone with my slightly terrifying teacher. Maybe that crack about demons being scaly hadn't been such a great idea. I took a breath and forced myself to remember that
this
time
I
had the ability to send him away. The last time we were together, I was pretty much powerless.

He rose and extended his hand, a surprising gesture because demons, like the fae, generally avoided physical contact with other species.

"What?" I stared at the hand, a perfectly normal-looking appendage, feeling more than a little uneasy. I remembered the long claws of the creatures painted on the ceiling.

"Please take it. I have something fascinating to show you."

I sighed and put my hand in his, hoping that I wasn't making a mistake. What a demon might find fascinating could be something I'd find horrifying, but I needed to trust him if I was going to accomplish anything. For a tiny moment we were bathed in the burning magic of the lines and then suddenly I was in a very cold place blanketed in complete darkness, the difference in temperature making me gasp out loud. I clutched at his hand even harder, feeling an icy chill snake up my spine. "Where the hell is this?"

"Hell indeed."

I felt a breeze as Isaiah seemed to wave a hand. Torches came to life on the nearby walls, lighting up the dark stone, damp with mildew and other stains I didn't want to look at. The distinct smell of old blood, mingled with the stench of rot, waste and the aura of misery. When Isaiah dropped my hand, I held my nose and forced myself to take in a steadying breath. I looked around.

We were in a room without windows or electric light. The walls and floor were constructed of stone blocks cut from quarries and a metal door, left ajar for who knows how long, lay straight ahead. There was only blackness beyond the opening, so I backed up against the wall behind me, nervous about what might lie beyond that door. When my shoulder touched the wall, I noticed a texture different than the rest of the stone. When I sent out my awareness, I discovered that a magical ward had been added to the mortar. Someone had sealed this room with cement and a spell.

He pointed toward the existing door. "Through there are cells, cages really. When Eleanor died, Garrett ordered that the entrance to these chambers be cemented in."

"Then I shouldn't be here." I tried to move away from him, but he grabbed my arm and held me there.

"This was where she kept her prisoners, where she kept Garrett and his mother, father and sister."

"He doesn't want me here. Otherwise he wouldn't have sealed it up." I jerked on my arm again but he still refused to release me.

"If he knew who was here, he wouldn't have sealed the room."

"I
promised
him. Please, Isaiah. Let go of me." Now I was starting to feel afraid. What if he'd taken me down here to hurt me?

"You can release her and help him at the same time. Extend your senses and use your
sight
, Jacqueline."

"Wh..who?"
Oh god.
The cold was suddenly so intense that I started to shake uncontrollably, tears filling my eyes "Please, Isaiah,
please
. I can't do this."

Losing patience with me, Isaiah grabbed my upper arms, forcing me to look him in the eye. "You were born for this, little demon. The cold will pass. Use the
sight
your grandmother gifted you with."

He slid his hands up my arms and grasped my shoulders, turning me to look toward the cells, then stepped back, moving a few feet away from me. A hot breeze scented with a strange spice I couldn't recognize ruffled my hair as the air in the room warmed again. With the increase in temperature I was able to stop my shaking and straighten up, backing away from Isaiah and looking around warily. The torch flames adding to the creepy ambiance by making shadows twitch across the floors and walls.

A pale young woman, her hair a rich auburn, her eyes a lovely golden brown came through the entrance to the cells and stopped only five feet from me. Slightly blurry around the edges, she was dressed in an ankle length pale blue skirt covered in a cream colored over-skirt. Her white blouse had a high neck and was partially concealed by a short navy blue jacket. Her clothes were dirty and ripped in several places. There were red stains near the neck of her blouse. Her bare feet seemed to touch the ground and yet she appeared to move without lifting them, as if she stood on a slick surface and a breeze slid her half an inch forward and then gently back the other way.

Her voice was hoarse and dry, perhaps from lack of use, and she spoke slowly, as if trying to remember how. "Please excuse me. I heard you mention Garrett. Are you acquainted with my brother?"

I backed away from the female, ending up pressed against the cold stone wall, but too frightened to take my eyes off of her. "You swore you wouldn't teach me this, Isaiah."

"I've taught you nothing, I've simply brought you here. She has come to you on her own." He took a step closer, smiling proudly, as if he was the greatest trainer on the planet. "I knew you had this magic the first night I laid eyes on you."

I watched the shade looking back and forth between the two of us. She seemed confused and a little frightened herself, so even though I was still freaked out, I smiled to put her at ease. When she smiled back, my brain went into overdrive and I let go of my fear.

Holy shit
. She looks so much like him. This shade was what remained of Garrett's sister, and, my god, she could
speak
to me. "Are you Marie Cuvier?" She didn't seem to notice how much my voice was shaking.

She took an awkward step back in surprise. "No longer. I am Marie Brody. How do you know my brother?" She looked around the dank room. "Where am I?"

"I'm his lifemate, Jacqueline." I looked at Isaiah. "She doesn't know..."

"Patience."

"That cannot be true, Miss. He would have conveyed to me that he was..." Her expression became frightened as she glanced around furtively, finally beginning to recall what happened. "Vampires attacked our home and we were abducted. I recall it, now." She touched her neck and then wrapped her arms around her body. "They—they tortured us. Garrett tried so bravely to break free of his cell, but the bars were solid silver. He had burns down to the bone."

Her eyes grew wider with the horror of remembering. "The bald one hurt me—he took.—he shamed me." She clutched at her blouse and looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "The beautiful one tried to turn me into another evil demon. She drank and drank from my neck."

Marie lifted her hand to touch the bloody marks that still showed where Eleanor had fed from her. "Have I passed on?" I couldn't look at her. "Please. I am dead, am I not? She did not succeed did she? I do not wish to be one of those horrid devils."

I nodded, and she asked,  "Mother and Father and Garrett? Are they dead as well?"

Suddenly it was too much and I began to weep, my heart breaking for this sweet woman. "Your parents have passed on, but Garrett's alive. He still feels—feels responsible." Leaning against the wall, I sobbed while she watched me, looking more confused than ever. Isaiah handed me the handkerchief which had materialized in his hand, his expression showing only irritation at my display.

With wonder in her eyes, she asked, "He lives?"

I managed to gain some control. "Eleanor made him a vampire, but to avenge you and his parents, he killed her in a duel."

Her eyes grew wide with shock. "My brother, my sweet knight, an evil blood-crazed vampire?" Her expression sank into despair as she turned away, beginning to drift back toward the cells.

"No, he isn't evil. He protects other supernaturals and humans from creatures like Eleanor."

"Is this possible?" She was looking at me curiously.

"I'm a cheetah shapeshifter, like you and your family. Garrett can still shift into his cheetah. We're lifemates. I swear this is true. He's helped so many people. You'd be proud of him."

"Green." She reached her hand out as if to touch my aura. She no longer had an aura, probably because her soul had moved on, if what Isaiah had said about shades was true. "So rich a green. Are you with child?" She'd finally noticed my rather large belly.

"Yes."

"But surely a vampire cannot..."

"I was—raped." It wasn't an easy word to speak out loud, but I wanted her to know the truth. "Garrett and I are raising Charles together."

She smiled at me for the second time. "Charles, for Father? He would like that. My nephew." Her eyes grew wider. "Have you perhaps seen
my
children? My mate?"

"No, but I believe they're alive and you have many grandchildren and great grandchildren."

"What is the year?"

"2012."

"I have been lost for so long. Is Garrett present in this house? May I see him?"

"He doesn't want me...I mean, he doesn't know you're here."

"Please, Jacqueline. Please tell him." Her shape began to waver. "Ask him to meet with me. I beg you." She was gone, leaving behind only a faint scent of cheetah.

"Her energy gave out." Isaiah answered my unspoken question. "Shades can only hold their form briefly. You'll be able to call her back later if you wish."

I looked toward the door that led to the cells and shivered.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A few minutes after that, I was seated on a bench at the edge of the garden facing the ocean, trying to sort out my jumbled feelings. Isaiah sat silently beside me, staring at the pelicans diving for fish. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to pound him into the ground for scaring me half to death and putting me in a very difficult position with Garrett, or thank him for giving me the chance to meet this lovely spiritual entity.

I sighed, totally exhausted. "You can be a real piece of shit sometimes, Isaiah."

"We're not finished with today's lesson, so you might want to watch what you say to your trainer." There was a slight growl to his voice, but I'd heard it before and it didn't freak me out.

"I don't really have the energy..."

He grabbed my arm roughly and turned me to face him. "Now that you've come in contact with one, you must learn to block the shades, otherwise you will be bombarded by them, especially here where there was so much violent death. Near the cells, I held the others back, but I think to encourage you to learn quickly, I won't any longer."

As if to prove his point a slightly blurry-edged man limped over. I say 'limped', but wobbled or stumbled might be more correct. He had no feet, only raw, red stumps where they used to be, although somehow he managed to move forward. His face was mangled as if someone had stomped on it repeatedly or used a rock. He groaned, reaching out toward my general direction in a zombie-apocalypse kind of way. I jumped up and tried to put some distance between us, only to come face to face with a pale, naked woman, her flesh ripped open inside her left thigh and then again across her throat and at both wrists. When the shade reached for me, her hand passed right through my arm, leaving behind an icy chill that made me gasp and feel ill.

"Isaiah! Make them go away." I almost didn't recognize my own voice, I was so frightened.

He had the goddamned nerve to smirk at me. "So you've changed you mind? You've now decided you
want
me to teach you about them? Will your overly protective matey-poo allow it, or are you going to be a grownup and take charge of your own life?" He waved a hand and the two spirits froze in place, both of them reaching out desperately toward me. I was so relieved, I felt tears well up as my heart pounded in my chest like a jackhammer. But my new sense of relief vanished as quickly as it had appeared when I noticed other gruesome shades farther away, walking toward me, all of them reaching out.

Isaiah looked at me sternly. "Answer." I nodded, furious with him, but feeling like I had no choice.

"Say it out loud."

"I want you to teach me about the shades," I growled out from between my gritted teeth. At this point I was so angry that I thought about sending him back, but then I might never be able to shake off these creepy spirits. He'd backed me into a corner and I was trapped there.

"They cannot hurt you or even truly touch you. You'll feel them as a chill and sometimes you might catch their scent or hear a faint noise like a sigh or a grunt. They are simply shadows of what once happened here."

"Why are they reaching toward me and not you?"

"Because you hold enormous amounts of life energy within you. They sense it and yearn to feel it again, so they turn to you."

"But Marie..."

"Marie is unusual. Because she has a direct blood connection to Garrett
and
Charlie, and also because she was a powerful cheetah herself, she was able to hold her form by using some of your energy and then allowing it to loop back to you. Shades with a personal tie to a necromancer are rare and quite strong and can often be useful, especially for your team of investigators. She may even be able to get information from other shades."

He pointed to the two frozen in place near us. "Do you notice how their edges blur? They are weak."

"I don't want to bump into shades all the time. They scare me."

He was looking closely at the male. "This one was tortured. I wonder what he did to piss off Eleanor?" He circled the female.  "She was simply food for the nest. I wonder if Garrett had a taste of her."

"I don't give a crap, Isaiah. I don't want to see them." I'd turned away and buried my head in my hands, closing my eyes.

He laughed at me. "You've seen much worse."

"Please, Isaiah." The ones who'd been on the outskirts had gotten closer.

He nodded, obviously enjoying my distress, waving his hand to make the others freeze in place. "In order to block them, you must believe that you can."