Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (32 page)

“I don’t suppose you can just take a look and see where she is. Or where she will be,” Conner asked, knowing it was a stupid question.

“I keep telling you people, I’m not a vending machine. If it was that easy we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I had to ask. I’ll call you when I know something. Answer your fucking phone.”

Zach hung up in response. Conner stared at his phone, weighing his next move. He didn’t think Hannah would lie to him. Maybe part of what she said was true and the rest was the dream. Jumping to conclusions about Michael could cause more problems than he could manage, especially if he was going to try to find Hannah. He didn’t need a Director breathing down his neck while he hunted for a Shadow. The more likely truth was that the Shadow who had picked Hannah up had taken her somewhere. And the only person he knew who had seen that Shadow was Alexa. Conner dialed before he could think of a reason not to.

“Yes?” came her crisp voice through the phone. Vintage Alexa, annoyed at being interrupted by one of her charges.

“It’s Conner.”

“Yes, I know. What do you need, Conner? I’m busy.”

He doubted it. Her job was to guide and watch over him and the other Warder soldiers in their sector. Since she didn’t do much guiding or watching, Conner couldn’t imagine what kept her so busy.

“I just found out that Hannah never got to the Shadows. I’m trying to track down where she is.” He made an effort to keep his tone relaxed and even, as if he was moderately concerned, but not that involved.

“What makes you think she’s not with them?” Alexa asked, impatient.

“I know a Shadow Oracle. He said they haven’t had any new Shadows come in,” Conner said, aware he was digging his own grave with the admission. If he could have thought up a convincing lie, he would have used it. Alexa might be lazy, but she wasn’t stupid. Conner was going to catch hell for admitting to knowing a Shadow, but it was simpler all around than starting a chain of lies.

“I’ll need to see you in my office to discuss this. You should be clear on the protocol regarding the Shadows. No interaction. Is there an aspect of “no interaction” you don’t understand?”

“Alexa, later you can ream me out as long as you want for talking to a Shadow. The point here is that I brought in the girl so she could be delivered to her people and she’s missing. I want to know where she is.”

“Fine.” A long-suffering sigh sounded through the phone’s speaker. “I’ll see what I can find out. Michael picked her up here. He may know what happened.”

“Michael picked her up? Not a Shadow?” Icy shock coated his gut. He’d all but convinced himself that Michael couldn’t have anything to do with Hannah’s disappearance. Had Hannah told him the truth? Was the dream as real as Zach had implied?

“Honestly, Conner,” Alexa went on. “It’s likely she’s where she’s supposed to be. Shadows are unreliable and disorganized. Why do you think we don’t work with them? No discipline. She’s probably right in their midst and half of them have no idea. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“So you’ll check into it? Find out where she is?” Conner asked, impatient with Alexa’s posturing. He doubted any Warder had enough exposure to Shadows to make judgments. Alexa was just parroting what they’d all been taught in school.

“I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, I’ll need to talk to you in my office tomorrow to discuss your interactions with this other Shadow. I’m not prepared to ignore this kind of breach in protocol.”

“Find out something about Hannah and I’ll be there.” Conner hung up the phone. Alexa was as good as useless, but he had to start somewhere. Hoping his friend would have a good idea, he called Kiernan.

Alexa sat at her oversize desk studying a steaming cup of tea. Cradled in an elegant ivy green teacup of delicate china, the wisps of steam gave off the light scent of bergamot. Of all the things in her office, the tea set was one of the few Alexa actually liked. Lost in thought, she took a sip, ignoring the burn of overly hot liquid. Her besetting sin: impatience. Or curiosity. They were tied for first. And both were giving her trouble this afternoon.

Good sense told Alexa she should ignore Conner’s problem. He was behaving irrationally. Consorting with Shadows and setting up a situation where he might end up challenging Michael. Alexa had a comfortable position at the Citadel. Embroiling herself in Conner’s mess would only drag her down. And for what? She’d always disliked Conner.

Growing up at the North American Academy with a father who was both Academy Head and a Director, Alexa’s childhood had been unlike that of most Warders. Instead of sending her to school and moving on, her father had been there. Looking over her shoulder, criticizing, telling her what to study, where to focus her training. Never mind that Alexa had promise as a soldier and an above average talent for spell craft.

Did it matter that she loved fighting and spell craft? No, it didn’t. Ranald Grey was old-fashioned. He’d never been comfortable with the idea of female soldiers, even though theirs had always been a martial culture. He was, to put it simply, a snob. For all their disinterest in family structure, Warders could be obsessive about bloodlines. The Greys were leaders. Soldiers were the working class. Mages were sneaky and untrustworthy. Ranald’s offspring, if he had to be cursed with a female, would be behind a desk. Telling others what to do, not the one being told. Greys didn’t take direction from anyone. Except, apparently, their fathers.

Alexa knew she should stand up to him. She missed the field, missed the simplicity of hunting and fighting. Most of all, Alexa missed the sense of camaraderie she’d shared with the other soldiers when she’d been one of them. Their scorn when she’d withdrawn and taken a Citadel position had cut her. She understood, but without those friendships she was lonely. None of the Warders under her supervision had any respect for her. They saw her as a climber: too much ambition and too little substance. Her charges gave her lip service, but mostly ignored her flimsy authority. At least once a month she thought about asking for a transfer back to the field, but every time Alexa started to put her ideas into action she quailed at the idea of telling Ranald. So she stayed here, stifling in this elegant office that looked like it belonged to an executive, dressing as if she belonged here, hating all of it except for her pretty ivy green teacups.

Taking another sip of the still too hot tea, Alexa considered the problem before her. It was hard to bring herself to help Conner. She’d disliked him since she was a child. Conner had been her father’s golden boy, Ranald’s personal triumph of excellent training. Brought in to the Academy after his exiled parents had died, everyone expected Conner to be trouble. After all, his parents had defied convention and been sent to the wilds of Scotland with little supervision. Who knew what they’d been teaching their offspring? But Conner had been exemplary in everything he did. Strong in academics, an excellent soldier, a kind mentor to the younger children, a good example to his peers. His only weakness had been in spell craft, and that didn’t matter much for a soldier. A few years behind him in classes, she’d quickly grown tired of the constant comparisons.
Conner won this year’s challenges. Why did you come in third? Conner is doing extra work with the grades below yours. Why don’t you have that kind of initiative? A female soldier is an embarrassment. If you were a boy, like Conner, I could be proud of your fighting skills.
On and on.

Conner didn’t have anything to do with her father being an ass, but Alexa still couldn’t stand him. So honorable and skilled. Everyone loved Conner. Alexa was always the one trying to keep up, trying to be good enough. But this new Conner was interesting. She always thought of him as a robot, Mr. Do The Right Thing. Boring and by the books. Now it came out that he’d been talking to Shadows. And in case that wasn’t bad enough, he wanted her to help him track one down. She’d never heard him sound so off balance.

If it had only been Conner’s behavior, Alexa might have brushed his concerns aside. Most likely the Shadow was sitting in the middle of a circle of other Shadows, meditating or singing kumbaya, whatever Shadows did. Conner was overreacting. But there had been something in the way Michael had looked at the girl. A proprietary, almost hungry gleam in his eyes. Could he have done something with her? If he had, Alexa wouldn’t be doing herself any favors by getting in his way. None of the Directorate were easy to deal with. Michael was downright scary most of the time.

But Alexa was bored and restless. And, as usual, a victim of her second besetting sin, curiosity. It wouldn’t hurt to make a follow-up call. She could always deflect Michael’s interest or annoyance onto Conner. Decided, Alexa pushed the still steaming cup of tea away and picked up the phone.

Conner recognized the room before his eyes were fully open. Their bedroom from the cabin, glazed in shadows, lit by the barest hint of moonlight filtering through the blinds. The bed was unmade, sheets and quilt dragging on the floor. He found himself standing in the doorway, clothed in the boxers he’d worn to sleep, still adjusting to his new location. He sensed Hannah, but couldn’t see her. Following the faint astringent scent of hospital that had clung to her in their last dream, he found her curled up in the corner of the room. Wearing the same hospital gown tied loosely in the back, she looked thinner and weaker than in his last dream.

Crouching before her, Conner called her name in a gentle voice. Hannah’s eyes creaked open, head raising as if too heavy for her neck. The incandescent joy in her eyes at the sight of him lifted Conner’s heart. Wobbling on her feet, she launched herself at him. He caught her in his arms and led her to the side of the messy bed. She was unsteady, as if very weak or drugged.

“Hannah, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Tired. Collar makes me tired. When I sleep it feels like I can’t rest. They keep giving me things. With needles.”

“Can you try to wake up a little? I want you to tell me more about where you are.” Conner sat on the side of the bed, drawing Hannah with him. He cradled her against his chest, chafing his hands up and down her arms as if to force her blood to move faster in her veins.

“Will you come get me? I need to leave here. Can’t figure out how yet.”

“Do you have any idea where you are?” Conner asked, turning her to look in her eyes. “Anything you can remember might help.”

“It’s a lab. I don’t know where. He gave me a shot in the elevator and I woke up there. I don’t know how long I was out.”

“Fuck,” Conner said. That wasn’t much help. Hannah smiled faintly. She touched the corner of his mouth.

“There are other Shadows in the lab.”

“What?” Conner’s head snapped up, eyes narrowed. “How many? Have you seen them?”

“I think three. One of them talked to me. In my head.” Hannah told him everything the girl had said. As he absorbed the information he realized things were worse than he’d thought. This was a long-term operation with multiple prisoners. That meant it was very well hidden.

“Do you know what they want you for?”

“Not really. I don’t remember much from the first exam.” Hannah shuddered. Conner tucked her head back against his shoulder. “Since then, they’ve been doing tests, but I don’t know what for. I asked the Shadow girl, but she couldn’t tell me.”

“I’m going to get you out, Hannah. I promise.”

“The others too?”

“If I can.” Conner stroked her hair, pressing her closer into the heat of his body. His heart eased a little as she snuggled in, as if soaking in his strength. Even in the dream he felt her energy reaching for his, tying them together. His mind knew that he shouldn’t feel guilty for her current situation, but it didn’t matter. Guilt and responsibility weighed him down. He was going to find her and get her out. There was no other option. It would have been easier if Hannah could have told him anything about where she was, but he’d do this without her if he had to.

At least they knew who had her. He stroked her back, trying to infuse his vitality into her weak body. She was so out of it, aware he was there but not completely present. He wondered if it was the dream, or if she was truly that disoriented. He hoped it was the former. The other captives were a complication. He’d get them out if he could, but they weren’t his priority. Just one more sign he was changing. The old Conner would never have considered leaving an innocent victim behind.