Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (41 page)

At first, Hannah thought the truck was a dream. She should be sleeping, tucked into the cozy iron bed in her room in the farmhouse, covered with the quilt her Mom had sewn. Instead, she was plagued by weird dreams. Too much spicy food too close to bedtime. She dreamed she lay in a strange truck, curled on her side, shouts and thuds echoing around her. Was someone fighting?

The fog of sleep fell away gradually, taking with it the illusion that her dream was simply that.

Hannah didn’t recognize the truck, but she remembered everything that had happened that day. Her escape, meeting Kate, the healing trance. She recognized the t-shirt and yoga pants Kate had put on her. Too bad she had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there. With a touch Hannah verified that the hated collar was gone. The stab wound in her shoulder was tender and achy, but it felt healed. How much time had passed? The sun seemed lower in the sky, but without a watch she wasn’t sure.

Cautious, Hannah eased up to peek out a side window. The sight that met her eyes sent them wide. A glance out the other side deepened her shock. Fighting surrounded her, the combatants concentrated in three knots. Kate was farthest away, her dark hair flying as she whirled and struck. Hannah couldn’t see at her distance, but it looked like Kate had a blade in each hand. A streak of red stained her shirt. Impossible to tell if it was Kate’s blood or one of the attacking demons.

The Shadow moved like a dancer, swaying and weaving her body between the attacking Vorati with a fluid skill that spoke of joy. Hannah would have bet that Kate loved to fight like she loved few other things. Hannah’s guess was confirmed when she caught a glimpse of Kate’s face. Her flushed cheeks, gleaming eyes, and gleeful grin dared the Vorati to attack her.

Conner’s friend—Hannah couldn’t remember his name—was off to her left, battling three demons. He fought with grim determination and brutal economy, the long-bladed knife in his right hand flashing in the sun. Hannah watched in awe as his blade shot out and sliced through the neck of a hulking Voratus.

The blow would have meant instant death if the original inhabitant of the body had still been in residence. Already, blood soaked the front of its shirt. Unfortunately, the Voratus inside had long since taken full control of his human host. Though the body would eventually bleed out from the wound, until it was fully dead, the demon was driving and it was pissed. Hannah held her breath, watching out of half-closed eyes as it attacked again, its gaping throat flapping open and shut in a ghastly second smile.

Suddenly afraid, Hannah looked around wildly for Conner. If Kate and his friend were here, Conner must be somewhere nearby. Even as she looked for him, Hannah realized that she felt him, his energy surrounding her, melding with her own. Letting her instincts take control, Hannah followed her sense of Conner and found him fighting his own contingent of the enemy a few yards to her right. He moved so fast his limbs were a blur.

Unlike with Kate and the other Warder, Hannah felt the power that was Conner charging the air. The rhythm of his fight flowed into the cab of the truck, twining around Hannah until she thought she could predict every jab and kick.

Slowly coming to full awareness, Hannah realized that with the collar gone, she could feel more than Conner—she could feel all of the energy around her. The potential power in the sunlight, the latent energy deep in the ground, the kinetic energy in the light breeze flowing above their heads. It was all hers to tap and direct. She wondered if she could use her connection to Conner to share all that power. When they’d made love, she’d felt energy flowing from his body to hers. If she could make that happen now, maybe she could draw the energy surrounding her and send it to Conner.

Anything would help. It was obvious that both Warders and Kate were skilled fighters. But there were so many Vorati, they were frighteningly outnumbered. Conner himself had at least five around him, not counting the few milling around looking for an opening.

Heedless of the danger, Hannah scrambled to sit up and opened the door. Practically falling out of the truck in her eagerness to get her feet on the ground, she reached for the energy buried beneath her bare feet. Conner had told her of lines of energy running through the earth. Ley lines. If she could tap into one, she might be able to draw their power. Even if there wasn’t one nearby, in the mountains she’d learned to draw the most basic energies of earth and sun.

Wide cracks in the aged asphalt allowed her to touch just enough bare ground to reach what she needed. She’d practiced searching for ley lines with Conner one time, but it felt as natural as if she’d been doing it all her life. Power surged through the dark earth, blasting into the bottom of her feet in a sharp rush.

Hannah gasped in pain before she was able to regulate the energy enough to funnel it through her body. When she thought she had a handle on the flow of power, Hannah tried to direct it into her bond with Conner. It was all so new, touching the energy, exploring her strange tie to Conner. Hannah didn’t know exactly what she needed to do. The power inside her pulled her along for the ride, seeking a path.

She wasn’t sure how she did it. Somewhere between reaching for the power and thinking about how she was connected to Conner, Hannah managed to create a bridge. It felt like the raw power itself had done most of the work. The pure energy of the earth flowed in a rush from her trembling body into Conner’s.

It hit him in a jolt, tangling his feet until he stumbled into a bulky Voratus. Narrowly missing a slash from the demon’s knife, Conner swayed, shaking his head. A moment later, his confusion coalesced into sharp focus. The effects of the power were immediately apparent in his next move. Righting himself, his arm whipped out so fast, Hannah could barely see it. The flash of his knife disappeared into the demon’s midsection. It fell to the pavement in a thump. Without missing a beat, Conner dropped into a crouch and stabbed it with a calix.

Rising from the dead Voratus, he hit a second demon with another calix, sinking the dart into its heart in a split second. The next fell to the ground. Conner moved even faster, arms slashing with vicious speed. A knife strike that was enough to slice became strong enough to behead.

Bodies dropped around Conner one by one. He stopped pinning them with calixes and concentrated on just killing the demons. Oily red clouds rose from the bodies, drifting into the air before they dissipated into the sunny blue sky. Hannah realized Conner must have run through his stash of calixes. Not a surprise—the sheer number of Vorati was unexpected. How had Michael sent so many so quickly?

Still, Conner was thinning the enemy. Elated relief filled Hannah’s chest. They hadn’t won yet, but she was helping. Conner more than held his own now. He was beating them back. She watched as he moved slowly toward the other Warder, melding his group of attackers with his friend’s. In moments, they were fighting back to back in a coordinated effort that said they’d done this many times before.

The scrape of a foot startled her. Looking to her side, Hannah was hit with a flash of terror. She’d been so focused on the battle in front of her, she hadn’t noticed the Voratus right beside her. There was no way she could fight it. She didn’t even know where to begin. Watching the combatants in the parking lot, Hannah finally understood why Conner hadn’t bothered to teach her anything. The kind of skill she’d need to fight these demons took years to learn. All she had were her Shadow skills—skills she barely knew how to use.

Help wasn’t coming. All Hannah’s potential saviors had their hands full. Time to find out how well she could resonate on a Voratus. The last time she’d fought a Voratus, in Conner’s cabin, she’d let her panic overwhelm her, burying her Shadow powers in her own fear. At least she’d spent her captivity in the lab doing something useful. This time, Hannah wasn’t going to let emotion shut her down. Meeting the thing’s eyes, she pushed it to go back to the fight.

It stopped moving mid-stride, the way a man might if he realized he’d forgotten his wallet on the way to his car. Encouraged by this slight success, Hannah tried to focus harder, sending the idea of returning to the fight deeper into its brain. Like Henry’s mind, this Voratus had a soft, mushy shield around his brain. It was messy and imprecise, but she managed to get through, at least a little. The Voratus was frozen, still mid-stride, staring into Hannah’s eyes. He had an average face, with what might have been kind brown eyes before he’d lost his soul to the invading demon. Now his eyes were flat with confusion. In a burst of effort, it reached for her, swinging its left arm in a loose arc. Hannah felt the cold slice of the knife across her ribs without ever seeing the blade.

Desperate, she fought to hold on to her power through the pain. Maybe she could channel some of the energy she was giving Conner into her resonating. She’d never tried that. While in the lab she’d been wearing the collar, so she’d only been able to resonate with the power she held inside herself. She needed more than that to get this thing off her. It was moving slowly, like an old school zombie, lurching against its own indecision. But it didn’t have to be fast to kill her. It just needed one good strike.

Hannah struggled to divide the energy she was channeling to Conner. It had gained momentum, pouring through her in a raging river. Diverting a portion required strength Hannah wasn’t sure she had. It seemed to take an eternity to split the power into two streams. The bond to Conner made it easy to maintain his stream. Now all she had to do was focus the second stream into the Voratus stumbling closer. Moving in jerky bursts, fighting her compulsion, the Voratus took a step and raised its bloody knife. The sight of her blood dripping from the blade gave Hannah the extra burst of focus she needed.

“Go! Go to Conner,” Hannah screamed, envisioning the Voratus turning and walking back to the melee around the two Warders, just one more body waiting to be cannon fodder. The Voratus spun on its heel and walked straight into Conner. In disbelief, Hannah watched it stand helpless as Conner cut it down with one heavy swing of his knife.

After that, the fight wound down quickly. Hannah picked one Voratus after another, pushing them to stop fighting and let the Warders take them out. Those lingering on the edges of the battle moved easily into range and fell under the Warder’s precise swings and strikes. Without new combatants entering the fray, Kate worked her way through her remaining attackers in a few minutes.

Hannah let go of the channel of power, allowing the energy to recede into the earth. Faint from her efforts, she let giddy relief wash through her. Everyone on her side was on their feet. Vorati bodies littered the parking lot in a messy sprawl of partially detached limbs and oozing blood.

Conner, his enemies vanquished, locked on to the sight of Hannah leaning against the truck door. Without the surge of energy flooding her body, black spots popped up to dot her vision. Knees weak, the now familiar feeling of hot blood on her skin reminded her that she was injured. Again. If this could be the last time today she got the wrong end of a blade, that would be okay with her.

Conner appeared beside her, pulling her into his arms. She curled into his chest, unconsciously absorbing his heat. Light fingers brushed her wound. Kate, she thought groggily.

“She’s fine,” Hannah heard Kate say. “It’s mostly surface. The knife didn’t go deep.”

A flaring burn against her ribs that eased into a comforting warmth. Kate had healed her again. Hannah tried to say thanks, but she couldn’t get out more than a low murmur.

“What did she do?” Conner’s voice was pained, thin with anxiety.

“She was feeding you power through your bond. Pulling it up from the ground and sending it to you. I’m kind of impressed. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything like that. I’m putting her back under. She needs to rest and let her body get her blood count back up. Now that we got that collar off her, it shouldn’t take more than a few hours. You guys ready to get moving?”

Hannah strained to hear more. The voices faded. Something about not having enough discs to clean up all the bodies and collecting the calixes. Conner held her close to his chest, easing the door of the truck open and pulling her onto the bench seat with him. She let the healing trance take her under, safe and warm in Conner’s embrace.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ruts in the gravel road jostled the truck, shaking Hannah awake. Night had fallen while she slept, hiding her surroundings from view. Feathery shadows against a midnight blue sky suggested they were in the woods. It was probably time to sit up and say something. Move off Conner’s lap into her own seat. He might be tired of holding her.

Now that the adrenaline rush of escaping the lab and the fight with the Vorati had passed, the unknown loomed ahead, filling Hannah with doubt. Where were they going? Was Conner coming with her, or was he going to drop her off somewhere and walk away again?

Hannah couldn’t blame him if he did. He’d risked so much to help her. He’d risked everything. If he stayed with her, he’d lose his home and his people. That was expecting far too much. And he didn’t know about the baby. He’d told her that Warders didn’t do family. Or relationships. It was likely that he wouldn’t care that she was pregnant.