Shadow Eater, page 2
part #2 of Shadowlands Series
He had to be sure.
The creature lowered her huge head to him. He rubbed her snout and she closed her eyes, enjoying the caress on her scales with an audible rumble.
“Please,” Clay whispered.
The creature opened her eyes. Amber orbs blazed and she spread her huge wings.
It was time.
He took hold of one of the spiny ridges on the creature’s back and pulled himself up, throwing his legs on either side so he was properly seated for flight.
The creature flexed her wings and took to the air, heading for the tower.
ASH
I was brushing out the tangles in my hair, angry strokes with a hard bristle brush, when his reflection appeared in the mirror beside my scowling face.
“Your friend has been given quarters with the other humans,” Avery said. “He didn’t seem very surprised by your Shadow eating.” He was leaning against my doorjamb, arms crossed over his broad chest. His golden hair was loose and fell against his chiselled cheeks in silken strands that begged to be touched.
Gah! I hated that he was so beautiful. It made being annoyed with him so much harder, especially because he had a point. That had been bugging me too, but I’d brushed it off as shock. Ryder must have been in shock.
“You wouldn’t understand human emotion.”
“I understand that you’re angry with me. I understand that you want to go after your brother, but if what your friend Ryder says is true, your brother is most certainly dead.”
I slammed the brush down on the dresser. “Don’t even try it! You said one week and I’ve given you that. We leave to look for him tomorrow, and we take Ryder with us. I don’t believe Clay is dead, and you know why? Because I would have felt it.” I slammed the flat of my palm against my chest. “I would have felt it here! He’s my twin. I would know.” I stood up and approached him. “If you knew Clay you’d know how resourceful he is. Ryder said Clay climbed onto the dragon’s back. I saved a dragon in Inferna.”
“You think it’s the same dragon?”
I shrugged. “I know that Clay isn’t stupid. If he got on that beast’s back, he did it because he felt it was safe.” I was so close now that I had to lift my chin to look up at him. His deep blue eyes narrowed a fraction and his nostrils flared. “So tell me Avery, where is this keep?”
Avery’s lip curled. “You think it’s taken your brother back to its keep?”
“It’s possible. It’s a start.”
His gaze shuttered and he took a step back. “It doesn’t matter any longer. You’re not going anywhere, Ash. Something’s come up. I can’t leave.”
The world stood still, my heartbeat stuttered, and then all the rage inside me exploded in a torrent of curses, fists, and nails.
“You bastard! You fucking lying bastard! I’ll kill you!”
I got in two hits before he had my wrists in a vice-like grip and was shaking me until my teeth rattled. “Stop it!”
I grit my teeth and glared at him through a veil of angry tears. “You promised!” I hated the desperation in my voice.
“No. No I didn’t. I said I would take you, but I did not give you my word.”
I was shaking with rage. “Fuck you, Avery! Fuck you and the Shadows. I quit!”
He blinked down at me.
“Yeah, you heard me, fuck the deal, what you gonna do about it, huh? You can’t make me work for you? You can’t force me to do anything!”
“We had a deal,” he said.
“Yeah, we did, but if you can change your mind then so can I.”
Avery released me and turned away, his shoulders heaving. It was the first sign of real emotion I’d seen from him in a while.
“I understand human emotion better than you think, Ash. Believe me, I had every intention of going with you. Unfortunately, I’m needed here. You can’t go on your own, it’s too dangerous, and you know it. But I realise that you won’t stop fighting me until you’ve found out the fate of your sibling for certain. If you can convince Daemon to go with you then I’ll allow it. He will protect you.” He turned to leave.
My pulse was racing. “Thank you,” I said to his back.
He paused. “Don’t thank me just yet, Ashling.”
And then he was gone.
***
I found Ryder first. His quarters were my old quarters. He flung open the door and lifted me up in a bear hug. I let him hold me for a long moment, inhaling his familiar scent, and taking comfort from it.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I’m so happy you’re here.”
Ryder released me and pulled back. “What the hell is this place, Ash? And what the hell did you do to that... that Shadow thing that attacked me?”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Er, yeah! What the hell? I mean, I didn’t want to say anything in front of that Shadowlander. I don’t trust that guy. He has the eyes.”
“The eyes?”
“Yeah, those eyes that are hiding shit.” Ryder shook his head. “I can’t believe this place.”
“I went back to Shelter with food.”
His brow crinkled. “You did?”
I nodded. “They tried to... to kill me. Turns out my time here has changed me. All they saw was a monster.”
“How did you escape?”
“Daemon, one of the other Shadowlanders that runs this place, came for me.”
“You have a thing with this guy?”
I blinked up at him in surprise. “Huh? What? Why would you say that?”
Ryder lifted a finger and touched the side of my mouth. “That smile on your face when you mentioned him.”
My hand went to my mouth. Sure enough, I’d been smiling. I shook my head. “No. No ‘thing’. I’m just grateful.”
“Okay, I get it. They’re not all bad, but still. We need to get out of here and find Clay and we need to get back to Shelter. We can explain the monster stuff to them. They’ll understand.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I couldn’t go back, so instead I offered him another smile.
“Listen, I need to go do some stuff before we can go looking for Clay. I’ll be back soon, just stay put.” I headed for the door, but his hand on my elbow stopped me.
“Have you looked for him since you found out he’d gone into the Shadowlands?”
I hated the shame and guilt that swirled around in my belly. “No.”
Ryder released me and shook his head, incredulous. “Why the hell not?”
“It’s complicated.” My cheeks burned and I grit my teeth.
“Tell me.”
So I did. I told him about Bernie and Inferna and the deal I’d made. I told him of Avery’s terms for my leaving to find Clay and I told him about my plan to convince Daemon to come with me.
“No way!” He began to pace. “We go, even if this Daemon refuses to help.” He moved toward me and gripped my shoulders, his eyes dark and all encompassing. “You have me, and together we can achieve anything. You gave your word that you’d help them with this Shadow problem and, yeah, it sounds like it could help us humans too, but you didn’t agree to be a prisoner. So we go, either way.”
“It’s not that easy. They’re watching me all the time. Plus, it’s not safe out there, not without one of them for backup.”
Ryder’s fingers dug into my shoulders. “Fuck that! We don’t need one of them. We’ll find a way, together. Haven’t we always made a good team?”
Hope bloomed in my chest. Maybe we could do it, maybe together we could find a way to give Cal the slip, maybe we could navigate the Shadowlands, except... “We have no idea where this Keep is.”
Ryder opened his mouth to say something than snapped it shut. He sighed and released me. “Okay, speak to Daemon.”
“And if he says no, I’ll ask around. Someone’s bound to know where it is.”
“Then why not just ask around first and have Daemon as a backup?”
Because I wanted Daemon to come with me. The revelation stunned me and I was momentarily speechless.
Ryder watched me assessing, and for a moment the expression on his face was so alien it made me uncomfortable, but then he smiled, and he was Ryder once more. “It’s fine, I get it. This Shadowlander saved you, and you feel safe with him.”
“Yeah, I do.”
His eyes pinched at the corners and I suspected I’d injured his manly pride. There was nothing I could say to take away the sting, so I turned and left.
It was only when I was halfway down the corridor that I realised he hadn’t once asked about his girlfriend Nina.
CLAY
The creature landed on the rooftop of the tower with her usual elegant grace.
It was super-high and would have had a great view if things were a bit brighter. All he could see were shadowed ruins and lots of darkness. On the way up, he’d noticed that the windows actually had balconies. There’d been no one, or nothing, standing on them.
The silence was as heavy as the air. He shivered a little as a gentle, yet bitter breeze licked his skin. In the weak moonlight he could see a metal doorway in a square cube of concrete—possibly the entrance to the tower.
Clay drew a deep breath and headed over. The creature would have to wait on the roof. He hated leaving her behind, but some places she just didn’t fit into—like that three-legged creature’s cavern.
He paused. “I’ll meet you back here,” Clay said.
The creature growled, expressing her displeasure. Yeah, me too, beasty.
“The first sign of trouble, we’re gone.” Clay’s reassurances were false. Though he would love to up and run as soon as danger reared its ugly head, he wasn’t going to flee until he was absolutely sure Ash wasn’t inside the building. He couldn’t live with the wondering if he’d missed her.
He was at the metal door. With one glance back at the creature he pushed on the door handle.
Locked.
Typical!
He thought for a minute, crouching down and looking at the keyhole with his torch, scoping it out, thinking of the mechanism within as something that could open, would open, with the right amount of patience. He pulled out his penknife and opened the hook attachment and removed the tweezers that were hidden inside. Clay loved the multi-purpose tool.
Bending the tweezers back, as if they’d spread their wings, he slid one part into the keyhole along with the thin hook. He closed his eyes, feeling the two pieces of metal meet grooves and notches. This lock was new, probably a replacement, and quite badly put together. Not a bad thing for Clay though—just less of a challenge.
He was completely focused, his nerves tuned in to every movement, every click of change. Slide along just a touch, push a little, up a smidge... he finally found what he needed. Applying pressure, the mechanism clicked and the lock slid open.
Clay swallowed as he stood, putting away his penknife.
He was really doing this. He wasn’t used to being scared, not like this. Not the kind of fear that turned his legs to jelly or threatened to loosen his bladder. This was new, and yet he didn’t care because once he found Ash it would all be worth it. Clay opened the door. Hot air spilled out and darkness met him. If he looked back he’d make the crazy knot in his stomach tighten. No, he had to go in and get to it.
He stepped inside, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.
***
The first set of stairs ended at a door. He opened it and stepped into a corridor. The torchlight cut through the dark, illuminating dirty blue tiles and firmly closed doors with numbers written on them, some behind gates of black bars. Those gates were secured.
He couldn’t go around picking every lock. Plus, his makeshift lock pick would break. The components weren’t designed for too much punishment. He needed a plan.
Did he knock? He held his torch higher, walking deeper into the corridor. At the opposite end, there were two open doors—broken and hanging from their hinges.
He decided to start by looking inside those.
The first was a home, or at least had been. There was a pink sofa in a living space covered with black stains, its white innards bursting out of slashes. Scattered around it was rubbish: broken glass, toys, paper, and a freaky-looking doll with half of its face missing. There was a whiff of excrement in the air.
Clay moved into a kitchen, pots and pans everywhere, more black stuff splashed up the walls and cupboards. The stench of spoiled milk hit the back of his throat, making him gag. He peered into the cupboards, finding them empty.
In the bathroom the tub was black, and he didn’t even look inside the toilet bowl. There were two bedrooms, both empty. No Ash. He strode out, his eyes skimming over the black stuff again. What the hell was it, some kind of mould?
Across the corridor, he explored the other busted door. It was very much the same. Different furniture, but chaos and broken things, black sprayed over everything—he was starting to feel unnerved by its constant presence. More empty cupboards, some of the dirty beige carpet ripped up. Clay was about to leave when he stepped on something that squelched under his black boots.
He lifted his foot up to see a squashed eyeball, pink oozing from the white orb. Its iris was green.
He jumped back, almost dropping the torch. “Shit!”
What in the Mother’s name was this place? He stared at the black stuff, sweat beading on his brow, his mouth dry. He wanted to throw up. He exhaled then inhaled deeply though his nose. The light of his torch on the wall shook to the rhythm of his trembling hands. He counted to ten to steady his nerves, but it took a count to almost eighty before the trembling subsided.
This was the first of many floors in this high tower, and he had to have his stuff together if he was going to explore it.
Would his sister really be in a place like this?
It immediately sounded like he was talking himself into getting out. But what if she was behind one of those locked doors with the gates? What if whatever was in this place, leaving eyes on the floor, had scared her so much she’d had no choice but to batten down the hatches and wait it out?
Ash didn’t do waiting out.
He was starting to shake again.
A sound came from the corridor—footsteps.
Ash? He ignored the instinct to rush out and take a look. Caution was key here. Maybe he wasn’t the kind of guy who was attuned to surviving the wilderness, or even able to kick-arse as well as Ash or Ryder, but he wasn’t an idiot. He liked his eyes in their sockets.
He slipped into one of the two bedrooms—the one with a double bed and shredded sheets covered in black stuff. He crawled under it, breathing through his mouth to avoid the putrid stench that threatened to make him hurl, not that there was much in his stomach to expel; he’d been living off tins of baked beans and some peaches in syrup he’d found. Maybe Ash had been right to come here. There was food if you looked hard enough.
The footsteps were getting louder, and now that he listened carefully, he heard more than one set out in the hall.
Shit.
“In here.” The voice was male.
“I can smell it,” a female voice said.
“Me too.”
“What about that thing on the roof?” the male voice asked.
“What about it? It ain’t doing anything but sitting there. Let it get comfy, and then we’ll hit it hard. Looks tasty.”
“Yeah, it does.”
The footsteps were in the home, crunching on glass.
“We know you’re in here, human,” the male said. “I can smell your plump flesh. As ripe as anything, you are. Can practically taste your blood.”
“Yeah,” the female said. “And you’re a bloke. You stink of man. I love stinky men.”
“Come on out,” the male said. “You’re trapped.”
Clay pulled the crowbar from his trousers.
“Stronger in the bedroom,” the female said. “Bet he’s under the bed.”
Shit!
“Of course he is.”
Clay saw the two pairs of boots come into the room and stop by the bed. In an instant, the mattress was flipped up and Clay was staring up at two monstrosities through the wooden slats.
“Hello,” the male said.
They looked human in shape, however they were anything but. Horns sprouted from their bald heads like broken bony fingers, and their flesh was mottled and rotting, peeling off in some places. All they wore were boots, and rags to preserve their modesties. Their eyes were white and missing pupils, and black ooze dripped from their lips.
“You look very delicious,” the female said. As she spoke, flecks of black sprayed from her mouth.
“So glad you came by,” the male said.
Adrenaline flooded his veins, urging him to act, fight or flight, but he held fast because either move would be futile right now. He was trapped under the bed, and by the time he could scramble out they’d have him. His mind whirred. They may not be human, but they seemed to like the sound of their own voices. If he could get them talking maybe he could figure a way out of this.
Or simply delay the inevitable.
No, he wouldn’t think that way.
“Who are you?” Clay asked.
“Why don’t you slide out so we can show you?” the female replied.
“I’d rather stay here, thanks.”
The male chuckled. “Not gonna happen, mate.”
“I’m looking for my sister.” Clay knew they wouldn’t give a damn.
“You are?” the female said. “And she was here? Oh, was she the red-head with the bad attitude? She had a good set of thighs on her. The best I’ve ever eaten.”
Clay’s heart almost stopped.
“Pretty old, sister,” the male said. “She had more grey in her hair than red. Nice big tits though. I enjoyed them.”
“Really?” The female shot her companion an enquiring glance. “I always find they sit heavy.”
Clay was hit with a wave of relief. He felt bad for the woman who they’d…eaten, but grateful it hadn’t been Ash.
