A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One (2 page)

T
he car wound
its way through the busy streets of King City, Graham seemed utterly at ease behind the wheel and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been one of those bad ass drivers on the Force chasing down the bad-guys.

I wanted to ask him, but just blurting the question out would probably be frowned upon and I didn’t want to piss him off. He’d done me a favour and the last thing I wanted to do was ruin whatever good will he had towards me.

“So where is this recon thing?” I asked, watching out the passenger window as we left the city streets behind and the car pulled out into the countryside, the buildings and houses growing further and further apart as the road widened.

“Out in a town called Nickel, just outside King,” Graham said, peering intently ahead through the windshield.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, finally giving up the pretence of being polite.

“Doing what?” he said, turning to me with surprise and momentarily taking his eyes from the road.

“Why are you helping me? Getting me out in the field, and risking your neck where Jon is concerned—you and I both know he’s going to be pissed over this.”

“I know,” Graham said, returning his attention back to the road.

The car fell silent once more and I fought the urge to start humming to myself. I didn’t like silence. It made me nervous and normally I dealt with it by humming.

But there was something about this silence that told me I shouldn’t be the one to break it.

Whatever was playing on Graham’s mind, whatever had made him risk the wrath of Jon, was something he needed to tell me when he was good and ready.

“I have a daughter your age, you know,” he said, his voice soft as he switched gears and overtook another car.

“I didn’t know actually,” I kept my voice just as soft, my gut twisting nervously.

I could tell from the tone of his voice that this wasn’t a story I wanted to hear.

“Not many do. It’s something I had to keep quiet, it wouldn’t have made me popular among the other Elite. A bit like your secret really….”

I swallowed hard and pushed my surprise aside.

“I’m not sure I understand,” I said, schooling my expression into one of confusion.

He couldn’t know my secret; I’d been careful.

No one knew it.

I was certain….

Well, almost.

“Don’t give me that, Morgan—I know what you are, I know where you come from, and I know what runs in your veins. Why the hell do you think I invited you out here?”

I dug my fingers into my thighs just above my kneecaps.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any secrets. I’m just like everyone else and…” I began to rattle off my cover story. The one I’d practiced in the mirror a million times just in case a situation like this ever arose.

Of course I hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. Especially when I hadn’t done anything yet.

Not that I really could.

A few blue sparks and the ability to make a room a few degrees cooler wasn’t exactly what I would consider a power.

For a while, my mother had even suspected I was a Void. But my first vision had put paid to that theory.

Graham slammed his hand against the steering wheel and I jumped, biting down on the inside of my cheek to keep my fear inside.

Whatever he had planned for me, I wasn’t about to let him see how afraid I was.

I knew what they did to witches in King City. They were outcasts; the moment something went wrong, they were the first ones the cops came to, and it wasn’t for help.

And I knew what the Elite would do to a witch in their midst, and it didn’t involve fluffy kittens and a party.

“I don’t care about what you are. Well, I do, but none of that matters right now.”

I shook my head, training my gaze on Graham as I wrapped my fingers around the dagger that sat in my weapons belt.

A custom-made athame, the one my father had given me for my twelfth birthday right before he….

I pushed the thought aside and focused on Graham. I couldn’t allow my own mess of a head to get in the way of what was going on.

Graham was dangerous—he was one of the best, his case-closed ration was among the highest on the force and his kill count was off the charts.

He was a man who never missed his mark.

And I was a witch trapped in a car next to him.

Great
.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” I said, keeping my tone soft. I didn’t want him to suspect that I was secretly preparing to stab him in the arm or worse if he so much as looked crooked in my direction.

“I need your help and you need me to keep your secret.”

His statement surprised me and I almost lost my grip on the blade in my hand.

“You need my help? Why would you need my help…?” I trailed off, realisation washing over me like a summer sunrise. “It’s your daughter isn’t it?”

He nodded and I could see his knuckles whiten as his grip on the steering wheel intensified.

“Do you need to pull over?” I said, glancing out the window.

It seemed while we were talking our speed had increased, and the last thing I wanted was to die in a horrible car wreck.

“No, we need to go and walk the scene.”

“So there really is a case?” I asked. This time, I couldn’t keep the surprise from colouring my voice.

I’d honestly thought he was taking me out here to threaten me, to force me to help him….

“Of course--oh, shit, you think.…” He trailed off, shame colouring his cheeks.

He shot me a sheepish grin and shook his head. “I’m not going to hurt you, Morgan. I need your help and the best thing I can do is bump you out into the field. You’re no use to me chained to the desk.”

“Gee, thanks…” I muttered under my breath, returning my attention to the trees whipping past.

“You’re angry with me,” he said, glancing surreptitiously in my direction.

“You think? Whatever gave you that impression?” My voice was laden with sarcasm and anger rustled down my spine.

Who the hell did he think he was?

“Look, I know I’ve done this the wrong way, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t a right way to do it.”

“Do what exactly? You’ve said you need my help, but I’m going to need a little more to go on than that. And an explanation as to why you think I’m going to help you at all.”

He nodded and flicked on the indicator. The car never lost its speed as it took us up one of the many slip roads off the freeway.

Staring out the window, I saw the sign that welcomed us to Nickel, population 1,066.

“I’ll tell you everything once I know you can even help me,” he said.

I’d never heard anything more cryptic and I wanted to scream at him to just spill the beans, but that was typical of me. Always rushing headlong into trouble, instead of sitting back to see what would unfold.

For once, I intended to take my own advice.

“
S
o why the
hell are we out here?” I asked, watching as Graham drove the car into the centre of the small town.

Well, it wasn’t really
small
,
but in comparison to King City, Nickel was practically a village.

I couldn’t help but compare it to villages I knew from home.
Home
being a place I could never let the Elite know was my true home.

Ireland was a beautiful country, but it was well-known for its magical affiliations and there were enough half-breeds and witches to make organisations like the Elite wary of anyone who came from there.

If they knew I was born there, it would have led to questions, questions I couldn’t answer, and they would have figured out my secret in no time.

“Suspected vamp attack.”

“How come I didn’t hear about it?” I said, turning in the car seat to stare over at Graham.

Every case file came across my desk; it was the only good thing about what Jon had forced me to do. And there hadn’t been a vamp attack in any of the cases I’d looked over.

“This one is different. They just called it in; asked for someone from Elite to come out and take a look.”

“Great,” I muttered, dropping back against the seats and folding my arms across my chest.

“Is there a problem?”

“Several, actually,” I quipped.

“And they would be?”

“Well, the cops here aren’t going to be too pleased that we’re on their turf, and if this is as new as you’re saying, there’s going to be blood….”

“How do you know there’ll be blood?” he said, the curiosity in his voice unmistakable.

“They’re vampires, Graham. Have you come across a scene where they’re involved where there wasn’t any blood?”

“Good point. I thought maybe you could see something.”

I shot him a dirty look.

How much did he know about me? His insight on what I could do seemed a little too close for comfort. I’d been careful to cover my tracks; it didn’t seem possible that he could have figured all of this out just by watching me pour over case files at the desk.

“Where are you getting your information on me?” I asked, suspicion lowering my voice.

“I told you already, I’ll clear everything up later, but we’re here,” he said, pulling the car over to the curb.

I stared out the window as the car came to a complete stop. The wood panel gothic-style three-storey house was painted white, the trims a glistening black. The lawn was perfectly manicured and sloped down towards the curb, and I could just make out the blood red blooms dotting the rose bushes edging the comfortable porch.

Everything about the house screamed upper middle class. A quiet neighbourhood, I could practically imagine the family, perfectly coiffed with matching sweaters….

The only thing wrong with the scene laid out before me was the flashing lights of the police cars, the crime scene tape that cordoned off the front steps, and the forensic van that sat in the drive.

“How bad is this going to be, Graham?” I asked. I’d been exhausted before, but now I wasn’t sure I even had the energy to push open the car door and step out.

The energy that vibrated from the house spoke of a horror I really didn’t need to poke my nose into.

The voice in my head told me to stay in the car. To lock the doors and refuse to get out, Graham couldn’t make me. I wasn’t even supposed to be here.

“Bad.” His one-word answer had my gut churning.

If I puked all over my first ever crime scene, then I really would spend the rest of my life riding a desk.

“I don’t know if I can go in there,” I said.

“Why not? You have to.”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea.…” I stared up at the house as energy crept along my skin.

If I did go inside, it was going to be painful, and I still hadn’t gotten a real grip on putting up barriers between myself and what was going on around me.

“You’re not going to lose it on me, are you?” he asked, peering over at me.

“Well, it won’t be intentional if that’s what you’re wondering, but I don’t know…. There’s something wrong about all of this.”

“Wrong as in…?” he probed. He was trying to get answers from me—It wasn’t every day you sat in the car outside a crime scene with someone who could tell you how terrible the scene was without ever having to set foot inside the door.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I grumbled, pushing open the car door and stepping out onto the sidewalk.

A wave of terror washed over me and I took a staggered step back against the car.

Whatever had happened inside had spilled out onto the street.

“Jesus Christ,” I whispered to myself, fighting to steady my body as I stared up at the house.

“I’ve never seen you so.…” Graham trailed off as he came around the car and paused next to me.

“Freaked out?” I volunteered.

“Out of control. You’re a little bit of a control freak around the office. Everything has its place and all that crap,” he said, humour creeping into his voice.

He was trying to steer my mind out of the horror it was currently clinging to. And while I appreciated the effort, it wasn’t something he could help me with.

“Trust me when I say everything really does have its place. The balance exists for a reason; screw with it, and everything will go to Hell in a hand basket faster than you can imagine.”

Returning my attention back to the house, I started up the steps, my stride deliberate and purposeful.

All I needed to do was go in there and walk the scene. The sooner I got it over with, the better for all involved.

My eyes scanned the outside of the house. Whatever had done this was long gone, I was sure of that.

The horror that remained was merely residual energy. Enough residual energy to swamp me if I let it.

My gaze came to rest on something up the side of the house; the two small bicycles thrown down side by side, one blue, one pink.…

My stomach lurched and it was an effort not to grab onto the side of the porch and vomit into the flower beds.

Sucking in a deep breath, I tried to get my dry heaving under control and turned to face Graham.

“What happened here, Graham? I’m not walking into that house until you tell me….”

He shook his head and stared sheepishly down at his heavy duty army boots—they were a staple of his wardrobe.

“I can’t, Morgan, I need to know what you can tell me about it all. I need to know what you can do. It’s important.”

“Shit, Graham, there are kids here. You never said anything about kids. Tell me they weren’t involved and I’ll walk in that door….”

He didn’t say a word. His silence was answer enough.

“It came for the kids, didn’t it…?” I said, the dread of what lay in front of me colouring my voice. “I’m not going in there—you can’t make me go in there….” There was an edge of hysteria to my voice.

Graham strode up to me, pausing only once he was close enough to whisper furiously to me.

“You don’t have a choice, it’s your job. This is what you signed up for.”

“Not for this. I didn’t sign up for this … Jesus.…” It seemed hypocritical of me to keep invoking a deity I wasn’t even sure existed. But it was my upbringing and I was covering all of my bases.

If He did exist then how could He have let something like this happen….

“Yes, you did, you did the training. You passed the exams and the interviews. You know monsters exist and they do terrible things to good people.”

“I don’t care, I….” I tried to storm past him, but Graham’s body blocked my escape.

He wrapped his hand around my upper arm and pinned me in place. “You’re all they’ve got. If you don’t go in there and walk the scene whoever did this—”

“You mean whatever; this isn’t a person.”

“—Whatever did this is going to get away with it. It’s going to kill again, and again, until you put it down.”

“You can walk the scene, Graham. You know the spell, you’ve got the ingredients.”

“Amber, you’re a natural, a natural born witch. Anything I could do will pale in comparison to what you’re capable of….”

His use of my first name surprised me, and his voice was softer as he spoke. There was no disgust for my power, no fear or loathing.

And he was right, I was the only one who could truly walk the scene.

Theoretically, any of the Elite could do it. They had the right spells, the right ingredients, and it gave them a rough overview of the crime committed.

But they were human, borrowing power from nature.

It was one of the Elite’s great hypocrisies. If they knew what I was, they would kick me from the Force; I would be dirt in their eyes. But they could commandeer my magic, use the spells my ancestors created, and that was fine.

In some ways, the Elite were merely children playing at dress up.

My magic wasn’t particularly strong, but if I did the spell and walked the scene, I certainly wouldn’t be borrowing my power from anywhere.

“If there’s a chance they can be saved, you’re it. And if anyone can stop this monster, it’s you.”

I let his words sink in.

The voice in my head told me to run, run far away, that what awaited me was more than my mind could tolerate. The voice was never wrong.

“Fine, I’ll do it, but we do it my way or I’m not going in there.”

Graham smiled, his lips curling up at the corners, but the expression never truly reached his eyes. Instead, there was a sadness within them, something that came from the depths of his very soul.

Whatever had happened to him had marked him deep inside, and a stain like that would never come out. No matter how much good he tried to do in this world, he would never be free of it.