A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One (6 page)

E
xiting
the bedroom a few minutes later, I spotted Graham sitting on the couch, his gun holstered as he kept his gaze trained on the ceiling. My damp hair trailed down my back, slowly soaking through the thin fabric of my grey T-shirt.

“What the hell are you doing here—I thought I left you back at Elite?” I asked, my tone less than polite.

It really was something I was going to have to work on, but right now wasn’t the time.

“Who was your friend?” he countered, his eyes still trained on the ceiling.

“Graham, seriously, you can look at me. I’m dressed.” I was exasperated; the day had not gone in the direction I’d hoped for, and it seemed like my hope that it couldn’t possibly get any worse had been a false one.

He dipped his head and met my gaze, his expression tense as though he half expected me to have told him lies.

“Now, you first: why are you here?” I said, crossing my arms across my chest.

“I was worried about you. I took you out in the field this morning…. What happened was my fault.”

“Unless you were in control of the vampire that murdered the Sidwells, how can any of this be your fault?”

“Not that, but bringing you out there—It was wrong of me, selfish. I know how hard it is to walk a scene, but I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone like you.”

“A witch, you mean?” I couldn’t keep the accusation from my tone and Graham had the good grace to look ashamed.

“I didn’t mean it like that….”

With a sigh, I dropped down onto one of the well-worn, comfy armchairs in the living room. The springs were long gone and I sank into the cosy warmth of the cushions.

“I know you didn’t….”

“What happened to your arm. Did he do that?”

Confusion slowed my mind to molasses and I glanced down at the place on my arm where Graham had gestured.

The angry red hand print stood out against my pale skin and it took me a second for my brain to catch up and register where it had come from.

“No, that happened earlier…” I said. It wasn’t exactly a good idea to elaborate on the subject.

The mark was my punishment for what I’d done to Detective Asshole back at the house. It’d take days to fade, and anyway, how did you explain something like that to anyone outside the coven?

“The Sidwell woman did it? How is that even possible?”

“No—look, it doesn’t matter…” I said. I wasn’t even supposed to talk to him about what I was, but he was making that more and more impossible with every question he asked.

“Look, Graham, I’ve got things I need to do and….” He gave me a pointed stare and folded his arms across his chest.

“Don’t give me that crap, we both know you’re up to something. You have no intention of letting this case go anymore than I do,” he said, his voice heavy with suspicion.

But it was his statement that surprised me. Why would he want to keep investigating? What was he hoping to get out of it all?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Jon kicked us both off the case and that’s it.”

“And you do everything that creep tells you? This morning, you couldn’t get out of that office fast enough just so you could defy him. And now, at the final hurdle, you’re just going to throw in the towel?”

I couldn’t exactly lie to him. Everything he’d said was the truth, and he seemed utterly determined to endanger himself no matter what I said anyway.

Could I tell him?

If anything happened to him then it would be my fault, on my head…. Was that something I was willing to risk? Was it something I could live with?

“Why are you doing all of this, Graham? I think it’s about time you spilled your side of all this. It’s not fair one of us holding all the answers, particularly if we’re going to be partners.”

It was a cheap shot, especially when I hadn’t even made up my own mind about it yet. But I knew it would have the desired effect, and a small pang of guilt hit me square in the stomach as I watched his face lighten.

“You’re not just saying that? You’d really work with me, out in the open, no more secrets?”

Biting down on my cheek, I nodded. As long as I didn’t promise aloud, then I still had options….

“You remember I said I had a daughter?” He started, and my heart sank. I’d had a feeling that it was personal for him. He was in over his head because of love.

But wasn’t I in the same boat?

“Yeah….”

“Well, she got in with a bad crowd, started hanging around with them last year. Staying out late, not coming home until sunrise, and then there were the marks….” He trailed off and I could tell from the pain in his eyes that whatever he was thinking took him to places he would be better off forgetting.

“Graham, I’m sorry….”

He shook his head and smiled, but it was melancholic and it hurt my heart.

The monsters didn’t care what they did to their victims; their only desire was to fill their own sick needs, whatever they might be. And most people only ever thought of the victim and whatever horror they were forced to suffer.

Most people didn’t think of the toll on those closest to the victim, the ones left behind to pick up the pieces. The people forced to relive the horror of their loved ones over and over.

There was no relief for them. Many victims were released by death. The tragedy of their lives cut short a stain on society.

But the ones left behind…

There was no release, no oblivion to sink into. They carried their grief, their guilt, and the constant wish that they had done more, intervened sooner, taken a closer look at the situation. Or just told them they cared more.…

I knew what that was like and it wasn’t something I would wish on anyone.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I was the one who let her down. I should have insisted she cut ties with them, but Jessica was so headstrong, so determined that she knew the path she was meant to take.”

“Was it vampires?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“She was obsessed with them, one in particular. Jess was letting him.…” Graham’s voice became choked as though whatever he was thinking was too terrible to even share with me.

“She was feeding him,” I volunteered, and Graham nodded, burying his face in his hands. “He went too far, didn’t he?”

Graham shook his head and raised his face to mine.

“A group of Hunters did a raid on the house where the vamps were nesting, cleaned the whole place out, and Jess got caught in the cross hairs. Or at least that was what they told me.”

My brain struggled to come to terms with what he was telling me. I’d always known Hunters existed, working outside the law, hunting down the monsters, but I’d always assumed they worked with the Elite for situations that involved carrying out executions.

“I’m not sure I follow you. You’re telling me Hunters went in and killed civilians, and no one did anything about it?”

“They burned the place to the ground; one of them dropped by the house that morning and gave me back one of Jess’s hoodies. He said there was no choice, she tried to defend her vamp lover…. I wanted to bring him in, but they’re different to the cops—the minute I tried to grab him, well, let’s just say I couldn’t keep a hold of him,” Graham said, the regret in his voice palpable.

“So that’s why you joined the Elite?”

“No, I quit the force because of what happened. What was the point in working for the law when there were people out there working outside it?”

I knew what he meant. I’d thought the same thing myself after my father’s death. What was the point in following the rules when there were always those willing to work outside them, no matter the cost?

“How did you end up working for Elite?”

“I saw Jess. She’s not dead; the Hunter was lying or he was just plain wrong. Jess is alive, but she’s still with the vamp….”

“They survived?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice.

How was that possible? It didn’t seem logical that the Hunter could be so wrong; there was a reason they worked outside the law, and they were damn good at their jobs.

The fact that I’d heard nothing of a nest of vamps getting destroyed was simply testament to how thorough they were.

So how was it possible that a human and her vamp lover had escaped? Especially if the Hunters knew of their existence?

“I’m pretty sure that was the exact same expression I had when I saw Jess, when I believed she was dead.”

“It just doesn’t add up….”

“Nope, but then, I’ve come to realise since I started in this job that most things don’t add up.”

“When did you last see her?”

Graham went silent and I watched him swallow hard. He was just as familiar with the statistics as I was. His reticence to tell me how long it had been since he’d set eyes on Jessica told me his fears.

“Thirteen months.”

“And you’ve had no contact with her at all in that time?”

He shook his head and buried his face in his hands again.

“You don’t need to remind me. I’m aware of the statistics, Morgan, but I saw her; I saw my baby girl when I thought she was dead. I’d just given up on her, accepted the Hunter’s word as truth, and I let her down. I won’t do that a second time. Until I find her, until I know the truth, I won’t rest.”

“So you joined the Elite hoping it would give you the inside track on everything monster related?”

“Isn’t that why you did it?” He swallowed hard again, as though nervous of what I might do to him for knowing the truth.

“My reasons for joining the Elite are my own, Graham. It’s none of your business….” I tried to soften the edge to my voice.

“I just want your help to find her, to bring her home—If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“You do realise you sound completely insane. How can I bring her home? I know nothing about her, and I’m a rookie. I’m not one of the seasoned veterans who know how to track people…. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

Pushing up onto my feet, Graham mirrored my actions; the fear lurking in his eyes and the tension in his shoulders made me nervous.

I understood his position more than I cared to admit, but that didn’t mean I could help him. I
so
wasn’t the right person for the job; that had been proven when the only way I could think to help Joanna Sidwell had been to sink a knife between her ribs and up into her heart.

Everywhere I went, I brought death and destruction, and if Graham couldn’t accept that, then he would learn the hard way….

He darted towards me and I blocked his advance, but I’d been wrong about his intentions. He didn’t want to hurt me—well, not in the literal sense.

Instead, he shoved something small and delicate into my hands. The cold press of metal made me recoil, but it was too late.

Gasping, the first vision rocked me to my core, my knees buckling beneath me as my reality fizzled away and hers came into focus.

T
he emotions Jessica had experienced
, the sights and smells, washed over me in one overwhelming wave. I didn’t even have the opportunity to brace my barriers for the invasion; I’d been so intent on ensuring Graham didn’t physically hurt me that I hadn’t seen it coming.

The silver chain links slipped through my fingers. The feeling of the metal as it brushed against my fingers gave me the urge to throw it away, to throw it as far from my sizzling flesh as I could.

My mind hopped from one image to the next, never staying long enough on one in particular for me to get a clear read on the situation.

Was I searching for something?

Someone.

The moment that realisation hit me, his eyes swam into view. I could feel his brown gaze boring into my own, the press of his cold dead fingers against the side of my face as he tilted my head to the side and….

Pain and pleasure roared in my ears. Two emotions vying for equal control of my body, a war neither side seemed to win.

Where did I end and he begin?

Confusion swamped me. These weren’t my emotions. I wasn’t really feeling a mixture of pleasure and pain; all I could truly feel was pain. I wasn’t in love with the creep holding me down, feeding from my neck, and I wanted no part in his twisted games.

I released my grip on the necklace, the vision’s hold on me broken as soon as the last tiny link slipped through my grip.

Graham peered down at me, his dark eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hope.

“Get the hell away from me,” I said, ramming my hands against his chest, sending him sprawling away from me.

There was no way I was in the mood for his crappy games and sob stories after the stunt he’d just pulled.

There had been a moment when I’d pitied him, where my resolve to turn him down flat had wavered. The last shred of pity I’d felt had washed away as soon as the chain had hit the floor.

“You’re bleeding,” he said, gesturing to my face.

“Shit,” I muttered, lifting my hand and gingerly pressing my fingertips against my nose.

It wasn’t the first time a vision had left me with a physical calling card of its presence, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be the last.

My fingers came away dotted in the bright flash of fresh blood and I swore again, this time under my breath. This wasn’t what I needed right now.

“I want you out of here,” I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous level.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know how else I was supposed to get your attention.”

“You had it; you didn’t need to do this. How am I supposed to trust you when you pull crap like this?”

“I did it because I was desperate. I have to know if she’s still alive or not….” He studied my face and I knew he was searching for something, anything, that would tell him the fate of his daughter.

“Get out, Graham,” I said with a sigh. My head was beginning to ache, a tell-tale sign that I had done far too much with my ability to get visions.

Most of the witches in my family relied on other methods for having visions. They used a medium, water or fire being the normal procedure. I didn’t have to do any of that. For some reason, when it came to souls connected to death, I became the conduit through which their final moment passed.

They were only ghosts of what had passed; I certainly hadn’t gotten any glimpses into the future. And my ability to have a vision through the medium of water or fire was severely impaired, just another reason my mother was disappointed in her only daughter.

“Amber, please, just hear me out….”

“I don’t want to; you have no idea what you’re messing with. All you’ve done today is use me for your own selfish needs, and now you want me to just overlook your latest stunt. If I had any sense, I’d.…” I cut myself off before I gave him any ammunition to use against me.

I was doing enough to him, removing his chance at finding his daughter. Or, at least, removing what he thought was a chance at finding her.

“I saved your life earlier, does that count for nothing?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. I don’t need you or anyone else, thank you very much.” My tone was acerbic and I jerked my arm towards the front door. “Now get the hell out before I make you.”

Blue sparks danced along the edges of my fingers and Graham’s eyes widened in response.

I might not have been particularly powerful, but he didn’t know that, and I wasn’t going to enlighten him any time soon. He hesitated for a moment longer before swallowing back whatever words danced on the tip of his tongue.

Turning away from me, he strode towards the door before pausing with his hand on the door knob.

“You’ll help me, Morgan. One way or another, you will help me.”

Dragging open the door, he disappeared out into the hall and let the door slam shut behind him; it didn’t stay closed, but bounced open once more. Crossing the floor, I stared at the remains of the ruined lock and sighed.

Yeah, I’d been wrong to tempt fate by believing the day couldn’t get any worse.