Blood Craft: The Shadow Sorceress Book Two (3 page)

I
wasn’t
sure what exactly I was expecting to happen, but it sure as hell wasn’t nothing. The victim’s skin was icy beneath my touch, but it had a waxy consistency that had nothing to do with the usual feel of death. The skin was practically slimy and it took all of my willpower to just keep my hands pressed to the woman’s chest.

Nothing happened.

There was just the steady rise and fall of my own breathing and I could make out the faint sounds of Graham as he shuffled awkwardly just outside the tent.

The wind ruffled the grass once more, the sound of it whispering through the blades sent a shiver of something I couldn’t quite figure out down my spine.

The last time I’d walked a scene, the dead body had come back and attempted to rip my throat out. But this, whatever was going on here … well, that was kind of the problem: nothing was going on.

Concentrating a little harder, I drew forth a little power, the feel of it curling up from inside sending a frisson of anticipation across my skin. It was as though my body understood that this was what I was meant to do, that the power I felt, the power I wielded, was second nature to me and if I would just get out of my own way, things would be easier.

Pushing my power down my arms and into the body in front of me, I waited for the scene to come to life. Everything that had occurred here had left a mark on the earth, scarred it. The memory should have flared to life, the pain and fear the victims felt had soaked into the ground and it was that my power tried to latch on to.

But just like the bodies, their emotions were slimy, and each time my power found them and attempted to anchor them in place, they slipped away, out of my grip. They slithered around me like snakes, untouched and unmoved by my magic.

“Shit,” I muttered, drawing some more power from my centre and driving it into the ground.

Static raged in my ears and the faint sound of Graham calling to me caught the edge of my hearing, but as hard as I tried to follow the sound of his voice back, I couldn’t.

Pain ripped through the centre of my body and I screamed, a long, ragged, piercing cry of agony; my grip on the body in front of me fell away as I hit the ground.

The smell in the tent intensified, smothering me beneath its cloying weight as something shifted inside me. It spread within me, its tentacles wrapping around my organs sealing itself inside me.

I opened my mouth to scream again but there was no sound. My hands scrambled down at my sides, closing around the hilt of my athame, and I drew it up from my weapon’s belt.

“Morgan!”

Graham’s voice came back to me in a flood of sound and I jerked in his grip, the hold he had on my arms sent another kick of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

“Let me go,” I said, fighting his hold.

“Not until you give me the blade,” he said, the look in his eyes betraying his fear.

My hair was stuck to the back of my neck, my sweat cold as it coated my skin and I gave up the athame without a second thought.

“Christ, Morgan, what the hell happened? I thought you said you were just going to walk the scene?” he said as he dropped back onto his knees next to me.

“I was trying to, but….” I cut off, my hands automatically reaching towards my stomach. Fighting against the white shirt I wore, I dragged it up and searched my skin for wounds. But there was nothing.

I’d felt it, I’d felt something pierce me, force its way inside my body and spread through me, bit by bit killing pieces of me.

“Graham, is there anything on my back?” I asked, shuffling around to reveal my back to him.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I studied his face as he checked me over and then shook his head.

“Not a mark. Now, are you going to tell me what the hell you were doing? I’m standing guard outside the tent like you asked when I hear you screaming and I come in here to find you about to commit
seppuku
.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked, shooting him a confused look before letting my shirt drop back down.

“With your athame, you were about to gut yourself. If I hadn’t stopped you, then this would be a very different conversation.” His words sent a thrill of fear racing through me.

There had been a moment where I’d been convinced that if I didn’t cut whatever it was spreading around inside me out that it would kill me. I’d felt its black bleakness stretching out across my insides…. Was that what the other two victims had felt, too?

If it was, then they’d suffered beyond measure. That kind of death wasn’t something I would wish on anyone. But if I had enough strength to try and cut the bleakness out of myself, then why hadn’t they tried to do the same?

Other than the marks they’d left on each other’s hands, there wasn’t another mark on them. Well, nothing I could see anyway. Whatever had attacked me, I’d felt it enter through my back…. Maybe when we could safely move the bodies and look at their backs….

“Did you find anything we can…” Graham cut off as the tent flap slapped open and Dex strode back inside, two uniformed officers in tow.

“I’m calling you on your bullshit, Graham. I’ve spoken to the Captain and to the head of the Elite, neither of which are too pleased with either of you.”

I groaned inwardly. I could just imagine Jon’s face, the look of glee as he promised to deal with us, reprimand us for the mess we were making. A mess he was responsible for.

“Dex, just listen,” Graham said, his tone soft and placating.

“I don’t have time for this. You had your shot at it and you yourself declared it a human kill. That makes it my jurisdiction and I intend on carrying out my job to the letter of the law. You might have forgotten what that really means, Graham, but I haven’t.” There was a finality to his voice and I knew we were seconds from getting tossed out on our asses.

The tent flap opened once more and two men dressed in forensic overalls stepped inside, making the already cramped space even tighter. Without a word, they moved past Dex towards the bodies and I grabbed the arm of the nearest one.

“You can’t move them. Quarantine protocols need to be in place, we need to get someone down here who can cleanse the entire scene and make the bodies safe for transport.”

The forensic guy shot me a baffled look over the top of the surgical mask he wore covering the lower half of his face before shaking his head and jerking free of my grip.

“We’re going to need some room in here if we’re to move the bodies without disturbing the evidence,” the other guy said. He was already beginning to prep the furthest body for removal and fear curled in my stomach.

“Dex, you can’t do this. Please, just listen to me. If you attempt to move the bodies without….”

He shook his head and cut me off with a wave of his hand before I had an opportunity to finish speaking.

“Just get them out of here before they screw up anything else,” he said to the two uniformed officers standing next to him.

They stepped forward, the nearest one grabbing my arm just as something behind me gurgled and hissed. Jerking free of his grip, I had just enough time to turn and watch the centre of the first body split wide open. A gash as long as my arm opened up from neck to below the male victim’s navel; the hiss of air escaping from his abdomen had my stomach rolling in revulsion as the smell of putrid food and crap hit the air.

But the smell was the least of our worries; the grey column of smoke that thrust up into the air was something I’d never seen before. I stared at it, the forensic guy hazily visible through it as it thickened and pulsed before surging back towards him.

“Crap,” I said, more to myself than anyone else present in the tent, as the grey smoke poured in through the forensic guy’s eyes and ears causing him to start screaming.

He dropped to the ground, his spine bowing as he writhed before finally growing completely still. The rest of the grey smoke disappeared out beneath the edge of the tent walls and the sound of men screaming told me all hell had broken loose.

The forensic guy twitched once and sat up.

“Crap,” I said again, and drew my gun, settling its weight in my hands as I took aim and pulled the trigger.

S
omeone slammed into me
, knocking my aim off and causing the bullet to just graze the shoulder of the now-possessed forensic guy. Although what had possessed him, well, that I had no clue about. Demonic possession was a black art; I’d seen victims of possession before, their eyes swallowed by the darkness that dwelled within them.

This … well, this was something I’d never come across before.

Jerking my elbow up, I caught Dex square in the chin as he fought to try and wrest the gun from my grip.

“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted, falling back away from me, holding a hand to his bloodied face.

The creature that had been the forensic guy roared, the sound reverberating through the tent. It hit me like a fist square in the chest, knocking me completely off balance, and I dropped to the ground, gun sliding out of reach as my heartbeat stuttered in my chest.

Power flowed in around me, making it suddenly hard to breathe. The air itself shimmered with heat and sweat dripped down my back as I struggled to draw a breath that didn’t want to melt the inside of my throat.

The creature seemed to flow upwards onto its feet, the human body it possessed moving fluidly as it advanced slowly across the space towards the still-intact body of the woman.

Crouching down next to her, it trailed its hand down over her cheek, towards her chest and instinctively I knew what it planned to do next.

“We can’t let it open her up, we can’t allow it to release the other half of whatever in Hell that grey smoke is!” I shouted, my voice hoarse as I threw a glance back at Graham’s stunned face.

He recovered fast, drawing his own gun and taking aim at the creature, giving me the chance to scramble across the ground to where my own Glock 19 lay discarded. I really needed to work harder in training. Once was a one time too many for a creature to disarm me and this was the second time it had happened in as many cases.

“You can’t shoot him, he’s got a wife and kids, and…” Dex shouted, his voice high and frightened.

“Get back or I will shoot you,” Graham said, his voice utterly calm as he took aim at the creature, his arm steady; he wouldn’t miss.

The creature lifted its gaze to him, the frustration in its grey eyes sending a frisson of fear down my spine. It moved then, lunging forward over the remains on the ground, directly towards Graham.

His gun went off, two rounds burying themselves into the centre of the creature before it tackled him to the ground.

“Graham!” The panic and emotion in my voice surprised me as the scream tore from my throat. I crossed the tent in a blur, emptying my clip into the back of the creature before I really thought about what I was doing.

The gun clicked empty as it turned to face me. The splash of crimson down the front of what had been pristine overalls was startling. Its warm and wet hand wrapped around my throat, lifting me from the ground, its grip tightening until there was no air left to enter my lungs, and still its vice-like hold tightened.

Power surged inside me, clawing its way up from the depths of my very soul, and I slammed my hand against its chest. Forcing everything I had down into that one concentrated area, I thrust my power into its body. The creature stared at me, a momentary flicker of intelligent recognition in its grey eyes before it threw its head back and screamed.

The grey smoke that had poured into the forensic guy rushed out of him, dissipating into the air.

The grip around my throat disappeared and I dropped to the grass as the possessed man crumpled to the ground. The second I hit the dry earth, I was already scrambling towards Graham.

He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the tent; the front of his white shirt was destroyed, the edges of it frayed, his blood slowly soaking into it causing it to stick to him.

“Graham, can you hear me?” I asked, pressing my fingers to his neck, to the place where I knew his pulse should have been. My hands shook and I suddenly wasn’t sure if I was feeling the thready beat of his heart or if my own tremors were tricking me.

Dropping my head to one side, I listened for any signs of breathing. His chest wasn’t rising and falling the way it should have been and there was no sound leaving his mouth.

“Christ, Graham, you can’t do this to me, you can’t leave me,” I said, pressing my hands to his bloodied shirt as I began chest compressions. “Call an ambulance,” I said, barking my order in Dex’s general direction.

“Is he dead?” he asked.

“Just call an ambulance and stop wasting goddamned time!” I said, grunting with the effort of forcing Graham’s heart to pump blood through his body.

Dex dragged out his cell phone and I was only vaguely aware of him talking into it as I continued to work on Graham.

There was no reaction from him. I so desperately wanted him to sit up and give me his indulgent fatherly smile that he had perfected so well, but I thrust down on his chest repeatedly with nothing but the laboured sound of my own breathing for company.

The snap of one of his ribs breaking broke my concentration and bile climbed the back of my throat. It was normal. I needed to remember that. Broken ribs were something he could recover from, brain damage due to his heart no longer pumping blood around his body, well, that wasn’t something he could come back from.

“One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five.” I counted it out loud, my voice breathy as my arms began to feel like lead weights were attached to them.

I could feel my shoulders beginning to lock up, my own breathing becoming shallow as sparks of light swam in my vision.

“Let me help, Amber,” Dex said, his voice quiet and calm.

I shook my head, but even that was too much effort and I took one look down at Graham’s open, staring eyes and moved aside. If I screwed up and faltered, if my body gave out before the EMTs arrived, then I would fail him. All the good intentions in the world of wanting to save him didn’t count for jack shit if I couldn’t actually do it.

Dex stepped in seamlessly, instantly picking up where I’d left off, his rhythm fast and steady as he pumped Graham’s chest. Shuffling a little closer to Graham, I leaned in over him and pressed my mouth to his ear.

“You son of a bitch, you can’t leave me now, you can’t leave me to face these bastards alone. You come back to me, or so help me, I will follow you into death and drag your ass back if I have to.”

Sweat had beaded across Dex’s brow and I moved back to take his position from him, our switch out seamless, both of us working to keep Graham alive.

My arms tired much faster the second time around, but the EMTs burst in through the opening to the tent just as my shoulders were beginning to lock up. I shuffled aside to let them in to work on him, answering their questions on autopilot as I stared at his unmoving face.

They moved fast, much faster than I’d expected, but then, this wasn’t something I was particularly used to. I’d been trained in CPR, but I’d never had to use it before. They stripped his shirt away, calling numbers and stats to one another as they fitted the shock pads to his chest.

“No pulse,” one of the paramedics said.

CPR wasn’t like it was in the movies; it wouldn’t restart his heart, only an electric current could ensure that. Something about the rhythms of the heart being an electric current; all chest compressions could do was keep his blood pumping, keep his vital organs supplied with the circulation they needed to survive.

“CLEAR!”

That one word set my body to trembling and I pressed my bloodied hand to my face in order to keep my emotions in check. I couldn’t break down now, not now, not yet.

Graham jolted up from the ground, his body hopping as the current passed through him.

Silence followed. My own heart come to a shuddering halt.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

“We’ve got a rhythm,” the female paramedic said, instantly settling the oxygen mask over Graham’s face as she started bagging him.

Pushing up onto my feet, I followed them as they wheeled Graham outside, my body moving sluggishly as I tried to keep up with their unrelenting pace.

“Amber, wait!” Dex wrapped his hand around my arm jolting me to a halt.

Without hesitating, I swung around to face him, my hand balling into a fist as I brought my arm up. The satisfying thud of my fist connecting with his jaw filled my ears. He sprawled back from me, his hand automatically going to his face, his fingers brushing away the blood welling in the cut on his lip.

“What was that for, I helped you….”

“If you’d let me do my job in the first place, none of this would be happening. Instead, you let your ego get the better of you and now a man who is twice the man you are, twice the detective you will ever be, is fighting for his life….”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I was told it was human, I swear I didn’t know.”

I didn’t wait for him to continue spewing his excuses; I didn’t want to hear them. If Graham died…. I cut my own thoughts off. He would be fine, he had to be fine, there simply wasn’t another way around it. I believed in him, and if anyone had the ability to go to toe to toe with Death and come out the other side unscathed, it was Graham.

Picking up my pace, I jogged after the ambulance crew, reaching them as they finished loading Graham inside.

“Are you coming with us?” the female paramedic asked.

“Yeah,” I said, climbing up next to her and strapping myself into one of the seats in the back of the ambulance. My heart rate had started to race and I stared down at the bruising that was starting to bloom across my knuckles.

Graham would kick my ass if he knew what I’d done. And as the first tear rolled down my cheek, I lifted my gaze to him.

When he was better, he could kick my ass all he wanted. In fact, I’d welcome it.