Chasing Shadows (13 page)

The drive took a little over two hours, the dreary gray scenery not helping my mood. I couldn't wait until winter was over, but spring seemed impossibly far away.

Sarah called me while we were on the road, but I couldn't really say much with Simon sitting next to me. I saw him looking at me from the corner of his eye, so I kept the conversation short, just telling her that we were on our way back to my aunt's house.

I tensed when we finally pulled into my aunt's driveway. Simon cut off the engine and turned to me.

"Can we talk before we go inside?"

"Simon, we've been in this car for over two hours. There's been plenty of time to talk. Why do you want to talk now, all of a sudden?" It was starting to get cold inside the car now that the heat was turned off, but my shivering had to do with more than the chill seeping into my bones.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking. I know you feel like I betrayed you yesterday. I'm sorry. I wish I could take those words back."

Simon looked so sincere, his blue eyes shining with regret, that it was hard not to forgive him. "I know all of this is hard to accept. I just...I just really thought you believed me. It hurt when you agreed with my father that I was just imagining everything."

Simon reached out, gently taking my hand in his. He lifted our entwined fingers, grazing his lips across my knuckles. I shuddered as warmth replaced the chill I was feeling.

"I promise not to ever doubt you again. It's killing me that you're looking at me like you don't trust me. Give me another chance to show you that I have faith in you."

I hesitated, remembering the conversation from last night. "I overheard you talking to my father yesterday."

Simon's lips tightened but he just nodded, waiting for more.

"It was weird the way my father deferred to you. I've never heard my father let anyone order him around."

Simon's grip on my hand tightened. "I'm not sure how much of the conversation you heard, but I needed to tell your father that he wasn't allowed to upset you anymore. I was pretty clear with him that he would regret treating you like crap again. I made sure he understood how serious I was."

I accepted Simon's explanation, because there was no alternative. Maybe I had just made too much of their conversation last night. After all, I had just heard Simon warning my father not to upset me.

"I appreciate it." I glanced at the front of my aunt's house. "Let's go in now."

I opened the car door, but Simon pulled me back before I could get out.

"Do you forgive me?" Simon looked so vulnerable, his eyes imploring me.

"I do. I forgive you." And I realized I did. Forgiving him made me feel so much lighter, one less burden I had to carry.

"Do you love me?" Simon's voice was low, his expression intense.

"I love you." My words were barely audible, but it sounded magnified in the small confines of the car.

Simon tugged me close, his lips capturing mine in a searingly fierce kiss. I was breathless when we parted; gratified that Simon had clearly been affected by the kiss as well. He smiled at me, a real wide smile, and my heart fluttered.

"Now we can go."

The front door was unlocked, as I had left it, and I followed Simon into the house. I had been hesitant to keep it unlocked, but I didn't have a key and now I was relieved I had left it unlocked.

"Let's check to make sure we're alone first," Simon said. I nodded in agreement, and we went through the entire house, checking every room and closet to make sure we didn't have company.

"Now what?" Simon asked when we returned to the living room.

I clutched my hands together nervously. "I'm tired of waiting for something to happen. As much as I'm terrified of Claudia, I need her to come for me. It's the only way I can figure out what's going on."

"That's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard." Simon crossed his arms against his chest, looking at me as if I had lost my mind.

"Simon, I'm running around with no clue what to do. I'm tired of being chased. It's time I did the chasing."

Simon threw up his hands in frustration. "Even if I thought for one second that it was a remotely good idea, which I don't, how do you plan on calling Claudia here?"

"I don't know. Maybe if I think about her, concentrate all my energy on her, she'll pick up on it somehow."

Simon frowned. "This isn't a good idea. It's like we're asking for trouble."

"No need to ask," an amused voice said. I whipped around, my heart hammering when I saw Claudia appear from the kitchen, as if she had been summoned by my thoughts, exactly as I had suggested.

She walked closer, her smile looking more like a sneer. "I'm happy to oblige."

She then flew at me, her eyes glittering with rage.

Chapter Twelve

Simon shoved me behind him before I realized what was happening. Before I could react, I was thrown back against the wall, the impact knocking the breath out of me. I was horrified when Simon crumpled to the ground, having taken the brunt of Claudia's blow.

I scrambled over to him, my heart thumping with fear when he didn't respond to my frantic calls.

"Poor Simon, always trying to be the knight in shining armor. This isn't a fairy tale and you won't be getting your happily ever after."

My head snapped up at Claudia's derisive words. My eyes were drawn to the palladium hanging around her neck. I stood up, stepping in front of Simon's prone body. I pushed my fear aside, facing Claudia with a grim smile, showing more bravado than I actually felt.

"I'm not so sure about that. If I recall, the last time we were standing here I destroyed my vardoger and you disappeared. This time I'm not letting you out of my sight."

Claudia took a step closer and I forced myself to stand my ground.

"Do you think you're stronger than me?" Claudia's voice was shaking with rage, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You're nothing!"

Before I could respond, two shadows emerged from thin air behind Claudia, shimmering until they were almost solid. An older man with graying hair stared at me, his eyes wild with hunger. The other figure was a young girl with limbs that looked too long for her body and brown straggly hair. She was even more terrifying than the man, her lips pulled back and her teeth bared in a snarl.

Claudia stepped out of the way, giving them an unobstructed path to me. "Do it," she ordered, motioning towards me with a nod of her head.

In one moment the vardogers were standing there, staring at me, and in the next second they were rushing towards me with murderous intent. They slammed into me with the force of a Mack truck, knocking me to the ground. I felt a suffocating pressure as I felt them sinking into me, tendrils of intense pain radiating throughout my body. I forced my panic and pain aside, trying to concentrate my energy into a single force. But the pain was even more severe than before, consuming me. My body was starting to convulse and I was drowning in their energy. I screamed with pain and fury as they latched inside of me, digging into my flesh and organs, bonding to my physical body and pushing out my soul. The pain was so intense that I felt like throwing up. It was tempting to let the blackness overtake me, to put an end to the agony, but I steeled myself against it, resisting them with all my might.

"Hurry!" I heard Claudia scream. "Take her!"

The vardogers sank deeper into me with a vengeance. I pushed everything aside, the mind-numbing pain, the paralyzing fear and the overwhelming certainty that Simon would be dead if I ever escaped these vardogers. I made my mind blank, pooling my strength until it was a fiery ball of pure energy. It grew larger and more deadly as I gave it everything I had, letting the floodgates open and surrendering my pain and sorrow to it, fueling it with my nightmares and fear.

I heard myself screaming, my body bowing involuntarily, as I slammed the ball of energy into the vardogers. The fireball of energy exploded as it smashed against them and as suddenly as they had entered me, they vanished, my body slumping into the ground with exhaustion.

As soon as I felt them leave me, I wasted no time in scrambling up. Claudia's face was red and she looked ready to explode. I ran over to Simon, relieved that he was in the same position as before. I frantically checked his pulse, reassured when I felt it, thready and weak but present. I stood to face Claudia now that I knew Simon was still alive.

Claudia's furious face glanced down at Simon, and then slid back to mine, her anger seeming to grow.

"Did vardogers kill my mother?" I was breathless but the question slipped out of me, the desperate need to know the truth outweighing everything else.

"Do you think this is question and answer time?" Claudia laughed despite her anger. "Am I supposed to entertain all your questions so that you can buy some time before I kill you? Or are you stupid enough to think you'll get out of this alive?"

"Answer me and I won't make your death more painful than necessary."

Claudia raised an eyebrow, amusement replacing her anger. "Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you? Unfortunately for you, you'll have to die without the answers to your questions.
I'm
in control here."

"If you're in control, why not humor me? If you're not going to answer my question about my mother, then tell me where my aunt is. Where's her inner circle?"

"Poor little Caitlin," Claudia taunted, stepping closer. "Feeling all alone in the world? How does it feel to be responsible for everyone's deaths?"

The blood drained from my face but I forced myself not to react. I concentrated on Claudia's approach as she stalked closer, her nostrils flaring in excitement.

"Now it's time to shed this body and take yours. If you're as powerful as they claim, I'm sure I'll be able to wield your strengths as my own."

I tensed but I didn't back down. "You already claimed a body. You can't claim mine."

Claudia laughed humorlessly. "Screw the rules. Everything else has changed, why not this? What's the worst that can happen? You die and I stay in this body?" She smiled widely. "I'm willing for you to take that risk."

She screamed as she flew at me, but I was ready for her. Instead of being thrown back by the force of her body hitting mine, I crouched low and wrapped my arms around her waist, taking her off guard and unbalancing her. We both crashed to the ground and I scrambled to regain my footing but Claudia was too strong for me. She grabbed my shoulders, pushing me back on the ground and pinning my arms with her knees, breathing heavily on top of me.

"Stupid bitch," she spat out as I struggled under her. "Did you really think you would win?"

I didn't answer as I stopped fighting her. I knew I couldn't win on a physical level, but I could destroy her with my powers. I started pooling my energy together, but Claudia just smirked at me.

"Oh no, you don't. I'm the one doing the taking, not you." Claudia reached up and grabbed the palladium dangling in between us from her neck, her eyes boring into mine. "Let's see if this works."

I braced myself for the suffocating pressure of a vardoger entering me, but nothing came. Claudia was staring down at me and I could feel her frustration mounting, her glare becoming more intense. Finally, she threw back her head and let out an inhuman scream.

"It's not fair!" she cried out, looking back down at me, shaking with rage. "I don't want this body! I want yours!"

Relief flooded through me, grateful that the vardoger wasn't able to enter me because it was already attached to Claudia's body. But that didn't mean I couldn't draw out the vardoger. I had felt the beginnings of it before. Before she had killed Lenore.

I concentrated, feeling the now familiar gathering of my energy, willing it to grow larger than ever before. Claudia's eyes widened and I could see the fear in her eyes.

"It's not possible," she whispered, sounding frantic. Her hand clutching the palladium convulsed. "The palladium should protect me. You shouldn't be able to reach me while I have it. We've been able to kill every other seer using it."

I flinched at her revelation, my energy momentarily dimming. Claudia felt it and she took the opportunity, grabbing hold of my head and raising it, slamming it against the ground with vicious force. I saw black spots crowding my vision as searing pain radiated from the back of my head and through my body. I cursed myself for being distracted as Claudia hissed at me. "There's no point in you being alive if I can't overtake you. Let's do this the old-fashioned way."

I tried to gather my energy, but Claudia bashed my head against the floor again, and unconsciousness threatened to overtake me, to blot out this agonizing pain. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't cooperate. I desperately tried to push her off me, but she was too strong and I was fading. I tried to gather my energy again but my attempt failed, my mind too weak. I wanted to struggle, but my body wouldn't cooperate, lying there limply. I felt her lift my head again and waited for the impact.
I'm sorry,
I thought, as faces flashed before me, of the ones I had failed.
I'm sorry.

The impact never came. Instead, I felt the weight of Claudia disappear.

"Caitlin!" Simon's voice had never sounded so beautiful as I felt his hands on my face, cradling my head. "Caitlin, wake up!" I struggled to surface, the anguish and fear in Simon's voice calling to me.

"Simon?" I said groggily, my eyes fluttering open. His face above me was hazy at first, and then he came into sharp focus. His face flooded with relief as he lowered his head, his lips grazing my forehead.

"It's okay, baby. You're okay. We need to get you to a hospital." I felt Simon fumbling for his pocket and saw him pull out his phone. I struggled to sit up but Simon held me down. "Don't move. Your head's in pretty bad shape."

"Simon, please." Now that things were starting to become clearer, panic was gnawing at me. Where was Claudia?

"Shh, calm down." Simon stroked my cheek. "She can't hurt you anymore."

I turned my head, shock coursing through my body when I saw Claudia slumped on the floor, a knife sticking out of her chest. Her lifeless eyes were still open but unfocused as the pool of blood around her grew. She was close enough that I could reach out and touch her. I shut my eyes, wanting to blot the sight from my memory. Even though I knew the real Claudia was long gone, it was still a sickening sight.