Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3) (25 page)

“He’s close,” he said softly, his eyes still trained on the front door. “Get ready.”

All my nerve-endings were on edge as we got into defensive positions. Simon guarded
the back of the house while Ryan kept his att
ention on the front
. I kept my eyes
o
n the basement door in case he
attacked from that direction.
I was grateful that the house still had
the
electricity
turned on
; other
wise, we would have been completely
in the dark.

Minutes felt like hours as we waited. My muscles were starting to clench painfully
from being tense
for so long, but I ignored them
as
my ears strained
to hear any noise.
The last thing I expected was to hear a key t
urning in the front door and to see
the knob
turn, as if someone was coming home after a long day at work. It was hard not to gape
when my father walked casually through the door and looked at u
s as if he
had
expected to find us
here.

He closed the door behind him and glanced at Ryan before dismissing him. Simon was
at my side in a second but my father ignored him, focusing all his attention on me.

“Caitlin.” He smiled at me, but the smile was a gross exaggeration of affection, his
eyes reflecting all the hatred he felt towards me. “It’s about time you came to see
me.”

I blocked out his words. I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. I didn’t know
why he was walking in here alone with
out
his army of vardogers to protect him, but I wasn’t wasting this chance when he was
vulnerable. I immediately started funneling my energy
together, feeling m
y powers gathering until it was pulsating inside of me.

Instead of looking afraid, my father’s smile widened. “Are you sure you want to
do that? I’m the only one who
knows where your mother is.”

As quickly as my energies had gathered, they diminished into nothing as I absorbed
his words. My hear
t started pumping so hard that it
felt like it would burst from my chest. I didn’t know if this was a trick, but I
couldn’t resist the temptation to hear what my father had to say.

“Prove it,” I demanded
, my eyes narrowing. “Prove that my mother is alive in the next five seconds, otherwise
I’m going to gladly destroy you.”

My father kept his eyes on me as he spoke. “Bring her in.”

The front door opened and Simon gr
abbed
me
when I stumbled back
. I was unsure whether I
was seeing a mirage
.
Maybe I so desperately wanted my mother to be alive that I was conjuring her up in
my mind. But I had a feeling that this was no figment of my imagination.
The image of my mother that I had seen only in pictures stared back at me. She was
accompanied by a small balding man
who
had a grip on
one of
her arm
s
.

“It’s my mother,
” I whispered, my voice breaking. I felt like I was going crazy. I had come to terms
with
my mother being
dead, comforting myself with the fact that she had tried to help me from beyond through
dreams and hypnosis. But now she was standing before me,
alive and well, but the ex
pression on her face was anything
but motherly. It was menacing.

“Don’t call me that,” she hissed, her voice cold and scathing. It felt like a lash
against my heart. I had wished for my mother to be alive my whole life and now she
was, but she was looking at me like she hated me.

“She’s been overtaken,” Ryan said, moving so that he was on the other side of me.
Simon kept his grip on my shoulder as if he were afraid I would collapse without his
support.

My father raised an eyebrow. “Not entirely correct. Your mot
her’s soul is in there as well
. Sometimes it’s even strong enough to take control for a few moments.” He smiled
at Simon mockingly. “You thought my idea to become immortal started when I began working
with you. I’ve been experimenting long before you. Her mother was my first experiment
sixteen years ago
.” My father turned back to me, his
smile turning into a sneer
. “Your
mother’s vardoger failed in overtaking her. Your stupid aunt saw to that by destroying
it.
I tried to get another vardoger to overtake her body but it didn’t work. But I kept
her alive all these years since she was useful for experimenting on. When I found
out about palladium,
I convinced another vardoger to try to overtake your mother. You
can
see that it wasn’t entirely successful
since her soul is still lodged inside her body
but
it’s the closest I’
ve come
to achieving success
.”

“You fucking asshole.” Hatred like I had never felt
before
surged inside of me. In that moment, I could have ripped my father apart with my bare
hands.
I moved towards him, the urge to attack physically overwhelming me, but I stopped
when he grabbed my mother’s arm and shoved her between us.

“No
t so fast. I’m the only one who
knows how to get rid of the vardoger inside her without killing her as well. With
all my experimenting, it seems as though I’ve only been able to figure out how to
get rid of the vardoger permanently and not the human soul. It’s quite unfortunate.”

“Do it,” I said in a low voice. “Before I kill you.”

“Let’s barter.” He smiled at me. “You for her.”

“There is
no way in hell you’re taking Caitlin
,” Simon said in a voice that sent chills down my spine. I had never heard him sound
so deadly.

“Is that decision
up to you?” my father asked
in a
jeering tone. He turned
back
to
me. “Always controlled by a man, I see. First me, and now him.” He shook his head
in mock pity. “You were always so easy to manipulate. So easily controlled by your
emotions.”

“Shut up,” I spat out, my rage and fear making me shake. I was in a tenuous position
and as much as I knew I should just destroy my father, I couldn’t sacrifice my mother
to do it. Even though I knew there was a chance that he was lying, I was unable to
get past the fact that my mother’s soul could still be alive.

“Assuming that you’re telling the truth, how do you do it?” Ryan asked, looking at
him skeptically.

“It’s more of a question of who than how,” my father said. “Only a few select vardogers
can do it by using palladium.” He nodded towards the balding man. “Philip is one of
the most powerful vardogers I’ve ever met. He overtook his person when he was only
an infant and his powers have grown incredibly strong.
It took a while to find such a strong vardoger, but once I did I knew it was time
to visit Caitlin again.
”

Philip beamed
at his words
as if he was being praised by a proud parent, making me want to throw up in disgust.

“This is a trick,” Simon insisted urgently. “He’s not just going to save your mother
and hand her over to you. He’s going to find a way to destroy you both.”

I was intensely conflicted. I stared at my mother as a dozen emotions roiled through
me. I wanted to reach out and touch her, to take her hand, but her expression told
me she would recoil at my touch.

My father sighed impatiently. “Fine, you want a show? You’ll get a show.” He turned
to Philip. “Push the vardoger back so her mother’s soul can surface.”

Philip pulled out a piece of palladium on a chain around his neck that had been tucked
under his shirt. He put a hand on each of my mother’s arms as she struggled violently,
cursing at him and then mewling in fear, begging
him not to do it. He ignored her
and closed his eyes, muttering under his breath.
She began to struggle even more until her body suddenly went limp. Her head fell
back as if it was too heavy to be supported by her neck. I almost expected her head
to start spinning around like the Exorcist when she suddenly snapped her head towards
me.

“Don’t do it,” she pleaded in a hoarse voice. “
It’s a trick. Destroy him and save yourself.”

Her eyes bored into me and I started to tremble, feeling myself losing my grip on
sanity. Her eyes held fear, urgency and desperation but it held another emotion that
I recognized instantly: love. In that moment I saw my mother and I knew it was true.
She was
trapped in her body along with the
vardoger. I couldn’t imagine the torture she had experienced all these years
by my father’s hands
, yet her only words
were a plea for me to protect myself.
I wanted to collapse onto the floor and weep bitterly for the mother I had t
hought was dead all these years. It was bittersweet because s
he had been
kept
alive only to be tortured.

I steeled myself against my emotions. I needed to think clearly, logically, or my
father would get the best of me. He looked angered by my mother’s words. “Shut her
up,” he spat out to Philip, who nodded and started muttering again while gripping
her arms. In mere seconds her body went from limp to rigid and tense again.

“I fucking hate it when you do that!” she screamed and I knew the vardoger was back
in control. My father ignored her as if she hadn’t spoken.

“There’s your proof,” he said. “Now what’
s your decision?
”

I felt like I was going crazy. I didn’t know what to do, but doing nothing wouldn’t
solve anything either. “Get rid of the vardoger inside her first and then we’ll talk.”

My father shook his head as if he were disappointed in me. “Do you really think I
would do that? It would be too easy for you
to go back on the agreement
. I’ll guess we’ll
have to
do this the hard way then.”

The next thing I knew, the house exploded with
bodiless vardogers. They seemed to come crashing through every window, pour
ing into the house in a constant
stream.
As dozens came rushing towards me, I saw Simon run towards my father and slam into
him and they both fell onto the ground. I had no time to pay attention to what happene
d next as the vardogers hit
me
like a ton of bricks
. They attacked in an
endless
stream. As soon as I had destroyed the ones clamoring to enter me
,
there were more behind them waiting for their turn.
I felt myself growing weaker with each attack but I powered through, telling myself
there was no way I was going to let my father win, especially now that I knew my mother
was alive.

When I finally destroyed the last vardoger, my body felt like it had been through
the wringer. I felt like collapsing but my adrenaline kept me standing. I wasn’t prepared
for th
e scene before me
. Simon was l
ying on the floor and I felt sickened when I saw blood streaming from his head. My
father had my mother in front of him, shielding
his body, as Ryan stood opposite
him with
his gun raised
. Philip was standing behind my father like he was a small boy.

My father looked at me in amazement. “You’re even more powerful than I thought. No
other seer could have destroyed all those vardogers.” He nodded towards Ryan. “He
shoots and your mother dies too.”

Ryan glanced at me. “We can’t let him get away.”

I shook my head. “You can’t shoot my mother.” That didn’t mean that I couldn’t destroy
my father’s vardoger. He had stupidly told me how to destroy the vardoger inside my
mother and all I needed was Philip. There was no need to spare my father’s life.

My father’s expression darkened when he realized what I was doing. What he didn’t
realize was that I was starting to panic. I had used up all my energy destroying the
vardogers and
my powers were barely a flicker
even though I was trying as hard as possible to summon them.
My powers dissipated
completely
when my father pulled out a gun from his waistband and held it against my mother’s
head.

“You won’t be able to destroy me before I blow her brains out. I can feel you gathering
your power to use against me. Do it again and I’ll shoot her.”

I
held my hands up in surrender
since he didn’t realize I didn’t have enough strength to use
my powers
against him. “Okay,
I won’t use them. Just put the
gun down.”