Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3) (28 page)

I pulled
back
out o
nto the road. We were both
silent as I drove. A dozen thoughts were crowding my mind and I tried to think back
to see if I had missed any signs of Ryan being possessed by his sister.
That is, i
f I believed it. It was an eerily familiar feeling
to what I had gone through with
Simon
when he
revealed that he was actually a vardoger. I felt more than a little bitterness that
I apparently couldn’t take people at face value.

“Has your sister ta
ken con
trol of your body
any other time
besides today
since I’ve known you?” I glanced at him. “Tell me the truth. I won’t help your sister
if I find out you’re lying.”

“Yes,” Ryan s
aid in a low voice. “I used to be
able
to control her, but she’s
been getting stronger and stronger. The first time she took control was when
she slipped the palladium coin in
to
your pocket when Grant’s vardoger tried to overtake him.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Surprised and deeply hurt. All this time
his sister had been trying to hurt me and he had let it happen without a word
of warning
.

“Go on,” I said grimly. I knew what I was waiting to h
ear. I was waiting to hear if
his sister had been in
volved in Jenny’s death. If she was
, I would kill him without a moment’s hesitation.

Ryan
seemed to know what I was waiting for
. His voice was strained when he spoke again. “She didn’t kill Jenny, I swear. She
wasn’t in control of my body when that happened. Jenny’s vardoger was strong
er than any I’ve
e
ncountered. I don’t know if its strength
had anything to do with Simon and I being thrown back like we were electrocuted when
we tried to help her, but it had nothing to do with my sister.”

I processed his explanation for a few moments and then nodded my head, willing to
accept it at this point. I waited for him to continue.

“She took control of my body for a few moments when we were being attacked in Marie’s
apartment.” Ryan rushed to continue when he saw me tense. “But she didn’t attack Marie.”
Ryan hung his head in shame before continuing. “For some reason she wanted to get
rid of Marie.
I think she thought
you had too many people on your side. So while you were bei
ng attacked, she told Marie
she had a flash of premonition that
her sister w
as still alive
. She told her that she had
to go to her
immediately
because her sister was about to be killed.
” His voice was hoarse. “Of course Marie believed her because she thought it was me
telling her all this. She trusted me. She asked me to tell you why she had gone, but
I knew I couldn’t without
telling you about my sister
.”

Ryan’s betrayal just
cut deeper and deeper the more
he spoke. “Is Marie okay? Where did you make her go?”

“She’s fine. She just ended up going to an abandoned building. She probably just thought
that my premonition was wrong.”

I sighed heavily and stared at the endless road before me.
“Any other times?”

“No, that’s it besides today.”

I didn’t speak for a long time as I thought back to the dreams I had about Ryan.
In it,
he had warned me not to trust the untrustworthy, but the last person I thought he
would be referring to was himself.
But
now I realized my dream had been warning me not to trust Ryan
.
Despite trying to keep a guard up around him, I had let my defenses down and trusted
him because I believed in him. My own instincts had betrayed me.

In the second dream, he had pressed his mother’s bloody medallion into my hand. I
now
believed
that
it was supposed to represent
his sister’s murder of his parents
,
to shed light on the connection Ryan shared with his sister,
but I just hadn’t put the pieces together
. His last words to me in that dream had been that I didn’t know the difference between
waking dreams and reality and to not take things at face value. I had taken Ryan at
face value. I had trusted him and confided in him, and all this time he had been deceiving
me.

The fact that I wasn’t
able to interpret the meaning of my dreams until it was too late was frustrating,
but that was the least of my problems now. I had a crazed person who was potentially
possessed handcuffed to the car door and I was barreling straight into what was probably
a
trap to try to save Simon and my mother. My world seemed to be teetering on its edge
and I prayed that I was able to right it before it was too late.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“We’re close,” Ryan said. We had been driving
for almost
an hour
and we were
still in the middle of nowhere.

“How close?”

“Close enough that we’re going to be on top of him in a few miles.”

Instead of slowing the car down, I pressed on the accelerator. Trap or not, I wasn’t
going
to le
t my father hurt anyone else
I loved.

“Turn right.”

I followed Ryan’s direction o
nto a narrow dirt road covered by low overhanging branches. It added an eeriness to
the night, as if skeleton arms were reaching for us. As we continued to drive, I saw
a large barn come into view
in the distance
. Lights were blazing through the windows as if so
meone was waiting to welcome us
. I had a feeling I knew who it was.

“Are you planning on just driving up and saying hello?” Ryan asked
sardonically
. He seemed to have pulled himself together during th
e drive and was able to look
me in
the eye without guilt
.

“What alternative do I have?”

“Park the car here and we’ll go the rest of the way on foot. I’m not sure if your
father knows how close we are, but we can at least try to have the element of surprise.”

I nodded since I didn’t have a better plan. I stopped the car a good distance from
the barn and killed the engine. I grabbed the gun that Ryan
had
briefly explained how to use on the drive over
.
I just hoped I would remember how to use it when it mattered.
I looked at him warily.

“If I uncuff you, can you control your sister?”

“I think so. But if I can’t and it’s a matter of life and death, don’t hesitate to
shoot me.” Ryan’s hazel eyes were deadly seriou
s and I swallowed at the significance
of his words but I just nodded my head.
He had seemed so desperate to save his sister earlier, but now he was giving me permission
to shoot him, a
long with his sister, if
necessary. I wasn’t sure whether it made me feel grateful or uneasy.

I unlocked his cuffs and we swiftly but quietly exited the car, leaving t
he doors ajar since the last thing we wanted to do was
alert my father to our presence by slamming them shut.

We walked quickly up the dirt road, careful to keep close to the trees so that we
were camouflaged. My pulse quickened and I tried to regulate my breathing as a mixture
of fear and anticipation surged through my veins.
I was aware of my throbbing head from Ryan’s earlier attack, but I barely felt the
pain.
I was more than ready to face my father after our last encounter, and I had a feeling
that only one of us would make it out alive. I was determined that it would be me.

I glanced back at Ryan who was close behind me. His face was serious and he nodded
at me like he wanted to reassure me. I just prayed that he was able to keep his demonic
sister under control because the last thing I needed was to face both her and my father.

We hunkered down when we reached the barn, moving close to the ground. I indicated
to Ryan with a motion of my hand that I was going to approach one of the windows.
He nodded in understanding and followed my actions. I expected my father to fling
the door of the barn open at any minute, to be discovered and dragged in kicking and
screaming. My heart was in my thr
oat as I got closer
, and it was with more than a little relief that I reached the side of the barn.

I sidled up next to the win
dow and then crouched down below
the sill. Ryan was right beside me and I put a finger to my lips to indicate that
we had to be quiet
. I was paranoid
that his sister would take over his body at any minute and call attention to us.
He just nodded.

I carefully looked ove
r the sill of the window, raising my head
slowly and hoping that no one would notice the movement. I first felt relief when
I saw that my father was turned away from me, but the relief quickly vanished when
I saw the rest of the scene.

Horror couldn’t
describe the emotion that ran through me
when I saw Simon. A thick rope had been flung over one of the rafters in the ceiling
of the barn, and it ended in a noose that was around his neck. The tips of his toes
were barely able to rest on a precarious stool beneath him and with his hands tied
behind his back, his balance was unstable.

But the worst part was that Philip had the other end of the rope. He seemed to take
glee in pulling on his end of the rope so that Simon was suspended in the air, his
legs flailing wildly as the noose tightened around his neck, stra
ngling him. Philip would pull tight
for a few moments and then slacken the rope as Simon desperately tried to find purchase
on the stool again. He would only get a few moments of relief to rest his weight on
the stool an
d get in a few gasps of air
before
Phili
p would pull on the rope again,
watch
ing
in amusement a
s Simon struggled to stay alive
.

I didn’t know how long this had been going on, but Simon’s
face was bulging red and I didn’t know how much more he co
uld take. Pure rage took over
and I raised the gun. I would feel no guilt in killing my father. He deserved to
die and then I would force
Philip to free my mother of the
vardoger and then kill him too.

My finger on the trigger was steady
but I froze when my father turned around.
He was still using my mother as a human shield with
a gun
pointed to her head. H
e grinned mockingly at me, seeming to relish in my fear and frustration.

There was no point in hiding anymore
so I stood and ran
to the barn door, flinging it open and walking inside. I heard Ryan behind me but
my focus was on my father.
A white cloth was wrapped around his thigh where he had been shot and it was already
crimson with blood, but he seemed unaffected by it.
I heard a gurgling sound and my attention was jerked to Simon. Philip was torturi
ng him again by pulling
the rope
taut
.

“Make him stop,” I said, trying to sound firm but I was unable to suppress the quaver
in my voice.

“I thought you’d never get here,” my father said smoothly, ignoring my entreaty. “I
wondered how long you’d stay crouched outside that window before coming in.”

Philip loosened the rope again and Simon scrambled to find the stool with his feet
and rest his weight on it.

“I’ll take you up on your earlier offer,” I said.
“Release Simon and my mother and I’ll go willingly with you.”

My father would never stop
until he got what he wanted. And what he wanted was to use my powers.
I
desperately
wanted to use my energy to destroy
him but I was afraid that he would be able to
shoot both my mother and Simon
before I was able to gather my powers
. And I had no idea
at this point whether
the palladium and iridium disk burning a hole in my pocket would help me or hinder
me.
Once the others were
safe, I would find a way to defeat him. But with Simon and my mother’s life in danger,
I felt immobilized by
my desperation to keep them alive
.

“No.” Simon’s voice sounded broken and was barely audible but I
saw the intensity of his eyes, begging me not to do it. I remembered the first time
I had seen those s
tartling blue eyes when he had come over for dinner;
the slight smile as he introduced himself and my surprise when I felt myself being
drawn to him despite having seen him in
a vision
. I wondered if I would ever see him smile at me again. His face was contorted in
an expression of pain right now, but I didn’t
know whether it was from the
torture
he was enduring
or his fear of what I was about to do.

My father smiled widely. “Wise decision.”

“You need to get rid of the vardoger inside my mother first. And get Simon down from
there.”

“Put your gun on the floor
and kick it towards me,”
my father commanded.
“Then we’ll continue.”

I followed his order
and then waited for him to release my mother and Simon. I knew I was taking a huge
risk in making a deal with
my father. I had no illusions about
his trustworthiness but at thi
s point I had no other options.

My father pulled something out of his pocket and threw it towards me. The piece of
palladium on a chain landed at my feet and I stared at it.

“Take your iridium off and put on the palladium
,” my father ordered. I hesitated.
Putting on the piece of palladium would make me powerless and completely vulnerable
to my father.

“Don’t do it!” Simon’s voice was hoarse bu
t fierce and I looked up at him.
I
silently pleaded
with my eyes for him to understand. I had no other choice because there was no way
I could watch him and my mother die.

My father nodded to Philip, who pulled on the rope again
, making it impo
ssible for Simon to say anything else
. His gaze returned to me. “Until you put it on, he’s going to suffer.”

I quickly
took off my iridium necklace and threw it on the ground. I
reached down and
picked up the palladium
. I was about to put it around my neck when Ryan grabbed my hand.

“Don’t do it,” he said urgently. “It’s your death sentence.”

“I don’t have a choice.” I shook his hand off and put on the necklace. I turned to
my father. “Is it too much to expect you to keep your end of the bargain?”

He shrugged. “Why not.” He turned to speak to Philip as he lowered the gun from my
mother’s temple. “Get rid of her vardoger.”

My mother had been silent the whole time but she had been glaring at me, letting me
know who was in control of her body. But at my father’s word
s
, she started screaming and fighting against his grip.

“No!” she screeched. “This is
my
body, not hers! You’re not getting rid of me!”

Philip tied the end of the rope to a beam of wood
on the side of the barn so that Simon couldn’t escape
and walked over to my mother
. Simon was barely conscious enough to keep his balance on the stool and I prayed
that
he wouldn’t black out and end up hanging
himself.

My mother continued to scream and yell obscenities but my father ignored her
as he restrained her
. Philip stopped a few feet in front of her and clutched his palladium necklace, closing
his eyes and tensing his face in concentration.
His power was almost palpable. I could feel it filling the room and then it shot
out of him like a dagger of lightning
, striking my mother
in the chest. She collapsed
on
to the floor, her body writhing until a darkness exploded out of her and dissipated
into t
he air.

I had never seen anything like it, had never seen such a
showing of
raw power that was so visible. It was then
that
I realized what I was up against. My hand went up to my chest instinctively and I
was about to pull off the palladium necklace when my father trained his gun on my
mother again.

“Backing out of the agreement so soon?” he asked with a raised brow. I shook my head
and lowered my hand, trying to take in deep breaths to calm my racing pulse.
My mother’s eyes fluttered open and
her gaze focused on me. She looked confused and
scared and I wondered if she would ever fully regain her senses.

“Now release Simon,” I said.

My father raised his eyebrows at my autocratic tone. “Getting awfully bossy, aren’t
you. Do you really think you have the upper hand?”

I shook my head, my fear increasing rapidly even though he lowered the gun. “No, I
just want you to keep your part of the deal.”

He laughed like I had said something hilarious and shook his head. “I’ll never understand
humans. So many messy emotions that get in the way of clear thinking.” His smile was
inhuman. “Maybe I just wanted the satisfaction of you seeing me kill your mother for
real this time. I want you to see her suffer, not her vardoger.
She’ll experience every part of the agony of death.
Ther
e’ll be no vardoger to take any
of the pain.”