Shadow Play: (3 page)

Ellie stood, leaning on the far wall of the temporary quarters to observe while Cam had pulled up a chair in front of the woman and rehashed the initial event. Her account gelled with the report Segue had received. The conversation had now moved on to the rescue.

“You’ve got the right idea,” Cam said, “wrong application.”

“What are you talking about?” Grief underscored Ms. Parson’s demand. She was a woman in pain.

A tightness choked Ellie’s throat. The feeling came from her shadow, wracking her with displaced emotion. A son lost, a mother in despair. Ellie withstood the bombardment, gritting her teeth and looking at the wall. If she didn’t let go of her shadow soon, it would rip free regardless. All of these strong emotions were too much.

Cam seemed to be managing just fine. “Ms. Parson, I think we can get your son back.”

Big promise. Ellie just hoped they could deliver. Cam knew as well as she did that two days in Twilight would feel like an eternity to the boy.

“Did you know that you are living an old, old story?” Cam asked Ms. Parson.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re in a changeling story, where the fae—yes, as in faeries—have made off with your son and replaced him with one of their own kind.”

“My son is missing and you are telling me a fairy tale?” Ms. Parson’s hands were shaking.

“My point is, the changeling story tells us that there’s a chance we can get him back, reverse the exchange, which is why I and my associate, Ms. Russo, are here.”

Ms. Parson glared up at Ellie. “How do you plan to do that? JT’s not even in the waterfall anymore. He got scared and ran off and I couldn’t reach him.” Her words were fraught with a sense of personal failure, when there had been nothing she could’ve done differently.

Ellie swallowed hard. “Someone, a specialist, would need to go in and get him.”

She and Cam had discussed the plan, then argued it, when Segue got the call. Any human who went into Twilight would go mad, would get lost, would be preyed upon by the fae. Retrieving that person would be nearly impossible. A couple of people associated with Segue had managed it, but not well, not easily. Others, angels or even Shadowman might cross (if they could be compelled to help), but they had as good a chance of finding JT in that vast infinity of forest as, say … Ellie’s shadow.

Ellie could call her shadow back at will, and the shadow had to obey. That ability had presented Segue with a potentially viable plan: Ellie would direct the dark part of herself to cross into Twilight, accompanied by the changeling (willing or captive), and seek out JT. Her shadow couldn’t be hurt, but just in case, it had demonstrated (probably too well) that it could and would defend itself. Then her shadow would cross back over, at Ellie’s command.

This was on the job training—mastering the dark part of herself and safely traversing Twilight. This was making herself useful to the people who’d taken her in and accepted her without reservation. This was making Cam proud, giving Segue a skill to work with, when she’d almost sabotaged his career. This was shadow into Shadow.

Ms. Parson’s eyes were hard, disbelieving. “What specialist?”

“Well, me,” Ellie said.

“You know how to get inside the waterfall?”

Ellie’s shadow beat against her heart like a drum.

“It will take some doing”—Ellie sighed—“but yes, I think I can cross.” Saying so to the mother meant no going back. “Can you tell me a little about JT so I know what to expect from him?”

Ellie was trying to get at what form his madness would take.

Ms. Parson’s frown deepened, as if she didn’t believe but would go along anyway. “He’s tough. Thinks he can do anything. He likes Legos and Matchbox cars and superheroes. Has a lot of friends, but since the divorce he’s been more attached to Carter, his older brother. He started wetting the bed during the divorce, too. Has nightmares about big dogs.”

Nightmares were a problem. Ellie didn’t like big dogs either.

Cam leaned forward. “When I was a kid, my mom gave me and my sisters a code word to help distinguish friends from strangers in case of an emergency. Tiara. Pretty humiliating the day it actually got used. Do you have something like that with your sons?”

Ms. Parson teared up and shook her head no. “I didn’t think of that.
Damn it
.”

“Anything else that just you and he would know?” Ellie put in. She liked Cam’s line of thought. This could actually help. “Something he knows is safe. Something that might bring him around if he’s scared.”

Ms. Parson was already nodding. She got it too. “Right. I just bought him some spy gizmo for completing his reading challenge. He has a turtle named Speedo. Thinks the name’s hilarious.”

Ellie saw Ms. Parson’s eyes grow damp again.

“I call him my knight in shining armor. It’s our thing.”

Ellie could work with that. Knights were valiant, strong, brave. If he could be a knight, he might be able to get out.

Cam looked at her over his shoulder, his expression filled with concern and his previous exhaustive arguments against her going.

Ms. Parson grabbed Ellie’s hand. “But how do you get inside? How do you know where to look? I heard that place is supposed to be lethal.”

Ellie didn’t doubt her shadow could cross. And now she had something to use—
knight
—if she found him. But yes, the actual finding was a big problem. Lethal, even bigger.

CHAPTER 2

Cam shook his head at Ellie. “It won’t be today. The stress of our arrival has had you fighting your shadow since we boarded the airplane this morning.”

They’d convened in a lab dedicated to the samples Dr. Grant hadn’t been able to obtain from the fae or from Twilight. Chests designed for transport and on-site utility were stacked in the corner, filled with tools and equipment. Stainless steel tables had been erected along one wall. This was unused space that smelled like plastic.

“JT has been gone for over forty-eight hours,” Ellie said, gesturing in the direction of the falls. “He doesn’t have any more time.”

She was pretty convincing, her stance all energy. Chin level, blue eyes direct. Almost anyone would believe she was ready to go. Anyone, that is, who hadn’t been up close and personal, to hear and feel how irregular her breath got when she was in conflict with the interests and passions of her darker, deeper self.

In fact, she’d been doing that subtle, shallow hitch ever since the call had come in from Adam Thorne, Segue’s founder, asking if she was up to this. “Ask” was a mellow word for Thorne’s phrasing.

Cam ranged closer, careful not to alarm. Even with him, Ellie could get jumpy. And when her shadow split from her flesh, he wanted the overriding, primal instinct to be less defensive and more … welcoming. God knew her shadow had reason to fear him.

“One minute was too long for JT in Twilight,” he pointed out to counter Ellie’s haste. “We won’t waste time, but neither will I allow you to rush headlong into that realm unless you are rested and strong, or your shadow will get the better of you.”

Cam stepped within reach, a slow advance, but one that made Ellie aware of him. She lowered her outstretched arm and retreated, only to back into the counter, her expression wary.

“Cam.” One word conveyed a world of worries. She spoke into his eyes, a plea not to push her, when push her was exactly what he was going to do.

He reached to stroke that soft skin at her neck. A light nudge to angle her head.

Her lids lowered a fraction, her breath suspended.

And then he kissed her, his favorite pastime, bar none. If they could get past this stage, he’d bet he’d discover another favorite—and he’d make absolutely certain it was also hers—but for now this had to satisfy.

His mouth brushed over hers, settled in to seek and taste. Honey sweet. And she answered, her body rising to meet him, her hands feathering at his shoulders. He permitted no space between them, relishing the curve of her breast, the skim of her stomach, her legs trapped between his parted stand. She kissed him back, seeking too, and the rush of the waterfall filled his mind, its scent heating his blood.

So he had to increase the pressure,
had
to, take more, damn it, turn carnal, when he would have held back and waited for that sense of gathering in her body that signaled controlled pleasure.

Too soon. Damn, so fast. Accelerated by the proximity of magic.

One drop of heat begat a wave of drowning want, him pulling her close, tight, diving into a sensory storm of denied and delayed craving. He’d tried too long to be careful, but now careful was dangerous, too.

She gripped his shirt, arched to press her breasts against him, angled her hip into contact with his groin. All of which made his nerves buzz, his vision swim with stars. It felt so good and greedy, but the exchange was dominated by shadow.

With a cry, Ellie pushed him away.

He stumbled back, hard, ready, but raising a hand to stop the nude, dark woman who stepped out of Ellie and prowled after him, lust turning her skin from insubstantial transparency to solid, opaque presence.

“Hello there,” Cam said, panting. It was taking too long to shut down his arousal and use his brain. Flesh and blood Ellie, the one now trembling with exhaustion, had cast her shadow out rather than let it take over and dominate the intimacy. It happened nearly every time they tried to make love. The rest of the time, the shadow split on her own out of impatience.

But his point was well made. It had taken all of one minute for him to force Ellie’s two selves apart. She needed to be in control when she attempted Twilight and a rescue. The brevity of their kiss showed just how close to the edge she’d been. Or how much the waterfall, and therefore Twilight, could influence her. Influence both parts of her.

The shadow wrapped an arm around his neck, her mouth grazing the bare skin at his collar, and she slid a satiny dark palm down his pants to clasp him. No blood was going where it was most needed. Nope, not one little bit.

Steps away, the other Ellie looked at him, shame all over her face. They both knew that the desire of the shadow belonged to Ellie, but it wasn’t tempered by control, shyness, or inexperience. Her shadow didn’t hide what she wanted, didn’t lie about it, didn’t remotely acknowledge the standards of normal behavior. Didn’t feel shame.

“I need you.” The shadow stroked him to make her point.

Cam wouldn’t reject her (dangerous), but he wouldn’t go along either.

“Stop it,” Ellie commanded her shadow.

It ignored her. Cuddled closer. Good God. How did someone with zero sexual history know to work him just that way?

Years ago, when he was a science geek in high school, or hell, even any time during his bachelors, masters, and doctorate, he’d have been embarrassing himself right about now.

“Stop!” Ellie said, yanking her shadow away without taking it back into herself.

He blinked hard to clear his mind. Blinked again.

Interest her in something else.

“There’s a boy missing,” Cam said, which helped to focus him as well. A life at stake.

Flesh and blood Ellie gave the slightest nod, though the tension on her face didn’t go away. She knew she could trust him with herself, that he wouldn’t screw one willing part when the higher reason wasn’t present.

He didn’t admit that his honor was sorely tested
every single time.

Ellie depended on him to hold back while she learned mastery. Sometimes her shadow required drastic action like sedation or, that one time, firing a gun at her flesh and blood self to prevent the shadow from committing murder. The shadow could be unstoppable, its only weakness the woman to whom it belonged.

“JT,” Cam said, to make the reason they were here all the more personal. “He’s lost in darkness.”

“My baby,” the shadow said, drawing back. Ellie must have identified with Ms. Parson, felt her anguish. She must have taken on some of that maternal instinct.

Good. This could help.

“We have to find JT and bring him home,” Cam said. Simple concepts, primal ones, resonated best with the shadow.

The shadow drew back, sex momentarily forgotten, and spoke in a series of incomprehensible syllables, foreign words, an alien language.

Cam lifted his gaze to Ellie, who was clearly surprised as well.

He smiled, trying to ease away the last of her previous discomfort. “You speak faerie now?”

In a weird way, it made sense—elemental communicating with elemental. Segue would have a field day with this.

“Sounds like gibberish to me,” Ellie said. “I wish I could understand.”

“Ummm …” Cam shook his head in wonder. “I think it’s pretty clear that on some level you do.”

Ellie exited the lab unit at Cam’s all-clear nod, drawing her shadow after her. The sound of the waterfall got louder, a sense and smell of spray suspended in the air, even with the research units between them. Her shadow tugged to get away, her interest as changeable as a cat’s, but Ellie asserted her mind, her heart, and kept her shadow tethered to its mistress.

A leash like this was much easier to manage than maintaining the full merge of shadow and flesh. Ellie was tired, yes, but now that the internal strain was relieved, she could think clearly again without feeling so much, so acutely. Cam had been right to separate them before tomorrow. She could get her bearings again, remember who she was without her personal tormentor coloring each thought.

Another interview with the fae, this time in his native language, and then she would rest, assisted by a sedative to quiet both parts of her. Tomorrow her shadow would walk into magic. Now that the course had been determined, Ellie’s panic had eased, a kind of calm-before-doom slowing her blood.

They made their way back down a short pitch of trail to the next bit of flat earth, where the fae’s cell was located. The sun had lowered, muting the vivid red of the landscape. Above, the sunset washed the sky white all around, except where the light hit Cathedral Rock and the atmosphere exploded into fireworks of hot color. Huge floodlights had been erected, but they’d yet to be turned on for the evening.