The Deadening Read online

  “Don’t ever call me Lacey,” young Shade said and flicked her cigarette to the curb.

  Raven wanted to drink in every inch of her and commit it to memory. Even then, Shade wore her wounded, badass attitude. Her heart was breaking for her, the young girl who had to develop that protective persona at such a young age.

  The van’s loud muffler was still idling at the curb. Tiffany’s and Sunny’s voices were too low to be picked up, but Shade’s came through loud and clear. “Necromancer,” she said.

  Raven heard a screech of tires and watched the van in the background speed off. Shade looked angry, Sunny looked puzzled, and Tiffany hid behind her. She leaned forward in her chair to hear better, but the screen shot went black.

  Sunny hit the pause button. “God, how young we were. I’ll never forget that day.”

  “Me either,” Tiffany said. “It was the first time I had ever met anyone with psychic abilities, and neither of you appeared to be the spawn of Satan, as my mother warned.” Tiffany continued to stroke Shade’s legs. “Though at first, I was scared to death of Shade.”

  “I could never understand why her mother just dumped her there. Well, at that time anyway.” She looked at Raven. “This next part has the scenes with my father talking to each of us about our past, when and how we realized we had powers. Don’t get upset, but I’m going to skip them, as counseling sessions are extremely sensitive, private, and subject to doctor-patient rules of confidentiality.”

  “But wasn’t this film released to the public?” Raven was curious, but she didn’t want to press, as Sunny seemed very emotional about it.

  “It’s a documentary,” Sunny said. “Various doctors and professionals in the field of parapsychology were invited to view it, but it wasn’t seen on any public network, and it was long before reality television. I don’t mind, really, but Shade can’t give her consent right now.”

  “Thank you,” Tiffany said. “I don’t want to relive any of my mother’s horror today either.”

  Raven totally understood but was more than a little disappointed to not have any more insight into how Lacey Stewart had become Shade. “Is there more to see?”

  “Yes,” Sunny said. “We have some experiments that my parents set up, and a ghost investigation.” She stood abruptly, crossed to the bed, and touched Shade’s cheek. “We’re here, honey. Please come back to us.”

  “We love you,” Tiffany said.

  The day nurse came in and ordered them to move back. “Sorry, girls, time for vitals, blood draws, and clean sheets. I need some room. Wait outside.”

  The clipped tone of her voice had Raven sizing her up. She was young, slender, and just Shade’s type. “You’re new,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “Randi,” she said. “I just transferred from another hospital.” She whipped the curtain around the bed, blocking Shade from view. “Now, shoo. You can come back later.”

  Oh, hell no. Jealousy tightened her stomach muscles, and Raven narrowed her eyes at her. “I can change the bed.”

  “Sorry, hospital policy.” Randi parted the curtain and smirked at her before disappearing behind it.

  Raven took a step forward. She’d show Randi some policy. She reached for an intention to gather power and quickly tried to think of an appropriate spell, maybe some super-acne to make her less attractive? Yes, she decided, that would work.

  Sunny hissed, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the room. “What’s the matter with you? She’s just doing her job. And harm none.”

  Raven blustered and felt blood rush to her cheeks. “I…”

  “Let’s go now.” Tiffany took hold of her other arm, and they marched Raven between them to the elevator. No one spoke as they made their way to the cafeteria.

  She was embarrassed that she’d overreacted. It wasn’t until they were seated with their drinks and food that Raven felt tears slipping down her cheeks. Her emotions were in freefall, and she was exhausted.

  “So,” Sunny said. “Do you want to tell us what that was about?”

  *

  Shade opened her eyes. The last thing she recalled was the eternal run down the tunnels and curling up by the cave fire that was now almost ash. The dying embers gave little light to see by.

  It was dark. Dark enough she couldn’t see the walls of the cave. The air smelled singed, as it did after lighting off big firework displays on the Fourth of July.

  She rested her head back on her knees. The movement sent shock waves up her spine and into her temples. Her sciatic nerves were on fire, spreading flames through the muscles in her lower back and down into her thighs.

  Shade waited for the agony to plateau, to become manageable, but it didn’t. It continued to increase, building a scream in her throat that would soon have to find its way out.

  A disturbance from the back of the cave sent rocks to the ground, and Shade bit her lip to keep quiet. She felt the foreign energy increase around her. Menace skittered along her nerve endings and twisted her stomach into knots.

  Her senses went hyper alert and kept her on the edge. The air shifted and moved, creating a barely perceptible breeze. She kept her gaze toward the sounds she couldn’t see and finally saw movement in the dark, revealing a female form as it rose from a crouch. Dark wings spread into the space, blacker than the cave. Shade wanted to think this was an illusion, but she knew better.

  This was true danger. Shade curled her hands into fists but was acutely aware her fighting skills were currently non-existent, and gave her a distinct disadvantage.

  “Lacey.”

  The voice hissed her name out into two long syllables.

  “Fuck off,” Shade said.

  A low, guttural sound came from the intruder, which she assumed was a laugh, but it still caused the hair on her body to rise, and chilled her to the bone.

  “Fine then, Shade.” The creature stepped closer, and the fire reappeared in the pit with a roar.

  She was tall, Shade thought, at least six and a half feet. Her skin was bronzed by the firelight, but her hair was pure white, framing her face and cascading down her body to the back of her knees.

  “Like what you see?”

  Shade watched the demoness as she held her arms out and turned in a slow circle, flicking a whip into the air, producing a sharp cracking sound as she did so. Another log caught fire, illuminating more of the cave and the creature.

  Not a whip, Shade realized, but a tail.

  I am so fucked. She stared in disbelief as the creature drew closer.

  “What’s the matter, necromancer? Is the sight of my glorious body too much for you?”

  Actually, it was the way she talked that disturbed Shade, the hissing at the end of each word. Well, that, the wings, and the goddamn tail. Other than that, she was exquisitely perfect.

  Succubus.

  The creature grinned and nodded. “Oh, you’re very good.”

  “That’s what they tell me.” Shade hoped it came across as sarcastic, because she didn’t want to admit, or show, the total terror she felt building. “What do you want?”

  “The better question is, what do you want Lace—oops, Shade?” The succubus moved quickly, becoming a blur when Shade tried to gauge her distance. She crouched next to Shade and stuck out her hand. “Where are my manners? I’m Phaedra.”

  Her fingernails were extremely long, sharp tipped, and painted blood red. She ignored the extended hand, and instead closed her eyes, willing Phaedra to go away. When she opened her eyes again, she was still next to her staring at her with pale, ice-blue eyes. It freaked her out to see the diamond-shaped pupils. Like so much in this place, Phaedra was just wrong.

  Phaedra sighed dramatically. “I so hoped we would be friends.” She ran one pointed claw down Shade’s cheek. “Oh, your skin is so delicate. My bad, you’re bleeding. Sssweet.”

  Shade felt the wetness trickle down her face and cringed when Phaedra’s long tongue swept out to lick it away.

  “We’re going to be good together.�
� Phaedra sniffed the air and giggled. “You know, I can smell the fear. It makes me hot.”

  Shade looked away. She didn’t have enough strength left to block her emotions, but she made a weak attempt anyway.

  “That doesn’t work in my house,” Phaedra said. She pointed to a dark corner in the cave, and a wolf howled in pain. “All things here obey me.” She pulled Shade’s hair to turn her back around to face her, leaned down, and licked Shade’s lips. “As will you.”

  Shade tried to loosen Phaedra’s grip but couldn’t budge it. “Let me loose.”

  “What’s my name?”

  “Why?” Shade asked.

  “So you know whose name to scream out when I take you.”

  “That is so not fucking happening,” Shade spit out between her teeth. Even as she refused, she felt her dark side spike with desire.

  “Really?’ Phaedra sat back on her heels. “What makes you think you can stop me? This can be as easy or as hard as you make it, but either way, I promise you’ll love it.”

  That’s exactly what Shade was afraid of. “I’m not just going to give it up.”

  “We’re going to fight then?” Phaedra clapped with obvious glee. “Even better.” She snapped her fingers. “Bring it on.”

  Shade felt a rush of energy fill her entire body, the pain disappeared, and she could move freely. But she was so stunned at how rapidly it happened, it was a full ten seconds before she stood. This was more like it. She grinned and started toward Phaedra, who’d moved to the center of the cave.

  She managed two steps before she was flat on her back again. Shade rose and tried again, with the same result. Phaedra had barely flicked her wrist, and it felt as if she were hit with a ton of bricks.

  “You disappoint me, necromancer. I thought you’d be full of fight.” The hiss at the end of Phaedra’s sentence turned to a purr.

  Shade should be horrified but found she wasn’t. “Just finding my bearings.”

  “From your back? Please.”

  Shade took the distraction as an advantage, rose again, threw a roundhouse punch, and hit Phaedra in the side of the head. She knew her fist connected, but Phaedra hadn’t even moved with the force of her blow. Shade stood chest to chest with her and felt a shiver of fear when Phaedra’s eyes turned red.

  Shade’s entire body lifted into the air, and she slammed against the wall on the opposite side of where she’d been standing. Her gasp of pain cut itself off as the air rushed from her lungs. Phaedra’s hair stood virtually on end, snapping with electricity, along with her tail. “No quarter, no mercy.”

  With those words, Shade was pinned and unable to move again. When she felt her eyes begin to bulge with the effort she exerted to break free, she forced herself to relax and breathe. There had to be another way out. She could back off now and live to fight another day.

  Phaedra smirked while she stared down at her with her reptilian eyes, and their hypnotic effect mesmerized Shade. When Phaedra pushed the darkness into her mind, Shade let herself fall back into unconsciousness.

  *

  Raven wiped her face and squared her shoulders. She was embarrassed, but angry tears were the hardest, if not impossible, to hold back. She wished for the ten thousandth time that she had more control of her emotions.

  “It comes with time,” Tiffany said. She held Raven’s hand in her own. “May I?”

  Raven watched Tiffany close her eyes and felt a warm tingle along her scalp and the hand being held.

  “Oh,” Tiffany said. “Oh.”

  The urge to snatch her hand back was strong. Raven knew Tiffany had already seen her intimate encounters with Shade in great detail, but what bothered her most was opening up her family’s business to someone else.

  The sisters could read her thoughts, innermost desires, and secrets. After growing up in her own family, whose members could do the same, she’d thought she’d finally have some privacy.

  That expectation just went out the window. “I’m having a hard time with this. It borders on rude.”

  “Don’t be angry with us,” Sunny said softly. “We have your best interest at heart. Truthfully, Shade is our first priority, but you’re becoming part of the sisterhood we hold at SOS, and therefore, new family.”

  “I know we can be an intrusion.” Tiffany let go of Raven’s hand. “It’s always been this way with us.”

  “It was small of me,” Sunny said. “And I’ll apologize for my snotty attitude when you first started working with us. I just didn’t—and don’t—want Shade to hurt again.”

  “I can totally understand that,” Raven said. “But—”

  “Jordan and I talked about it, and once I let that go, I could feel your genuine emotion, Raven. Shade’s hospital room is full of your love and concern.”

  “You talked to Jordan?” Raven was stunned. “About how you felt about Shade? Doesn’t she get jealous?”

  Tiffany laughed. “That’s a long story, for another time. The key to how this circle works is communication. We may be gifted, as you are, but talking things out is still the best way to handle it. Emotions can be all over the place, and they’re not always clear until you vocalize them.”

  “Well,” Raven said. “It’s something to work on. And back off a little, would you?”

  “Absolutely. Sometimes, I can’t control it, and we’re all exhausted. I’ll make an extra effort, okay?”

  “Me too,” Tiffany said.

  Sunny stared at Raven and lowered her voice before speaking again. “Raven? Do you really know what it would mean to love her?”

  Raven wanted to snap back at her, and say that she wouldn’t run like Sunny did. Then instant mortification hit her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that, really.”

  “It’s okay,” Sunny said. “It will get easier with time, controlling impulsive thoughts. You’re still young.”

  “She’s attached to a need I have deep inside,” Raven said quietly and placed her palm high on her stomach, beneath her breasts. “It seems as if I was born loving her. Does that make sense?” Raven shook her head. “It seems to mean so little right now, and she’s made it brutally clear, she doesn’t want me.”

  “You scare the crap out of her,” Tiffany said. “That’s why.”

  Sunny nodded in agreement.

  “Let me tell you something I know.” Tiffany tapped the table. “The night of the bombing, Kat had mentioned to Shade that she’d met you. Shade got this funny look on her face, and I began to sense something different in her energy, but she was able to shut me out of her head. Then Angel screamed in the bedroom.” Tiffany’s face paled, and her eyes filled with tears.

  Sunny put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t go there right now. Later, when Shade wakes up, okay? This is not your fault.”

  “I wish I could kill him again,” Tiffany said. “This time, I’d make him suffer.”

  “Be careful, very careful, of what you wish for with strong emotion and violent intent,” Raven said. “It can affect our situation.”

  Sunny’s and Tiffany’s puzzled looks reminded Raven she hadn’t yet told them of her dream walk, or the eye-opening conversation with her mother. “Yesterday morning, I fell asleep and woke in a dream. I was standing on the top of a mountain. You know how your heart aches when Earth’s beauty is manifested, and you feel plugged in to the Universe?”

  When they both nodded, Raven continued. “I was on the edge when I slipped, and started a rock slide. I fell into the air and knew I was going to be pulverized on the cliffs. It was the very next moment when I realized I was dreaming, spread my arms, and became the raven, soaring over the boulders and down to the river in the canyon below.

  “I returned to human form and was watching the sunset when I saw Shade in the water and dragged her to higher ground. I gave her CPR until she could breathe again. She began fighting me when she came to, and I stepped back. She looked at me with empty eyes and wouldn’t, or couldn’t, acknowledge my presence.

  “The next thing I knew, I w
as waking up in the chair next to her.” Raven felt guilt ooze out of her pores. “I had my hands on her and couldn’t bring her back with me.”

  “Raven,” Sunny said quietly. “I’ve told you the dangers of bringing her back by force. She could bring something dark with her.”

  “I hear your internal stubbornness,” Tiffany added. “But Shade has to choose.”

  “I don’t want to just leave her there!” Raven said loudly, several other diners seated around them looked over, and she lowered her voice. “I won’t abandon her.”

  “Neither will we,” Sunny said, her expression tight with determination. “Now we know a little more of what we’re dealing with.”

  “It’s the head injury,” Tiffany said. “It must be. Otherwise, she’d come back. If she doesn’t remember who she is, she’s lost and can’t.”

  “So,” Raven said. “What’s our plan of attack?”

  Sunny held up her forefinger. “First, we’re going upstairs, and we’ll throw Randi out of the room.”

  Raven smiled at her bitchy tone. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Seven

  Time twisted around itself here, and Shade didn’t know how long she’d been out this time. It could have been ten minutes or ten years. But she knew the longer she was trapped here, the less likely it was she could return home.

  Home. Back to her fucked up life where she felt she didn’t deserve anything good or the the love of anyone. The thought brought a tremendous ache to her heart.

  The sound of harsh laughter startled her. “Just go away,” Shade whispered. God, she was so tired of this shit.

  “Spare me the self-pity,” Phaedra hissed. “You’re just another drug addict looking for redemption, and don’t even pretend you didn’t love being bad, Lacey.”

  Shade heard the snapping whip of her tail before Phaedra came into view, stepped over the flames, and stood in front of her.

  Shade reluctantly found herself drawn to her physical perfection, the lines of reality blurred, and any pretention of morals went right out the nonexistent windows. The building lust was almost enough to make Shade forget what Phaedra was.