Beyond Shadows

  (Shady Arcade Book Three)

  Sharon Stevenson

  Copyright

  Sharon Stevenson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Copyright © Sharon Stevenson 2018

  All rights reserved. Thank you for buying an authorized edition and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning or distributing any part of it in any form without permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction and includes the creation of fictional towns. Any resemblance to real persons or places is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Najla Qamber Designs

  http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com

  To Mum

  For always being there

  Chapter One

  Larry kept a tight grip on Kenny’s arm as he walked his hostage through the woods. The creep scowled at him every time he tried to slow down or pull them off course and Larry promptly reminded him he was under his control. It was a strange feeling to have, but Larry knew exactly where he was going, as if he’d been there before.

  Home, he thought, wondering if that’s what it was. Winter was his clan. They’d made him. Some kind of deep rooted instinct was driving him forward, towards the vampires who’d turned his whole world upside down.

  He froze as his gaze fell upon the almost hidden path that he knew led through the densely packed bushes to get to the compound. This was it.

  Kenny made a low growling noise in his throat. He shook with rage as Larry tightened his grip with one hand and pushed at the hidden doorway with the other. For a moment he wondered if Chloe’s orders were going to be enough to keep Kenny from turning on him.

  Then a hand shot out from the other side of the entrance and yanked them both forward into what looked to Larry like a housing estate. He blinked, not quite believing it.

  “What is this place?” he asked, relinquishing his grasp on Kenny as the guy was pulled away by two big-built men who proceeded to cuff his hands behind his back.

  A third guy looked him over. “I don’t know you.”

  Larry cleared his throat. “I was human a couple of days ago. One of your vampires did this to me.”

  His stomach started churning as the vampire’s eyes narrowed.

  “If that’s so where is the one who turned you?”

  Larry swallowed. “He was killed by a Midnight clan vampire.”

  He watched Kenny be dragged away and almost jumped out of his skin when a fourth Winter clan vampire pulled his arms behind him and he felt handcuffs being clicked into place. Dread filled him as he realised it didn’t matter what he was here for, he wasn’t in control of what was going to happen.

  “I’m one of you,” he complained, pulling away from the vampire behind him.

  A growl stilled him. The guy held his arm tightly and this time he didn’t try to shake off the touch. Thoughts of Amira raced through his head. If this was how they were treating him, he hated to think of the welcome she would have gotten as a human.

  “I need to speak to the person in charge.” He had to try, even if it seemed futile.

  “You need to be quiet,” the vampire in front of him said. “The trial will go better for you if you are respectful of your clan’s customs.”

  He pressed his lips closed, though he didn’t understand. There’s going to be a trial? The unease in his stomach only grew as he was walked through the estate, seeing he was being taken to the same building as Kenny who was showing much less restraint at his desire to escape. The Winter clan vampires smacked him around like a rag-doll but he never stopped fighting against them.

  Larry’s gaze locked onto the building they were being taken to as Kenny was dragged kicking inside. His fate was about to be decided. He hoped Kenny was going to be a good enough bargaining tool, but more than anything, he hoped to hell he wasn’t too late to save Amira.

  Chapter Two

  Being home alone with a man who’d made it patently obvious he’d sooner see Zack dead than alive was taking a heavy toll. It was impossible to sleep under those conditions. So Zack had just moved the chair in his bedroom to the window so he could lean one elbow on the ledge and stare out into the darkness while he contemplated when the guy might make his move.

  The gun he’d already shown Zack made any thoughts of self defence laughable. The only thing standing between him and a speeding bullet was the psycho’s desire to keep his position in the necromancer’s Council.

  Considering he’d already been threatening to the person he was supposed to be protecting, Zack wasn’t sure how highly he valued his career. Seemed like he might be a hair-trigger away from putting his pay-check in jeopardy to do something his morals deemed necessary for the greater good.

  The world would be better off without me.

  He gazed out at the stars and waited for self-preservation to kick in and tell him he was wrong. Sighing, he realised there was no argument he could use against the dark thought that he knew had been lingering for a long time at the back of his mind.

  He was a danger to everyone around him. As long as he existed, he was a ticking time bomb, just waiting for the right deadly villain to come along and set him off.

  He moved back from the window and removed his worn-out gloves, placing them on the night stand and ignoring the little tingle of regret that flowed through him when his naked fingers touched the wood. He got the little box out of his trouser pocket and let the memory of that rainy afternoon with Chloe flood back through him. The way she’d looked at him, and that taste of cherry when her lips met his; it felt like some kind of heaven to remember it with razor sharp focus like this.

  Only he hadn’t remembered it at all. He’d had visions from touching Chloe’s umbrella, then from touching the ring inside the box. If he hadn’t taken his gloves off, that never would have even happened.

  He thought back to their encounters over the past few days. He realised the connection he felt with her was rooted in the sadness she seemed to carry in her eyes, regardless of how she acted. She’d seemed hesitant with him, and now he understood why.

  One vampire attack and his whole life had been erased. She’d been a part of that, an important part. Now? Now, she was gone, and he might never see her again. The thought of that twisted him up inside. He’d been so alone in the months since the incident. Bridget hadn’t done much to ease that feeling so he didn’t really miss her exactly, but he missed having a little company. Turner hadn’t been perfect either, but after everything that had happened, at least Zack knew he could trust him.

  He had Audrey too, he supposed. Though that had turned out very differently than he’d expected. Finding out she was his mother had been something of a shock. Not to mention how she’d been turned into a vampire and now she had scarlet eyes and enhanced psychic abilities.

  “Zack? Are you okay?” her question came through clear as a bell, and he smiled to himself knowing it wasn’t imaginary.

  I’m fine, he reassured.

  “You seem sad.”

  He was, and he didn’t know how to hide it. I remembered Chloe.

  “You did? Oh, Little Z...”

  It was a vision. He realised the way he said it could be taken differently.

  “It doesn’t matter how you remembered. All that matters is how you feel about it.”

  She’s gone, and I never got the chance to tell her anything. He wasn’t sure exactly what he would have said, but he wished he’d gotten time to speak to her regardless. If nothing else, he could have told her he was sorry.

  “What do you mean, she’s gone?” Audrey sounded confused and he realised Chloe may not have told many people that she was leaving.

  She was re-assigned out of Shady Pines.

  “Oh, really?”

  I might never see her again. The thought broke his heart. The first connection he’d really felt to anyone, and it turned out to be real, but now she was gone.

  “We’ll see about that,” Audrey told him.

  What do you mean?

  “Get some sleep. You need the rest. I’ll speak to you in the morning.”

  Chapter Three

  Audrey had felt Zack’s pain through their psychic link, heard him think her name and went rushing into his head to find out what was wrong. Her heart hurt for her son when she found out why he was so miserable. The necromancer he’d fallen for years ago hadn’t been actively trying to get him to remember she’d been a part of his life. It would have seemed strange if Audrey didn’t know how the Necromancer’s Council worked. They ruled the girl’s actions. They were keeping her away from Zack on purpose. Audrey didn’t know why, exactly, but she was going to find out and once she did there would be hell to pay.

  She left Zack to get some rest and stalked down the stairs of her old house in the woods. The place was in a state of ruin thanks to local kids breaking in and violating pretty much everything in their paths. She could hear Mark making disgusted noises in the other room as she examined the mess in the living room.

  “I don’t think we can live here,” her brother said as he came out of the kitchen.

  Audrey rolled her eyes. “Nothing a fresh coat of paint and a boatload of bleach won’t fix.”

  “You didn’t see what they did to the sink.” He screwed up his nose.

  While it was a huge mess, he was being overly dramatic which was usually Mitch’s style rather than Mark’s. He had always been a bit OCD when it came

to cleaning up, she supposed.

  She just couldn’t believe her uptight little brother had remained this squeamish as a vampire. “You drink blood to live.”

  “That doesn’t make me a barbarian.” He crossed his arms. “We need new furniture, and wall paper, and carpets, and...”

  “The beds seem okay,” she said, looking over the ruined couch. Unruly, hormonal teenagers had gone on a destructive rampage through the ground floor with spray paint, beer and a knife or two. They’d left most of the upstairs intact and Audrey was fairly sure why.

  “It smells like a brothel up there,” Mark complained with a grimace.

  She shrugged. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

  His shoulders slumped. He knew he was defeated.

  She touched his shoulder. “We can start cleaning up and throwing everything outside tonight. I’ll go borrow a neighbours’ iPad and arrange for new things to be delivered tomorrow.”

  “Can’t we find somewhere else to live?” He was too upset about the mess to even tell her not to go bothering the neighbours at this time of night.

  Poor Mark, she thought. This is really getting to him.

  It was probably worse than the ordeal that turned them into vampires, at least to him. He’d always seemed to expect the worst would happen. It was always a matter of time with him. Audrey wished she’d paid more attention to his instincts at the time, but she suspected it wouldn’t have mattered. This was always meant to happen, so there would have been nothing anyone could do to stop it.

  She shook her head firmly as Mark’s crimson eyes pleaded with her. This was as close as they were going to be allowed to get to town on any sort of permanent basis. The Necromancer’s Council would likely have conniptions when they found out Zack’s newly vamped family were back on the outskirts of town.

  Mark sighed deeply, rolling up his shirt sleeves. “Where do I even start?”

  Audrey left him to it, walking out of the house and through the woods to the town. Luckily the kids who’d been ransacking their house hadn’t found the safe hidden under the floorboards in her bedroom. She’d gone into it before she came downstairs, picking out a credit card, the emergency pay-and-go mobile phone with its charger, and, after several moments deliberation, five hundred pounds. Stuffing the lot into her handbag, she moved quickly out into the woods and sprinted towards town. Her supernaturally enhanced speed made conducting the run in heels over the rough terrain easy. She only stopped once she was on flat ground.

  As she stood in the street closest to the woods, looking out over the houses, she picked the one that seemed like the smallest and headed toward it with purpose in her stride. If she was quick, this little visit wouldn’t even register on the Necromancer’s Council’s radar.

  Chapter Four

  Kenny stared at Larry, thinking of all the things he wished he’d done to the idiot besides just torturing him by leaving him motionless while he stole his girlfriend away in front of him. Despite this being Larry’s clan, both of them were in deep shit right now, and neither were likely to be given any kind of mercy. He’d just gotten them both killed.

  The room was silent once they were seated across from one and other, and chained into place.

  Larry had no fucking clue what this was, but Kenny had seen one of these trials before. They were just an excuse for violence and bloodshed, which was all well and good while you were watching. It wasn’t going to be anywhere near as much fun being on the receiving end of the torture.

  The judge entered and stood before them, in a black cloak with a hood that covered the top half of his face from sight.

  “Name and clan,” he prompted, poking Larry with a cattle-prod when he didn’t answer immediately.

  Larry gasped as the electricity rushed through him. It was a burn, a mild one for a vampire, but it was still going to sting a little. “Larry Anderson, clan Winter.”

  The judge turned to Kenny, who cursed Larry furiously with his eyes because he couldn’t speak until Larry allowed him to, and that was going to make for a painful start to this fucked up session.

  “Name and clan.”

  Kenny glowered at Larry, unable to answer. As far as Chloe’s commands had been concerned, Larry was his master right now. He was at the idiot’s mercy.

  The cattle-prod swung his was, and really, the first hit wasn’t so bad. Kenny glared at Larry venomously as he took it anyway. He would have enjoyed watching Larry die, but he was probably going to be scorched and electrified until he was brain-dead if the arsehole didn’t click as to why Kenny wasn’t answering the judge’s questions. It took three shocks to his upper body to get Larry to open his damned stupid mouth.

  “Oh, wait. He can’t speak unless I allow it,” Larry said, flinching when the judge turned his way.

  “Is that right?” His tone was menacing enough to make Larry break his silence a second time.

  “I allow you to speak, Kenny,” his words came out in a rush.

  Kenny grinned. Now Larry was fucked. That idiot never should have broken Chloe’s spell.

  “Name and clan,” the judge said.

  “Kenneth MacFarlane, clan Midnight.” He spat the words out, knowing better than to claim he was without a clan.

  The judge turned back to Larry. “What are you doing here?”

  The crowd watching began to shout suggestions at the judge, and Larry’s expression slackened before he saw the cattle-prod swing a little and he opened his mouth.

  “I came to join my clan and I brought him as a gift.”

  The judge shook his head and poked the cattle-prod to Larry’s neck. “That’s a lie.”

  Larry shook as the more prolonged jolt rushed through him. Kenny couldn’t keep the smile from his lips. The kid’s stupidity was going to get him killed. The vampire before them was psychic. His eyes were hidden under his hooded cloak, but Kenny knew it was why he wore the hood and that his abilities were how he could tell the truth from a lie. Larry was fucking clueless. He’d be dead before Kenny could reveal some very interesting, very valuable truths to the judge. Truths that would buy him his freedom, regardless of how much the crowd bayed for his blood. The judge asked Larry the question again.

  This time Larry looked beaten. “I came looking for a missing friend. She ran into the woods.”

  The judge turned to Kenny. “And what are you doing here?”

  “Me? Oh, I was forced into it by a Necromancer and this prick here.”

  Larry didn’t seem to understand what was going on when the judge decided to give the next question straight back to Kenny.

  “Why?”

  “They care about the human he’s looking for. They thought you might take me in exchange for her release.” Kenny laughed and the judge didn’t move. “They think she’s still alive.”

  Larry struggled in his chair, his expression furious.

  “Why would we want you?” The judge asked.

  Kenny grinned, keeping his gaze on Larry. “They think you’ll want me because I’m Midnight clan. But there’s a better reason.”

  “What’s the reason?”

  “Midnight clan has been wiped out. I’m the last man standing. I wish to join Winter. And I can bring you the prize Midnight dropped to be initiated.”

  “What is this prize you speak of?”

  Kenny ignored the rising chants from the crowd goading the judge to start using his cutting tools. The braying hoard could be sated on Larry’s blood when he was done securing his deal.

  “A full-blooded psychic. I used to be a Necromancer. My father is high up in their Council. I can bring the psychic to you.”

  The expression of betrayal on Larry’s face made him laugh. Never should have let me talk, idiot.

  The judge prompted his aides to free Kenny. They did so but kept a firm grip on his wrists as they pulled him to his feet.

  “Take him to Knox,” the judge instructed them.

  He turned back to Larry as Kenny was led away.

  “What reason do you have for me not to kill you?”

  Kenny didn’t need to look back. He could imagine the look on the dumb kid’s face now. He didn’t have a reason. He was dead-meat.

 

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