A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One Read online

  “I left something in your apartment, something that allowed me to keep an eye on you in case something went wrong.”

  “But how, you’ve never….” I trailed off, my mind replaying the moment where someone had been in my apartment. The press of his body against mine, the familiar smell of his aftershave as he had pinned me to the wall.

  “You,” I said, my voice cracking with rage.

  Anger spread through my body like a white hot heat.

  “Put me down,” I said, gritting my teeth.

  “No, we need to get out of here.”

  “I said put me down….” The white heat prickled in my finger tips and danced along the edges of my skin.

  Nic’s steps faltered and he glanced down at me, his eyes widening slightly.

  “Look, if you’re going to go nuclear, you can just can it. I’m not interested, and you can’t afford to lose control of your abilities in public.” He carried me out into the street and the cold night air was an immediate affront to the rage that coursed in my veins.

  A sudden coughing fit washed over me as I drank down a mouthful of clean, crisp air, and I struggled in his grip until he set me safely on my feet. His hand never left my arm as the hacking cough bent me double and I coughed until my eyes watered.

  “Do your eyes always do that?” he asked, when I’d finally paused going enough to draw breath.

  “Do what?” I said, scrubbing at the tears streaking down my cheeks. The sound of sirens in the distance drawing closer made me suddenly aware of just how little clothes I was actually wearing and how cold the night air was.

  “Go all sparkly and midnight blue when you’re pissed. Because I’ve got to say, if that’s the case, I’m surprised there isn’t more people who know about your abilities.”

  His statement surprised me and I jerked my head up to meet his gaze. I could feel him studying me, his eyes scanning me from head to toe until they came to rest on my arm.

  “Shit, what the hell happened to you?”

  He grabbed my arm and twisted it around to get a view of it in the street light. I fought his grip; jerking my arm back from him, I cradled it to my chest.

  It hadn’t actually started to hurt until he’d drawn my attention to it and reminded me of what the vampire had done. It started to throb in time with the beat of my heart and I glanced down at the ragged wound.

  It could have just as easily been my throat. And if the vamp had had any say in it, it would have been my throat. He’d have happily ripped it out like a rabid dog.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, watching him suspiciously.

  He sighed and pressed his hands back through his dark hair; the look of exasperation he gave me might have been funny if the circumstances had been different. And, of course, if he hadn’t just admitted to having broken into my apartment to plant a device just so he could keep an eye on me.

  I wasn’t stupid and I could smell a rat a mile away.

  “Amber, this isn’t the type of situation where you get to discuss it later. Now, tell me what did that to you?”

  “Why do you want to know?” I said, irritation colouring my voice as I turned away from him to hide the fact that my teeth were beginning to chatter.

  “Because if, for example, a shifter or werewolf bit you, then what do you think would happen to you?”

  “I know what would happen, I’m not stupid.”

  “Then you also know what will happen if that bite came from a vampire…” he said, his voice dropping to little more than a whisper as he moved up behind me and draped his jacket over my shoulders.

  As far as I was aware, nothing was going to happen to me just because a vampire bit me. I hadn’t shared any of the vampire’s blood and I wasn’t on the verge of death. It was just a bite—a very irritating and rather painful one, but still just a bite none the less. The worst it could be was that I would need to check and make sure all my shots were up to date.

  That was so not an appointment I was going to enjoy keeping. The nurse and doctors at the clinics had perfected their disapproving stares. Gotten them down to a fine art so now; whether you had anything to be ashamed about or not, they had the power to make you feel ashamed.

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” I said.

  “We should get you to a hospital, get you checked over by a doctor…” Nic said, his voice trailing off.

  Hospital was the last place he was going to want to take me. Hunters and hospitals weren’t exactly the best mix.

  “I’m fine,” I said, watching as the lights from the fire trucks pulled onto my street, the sirens blaring as they came racing down towards the apartment block. Tilting my head back, I caught sight of the smoke billowing out through the window of my apartment just as the world started to swim in sickening circles and my knees turned to jelly.

  “Maybe I should sit down for a few minutes, I….”

  My voice choked off as my legs buckled out from underneath me and the world went dark for the second time that night.

  Chapter 24

  “Ms. Morgan, can you hear me?” A voice called out to me, but it wasn’t one I recognised.

  Opening my eyes, they were immediately assaulted by the stark white of my surroundings.

  Great, you’re dead.

  The only problem with that thought was that I knew there wasn’t a chance in Hell of me going to Heaven. And I was pretty sure white wasn’t demonic enough for hell.

  The woman who had called my name leaned in over the bed and peered down into my face.

  “Can you hear me now, Ms. Morgan?”

  “Where the hell am I?” I said. My throat was raw, like I’d swallowed a whole packet of razor blades, but I knew that wasn’t true.

  The fire.

  The vampire.

  Nic.

  He was the one thought that didn’t immediately bring me a feeling of anger and the urge for vengeance. Of course, he had broken into my apartment. But how could I stay mad at him? If he hadn’t done it then I wouldn’t have made it out of the apartment and the fire alive.

  The thought of dying in a fire was enough to send a shudder of revulsion through me. Even smoke inhalation wasn’t the kind killer they made it out to be, and the after effects of it sure weren’t making me feel peachy.

  “You’re in Constance Memorial, you were brought in about twenty minutes ago. Quite a nasty bite you have there….”

  I could tell from the tone of her voice and the suspicious way she was watching me that she was concerned. I couldn’t blame her.

  Rogue shifters and werewolves were a real problem. The first time they shifted, the newbies tended to get a little rowdy; if there wasn’t a sponsor there to get them through the rough patch, well, people tended to die.

  Horribly.

  And then the rogue had to be put down.

  It wasn’t their fault. The human body wasn’t really built to withstand changes like that and when it happened … well, there had been several cases where the defence had tried to claim temporary insanity, but the judgements were all the same.

  Without a sponsor to control the situation … there was only one outcome.

  “It’s a vampire bite; you can relax, Doctor,” I said, with my best professional smile.

  It was the smile the Elite taught us to use in any situation that involved civilians. The “don’t worry, everything is under control” smile.

  It was usually utter bullshit.

  “You lost quite a lot of blood. The bite nicked one of the deeper veins in your arm, a little longer and the outcome might not have been in your favour.”

  What little blood I had left, I felt drain from my face. I’d been stupid and careless. And without knowing it, I had been close to dying. Was that the vamp’s plan all along? To turn me, to make me like him?

  It didn’t make a whole lot of sense and I couldn’t see a good reason why he would want to turn me.

  “We’ve treated the wound and started you on a short course of antibiotics, just
to cover you. If this wasn’t a planned bite, then it’s better to be safe than sorry. And we’ve put some stitches in the arm….”

  I lifted my hand and stared down at the bulky white bandage that covered my arm from above my elbow down as far as my wrist. The combination of stitches and the bandage really wasn’t going to make my job any easier.

  Would I still be able to draw my gun?

  I shuffled to the edge of the bed and swung my legs down onto the floor. The world ran in brightly coloured streamers and I dug my fingers into the thin sterile mattress beneath me. If I fell out of the bed, then I definitely wasn’t going to be allowed to leave.

  “Ms. Morgan, what are you doing? I must ask you to get back into the bed; you’ve suffered a severe trauma tonight, you need to rest.” The panic in the doctor’s voice made me smile, but it didn’t stop me.

  “Nope, I need to leave.” I slid down to the floor, keeping a tight grip on the bed as I let my body adjust to its new upright position.

  “I must insist,” she said, placing her hand on my good arm in an attempt to guide me gently back into the bed.

  “I’m a member of the Elite. I’m not getting back into bed. I’m working an ongoing investigation and I do not have time for rest.” I put as much emphasis as I could on the word rest without trying to make it sound as though I was mocking her.

  But none of it was a lie. I had work to do, and hanging around in a hospital bed wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

  Of course, I wasn’t really going to get anywhere tonight anyway; there were no leads to chase down. No tracks to pick up. Most of what I would do could wait until the morning…. Well, the couple of hours left until morning, anyway.

  “The clothes I was wearing when I came in, where are they?” I said, scanning the bare hospital room.

  “We got rid of them, it’s our policy.”

  “So what I am supposed to wear when I leave?” I asked, shooting a confused glance in her direction.

  “You’re not supposed to leave yet, but when you’re discharged, we can call someone to bring you some clothes and….”

  I cut her off with a wave of my hand.

  “There is no way I’m spending the night in hospital; I just won’t do it. I told you already, I need to get out of here to work my case. I don’t have time for this,” I said, gesturing to the room around me. “Is there somewhere I can make a phone call?”

  She nodded and pointed out the door to the nurses’ station across from my room. “You can call out from the desk.”

  “Thanks,” I said, wrapping the loose-fitting hospital gown a little tighter around my body. The world did not need me flashing my ass in its face.

  Crossing the hall to the nurses’ station, I lifted the receiver on the public phone that sat on the edge of the high pine work station. Staring down at the buttons, I sucked in a deep breath and dialled Graham’s number.

  It was one of the perks of working in a small office environment; I didn’t know his private number, but I did have the emergency line number and his extension.

  Standing in the hall, I pressed the phone tight to my ear and listened to it ring and ring. When he finally picked up, Graham’s voice was almost unrecognisable; he’d been asleep.

  “Yeah,” he said groggily.

  “Graham, I need you to come pick me up from Constance Memorial.”

  “What happened?” his voice snapped back and suddenly all the grogginess of sleep was gone, replaced by an alertness that only a cop could manage.

  “It’s a long story, I’ll explain when you get here. And Graham,” I said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Bring me some clothes. If I have to spend one more second in a goddamned hospital gown I’m going to lose my mind.”

  His muffled snort of laughter did nothing to ease the knot of tension in my chest and I slammed the phone down. Naturally, the sight of the white hospital gown fluttering beneath the air-conditioning unit did absolutely nothing to help my mood. If Graham didn’t get his ass over here pronto, I was going to flip.

  Chapter 25

  “So are you going to tell me what happened, or do I have to guess?” Graham asked, standing behind me as I filled out the discharge form.

  I could still feel the female doctor’s disapproving glare boring holes in my back as I scribbled my name across the bottom of the sheet and, for the millionth time, readjusted the Elite jumpsuit Graham had brought in for me.

  It was several sizes too big, but it was clean; so clean I’d had to rip it out of the packaging before I could pull it on. I slipped my arms into the sleeves of Nic’s jacket. It was the only thing the hospital hadn’t confiscated, and for that, I was more than a little grateful.

  “Vamp bit me and set fire to my apartment,” I answered in as bored a tone as I could muster.

  There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that I was willing to explain to him that I had caused the fire. Especially when I still hadn’t fully wrapped my own head around it.

  I’d been angry, but the sudden flames had been something else altogether. That and the rush of power. I’d felt it, just like I had when Madeline had tried to take it from me, whatever “it” was. Power like I’d never experienced before, magic so strong….

  Well, it just wasn’t something I wanted to think about. I had way too much on my plate as it was without adding complications like that to it.

  Graham shook his head, but he didn’t continue to question me and, for that, I was glad. I knew he had more questions; I could practically feel them beating at my skin like bats, but he was keeping his mouth shut on them for now, at least.

  Stalking down the corridor, I made it as far as the elevator before the female doctor who had treated me called out.

  “You’re making a mistake, Ms. Morgan. If something goes wrong, this is on your head.”

  She was just trying to scare me. Trying to force me to stay in a place I had no intention of hanging around in a moment longer than was necessary. But there was something else about her words.

  It wasn’t intentional on her behalf, but it did have the ominous feeling of a warning.

  There was no mistake where leaving the hospital was concerned, but I was making a mistake in something else. Had I missed something important, something that could crack the case?

  I just wasn’t sure, and my head was pounding so hard it felt as though something was trying to beat its way out through my skull.

  “She’s cheery,” Graham said with a smile as he pressed the button in the elevator for the ground floor.

  I wanted to smile, to nod and agree with him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. There was something at stake, something more to Joanna’s death, more to the two vampires taking Christina, and a hell of a lot more behind the vamp attack in my own apartment. The question wasn’t whether I was smart enough to solve the case. It had become would I be capable of preventing whatever was coming and survive it at the same time?

  * * *

  Graham pushed open the door to his apartment and I followed him inside.

  “You can take the bed, I’ll get some clean sheets and….”

  “Graham, don’t worry about it, the couch is fine. I probably won’t do much sleeping anyway. You go back to bed….” He studied me for a second as though a protest was right on the tip of his tongue.

  Whatever he saw in my face made him change his mind, and he nodded. “If you’re sure then.”

  “I am,” I said, dropping down onto the couch and pulling one of the folded up blankets from the back of the sofa over myself. “And, Graham,” I said, causing him to halt in the door way to his bedroom. “Thanks for this, and thanks for not asking too many questions.”

  I watched the emotions go to war on his face. He wanted to know the truth, he wanted answers, reasons behind the vampire attack, and that was something I couldn’t give him. It was something I didn’t have myself.

  Finally, he smiled and disappeared in through the bedroom door without another word.

>   I lay on the couch and stared up at the ceiling as the car lights from the city streets below passed by. Morning was coming; I could practically taste it on the air, but I didn’t want to move.

  Lying on the couch, buried beneath the blankets, seemed like a much better use of my time. My arm was beginning to really ache, the pain spreading up into my shoulder and neck, and the smoke I’d inhaled still caused my lungs to hurt each time I sucked in a long, deep breath.

  But I was alive.

  Another thing I could add to my list: survived vampire attack and setting own apartment on fire before being knocked out and left for dead. I could put it with the other near death experience I’d had. Surviving a demon attack wasn’t something just anybody did, but it wasn’t as though I could really claim credit for it.

  Sitting up, I wrapped the blanket a little tighter around my shoulders. If I was honest, I couldn’t claim any credit this time either. It had been my father calling out to me that had woken me in the fire. Without him, I would have been toast; the type that wouldn’t taste good with butter.

  With a sigh, I pushed up onto my feet and padded across the floor to the pictures lining the walls. The last time I’d been here, I’d seen them, but I’d been too caught up in the surveillance footage Graham had taken of me misusing what little magic I had to pay any real attention to them.

  Following the pictures along the wall, I stared at the progression of happy family photos. They were nothing at all like the ones I had.

  One picture in particular caught my eye; Graham in his police dress uniform, the hat covering most of the top half of his face from the sunshine that beamed down on him, and the young girl standing in front of him.

  There was something so utterly familiar about her face, but I couldn’t figure out where I had seen her before. I studied the picture a little harder, taking in the way her dark hair fell about her shoulders and her wide, blue eyes.

  Where did I know her from?

  Moving down the wall, I continued to scan the pictures; each time I saw her she seemed a little more familiar. And then she disappeared. It was like she was no longer a part of the laughing, smiling family that existed on the wall.