Hunting Shadows (Shadow Series #3) (30 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

I groggily opened my eyes only to find a gun pointed at me. I looked beyond Philip
and his gun to see my father’s lifeless body on the ground. My attention turned back
to Philip when he spoke.

“You killed him!” He sounded like a plaintive child but the murderous look in his
eyes told me that he was capable of far more dang
erous behavior. Cecelia walked up
next to him, no longer looking amused but furious.

“Don’t think you’re safe just because he’s dead,” she spat out.
Her look of fury was slowly replaced by a smile. “Actually, this works out perfectly.
A seer should be in charge of this world, not a damned vardoger. You thought you were
so smart to have your father use the
palladium and iridium to
destroy himself when he tried to overtake your body. Sure, it worked against him
because he was a vardoger, b
ut I’m not.” Her sinister smile grew wider. “I’m a seer and I think I’ll be able to
wield its power.”

“Shut up,” Philip spat out, glowering at Cecelia
. “You’re not in charge of anything
. This world is for vardogers, not seers. We’re only using you because you’re useful.”

Cecelia laugh
ed at Philip and I could see his
rage growing. “You’re just a lackey; a fol
lower. You did everything your
leader told you because you can
’t think for yourself
.
I was like that once, but never again.
I’m
the leader now and you’ll follow my orders.”

The look of surprise on Cecelia’s face when Philip
turned the gun on her and shot her in the chest
would have been almost comical if it wasn’t so gruesome.
She fell to the ground a
nd Philip turned the gun back to
me.

“You’re next,” he said but before he could shoot, Simon crashed into him and they
both fell to the ground. I heard grunts and the sound of flesh hitting against flesh.
I tried to stand, to get up to help Simon, but my body felt like it was boneless.
I was so weak that I could barely lift my head to se
e Simon slamming Philip’s head i
nto the ground.
I
looked away
when I saw Simon grab the
gun. Despite my hatred for
Philip
, I didn’t want to see another death and the crack of the gunsh
ot was enough to tell me that he
was dead.

Before I knew it, Simon was crouching over me. I winced when I saw his neck. It was
badly abraded, the skin almost shredde
d where the rope had cut into him and blood was dripping from his wounds
. But seeing him leaning over me,
bloody yet
alive,
was a beautiful sight.

“Caitlin.” His one word was strained and I imagined that it must be excruciating for
him to speak.

“I’m okay,” I rasped.
“Help me up.”

He grabbed my arm to support me as I started to prop myself up.
His hand gently touched my face but his expression was pained. “What the hell happened
to you? Who hurt you?”

I had forgotten how bloody I was from Ryan’s earlier attack, but I didn’t want to
get into it now. I just shook my head and said, “I’ll tell you later.”

My gaze went
to my mother who was still tied to the barn wall. Her eyes were c
losed as if she couldn’t take
the brutal scene. I didn’t blame her. Four bloody bodies littered the floor and only
the desolate location of the barn saved us from ha
ving the police breaking down
the door.
The two nameless seers were gone. They had probably run off
the first chance they got
,
since their cooperation seemed to have been coerced.

I struggled to stand, grateful for Simon’s support. It was amazing how strong he still
was despite what he had been through. Questions of how he escaped the n
oose ran through my mind, but
first
I
had to free my mother.

“Easy,” he warned
as he helped me walk.
I doubted I would have been able to make it across the barn
by myself
in my weakened state.

My mother’s eyes opened when she heard u
s approach. The glazed look of
fear transformed into relief when
she saw me. Simon gently helped
me down so I was kneeling
next to her before he
started working on untying the rope around her wrists.

“Caitlin,” she whispered as her eyes studied my face.

“Mom?” My voice was unsteady. I never thought I would ever say that word out loud
to another human being.
I thought my opportunity to call someone my mother had been
irrevocably
lost when I was five years old. But
here
s
he was
, alive and looking at me like she would never let me out of her sights again.

When Simon was able to finally release her wrists, I tentatively moved toward her.
I wanted to hug her, to feel for myself that she was real, but I didn’t want to scar
e her. She had been through
unimaginable
torture for
so many
years and I didn’t know if she would welcome my touch. My question was answered when
she embraced me in a fierce hug, her arms strong around me even t
hough I knew she must be
incredibly weak.

“I never gave up,” she whispered. “I always knew I would see you again. It’s what
kept me alive all these years.”

I couldn’t stop the tears from coming and for the first time in my memory, my mother
held me while I cried. It was the most beautiful moment of my life.

*************************

We got out of there as quickly as we could, but not before Simon made quick work of
cleaning the scene of our prints. I was amazed that even with everything that
had
happened
to him
, Simon was always thinking ahead.

It was hard to leave Ryan’s body behind, but I knew I had no choice. We were hoping
that the police wou
ld think
it was a disagree
ment turned
deadly and that they wouldn’t look beyond the four bodies lying in the barn.

We were forced to leave Ryan’s car behind since we didn
’t want any questions of it
being found elsewhere, although we made sure to clear it of our belongings, as well
as our prints. It was a long walk in the cold, especially since none of us were in
the best condition.

It took two
hours but we finally reached a gas station, and by that time we were frozen solid.
Simon had lost his cell phone during his ordeal and my battery was dead, so we were
grateful to use the payphone. He called a cab and we waited inside the small store
for it to arrive. My mother didn’t say much throughout all of this, but she would
periodically take my hand and squeeze it as if she had to reas
sure herself that I was really
there.

We took the cab to the nearest motel since we had nowhere else to go. I was just grateful
that we had money; otherwise I didn’t know where we would have gone. I called Sarah
to let her know what had happened, although I didn’t go into detail. She was silent
for a few moments after I was finished, and then burst into tears and begged me to
come back to Roches
ter immediately. I told her
I would call her the next day but that, for now, Maxwell was on the backburner.

We spent the next few days recovering at the motel. We stayed in one room with two
beds without having to discuss it. I think we were all scared to have each other out
of our sights.

Simon explained how he was finally able to wriggle free from the rope tied around
his wrists
. He had lifted himself out of the noose just in time to stop Philip from shooting
me.

Simon was enraged when I finally revealed the truth about Ryan. I think a part of
him regretted that he hadn’t been the one to end his life. I reminded him that in
the end, Ryan had sacrificed himself for us, but that didn’t placate Simon in the
least.

I explained how Cecelia had been able to see and hear everything I had
experienced while
under hypnosis. Neither of them
laughed or doubted me when I told them about hearing Jenny’s voice before I lost
consciousness. I knew that she had helped me defeat my father. Somehow she had known
that Cecelia was able to hear everything and had tricked them into believing that
my father could use the palladium and iridium disk to overtake humans and become immortal.
Inste
ad, the metals mixed together
had worked against him and destroyed him when he had tried to push out my soul. I
wondered if the other things she had said were true; that it could be used to kill
even the strongest vardogers and that it could also
free humans
t
hat were trapped in
bodies
along
with
their
vardogers
by expelling the shadow without hurting the human’s soul.
I kept the metal disk close to me because I was determined to find out the answer
in the future.

Simon pointed out that I hadn’t been wearing any iridium when I had resisted my father
from overtaking me, but I didn’t know whether that
had more to do with the mix of palladium and
iridium destroying my father rather than my own powers. But the thought of me not
needing iridium to use my powers was a heady thought, and it was hard to contain my
excitement when I tried to funnel my energies without it and felt the familiar thrumming
of power gathering. If my life was going to be dedicated to fig
hting vardogers,
not having to worry about wearing iridium just made it easier. I doubt
ed
I would get many breaks in the future.

My mother slowly opened up during those days. She didn’t want to talk in detail about
w
hat she had gone through all tho
se years, but it was enough to know that she had suffered deeply. Yet
,
there was still warmth and humanity in her eyes and I vowed that I would never let
her be hurt again.

I told her about seeing her in my dreams and while under hypnosis because I was curious
if she had really been sending me messages. She told me that she
had
thought of me every d
ay and prayed that I was okay
, but she had no powers beyond motherly love and hadn’t sent any messages. Despite
her words, I was beginning to realize how powerful maternal love could be, and I couldn’t
completely dismiss that it had been her thoughts that had reached me.

I questioned her about the palladium coin that I had found at the sce
ne of her supposed accident. She confirmed that the car crash on the bridge ha
d actually happened
with a helping hand from my father. She told me
that the coin had been given to her by Aunt Brenda. She didn’t believe that my aunt
knew anything about the powers of palladium because she had found it during one of
her many
frequent
scours through antique stores and had given it to my mother simply as a pretty necklace
for one of her birthdays
. Whether she knew anything about the powers of palladium or not, it was another instance
of my
aunt helping me and I thanked her silently, convinced tha
t she
would hear
me
.

The police ended up calling me although I wasn’t sure how they
had
got
ten
my cell
number.
They were appropriately somber when they told me my father had been murdered in some
kind of scuffle that had gotten out of control. I was relieved that they didn’t seem
to suspect anything beyond that. There were too many strings
that tied me to the situation. I n
ot only
was connected by
my father, but Ryan had been staying with me at Maxwell. The police in Rochester
knew that since we had been q
uestioned in Jenny’s death.
I doubted that they
had to dig deep to find out that Cecelia had been a friend of my aunt’s. I just prayed
that they shut the case without following th
e strings that
le
d to me
. I declined going to
the morgue to i
dentify his body, explaining
that we were estranged. W
hile they sounded surprised, they accepted it
without question
. They told me they would be in touch if they needed me.

I was in constant contact with Sa
rah to reassure her I was okay. Simon called his family and pretended that everything
was fine and that he
was still in school. I felt guilty
that he had to lie to his family but there really wasn’t much of an alternative.