The Shadow Stealer (Silver Moon Saga Book 3) (19 page)

Chapter Thirty-three

The rest of the drive was quiet. When we pulled into the parking lot, Rafe got out of the car first. I swiveled my head around and said to Mom, “Can we talk later? I have a bunch of things I need to ask you.” Namely, what was going to happen next. And I wanted to share my nightmares with her as well. Maybe she could offer me some insight on them. While I was hoping she’d just dismiss them as dreams, they’d felt too real for me to believe that.

“Of course.” Mom looked pleased, and I was surprised at how happy that made
me
feel.

We got out of the car and followed Rafe to his apartment. I hadn’t been over very much since the incident at Christmas, and it was still weird to think of him living there alone.
Would Evan come back, now that things seem to be better between them?
I hoped so. I never liked the thought of Rafe being alone with just Bo, his cat, for company; it worried the hell out of me.

“Just give me a minute, okay?” Mom said before disappearing into the bathroom. Rafe started pushing the furniture in the living room out of the way, grunting with the effort, and I ran over to help him.

“Did you hear from Phil?” he asked as we moved the couch, his face already shiny with sweat. I wanted to tell him to sit down and let me handle the furniture, but I knew he’d never listen.

“Yeah, at three in the morning.” I filled him in on what my brother had said. “What about you? Did you talk to Evan?”

Rafe smiled. “He called to complain Kain had kicked him out of his apartment.”

“Oh, good lord, what did he do
now
?”

“You know. The usual Evan stuff. I’m surprised Kain even let him into his apartment in the first place. He really must have been feeling bad.” We laughed at that.

I thought of something. “Hey, does that mean Evan and Alex will be heading here soon?”

Rafe shook his head. “They all agreed to lay low for a little while, just in case Silver Moon is watching.” He nudged me with his shoulder. “It’ll just be you and me.”

Normally, I would treasure the alone time, but between my worries about my friends (and, I’ll admit, me) and me being grounded, something told me this wasn’t going to be as great as I hoped.

Speaking of alone time… After a quick check to make sure Mom wasn’t coming back, I threw my arms around Rafe’s neck. “Whoa!” he said as we nearly toppled over.

“I forgot to say hello.” I nuzzled the side of his face, and his stubble tickled my cheek. Usually Rafe was clean-shaven, but I guessed he decided to skip today. Hmm, I could get used to a stubbly Rafe. It was deliciously sexy.

“Oh. Hello.” He brushed his lips against mine, and I tightened my hold around his neck. When we broke apart (too soon, in my opinion, but Mom
was
in the other room), he said, “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” I bit my lip. “Are you nervous?”

“A little,” he admitted. “But mostly I’m just relieved. To finally be free of the pain…” Rafe touched his side, his eyes dark with worry. “I knew something was wrong, but I just didn’t know what.”

I wanted to scold him again for keeping this huge thing from me, but he had enough crap going on without me nagging him. Instead, I kissed him on the cheek and said, “Things are going to be better now, you’ll see. You can play baseball again.”

“And hunt.” Rafe didn’t say it, but we both knew what he really meant by “hunt”: Protect me.

The bathroom door opened, and I gave him another quick squeeze before slipping away. Mom rejoined us and nodded her approval of the now-cleared living room. “Let’s do this,” she said.

***

So apparently Rafe hadn’t even gone to school today, but instead drove Mom around so she could pick up various supplies. (No wonder he hadn’t had time to shave.) And by “various supplies” I mean a whole crapload of candles. Lit candles were currently everywhere, from the empty floor, where Mom had drawn another chalk circle surrounded by mystical symbols, to any available flat surface. “At least you’re prepared for a blackout,” I said.

Rafe rewarded me with a weak smile. He was sitting in the middle of the circle, wearing only his jeans and a black tank top (mmm). Mom had drawn a couple more symbols on his forehead and arms in black paint; they looked absolutely bizarre, but when I asked her about them, she’d hushed me. Grumbling to myself, I sat on the couch to wait. Bo jumped on my lap and settled down, purring. Rafe had tried to lock Bo up in his bedroom, but the cat had protested loudly, as if he knew something was amiss with his master.

Apparently me and the cat are only here for moral support,
I thought as I pet Bo. If I could do something else, something helpful, I would in a heartbeat, but with my powers sealed, I was pretty useless. Although Rafe kept throwing glances my way, his shoulders relaxing whenever our eyes met, and I realized I was helping in a different way altogether.

With the lights off and the candles lit, the room took on a creepy, haunted-house vibe. Shivering, I pulled my jacket back on, trying not to think about that fateful day seven years before when Mom summoned a demon and changed our lives forever.
This isn’t like that
, I told myself firmly. She was using magic, not summoning a demon. Rafe was going to be fine. I wished I could join him in the middle of the circle, but Mom had specifically told me to put some distance between us.

She was kneeling outside of the circle, her hands pressed down on the chalk line as she murmured softly. Rafe stopped glancing at me to watch her, his eyes narrowed in concentration. As Mom’s voice rose in pitch, he grabbed his side, where the injury was, and I was on my feet before I even realized it, sending Bo to the floor in a startled hiss.

“Stay back,” Mom said before she continued her flow of nonsensical words.

I gritted my teeth, but did as she asked, my eyes never leaving Rafe. The room turned ice-cold, and my breath escaped between my lips in a white puff of smoke. I started shaking from both the cold and fear. If this didn’t work—if Rafe ended up hurt again—

Both Rafe and Mom cried out, scaring the crap out of me. As he toppled over, clutching his side, a bright pink flash of light, something I’d hoped to never, ever see again, made a beeline toward Mom, striking her on the hand. All of the flames on the candles extinguished at the same time, and Bo shot out of the room. I crossed the circle without caring if it was okay or not and helped Rafe into a sitting position. His eyes fluttered open. “What happened?” he asked hoarsely.

The room brightened as Mom flipped the light switch, and Rafe and I flinched. “The spell worked,” she said in response to his question. “The parasite spell is gone from your body—for good.”

I should have jumped up and started dancing for joy, but I was too busy freaking out over the blood dripping from her hand. “Mom, you’re hurt!” I got up again; Rafe kept medical supplies in the bathroom.

“Gabi, it’s fine.” She waved me off. “I’ll take care of it myself. Stay with Rafe.” She left the room before I could say anything, and I slowly rejoined Rafe on the floor, frowning.

Had she shooed me away because she didn’t really need my help, or was she worried the seal would break and I’d end up healing her? I glanced at my fingers. They weren’t glowing, so that was a good sign, right?

Rafe groaned, and I stopped selfishly thinking about myself to tend to him. His skin was sweaty, and he was breathing hard. “Come here,” I said, wrapping my arms around him. He rested his head on my shoulder and I kissed his forehead, letting my lips linger there as I waited for him to catch his breath. “What did it feel like?” The spell had been over so quickly, it was almost like nothing had happened.

He shuddered. “It was like I was getting hit with Nina’s spell all over again, only this time in reverse.” Rafe paused. “Does that make sense?”

“Not really, no,” I said. “But I’m guessing you mean it really freaking hurt. Again. And you’re probably in pain right now.” I lifted up his shirt, dreading what I was about to see. Blood? The infection spreading?

Luckily, none of the above. The wound hadn’t reopened, and the swelling around the scar—which had turned pale red—had gone down considerably. I pressed my fingertips against it and the skin was hot to the touch, like he had a fever. “Do you want me to get that medicine I used for your arm? Do you think that will help?”

“I don’t think it’ll hurt to try it. It’s in the bathroom.” Where Mom was. Mom, who apparently didn’t want my help. Hmm, well, maybe by the time I helped Rafe to his bedroom—because he
really
needed to lie down—she would be done in there.

“Come on,” I said, hooking his arm around my shoulders. I struggled to lift us both up. “You are so damn huge, Rafe.”

“Sorry. I’ll work on making myself smaller.” Rafe stumbled to his feet, and we shuffled to his bedroom, one painfully slow step after the other. Once inside, he allowed me to lead him to his bed, where he collapsed with a grateful sigh. I fussed with the blankets for a few moments, but when it became clear Mom wasn’t leaving the bathroom anytime soon, I gave him a soft kiss on the lips and left. In the hallway, I passed Bo, who ran into his master’s bedroom and gave a small meow.

Pausing outside the closed bathroom door, I gathered my courage (why was I afraid?) before knocking. After a moment, the door opened and I gasped at the change in Mom’s appearance. Her skin was deathly pale and shiny with sweat, and her eyes were dilated, the pupils huge.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded, pushing the door open and letting myself in.

“Nothing, nothing.” She tried to hide her hand behind her, but I grabbed hold of it and forced her to let me see.

There was a long, deep cut on the palm of her hand, and blood followed freely from it. “Holy crap, Mom.” I grabbed a towel and pressed it to the wound (damn, I so owed Rafe a new towel), instructing her to sit down on the toilet. Surprisingly, she listened to me. Next, I squatted, opening the cabinet below the sink and pulling out gauze, antiseptics, and bandages. Mom watched me wordlessly as I worked, not even flinching when I cleaned the wound with alcohol.

“You’ve done this before,” she remarked.

“Once or twice, yeah. It comes with dating a demon hunter.” I finished up and turned on the tap so I could wash my hands.

“That spell,” Mom started. “You said a Silver Moon member did it?”

“A girl named Nina. She pretended to be my friend, but when she found out I allegedly had demon blood inside of me, she tried to kill me.” My throat closed up; even now, I still had trouble talking about her. “Why?”

Mom wore an unreadable expression on her face. “It’s just… That’s not a spell someone from Silver Moon should know. It’s not regular magic, which is what most of them learn, or even dark magic, which only a few of them choose to study. It’s scary, because I’m pretty sure that spell originated from demons.”

Chapter Thirty-four

I stared at her. “Wait. Let me turn the water off, because clearly I didn’t hear you correctly. The spell comes from—”

“Demons,” Mom said again. “I know how crazy this sounds, considering how much hatred Silver Moon has for demons, but something like this? You don’t just pick up a spell book and find it in there.”

After learning some of Silver Moon’s darker secrets, it actually didn’t sound crazy at all. But what the heck was Nina doing, casting demon magic? Talk about being a giant hypocrite.

Unless she hadn’t known. Although how she’d missed something as major as that was beyond me, but what if she’d been tricked?

By who? Collins? It made sense, considering Mom saw him playing with demons at HQ. Then I had a thought so terrifying that I accidentally knocked over a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Nina
, I thought as I scrambled to pick up the bottle before it poured its entire contents onto the floor.
Nina was Collins’s student.

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

I could feel Mom’s eyes on me as I cleaned up the spill with shaking hands. No offense to her, but I wanted to tell Rafe what I’d just discovered before sharing it with her. Was it awful that I trusted my boyfriend over my mom? I wasn’t sure, and to distract myself from thinking about it I took a moment to put away the rest of the supplies. Spotting the bottle of Rafe’s magic fizzy stuff, I shut the cabinet doors and stood up, showing it to her. “I want to put this on Rafe’s wound; is that okay?”

Mom’s eyes went distant. “I haven’t seen that in years…”

“It’s pretty cool. I like this and the stuff they use to make the demon blood vanish. Oh, and the silverflame!” I exclaimed, growing excited despite the serious situation.

Mom smiled at my rambles. “You can bandage wounds, you know about silverflame… You’ve learned a lot about this life, haven’t you? I tried so hard to shelter you from it and—”

“And then I met Rafe,” I said.

“Maybe you were always destined to learn about it.” She fell silent, looking troubled, and I shook the bottle to get her attention. “Oh. Yes. You can put that on his wound. It won’t harm him, if that’s what you’re worried about. Whoever worked on counteracting the spell originally did a very good job, but they missed a tiny sliver, which is expected. It’s what makes that spell so nasty. It hides itself, and only an extremely advanced magic user will see it.”

“So you’ve seen this before?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. Most of the time, a person doesn’t know what they’re getting into when they summon a demon.” Mom paused to unconsciously touch her bandaged hand. “Not all demons are bloodthirsty killers. Some, like the one I summoned, like to play with their victims by using something like the parasite spell on them. They’d rather they suffered.” Mom placed her injured hand over mine. “I don’t want to scare you, Gabi, but if this spell had been left inside of Rafe, he eventually would have died.” She must have seen the horror on my face because she quickly added, “He’s
fine
now. I promise you. The spell is gone. It’ll take him a few days to regain his strength, but once he does, he’ll be able to function again without the pain.” She shook her head. “Honestly, that boy is a lot stronger than I think any of us realizes. He’s been walking around for two months, probably in unbearable pain, but if I hadn’t seen the wound myself, I don’t think I ever would have realized what was wrong.”

I gripped the sink for support. “That’s Rafe. He never complains. I need to work on fixing that.”

“You love him,” Mom said, “don’t you?” She wasn’t saying it accusingly, but rather, curiously.

“I do.” My answer was immediate, despite how awkward it was to talk about this stuff with her. I’d once complained to Rafe about not having a mom to discuss boys and heartbreak with, never ever imagining that in the very near future, I would get the chance to do so.

Well, it wasn’t like I was about to start talking about sex or anything like that (I’d rather face a demon, to be honest), but I could say I loved him. Because I did, and whenever I said it, it made me feel light and happy, and I could forget about my problems for a little bit.

“I’m not sure how I feel about my daughter dating someone from Silver Moon, but…” Mom trailed off and looked away. “I don’t think I have a right to say anything, after being absent for so long. And besides, if I had the chance to pick a boyfriend for you, I would want it to be someone like Rafe.”

“He’s the best,” I said, my voice surging with emotion. “The absolute sweetest, most caring boy ever. I really don’t deserve him, Mom. I’m bossy and snarky and demanding and he doesn’t even care. In fact, that’s the stuff he says he loves about me the most! Isn’t that weird?”

Mom chuckled. “Love is weird, Gabi. Very, very weird.”

I wondered who she was thinking of when said that: Dad or Charles? Or maybe both of them? Bleh, I still couldn’t get used to the idea of my mom with
Charles
of all people. Too. Creepy.

“Let me see how Rafe is doing,” I said, using my boyfriend as an excuse to worm my way out of the conversation before it ventured into dangerous territory.

“Not too long.” At my blank look, she explained, “We need to catch the bus and get you back home before your father comes home, right?”

Right. I was grounded. And if Dad got home before I did… “But I don’t want to leave Rafe.”

“All he’s going to do is sleep. I’d stay with him, but you wanted to talk, didn’t you? And I assume it’s about something other than your love life.”

“You’re right.” My shoulders slumped in disappointment. And here I was, planning on taking care of Rafe for the rest of the evening! “Okay, just give me a few.”

“I’ll just watch TV with the volume turned up while the two of you spend some
alone
time in his bedroom,” she said evilly as I ran out of the bathroom, my face bright red.