Kissed by Shadows (Kissed by Shadows Series, Book 1) Read online

  “That’s disgusting and cruel. You didn’t have to say that. You’re making me nauseous,” I snap at him.

  “Aw, I’m sorry. I guess I should have made it pretty for you. Here goes. She lay in a bed of roses and lilies. The stars fell from the sky to honor her, and cartoon birds sang her to sleep. Oh I forgot to ask, which Disney princess are you?” he asks. I’m about to tell him off but without warning, a wave of nausea hits me. I sit on the edge of the bed, then I remember what was about to happen on the bed and I quickly get up.

  “If Sadie did send you, that makes you my problem—for now,” he says with great disdain.

  “What do you mean? What promise did you make to Sadie?” I ask.

  “She did something for me—something she could have gotten in a lot of trouble for. She made me vow that in exchange for what she did, one day, should the time come, I would protect a member of her family and take them to the Alliance.”

  “Sadie isn’t related to me.”

  “Yeah, I’m betting she is. Are you sure she said ‘you are the first and the last’?” he says.

  “Yes. What’s the Alliance?” I ask.

  “I told that old bat that I would protect you, I didn’t say you could ask a million questions. This shit isn’t Jeopardy. Got it?!”

  “Are you always like this?” I ask.

  “Am I always difficult? Yeah, pretty much. Now let’s go.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me—”

  Without warning, the bathroom door swings open. She stands there with a towel wrapped around her.

  “That shower was nice. Next time you should come in with me, Kane. Now, I’m ready. Why is the baby still here?” Cree asks.

  Bitch.

  “Something came up. I gotta go,” he tells her as he grabs his leather jacket off the back of the chair.

  “Aw c’mon, it won’t take long,” she purrs.

  “No, we have to go,” Kane insists.

  “Are you sure? If you stay, I’ll be grateful…really grateful.” She starts kissing his neck and exploring his chest with her fingers.

  I hate her. And him. Yes, I hate them both.

  Kane pulls her into his embrace with a long fervent kiss. He puts his arms around her waist and presses her against him. His wings begin to expand, and he groans with satisfaction. I’m about to turn away from the spectacle when the tip of Kane’s right hand begins to glow.

  The glow forms into a long sword that shines like gold flames. He sinks the sword into her back. She gasps as the gold metal protrudes from her stomach. She shatters from the inside out, like a cheap mirror. I run over to the spot where she once stood.

  “How did you…you’re a freaking psychopath! Why did you do that?” I shout as I rain down blow after blow on his chest.

  “Hey, back off!” he warns.

  “YOU KILLED HER!”

  “She was dry. She ran the shower all this time, yet she was dry. There wasn’t one speck of water on her. That means she didn’t take a shower; she was too busy eavesdropping. I’ve hooked up with Cree whenever I’m in town, and if I’m so much as ten minutes late, she just says ‘Screw you’ and she goes to the next guy on the list.

  This time she didn’t do that. She acted like she cared if I stayed. That has never been the case. That means she probably already notified half the demon world and they tasked her to stall. They are coming for us; for you.

  “Now normally I don’t give a rat’s ass who does and doesn’t get killed in this stupid war. But I gave that wretched old lady my word. So, you’re my responsibility. Once I hand you to the Alliance, you can do whatever you want. You can set yourself on fire for all I care. But for right now, you will do exactly as I say,” he orders in a deadly tone. I take a deep breath and calmly walk over to him. I look him in the eye and speak with a steady and controlled voice.

  “Go to hell.”

  His jaw drops in disbelief as I walk over to the pile that was once the girl. I start scolding him for killing her. He groans angrily and marches over to me. Before I have time to react, he’s already lifted me high in the air and effortlessly thrown me over his shoulders.

  “Hey, let me go!” I shout as I kick and punch wildly in the air.

  “Not gonna happen, ‘Disney,’ so settle in.”

  ***

  He carries me kicking and screaming down the hallway. He looks out of the large window that faces the front of the building. There’s a fleet of black navigators speeding towards us. They screech to a halt just outside the hotel. All the car doors open at the same time. A small army emerges wearing all black. They wear knee-high steel-toed boots, black leather pants, black fingerless gloves, and large hooded cloaks. I can’t see their faces underneath their exaggerated hoods, but their “apocalyptic” fashion and precision march tells me their arrival isn’t good for us.

  “Shit!” Kane spits as if reading my mind. He quickly steps away from the window and hides us from view. He puts me down and silently warns me against doing anything crazy.

  “Who are they?” I whisper to him.

  “The welcome committee,” he says sarcastically.

  “Can you answer straight just once?”

  “Hold your questions until the end of our presentation,” he says as he scans the hallway.

  “Who are they, Kane?” I demand.

  “There’re called Rycen: elite demon soldiers for hire.”

  The elevator door across the hall from us opens up. We hear them march out and enter the hallway to the right of us. They start breaking down doors. The guests are screaming, running out of their hotel rooms.

  “We have to help them,” I tell Kane.

  “No, what we need to do is get out of here.”

  “We can’t just let them hurt these people—they’re innocent,” I remind him.

  “We’re in a motel in New Jersey that charges by the hour, is located five blocks from a crack house, and two blocks from a strip joint. Trust me, no one here is innocent. And even if they were, that’s not my problem. I’ll cause a diversion; you head for the stairs and go up to the roof. I’ll meet you up there. Do not turn back for anything. Got it?” he says.

  “No, we need to save them,” I counter again.

  “Is that your wish? Listen, Princess Jasmine, I’m not the damn genie. I don’t give wishes or take orders. All I can do is try and help you stay alive long enough to get out of here. Are you in or out?” he asks.

  “I’m out,” I reply as I rush towards the screaming.

  “ARGH!!! DAMN THAT GIRL!” he rages as he follows me. We turn the corner and see half a dozen people being brutalized by Rycen.

  “You stay here, I got this,” he commands.

  “Wait, what if something happens to you?” I ask.

  “Aw, I didn’t know you cared,” he says snidely.

  “I don’t. I just want to know where I should go if you don’t make it out of this. You could drop dead for all I care. And given the amount of sex you’re having, I’m sure that’s just a matter of time,” I reply, equally cynical.

  “If this is my last day on Earth, least you could do is give a little. I got a few minutes. Take your clothes off.”

  “What did you say?” I rage.

  “You want to get out of here; I’m your only way out. And I say, take them off,” he says.

  “How dare you—”

  “Relax, it’s a joke. Mostly,” he admits.

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Well, your kind tends to lack humor,” he quips under his breath.

  “You think us humans suck because we don’t joke about everything. What do you think is funny? An old lady being torn to pieces?”

  “No, what’s funny is you thinking Sadie was “just an old woman.”

  “I find you a little irritating,” I admit out loud.

  “I promise, nothing about me is little,” he says crudely.

  “I won’t be able to verify that because I would never get near you in that way,” I promise hi
m.

  “Of course you’d never get near me; the line to screw me is just too long.”

  “Argh! I want to kill you right now,” I say out of frustration.

  “Yeah, that’s another long line…” he says reflectively as he summons his sword. It appears in his hand, bright with gold fire like before. He charges into the crowd and begins slicing his way through the Rycen members. They fire black orbs of energy from their hands that explode on landing. Kane is too busy slicing through a Rycen’s throat to see the orb heading straight for him.

  “Watch out!” I warn him but not before it makes contact with his shoulder and shreds into his skin. The pain makes him howl and lose his focus. His sword retracts. A Rycen with long platinum blonde hair, beady eyes, and red lips takes advantage of the moment and wraps her hand around Kane’s neck. She opens his mouth and begins to suck air from his lungs. I watch in horror as a stream of gold-colored life force is drained from Kane’s body.

  I’ve watched enough Lost Gir” to know this woman is a succubus and won’t stop until she’s killed him. I look around desperately for a weapon. I spot the knife Kane used on me when I entered the room. It’s just beyond my reach, and to get to it, I have to get past the hordes of Rycen. Here’s hoping years of being chased by bullies has taught me something…I zoom past the Rycen, and they rain energy balls at me from every direction. I can feel the heat of the dark spheres whizzing by me. I zigzag as much as I can to avoid being hit, but one orb has my name on it. I see it coming for me from the corner of my eye. There is no way to outrun it or even dodge.

  I’ve been lucky today, but now, all of that is over. Death is going to suck.

  I raise both of my hands to block my face, close my eyes, and brace myself for death for the third time today. But death misses me again.

  Ha! Suck it, death!

  I look up thinking Kane had somehow come to help me, but he’s not there. The shimmering shield isn’t coming from him; it’s coming from me.

  What the…?

  I don’t have time to process any of this because the Rycen double up their efforts to attack: they send twice as many orbs, twice as fast. I don’t know how long I can make a force field, but I’m guessing I need to hurry. I make my way to the knife on the floor, grab it, and run back just as Kane’s eyes are about to close forever. I stab the succubus Rycen in the spine, and she cries out in pain. Kane isn’t at full strength, but he’s well enough to boss me around.

  “Roof; now,” he says.

  “Did you see that? I made a shield thingy! You know, like in the cartoon or that movie…you know the one?”

  “Hey, can we maybe discuss this when we’re not being chased by demon mercenaries?” he says.

  “Oh, yeah. Sorry,” I reply as we bolt up the dirty stairwell that leads to the roof. He cracks the large metal exit door just enough to see out. A few feet above us are three massive winged creatures with red reptilian skin and flaming tails. They have large vacant eyes and large mouths with short jagged fangs. They circle above us.

  “Orabu dragons; their tails shoot fire and they exhale a greenish toxin that causes death in under twenty minutes,” Kane says, shaking his head in frustration as he closes the door.

  “It’s okay, I think I can make the shield appear again—I think,” I reply.

  “Are you sure?” he says.

  “No, but I don’t want to face the demonic ‘Rhythm Nation’ downstairs,” I tell him. He looks at me oddly.

  “Rhythm Nation…Janet Jackson? Well, guess I’m not the only one who’s uninformed,” I tease. He shakes his head as if to say I’m crazy. I smile despite myself. He asks if I am ready. I say I am. It’s a lie. I think he knows that. But we don’t have a choice, so we both go with it.

  “I’ll get airborne and you use your shield until I can get rid of them. Then I’ll come back for you,” he instructs.

  “You’re gonna take all three of them on?” I ask.

  “No, the Orabu are a pack. If I can tame the biggest one, the rest will fall in line,” Kane says. But Kane doesn’t get a chance to go out on the roof because a new surge of Rycen make their way up the stairs and attack us.

  Kane pushes me out of the way just in time to avoid being hit and then fires back. His orbs are like gold flames, and once they make contact with their targets, they eviscerate them, leaving only black smoke behind. Kane’s aim is lethal in precision and intensity. When a Rycen gets close enough to reach out and grab my ankle, Kane turns and plunges the gold sword straight into his chest. But the Rycen is also powerful. It’s able to remove the sword before it shreds him from the inside.

  The Rycen grabs Kane and kicks him down the flight of stairs. Kane rebounds quickly and tackles the demon. The two of them wrestle; Kane mounts him and bashes his skull into the concrete until it cracks open and black blood is spray painted all over the wall. Kane uses brute force unlike anything I’ve ever seen. He’s savage with his blows. There’s a rage in his eyes that scares me far more than anything I’ve seen today.

  When he’s taken out all the Rycen in the stairwell, we burst through the exit door and onto the rooftop. The dragons are waiting for us, in the air. Right away they point their tails at us and send a sea of flames at us. Kane takes to the air, and I hold my hands out in front of me so my shield can go up.

  I have a shield! How cool is that?!

  I wait a few seconds but nothing is happening. The shield doesn’t show up. I shout up to Kane, but he’s already in the air, trying to mount the biggest Orabu dragon. The bigger one may be busy, but the other two have nothing else to do but throw fire down at me. I run around as fast as I can while a surge of flames comes towards me.

  “Hurry!” I yell as I continue to fail at forming a force field. Kane has gotten on top of the creature but is having a hard time getting it to surrender; meanwhile, I’m inches away from being set on fire.

  The smallest dragon makes up for his size by being bold. It swoops down to the rooftop and flaps its wings at me. It wants to see the pain in my eyes as my skin melts into a flesh-flavored smoothie. It backs me into a corner. I now have two choices: I can jump off the roof or see what it feels like to be a campfire marshmallow.

  “Nice Orabu, good Orabu. You don’t want to hurt anyone, do you?” I ask as I hold out the palms of my hands as if to say I surrender. It comes closer to me. I back up and realize there are no more steps to take. The next step will take me off the roof, and this time—I checked—there is no mattress truck to catch me.

  “Nice bird…nnnice…bbbird—ARGHHH!” I shout as it points its tail at me. Without warning, something falls from the sky and drops onto the rooftop next to me: the severed head of the Orabu leader. Kane looks on from above as the other creatures fly away. Relief washes over me as I step off the ledge of the roof.

  “Disney, look out!”

  I turn around in time to see the severed head come to life. Kane swoops down and bashes the creature’s head in with the heel of his boot. There’s nothing left of the creature’s face. It’s finally dead.

  “You good?” Kane asks.

  “That depends. What color was the toxic air the Orabu sprays?” I ask.

  “Green.”

  “Then no, I’m not okay,” I say as I look down at the green slimy liquid the creature sprayed all over me just before it was killed. Kane looks me over.

  “Take your clothes off,” he says.

  “Really? Right now? You want to be a perv, right now?” I ask incredulously.

  “TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!” he roars. He’s not kidding, and there’s not even a hint of amusement in his voice. I begin to strip my clothes off as fast as I can. He tells me that every second my skin is in contact with the poison means I will die quicker; hence taking my clothes off. He takes off his jacket, puts it on me, and zips it up. He’s not gawking. There is no perversion in his demeanor. This is serious.

  Damn…

  He makes a three-second call and tells whoever is on the other end to meet him at “Stone ca
stle.” He then takes me in his arms and ascends into the dark sky with me. The sensation of floating feels good on my skin. But I’m weak. My head feels like it weighs a ton and my limbs are numb. I hear the wind roaring in my ears. We’re flying—fast.

  Soon we land in a dense stone forest surrounded by large pillar-like rocks that are just as tall as the surrounding trees. He places me down on the boulder near the edge of the lake.

  “I’ll tell Sadie you tried to save me, Kane,” I say in my head as I start to drift off.

  He doesn’t reply as he scans the forest and the air, looking for whoever he called before we came here. I would help him search but I can’t feel my legs.

  “That chick in your room, her boobs weren’t better than mine’, right?” I ask.

  He laughs. I want to see the smile that accompanies his laugh, but I can’t keep my eyes open. The last thing I see is Kane looking down at me, torment etched into his immaculate face. I don’t know why I say what I say next—maybe the poison is making me bold or maybe I don’t want to die without knowing if my hunch is right.

  “What was her name?” I ask.

  “Who?” he says. I don’t reply. We both know what I’m asking.

  “Ella,” he says after a long pause.

  “Where’s Ella?” I reply.

  “She’s gone,” he says in a soft, deeply pained voice.

  “She died?” I ask, no longer able to feel my face.

  “Yes, someone killed her.”

  I want so much to hear the story, but the black void of sleep is calling me. And although I may never wake up again, I have to give into the void. But I want to know. I want to know about Ella. So, I ask a last question before I give into sleep—maybe forever.

  “Kane, who killed Ella?”

  “I did…”

  I don’t know how much time has gone by. All I know is that I am too weak to open my eyes. The very thought of trying to pry my eyelids apart makes me feel exhausted. But I hear two voices arguing near me. One of the voices belongs to Kane and the other belongs to a female.

  “You want me to take orders from you like a trained seal. That’s not gonna happen,” she says.