Where Shadows Fall

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Book excerpt

Chapter One

Zero’s entire body reverberated with the message, “Salt in the water! Warn them!” and she sat up, knocking Alaric and Raven both away.  Alaric’s head snapped up and he was half way out the door before Zero had processed the input crashing into her and got her shields up.

Raven stopped at the door to the room, leaning out for a long moment into the hallway before she was throwing clothes at Zero. 

The village was under attack, and the chaos swirling around her was almost too much and she had to double up her shields to function enough to struggle into the jeans.  Maddie was there suddenly, her face worried.  “We have to go.”

Somewhere in the distance an explosion sounded, and the building trembled around them.  Zero shoved her feet into her broken-in tennis shoes and followed as Raven led them toward the back of the building.

Alaric hadn’t finished the work to completely free her mind, but he’d broken down most of the walls and seemed pretty confident that there were no more traps waiting to spring on her.  It had left her off kilter and reeling under the sudden expansion of the gifts her father had hidden away from her.

Everything seemed set to the highest volume and her shields were failing to keep the world at bay.  She let Raven guide her out a back door, where they paused, listening to the chaos.

Zero knew it was 8th Battalion, not her father.  While he had been a part of the inception of the military group, he’d lost control when he had underestimated the religious fervor he had unleashed.  The air smelled of fire and gasoline.  Alaric’s voice filled her head, telling her to run. 

Maddie appeared beside her, grabbed her hand and Zero nodded.  Together, they took off running into the woods, Raven coming behind them.  There was no pursuit that she could detect.  Raven stopped them when they couldn’t see the buildings of the town or hear the shouting.

“Catch your breath.” Raven said as she glanced around them.

“We need to keep going.” Maddie said, her voice filled with fear.

“We’re safe enough for now.” Zero replied, her own voice sounding deeper than she was used to.  “No one is coming this way.  They’re after Mason.”

Raven looked up at her, frowning.  “Why Mason?”

Zero shrugged.  “Not sure, but it’s reverberating in the air, like all of them are thinking it at the same time.”  She let go of Maddie’s hand and moved to lean against a tree.  After laying in a bed for several days, the running was exhausting.

She rubbed at her head, shoring up her shields.  She had access now to most of her memories, and she wasn’t sure anymore that was a good thing.  Scenes from her father’s experiments kept playing through her head, her voice screaming as they filled her body with his serums, cutting into her over and over again. 

Zero pushed the latest of those memories away and tried to bring her focus back to the situation at hand.  She stood away from the tree, her eyes wide.  They weren’t alone.

Zero crossed to Raven, and grabbed her arm, pushing the information across into Raven’s head.  They moved slowly and quietly, taking up positions to attempt to defend themselves.

A few seconds later, Zero relaxed.  Two boys ran past them, fear streaming off them.  Behind them a man followed, a Shade she vaguely remembered from the village. 

“Connor.” Raven said, stopping all three of them in their tracks.  The boys looked from Raven to Zero and then Maddie.  “Are you okay?”

He nodded and held out a hand for the boys.  They came without question.  “I think so.  We were starting breakfast.”

Raven nodded and looked around them.  “We don’t seem to have any one following.”

“Not yet, anyway.” Connor agreed.  “Any idea who else got out?”

Raven shook her head and looked at Zero. Zero closed her eyes and dropped her shields a little, reaching out for Alaric. She got an impression of where he was and who he was with.  “The Shadow got his people and maybe five Shades.”  She spread her senses around the village.  “Manny took a group south, through the woods.”

The strike force was moving through what was left of the town, searching through buildings before setting fire to them.  Dead bodies of Shades lay in the street, salt burns covering their skin. There was a truck filled with Shades, maybe ten of them.

Zero reached for Raven’s shoulder to steady herself.  “They have prisoners.  They’re searching the town for more.  We should keep moving.”

Raven nodded.  “We’re going to need a vehicle.”

“Where are we going to go?” Maddie asked.  “They’ll just find us again.”

“I know a place.” Raven said.  “It’s a long walk, but we have most of the night.”  She pointed and started walking.  There wasn’t much they could do but follow. 

Zero took up the rear, keeping her attention split between making her way and listening behind them for pursuit.  She was tiring quickly.  Maddie moved closer, sliding an arm around Zero’s waist.  Her strength was surprising. “Thanks.” Zero muttered. 

Maddie didn’t respond, just kept them both moving behind the boys’ backs.  As her body tired, her control on her thoughts frayed.  She gave up listening for pursuit and fought the tide of memories.  Alaric had been helping her build walls of her own, natural walls that kept information organized, not hidden, but Mason’s distress had interrupted them.

She needed time and quiet and safety to get herself back to fully functional.  She snorted at the thought.  It wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

***

The sun was starting to rise, Zero could sense it even though the trees still provided some shelter.  They were going to need to find someplace to wait out the sun, and soon.  The boys, Liam and Parker were dragging.  Raven’s worry that the sun would burn them dry was loud in her head. Connor’s concern was strongly tied to the boys.

Zero needed time to adjust to all of the new noise in her head.  She caught Raven watching her and nodded.  Even with her limited perception of what the Shadow had done, Raven knew that this running was the last thing Zero needed right now.

They were close to reservation land, though Zero wasn’t sure how she knew that.  Reservation land meant dry, arid expanses that the sun baked hard.  Not exactly terrain made for a Shade.  Raven stopped them where there was still a little cover from the trees. She chewed on her lower lip, her thoughts skipping between some place on the reservation and the relative safety of the woods

She turned to the others.  “Okay, our options are to double back to that hollow tree and build a shelter, or we keep going about a mile west, where there is a shed, or what’s left of one.  It should be enough to keep us out of the sun for the day.”

Connor leaned out of the tree line and squinted up at the sky.  “Sun’s going to be up in less than a half hour.”

Raven nodded.  “If we can get to the shed, come sundown I can get us to a friend’s place.  He’ll have food and water.  We can figure out where to go from there.”

“I say we keep moving.” Zero said.  “Going backwards is dangerous without knowing where that strike force is.”

Raven nodded. “Okay, stick close.  We’re crossing onto Zuni lands.”  She pointed to the west.  “Our destination is just on the other side of that rise.”

The group set out at a fast pace, as fast as their exhaustion would allow.  They’d still get a larger dose of sun exposure than was good, but once at the shed, Zero assumed the Shades would be safe enough.

Behind them, the sun kept creeping higher.  Connor moved Liam and Parker in front of him, using his own body to shade them.  Zero and Maddie moved in closer to Raven try to provide what shade they could with their shadows.

When they finally came in sight of the shed Raven had talked about, Zero wrinkled her nose.  It was barely standing, one wall was all but collapsed, the roof leaning off to one side, pulling the opposite wall into a precarious looking angle. Zero jogged ahead of the others and ducked inside to see if it was safe.

Inside there was just enough room for the four Shades in the dark corner, if they didn’t mind getting close together.  There was a hole in the roof that would let the light shine in before too long, restricting the amount of space they would have. 

Zero emerged and nodded, ushering the boys in first.  She and Maddie waited until the others were inside before following.

Raven stood holding her phone, staring at it, her thoughts about whether it was safe to use or not filling Zero’s head. She thumbed it on and shook her head. “No signal.”  Of course, even if they’d had enough signal to call someone, Zero wasn’t sure who.  There was Darvin, of course, but there was no guarantee he could do anything if they managed to get him.  Raven stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

Maddie and Zero watched as Connor got the boys settled in to try to sleep, then looked at Raven.  “You should rest.” Zero said.  Raven was feeling the expectations of leadership, and it was wearing on her.  Zero crossed to put a hand on her shoulder.  Thoughts spun out from her, fear, the lack of direction, the not knowing who else had survived, the idea that someone had told the 8th Battalion how to get to them.

Zero sent a wave of comfort, blanketing over the swirling chaos.  After a moment Raven smiled and nodded her thanks. Raven turned to find Maddie stripping out of her clothes.  “What are you doing?”

“I can handle the sun.  I’ll stand guard.”

Before Raven could respond, she dropped her shirt into Zero’s hands and shifted.  Raven heard the boys gasp and looked their way.  When she looked back, a large black cat had taken Maddie’s place, deep green eyes meeting hers. 

Raven nodded her acceptance.  “Wake me if anyone gets too close.”  She ducked her head and crawled into the dark corner, laying down beside the boys and arranging her body to keep it away from the spot of sunlight that would move closer as the sun moved across the sky.

Maddie sat in the doorway of the shed, and after only a moment, Zero sat beside her, the pair of them staring out into the bright light of the day. 

Behind them, Zero could feel Raven’s thoughts winding down, and turned her mind to her own chaos.  Memories churned in disconnected streams of agony, pulling her from one moment of terror to the next if she let them.

She needed to get some control.  That’s what Alaric had been helping her do before the town fell siege. Her shields were still ravaged and needed work as well. 

With the solid mass of Maddie’s cat beside her, Zero turned her attention inward.