Shadow Touched (Shadow Roamer #1) Read online

  Shadow Touched

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  Lilou Roux

  “Shadow Touched”

  by Lilou Roux

  © 2014 Natalie Herzer

  All Rights Reserved

  Kindle Edition

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of my imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead or even undead, is entirely coincidental.

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  eBooks by Lilou Roux

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  Moon Claimed Series

  Drawn

  Roused

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  Shadow Roamer Series

  Shadow Touched

  *

  Table of Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  About the Author

  ONE

  “Hey, you wanna stand there forever or you gonna move your ass to the couch and watch some Buffy reruns with me?”

  At the sound of her roomie’s voice Stella snapped out of her daydreaming. Well, nightdreaming would be more accurate, given the fact that the sky was pitch-black outside. She had been staring into the darkness calling to her from beyond the kitchen window for…for how long, she didn’t know.

  Seeing Bianca shaking her head at her with a smile on her lips as she came into the kitchen, Stella guessed it had been quite a while. Her roomie was wearing pajama pants and a long-sleeved top, and her thick, dark blonde hair was up in a messy bun. “I know that look on your face. Geez, you and your darkness. You could give Buffy a run for her money.”

  “Oh, stop it. I’m not like her at all. Though I wish I could kick ass like that. Me, I just…” Stella shrugged her shoulders helplessly as her gaze was drawn to the window once more. It felt so much better than the lights inside the house. Her voice going soft, she said, “I just like the night.”

  “I see. You’re in one of those moods again.” Though her voice was light, Stella could see in the reflection in the window that Bianca’s eyes had lost their smile and were watching her with a hint of worry. “You sure going out all alone now is the best idea? It’s almost eleven.”

  Turning around, she gave Bianca a reassuring smile. “I’ll just go for a walk. A short one, promise. And when I get back we can watch those Buffy reruns you’ve been mentioning for the last week.”

  “Fine. I know from experience that nothing will change your mind, so I won’t even try.” Bianca was about to go back to the living room, but then halted. “Take your pepper spray with you, okay?”

  She knew her friend mostly found her habit of staring into the darkness funny, but tonight it seemed worry definitely won out. “Will do.”

  After a nod and a wave Bianca was off, the TV calling her back and Stella went to pull on her shoes. She was still wearing her black jeans and just added a sweater. The weather outside was getting warmer and today had been a perfect spring day, the balmy air not letting itself be ruled by the quirks of the sun and flavoring the evening air.

  The moment Stella stepped outside their door she inhaled deep and sighed with relief. Breathing the night, there was nothing more exquisite. Deciding quickly to head towards the park and then circle back into the city so her eyes would get used to the lights again, Stella disappeared into the darkness of the night.

  Breathing it, feeling it along her skin, inside and out, she soon felt reborn and soothed under the starless sky. The night, its solitude and peaceful silence filled with the small sounds of ever present life, was beauty and balm for her heart and soul. Its darkness a relief for her eyes which felt as if they had been sandpapered after her day at work.

  Artificial lighting, especially the cold light often used in administrative buildings, was the worst invention ever as far as Stella was concerned. She had always thought the boring repetition of working a register would be the death of her, and not the lighting at her working place. But what had started out as something innocent when she was fourteen and felt drawn to the night, had, with the years, indeed become more and more…worrisome. Alone in the dark, she could admit that much. Now, at twenty, she had to wonder…if it did go on like this, if it got worse, she wouldn’t be able to do her job one day soon.

  Every day she came home from work with a throbbing headache and eyes that were of no use after being tormented all day. She had passed light sensitivity and had entered the world of freaky a long time ago. Friends called it her funny ‘moods’, like Bianca did, but only Bianca suspected that there was more to it and worried about her. Though Stella believed most of the worrying came from her going out and walking the streets alone at night.

  The park wasn’t much, it was an old, neglected thing, but it always managed to calm her. The quiet here. The deep shadows from lack of lighting since most of the bulbs in the lamps had burnt out a long time ago. No one came here anymore, which was a shame, Stella thought, her eyes seeing quite well in the dark, seeing what the place once was - an oasis. A playground for children, but now the slide and climbing frames were either rusty or rotting away, more danger than fun. Trees and brushes grew wildly, without a guiding hand; dead leaves and rodents being the only visitors here.

  Walking now at a leisurely pace and not hurried anymore, Stella took in the trees, the wind rustling in them and drank in the lonely, forsaken atmosphere. Could she end up like that, forgotten in the darkness, if her friends should one day stop seeing her moods as funny but find them downright odd? Yes, Stella thought, loneliness stabbing her, which for once wasn’t pleasant or welcome at all.

  When she reached the entrance of the park that would lead her back to the city lights, the hinges of the gate squeaked sharply in the air as if threatening to close her in forever. Rushing through it, Stella looked back at it, inwardly shaking her head at herself. It was just an old rusty gate, for God’s sake.

  Turning around, she stifled a yelp. A dark figure stood in her way. Her heart a drum in her chest, Stella gulped, swallowing the scream that had threatened to escape, and wondered whether she shouldn’t have let it loose. Though who would have heard her? Or who would have helped her, to be more exact?

  Looking away and down, Stella tried to turn as casually as she could, never letting the guy out of her peripheral vision. Only to find another one had snuck up on her from behind.

  Shitshitshit.

  Both wore dark clothes, hoodies pulled into their faces. Shitshitshit.

  Her pepper spray! Thank God and Bianca, she had taken it with her.

  Her brain instantly analyzed. Two guys, one of them bigger than the other, broader, more mass. She figured she would just have to mace the leaner one and try to outrun the other. Sounded easy, but probably wasn’t.

  And then everything went fast, and yet it felt as if it took ages. Every move, every thought took too long. Her left hand was still tugged into the pocket of her sweater, with the mace. For a fleeting second she chastised herself, wishing her right hand was stuck in there. Praying that the movements weren’t visible, that the shadows would help her hide them, she pried the cap off and gripped the can tightly in her hand, without ever leaving the guys out of her sight.

  What if she didn’t pull out the spray fast enough? What if it didn’t work? There should have been no time and no place for doubts, but they existed in a world beyond laws and logic
, and threatened to swamp her. Her blood was rushing in her ears, her breath felt too hard in her lungs.

  Now or never.

  Ripping her hand out of the pocket of her sweater Stella maced the lean one, while covering her own eyes with her elbow. He screamed.

  But it was no human sound.

  The can dropped to the ground. But instead of running as fast as she could the way she had planned, terror froze her in place. And then she was knocked to the ground by the other guy. Kicking and fighting with all that she had she tried to get away, but he was too strong and soon he was on top of her, pinning her down.

  It was then she got a good look at him, and this time Stella did scream.

  The light of a street lamp nearby was enough to show her what the hoodie had hidden so far – the face of a monster. Staring into the eyes of a lizard, as cold and sharp and alien, Stella’s brain analyzed what was in front of her and at the same time rejected it with all its might. The skin was an unnatural mix of orange and black, and scaly. Parts of it seemed to move with every breath the thing took through its flat nose, the two barely visible black slits. Whatever the thing was. It definitely was more snake, more reptile than man.

  The thing opened its mouth while the other was still screaming behind them, revealing rows of sharp fangs. Oh God. Stella didn’t know what to do, but her mind refused to believe that she would die like this, pinned down by a thing that shouldn’t exist. When all she had wanted was some peace tonight.

  She couldn’t stop fighting, couldn’t resign herself to the fate that was presented to her, and so she simply reared her head back and spit that creature in its face. Apparently caught off guard it closed its too-big mouth again and that’s when she tried to head-butt it. But suddenly the monster screamed as if in pain and then he was gone.

  Shadowy movement. Her brain had trouble catching up with the sudden changes, but Stella quickly understood that someone had indeed come to her rescue.

  The man went up against her attacker, the both of them moving in a shadowy blur of darkness and patches of light coming from the street lamps. Her eyes quickly searched for the other one as she got up. He was lying on the ground a few feet away, apparently dead from wounds her mace could not have inflicted. She didn’t feel too bad about it.

  One last grunt and scream, and silence reigned the night once more.

  Her savior turned around to face her and she looked at him for the first time. His breathing was not labored enough for her taste – not after what he had just done. However she didn’t want to think too much about what that implied and let her eyes move on.

  Dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved black shirt, he stood tall; his hair was black and short, but not in a military style so one could still grab a handful if need be. That last thought hit her out of nowhere and Stella blamed the adrenaline still rushing through her veins. His face was hard and strong, and yet soft and caring. But what startled her the most, were his eyes. As if frozen in place, he was staring at her, and there was a war in his dark, intense eyes, anger and bafflement fighting there.

  In the end curiosity won out. And he stepped towards her.

  TWO

  Nero closed the distance between them in one long stride, lifting a hand to the woman’s cheek but never quite touching it as his eyes roamed her face, probably not able to hide the wonder in them. “How did you survive?”

  Her dark eyes were wide, her heart still beating like a drum, and still she tried to smile. “You helped.” She snorted at that. “Well, to be honest, you did most of the ass-kicking so I guess I should say because of you, plain and simple. You.”

  He wasn’t talking about the fight tonight. No, not at all. He meant much more than that. Nero shook his head, dropping his hand. How could it be possible? Who would have thought that the moment he scented the poison of the reptiles in the air and followed its trace, everything would change?

  He and his team of roamers had been patrolling the hours of dusk, making sure the creatures of night and day stayed on their side of the shadows. But now, approaching midnight, he had been on his way home. Every human still out was doing so at his own peril.

  There was only so much the roamers could do, and apparently they had done quite a good job for the last centuries, seeing how humans still ran around utterly blind to the dark truth in front of them. Legends, mystical non-sense, fantastical folly – the humans had forgotten that every story held a pinch of truth. Had forgotten the reason behind fairy tales and bed time stories warning children to go off into the dark. So, as he had done for years now, he had made sure that humans stayed to the safety of their homes and lights, and out of harm’s way as night settled and its’ creatures awakened.

  However, when he had caught the reptiles’ scent, he hadn’t been able to move on, to turn away, especially since dying at their hands, or fangs to be precise, was anything but quick and merciful. So he had followed the trail, quickly traveling from roof top to roof top, beneath the cover of shadows that he was wearing like a cloak, invisible to human eyes, and had found them near the old park.

  From his perch he had seen the exact moment the girl had realized they had her trapped, had seen her notice the second demon behind her. He had been about to crash the party, when something that shouldn’t be had caught his attention.

  The woman had pulled the shadows to her.

  No human could do so.

  She had done it so subtly, but it was enough for him to see.

  Then the situation below in the street had escalated quickly after the woman had pulled something out of the depth of her pocket, while his mind had still struggled to come up with an explanation for her ability. When his mind returned to the problem at hand, the girl shocked him once more. By spitting into the face of her death.

  For him, her fate had been settled then. Nero had jumped of the roof, intend on saving the woman and solving the riddle that she was.

  Now, she was right in front of him and he couldn’t remember the last time someone had baffled him the way she had done tonight. Not only had she resisted death and kept on fighting, but she had showed powers that only a shadow roamer possessed.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Stella.”

  He couldn’t help his lips from twitching. A beautiful name. A roamer name.

  Watching her, seeing the woman and not the victim, his eyes took her in. The tall and invitingly curvy built and the soft oval face. Her eyes were big and very dark. Nero was sure that even in the light of day the outline of her pupil would be hard to see. That and her hair was what really marked her as one of his people. The long dark waves, although a very dark and unusual color of auburn in the light of day, shimmered with a natural hue of violet in the night.

  Yes, she was shadow touched.

  He had never seen one like her before.

  Roamers policed the twilight hours, making sure humans stayed ignorant about the predators of the night. They patrolled the streets and helped humans and even demons on occasion, whichever needed saving from the other.

  However, even though his world revolved around these creatures, his kind was not allowed to mix with them. The shadows stayed within the shadows. Minimum contact if at all, but certainly no offspring. If it did happen, the problem was usually taken care of before birth by nature itself, and if that failed then other measures were taken.

  He supposed he could have left her there anyway and let her continue her normal, ordinary life without ever knowing the truth about her blood. But then his mind flashed him with images of her pulling at the shadows, amateurish maybe but she had done it, and noticed the redness around her eyes as she squinted at the street lamp close by. Too much exposure to the light since she probably thought herself to be human – odd, but human.

  No, he couldn’t leave her be.

  There was too much shadow in her to allow her to continue masquerading as a human. If she went on like this, the light would kill her – it was just a matter of time.

  His decision
made, he told her, “You need to come with me.”

  Her brow furrowed. “You mean to the police?”

  “No.” Not waiting for more questions, he grabbed her arm gently and tugged her along.

  She dug her heels in and pulled her arm free of his hold. “Well, then I don’t think so.” Taking a step away from him, she looked him square in the eyes. No fear showed there, but caution. “I don’t know you and I won’t come with you to wherever it is you’re going. I’m going home. Thanks for helping me, I mean it, but I guess here’s where our paths uncross again.”

  “Please, Stella, I need you to come with me.” He took a deep breath, and then tried to look as ordinary and unthreatening as possible. “I saved your life doesn’t that warrant your trust?”

  “Yes, you saved me. From creatures that shouldn’t exist and yet you didn’t even flinch and knew exactly how to kill them. So I’m sorry if my trust is a little hard to come by tonight.”

  He held up his hands in surrender and a kind of peace offering. “Okay, I get that that was quite a lot for you tonight. But…killing those things, it’s my job.” Hell, how much could he tell without her ending up running the other way? “I’m kind of like the police to them. That’s why I know how to kill them.”

  “So where do you want me to go with you? And what’s your name anyway?”

  A small smile made his lips twitch. “My name’s Nero. And as for your first question, a place in the city that’s kinda all in one for me, office and home. I want you to meet someone and afterwards I’ll answer all your questions. About the creatures…and about your troubles with the light.”

  Her eyes went wide for a second, showing her surprise before she could hide her reaction. Stella pursed her lips and put a hand on her hip as she thought it through before baffling him once more. “Will I come out of that meeting alive?”

  A chuckle escaped him and she seemed to relax as well. “Yes, you will. I promise.”

  “And I’ll get my answers?”