Born in the Shadows (In the Shadows Series Book 1) (33 page)

Epilogue

Barry Sampson cracked a can of beer as he sat down to watch the game on his tiny, shitbox television. It had been a long day at work for very little money and he wanted to relax and forget about it with a few silver bullets and some baseball.

It had been two months since he left Toronto and life was still not looking up. He had to take whatever job that came along in this backwater burg and each one all paid fuck all. That meant he could only afford this shithole bachelor apartment over a pizza place. The stink of pepperoni filled every corner of the place and stuck to his clothes and his skin.

It was all that bitch’s fault. If she hadn’t been such a fat ass, she wouldn’t have fallen. It wasn’t like he had pushed her down, she had tripped and fallen. But he knew the cops wouldn’t believe it. He had a record of domestic assault charges a mile long; they would take one look at it and pin her death on him. There was no fucking way he was going down for murder.

So he had left town that night and hadn’t looked back. Except to pine for the money he had earned under his real name. Here he had to work under the table for cash under his assumed name and that meant less money. Fucking bitch had ruined his life.

There was a knock on his door and Sampson cursed before downing the rest of his beer and crushing the can. It was probably the damn landlord coming to bitch at him about the mice in the building. The fuckers downstairs blamed him for the vermin instead of admitting their shit pizza attracted them.

To say he was surprised when he opened the door would be an understatement. He was floored, both mentally and physically.

Sampson cried out as pain radiated through his body. It started in his chin, where a fist had connected, and it ended in his lower back, which took the brunt of the impact when that fist had sent him flying across the room.

He stared up from the floor as his assailant came into the room, closing the door and walking to his side.

“Hello Sampson.”

“Gabe, what the fuck?” Sampson choked out, trying to clear his spinning head.

“Just thought I’d catch up with an old co-worker,” Gabe said, shrugging nonchalantly.

There was something different about Gabe. He looked about the same but there was something off with his eyes. And then there was the air of menace and power that surrounded him, the force of it turning Sampson’s stomach.

“You know, you are a hard man to find,” Gabe continued, looking around at the apartment with a sneer of disgust. “Then again I should have known to look in the rat holes first.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Sampson asked, hauling himself up and groaning from the pain racing through his body from the hit.

“I just want to talk to you,” Gabe said, exasperated at him as if he was the idiot here.

“You come to my place, take a cheap shot at me and expect me to fucking talk to you?” Sampson said, letting his anger take over. “You’ve lost your goddamn mind. Get the fuck out.”

“Afraid that’s not gonna happen. You and me have some things to discuss, specifically what you did to Cordelia.”

Sampson blanched at his words and his heart began to race with fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do. I can smell the guilt on you right now.”

“You’ve lost your fucking mind. Now get the fuck out before I call the cops,” Sampson said, making a move to the couch where he had discarded his cell phone.

Before he could take more than a step, Gabe was there and the cell was in his hand. A squeeze of his fingers and the sound of cracking plastic filled the room before Gabe dropped the crushed cell to the floor.

Jesus fucking Christ, what kind of steroids had this guy been taking?

“No interruptions. Like I said, we’ve got things to talk about, like how you killed Cordelia.”

“I didn’t touch that bitch,” Sampson spat out. The words were barely out of his mouth when Gabe grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him back against the wall. He got right in his face and the anger in his eyes had Sampson shaking.

“Don’t call her that!” Gabe growled. “I know what you did to her. You knew I would wait until you left to make sure you didn’t bother her. So you left and then went back that night when you knew she’d be alone. You planned it out, you sick fuck.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Sampson yelled at him, struggling against Gabe’s iron strong grip.

“Wrong answer,” Gabe said before pulling back and landing a punch straight into his liver.

Sampson doubled over in pain as Gabe let him go and he collapsed to the floor. He rolled onto all fours and puked his post-work beers all over the linoleum.

When the gagging had stopped and he was able to breathe again, he squinted up at Gabe.

“It was an accident, okay? I just wanted to scare her, that’s all. She’s the one who fell. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“You left her there to die!”

Gabe’s boot made solid contact with his stomach and his breath left him in a whoosh as he collapsed in his own vomit. He laid there for a minute, trying to catch his breath and ignore the agony ripping through his body. He needed to focus; he needed to think about how the hell to get out of this.

Gabe was sure as shit stronger than him so trying to take him out physically wasn’t going to work. But no one was strong enough to stop a bullet and lucky for Sampson, he had a gun stashed under the couch. Now he just had to get his hands on it.

He rose shakily to his knees and looked up at Gabe, who was standing there trembling with barely reined in fury. The knuckles on his clenched fists were white and his mouth was a hard line as he clenched his jaw. He was right on the edge of losing all his focus and that would be Sampson’s opening. He just had to bait him.

“You can’t pin a thing on me,” Sampson croaked out, chuckling just a bit. “There’s no evidence, no witnesses, nothing connecting me to it except your word which means shit.”

“You’re wrong. There is a witness. Cordelia.”

“You’re a fucking lunatic. She’s dead.”

“She was dead, she’s not anymore. Same goes for me,” Gabe said and for the first time since he had entered the apartment, he smiled.

Sampson gazed in morbid fascination at his glistening fangs. All thoughts of getting the gun went out of his head, replaced with a primal fear, the kind that told him his life was in danger.

“What are you?” he asked, his voice trembling with fear.

“I’m your judge, jury and executioner.”

His body broke out in a cold sweat at those words and understanding dawned on him. “You’re going to kill me.”

“Figure of speech,” Gabe said. “I’m not going to kill you. She’d hate me if I killed a human for her. But I’m going to make sure you are punished for what you did.”

Gabe turned and went for the door and, without his eyes and fangs facing at him, Sampson was able to focus again. He scrambled over to the couch and stuck his hand under it, flailing around for a moment before his hand came into contact with cool metal.

He pulled out the gun and whipped around to take aim at Gabe. He was surprised to find that Gabe wasn’t alone anymore as a kid came through the open door. He looked like the embodiment of an all-American golden boy. Except for a pair of nasty fangs he was sporting.

Sampson pushed the safety on the gun as he aimed at Gabe but the man moved with inhuman speed. The safety button had barely reached the off position when the gun was twisted out of his hand and the butt of it slammed into the side of his head.

Sampson wasn’t sure how long he had blacked out but when he came to, he found himself laying on his couch. The television was still on, the sounds of the baseball announcers filling the apartment. His head felt like it was twice its normal size and his vision swam as he moved it to the side.

His attackers were still here. Golden Boy sat calmly on the Igloo cooler Sampson used as a coffee table while Gabe paced frantically between the galley kitchen and the bathroom.

Sampson tried to rise off the couch but all he could do was groan loudly as pain sliced through his head telling him he wasn’t getting vertical anytime soon.

This caught their attention and Gabe stopped pacing while Golden Boy stood up and came to stand over him.

“What do you want?” Sampson choked out.

“You hurt someone we care about,” Golden Boy told him.

“Just kill me and get it over with.”

“No you need to absolve yourself of your crimes,” Golden Boy said before reaching out to hold his head still. “Look at me, Sampson. You are going to go to sleep and then tomorrow morning, you are going to go volunteer to build schools and hospitals in impoverished countries. You will never take any money for any help you give to anyone. You will never hurt another person. You are going to spend the rest of your life dedicated to helping the less fortunate.”

The pain in his body disappeared as the boy spoke, his words soothing him into numbness. All he could think of was how much this boy’s words made sense. He had been such a horrible person for so long. He needed to make amends, he needed to pay for the things he had done.

“Yes, I will,” he replied to the boy, who smiled with satisfaction.

“Can’t I hit him just one more time?” Gabe asked the boy who shook his head.

“He’ll end up with brain damage. We did what we came to do.”

Gabe sneered as he looked at Sampson. “Consider yourself lucky that Cordelia doesn’t want you dead. You better do what he tells you.”

“Don’t worry, the implanted thoughts will stay there as long as I’m alive,” Golden Boy said with confidence. “Now let’s go home.”

The two men walked out and Sampson found himself alone again in his apartment. The place was trashed but he didn’t bother to get up to deal with it. He was leaving tomorrow anyway. He needed to sleep so he could get up early and start on the path to absolution.

He was going to make Mother Teresa look like an asshole.

Lost in the Shadows

Book 2 of the
In the Shadows
Series

Remy had escaped the clutches of the males who had tortured him but he can not forget the scars they had left on his soul. All he wants is to find peace from the nightmares that will not stop.

When his clan discovers a plot to start a war among the Shadows Walker race, Remy is forced to help Sarah, a historian of their race and his clan’s best chance at stopping the war.

Sarah recognizes the pain and loneliness inside Remy and as they research the location of a legendary prophecy, she finds herself falling for the tormented male. 

Together the two of them must not only keep the prophecy out of their enemy’s hands, they must work together to help Remy battle against the tortuous memories that are trying to destroy him.   

Available Now!

About the Author

Growing up in a tiny Canadian town, Courtney McPhail learned from an early age that her imagination was the best, and sometimes only, source of entertainment.  Writing had always been something she had done for her own personal enjoyment. It wasn't until she hit the big 3-0 and went through an existential crisis that she realized writing could be a career.

She currently resides in Toronto, enjoying the big city life while still maintaining her small town girl charm. When she isn't working on her latest novel, she can be found enjoying a hike through the Don Valley Hills near her home. More recently, since discovering Netflix, she can usually be found on her couch, binging on various television shows.

For more information, please visit her website at
www.courtneymcphail.com

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