Born in the Shadows (In the Shadows Series Book 1) (7 page)

              As if she was on autopilot, she rose from the couch, lurched forward a few steps and dropped to her knees at his feet. Her conscious mind was too caught up in the overwhelming emotions to stop her from pressing her face against his feet.

              Never in her life had she ever bowed at anyone’s feet but now it felt like the most natural thing to do. And it still wasn’t enough. There was no possible gift that she could give to repay this boy for what he had given her. Not that she knew exactly what it was that he had given her but it was amazing. Especially since it had her getting her tears all over his brand new Nikes.

              “Rise, my child.” She felt a pair of hands under her arms, pulling her up off the ground to stand. She tried her best to remain steady on her watery knees, keeping her eyes on the carpet that separated their feet. She couldn’t look at him, she was not worthy enough to look upon him, not after everything he had done for her.

              “Cordelia, look at me, please.”

              A finger under her chin forced her to meet his gaze. His beautiful eyes glowed with love and a wave of peacefulness passed over her as she gazed at him.

              “You never have to bow before me. You are worthy enough to stand at my side.” His voice was melodic, an accent she couldn’t place but it turned his words into music. “And you need not repay me; I would never ask or accept it. Your love is enough.”

              His hand reached up and stroked her cheek, his eyes warming with fondness as he watched her. She smiled in relief. She finally understood.

              Father.

              “Perhaps it would be best for Cordelia and I to have a moment to speak alone,” he said to the others before he took her hand in his own. “Come with me.”

              The feel of her palm in his own was comforting. She would go anywhere he asked her because, with him, she felt at home.

Chapter 4

              The room Nicky led her to was a large study on the main floor of the manor, tucked at the end of one of the winding corridors. Several chairs and lounges formed a semicircle that faced the focal point of the room, a large mahogany desk. The wall behind the desk was made up of floor-to-ceiling shelves. The shelves were filled with hundreds of objects ranging from clay pots and wood carvings to ornate daggers and the kind of marble busts you expected to see in a museum exhibit on Ancient Greece. The collection was huge and she could see that every piece was well taken care of, from the jewel encrusted Faberge egg to the tiny doll made from mismatched scraps of cloth.

              While she was staring up at the collection, Nicky came to stand behind her. “These are all mementos of the important people I have met in my life. Each one has a story. I can tell them to you later if you’d like.”

              She nodded her head. She would like that.

              “Come sit with me. There is much I have to answer for,” he said, taking a seat on one of the lounges and she followed suit, finally drawing her eyes away from the room around her to focus on him.

              He cleared his throat, as if he needed a moment to compose himself before speaking and she realized he was nervous.

              “I’m sorry that this has been so difficult for you. I should have been there when you woke.”

              The sadness on his face had her to rushing to reassure him. “I’m fine, really, it’s okay.”

              “No it’s not. I am your sire; I should have been the first one you saw when you woke. I thought I would have more time before you came to but that isn’t a good enough excuse. It must have been distressing to wake up alone in a strange room.”

              She didn’t want to upset him further but something inside her urged her to tell him the truth. She felt the need to be completely honest with this boy.

              “I thought I was in a coma.”

              “That is my fault. I have done everything wrong. Normally when we find a human to change, we give them the choice. Life, for both human and Shadow Walker alike, is about free will. We never force humans and we do not coerce. It is a choice each human must make on their own. I bent the rules because I was selfish and couldn’t watch you die. I know that there is no way for me to right that wrong. All I can do is ask for your forgiveness and promise you that from this moment on I will make sure I do right by you.”

              She was struck by the pain evident on the boy’s face. He looked like he was near tears and the shimmer in his eyes caused her throat to tighten. Tears pricked her own eyes and she had to blink quickly to stop them from falling.

              A memory flashed to the surface as she looked into his golden eyes. Every part of her body was ice cold except for her cheek where the boy hovering over her had placed his hand. His palm seemed to be radiating warmth that chased away the fear in her heart.

              I can offer you life again but it will be at a cost. You will be like me. Do you want me to change you?

              His words had focused her mind and when he asked the final question, she had understood him. Somehow, in those moments she had known the weight of what he was offering. Perhaps it was fear at the idea of dying or the allure of the boy coming to her rescue but she found herself deciding what she wanted in a heartbeat. She wanted to live, no matter the cost.

              In the present, she looked at Nicky and spoke, her voice tight with emotion. “I remember. I remember what you said and how I felt. I knew, I don’t know how, but I knew the full extent of what you were offering and I wanted it. I made that choice of my own free will. You don’t need my forgiveness because there is nothing to forgive.”

              Nicky’s face beamed up at her. “Your heart is too big, my child.”

              His delighted expression caused her to impulsively lean over and embrace him and he returned the gesture, squeezing her tightly.

              “Can I ask you something?”

              “Anything.”

              “You keep calling me your child. It’s not that I mind because there is this feeling inside me that you are my father. I just want to understand why I feel that.”

              “To understand it, you need to understand where our kind comes from,” he explained, settling back against the lounge and she did the same, giving his words her full attention. “The truth is this world isn’t the only one in existence. Whether you call them alternate dimensions or parallel universes, they exist alongside this world and they are infinite in number.”

              “There are all manner of beings that exist in the other worlds. Shape shifters, demons, dragons, fairies; almost all creatures in human mythology can be found in the other worlds. The reason they came to be myths for humans is because they did exist in this world at one time. There were some that were pulled from their world into ours by accident. And there are some that were cast out of their world.”

              “That is where our kind comes from. Our ancestors, who we call the Old Ones, were beings that were exiled from their world. They had been gods in that world but in this world they were monsters. The sun here burnt their flesh and the blood of humans, the only beings that resembled them in appearance and intelligence, ignited a terrible craving inside them. Eventually they discovered that they could change humans by sharing a part of themselves, their blood, with them.”

              “And that was how Shadow Walkers were created. When I changed you from human to Shadow Walker, I passed along a part of myself into you, just as a parent does when they create a child. My blood runs through your veins and that is why we have this bond.”

              As outlandish as the tale was, it made sense to her. At least as much as anything had made sense since she had woken up here. She could not deny what she had been turned into or what the others in this home were, so believing that they had descended from inter-dimensional travelers seemed almost logical.

              “I’m glad you changed me,” she said, smiling gratefully.

              “As am I,” he replied. “I’m glad that you are a part of my family now. And I am glad that you did not end your life alone, murdered by a coward in some filthy parking lot.”

              She had momentarily forgotten the part that Sampson had played in what happened to her tonight. “I still can’t believe that
he
ended up killing me.”

              Nicky pulled back, his expression grave. “Do you know who did it to you?”

              “Yes, his name is Barry Sampson. I work with him. He was angry about something that happened during the day and he wanted to ‘talk’ about it. Evidently ‘talk’ in his mind means spearing my organs.”

              “If you want vengeance, I will mete out an appropriate punishment,” he said his youthful face hardening with determination.

              She couldn’t stop herself from laughing and Nicky frowned. “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just hearing you promise to avenge me…you are so young.”

              He smiled ruefully and shrugged his shoulders in a gesture that seemed to say,
Yeah I get that a lot.

              “I suppose my appearance would be disorienting to you. I was sixteen when I was changed but I assure you I am much older than that.”

              “How much older exactly?”

              “Two thousand, three hundred and nineteen years old.”

              “Wow.”

              It was all she could think to say. He made the others seem like infants in comparison. She probably should have saved the fainting spell for now. Yet somehow, it didn’t hit her as hard as the others. Maybe she had reached the point where nothing would surprise her anymore. Or maybe it was that the idea of living for that long was an impossible idea and so her mind was refusing to actually process it.

              Two thousand, three hundred and nineteen years
.

              It did explain the opulent wealth of the home. You could build a hell of a financial portfolio over all that time. It also explained the varying ages of the mementos in his collection against the far wall.

              Imagine the things that he had seen over that time. He had probably seen events that were now only notations in history books that only PhD candidates studied. They were talking Ancient times with a capital A.

              She jumped up from the lounge, suddenly unable to keep still, a frantic energy filling her and she moved across the room to look at the wall of mementos. As she paced the length of the wall, she studied the marble busts, realizing that they were most likely likenesses of men Nicky had actually known.

              “Did you know these men?” she asked, turning back to see Nicky nodding.

              “Some as a Shadow Walker, some as a human,” he replied and came to stand beside her. “The busts are likenesses of the great philosophers.”

              “You like philosophy?”

              He smiled at that, as if there was a particular irony to it but he nodded. “I am a fan.”

              She noticed that there was one bust that sat in the exact centre of the shelves and was the focal point of the entire collection. Whoever it was, he had been given a place of honour.

              “Who is that?” she asked, nodding at the bust.

              “Aristotle.”

              “Is he your favourite?”

              “Yes he is,” Nicky said, gazing up at the bust with a wistful expression. “He was also my human father. My full name is Nicomachus. I was Aristotle’s son.”

              She was struck dumb at that revelation. It was one thing to hear the number of years he had lived; it was another to be given a point of reference. Someone like Aristotle was so old, he had almost a mythic quality about him and yet she was sitting here with his son. The idea of someone who lived during a time period she had learned of as ancient standing right in front of her was even more disconcerting than the idea he was a Shadow Walker. His kind were supposed to be a fantasy and belonged in fictional stories. Aristotle belonged in factual history books.

              She felt like her mind had been split in two. One half was processing all this information at a breakneck speed that was too fast to come to any conclusions and the other half was moving so slow that it would be lucky if it figured out anything before Christmas. She was on a rollercoaster and even though she wanted to get off, she could not voice her desires because everything was zipping by too fast.

              Sampson had tried to kill her. Supernatural beings existed. An immortal teenager had saved her from death. She was now something called a Shadow Walker. There were parallel dimensions. A family of ancient princesses, peasants and philosophers lived in this giant mansion. There was a kid who was actually two thousand years old. That same kid was both a Shadow Walker and her father.

              She had been compartmentalizing everything she had been told but the mental walls were beginning to crumble. The weight of everything she had learned came crashing down on her. It was too much.

              She had been a fool to believe any of this was real. There was no way this was happening; it had to be a delusion.

              “This can’t be true. There is just no way, I don’t care if Mary slapped me. This is just not possible.”

              The words came out in a whisper and Nicky frowned, his eyes filled with sympathy.

              “I’m sorry Cordelia but this is all real. You will find that in our world the impossible is quite often very possible.”

              At his words her heart began to pound in her chest, feeling like it was doubling in size with each beat. She tried to take deep breaths but she couldn’t seem to get in enough air. Her palms became clammy and a lead ball of dread bottomed out her stomach.

              Nicky moved in front of her, his eyes wide with concern. He took her hand in his own, his thumb stroking the top of her hand.

              “Cordelia, you’re having a panic attack. You need to take a few deep breaths to calm yourself.”

              She did as he instructed, breathing deep through her nose before exhaling in a loud whoosh through her mouth. It didn’t help much because even with the extra oxygen, her brain was still racing a million miles a minute.

              It was too much for one person to process in such a short time. She was a bundle of conflicting emotions and she could not find an anchor in the chaos. She wanted it to stop. God she just wished everything was back to the way it had been before. She wanted to just close her eyes and find herself back home.

              “Child, don’t worry. I can take you home. Just don’t move.”

              He let go of her hand and another flare of panic went up inside her at the loss of contact but he was back in moments, urging her to lift her head. She looked up and realized that Nicky had turned off all the lights in the room. She knew that the room should be pitch black with the lack of light and the heavy drapes on the windows but she was still able to make out the details in the dark room.