Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (41 page)

I spent that Sunday with
Halton
at the Cray, after we’d slept the entire morning in each other’s arms. We woke
to find the midday sun crossing his bedroom, illumining the folds of the white
cotton sheet across our clothed bodies.

‘Good afternoon,’ he murmured, kissing me instantly,
and so insistently that I couldn’t return the greeting without forcing it out
the side of my mouth. To this he laughed while locked in the same kiss. During
which he began untucking his shirt, pulling it from the waist of his jeans. He
put my hands to work on the buttons, while kissing me eagerly. I undid each
one, now and again stopping to feel his powerful chest. His warm skin so
inviting, remained ivory. I realised something that astounded me.

‘Thom, you’re shaking,’ I whispered, pushing back
the collar of his shirt. I had difficulty keeping back a smile. ‘
You’re
nervous?’

‘Excited, actually. I am, after all, only human,
Alex. Besides, this is
my
first time with you.’ He laughed before gently
tugging at my jersey. ‘May I?’

‘You may.’

He lifted it, sweeping it up over my arms and
head. The warmth of the sun increased through the glass on my bare skin, as he
ran his eyes over me, followed by his fingertips. He pressed his chest to mine,
and I could feel his heart beating excitedly against my own.

‘You’re my soul mate, Alexandra,’ he breathed.
‘This is precisely what I’ve dreamt of. It’s paradise.’

I smiled, feeling as if I may have died on that
roadside after all and now I was in my own definition of heaven.

He sat upright to unbutton my jeans, before
tugging them off quickly.

‘Afraid I’m going to change my mind?’ I chortled.

‘Always! – Wow, Alex. I never had you down for
white cotton.’

‘Sure you didn’t!’

He lifted his eyebrows cheekily. ‘Honestly, I
never imagined you wearing anything.’

‘I don’t suppose white cotton briefs are very sexy
either.’

‘Oh, yes they are!’ he insisted. ‘You have no idea
what white cotton briefs can do to a man.’ He leaned forward, his hands running
the length of my body. The cold buckle of his belt pressed on my tummy and made
me gasp – then giggle.

‘It’ll have to go.’ He smirked, unfastening it and
sliding it off.

‘And these.’ I tugged at the rim of his jeans
before trying to undo the top button. The thick stud wouldn’t budge; it seemed
as if you needed inhuman strength to unfasten it. He took my hands, kissed them
and then removed his jeans in front of me.

Thom laid his body against mine, tucking me
beneath him, as if to shield me from the world. I’d never experienced a
sensation like it; I felt truly loved. It was so perfect. I didn’t want to ruin
it by admitting –

‘Thom, I really could do with a shower first.’

His eyes lit up. ‘Me too!’ He chuckled, pulling
himself upright again. ‘Shall we?’ holding out his hand.

I smiled and took it. He stood up and pulled me against
him, before sliding his hand into a drawer next to the bed. Condoms. He grabbed
two. With my fingers locked in his, I tiptoed naked behind him as he led me to
his en suite. There we stayed under a stream of hot water for hours.

That evening we agreed on a plan. It involved me
apologising to Mrs Evans for leaving so suddenly. I would lie through my teeth
regarding the excuse. I agreed, because I was going to be at the Cray more
often from now on, and I didn’t want any awkwardness between us if I saw her.

‘What are you thinking about, Cassandra? You look
so grave staring out the window as if on to another world.’

I drew the curtain and turned round on his sofa.

‘Well?’ he pursued, taking a seat next to me.
‘Were you thinking of morbid things? I know that look.’

‘You should do. You gave it to me.’ I smiled. ‘I
was just thinking how I have a longer life because of you. Without you, Thom,
I’d be road kill at age twenty-one.’

‘We’ve given each other life then, Cassandra!’ He
put his arm round me. ‘And can therefore worship each other as deities! And I
thought we were going to talk morbidly.’

‘Do you think Death will appear as my father
again?’

‘Oh, so we are still talking morbidly. I couldn’t
say, Alex. Those thoughts really are best left undisturbed. You don’t want to
start wondering about that. Let’s just enjoy the time we have.’ As he said this
he squeezed me a little tighter with a strength Hercules would’ve been proud to
possess.

I yelped involuntarily.

He apologised inexhaustibly. ‘I just thought I
hadn’t gotten used to my human strength, but–’

‘But what?’

He looked pensive. ‘Despite slender appearances I
expected you to weigh something, earlier on, when I lifted you in the shower. I
put it down to my own excitement, the rush of adrenaline! You weighed virtually
nothing. That’s why I was so gentle.’

‘You were?’

His eyes widened. His hands instinctively took
hold of mine. ‘Alex, did I hurt you?’

‘I’m teasing you, Thom. You were
very
gentle… at first. But what are you saying – that you’ve retained the strength
of your demon?’

He shot across the room before returning to me,
nodding. ‘My speed too. It’s almost the same. Just slightly decreased.’

Despite the fact that Thom now ate like a human
(well, a pig, in those first few days), had a pulse, breath, normal reflection
and shadow. And that he no longer had a clue as to where Death lurked, we tried
to convince ourselves he was human. The truth was he was now superhuman, which
he saw as some compensation for all his troubles. If only it was that easy to
believe the nightmare was over. We worried that the restoration of his soul
hadn’t completely dissolved the demon, or Death hadn’t fully returned it. Thom tried
to reason with this, saying –

‘Death did say it was a little soon.’ He picked up
a pen to have a try at spinning it. ‘I suppose we’ll just have to wait and
see.’

End of Book One

Take a first look at

SHADOWS OF THE WORLD

∙ BOOK TWO ∙

THE 13
^TH
BARONET

Coming Soon…

I am the
reason for the funeral costs.

The car
crash you didn’t survive.

A shadow
steadily gaining.

I’m the
abductor of your loved ones.

The
knowledge you cannot win.

I’m the last face you’ll ever see.

The one you
can never escape.

…I am
Death, and it doesn’t matter who you are.

One

‘The spirit that I have seen may be the Devil; and the Devil hath power
to assume a pleasing shape.’

– William Shakespeare,
Hamlet

Thom sat up beside me in
the predawn glow, his bronzed torso moist with perspiration. The sound of deep
exasperated breath filled the quiet room, as his chest rose and fell with the
regularity of a stormy sea.

‘Another nightmare?’ I half rose, holding the hotel
bed sheet at my chest and placing a hand on his solid clammy shoulder. He
looked round surprised I was awake. I’d been watching him dream; I’d been
stroking his arm and trying to calm him, knowing that any attempt to wake him
would fail.

He turned his lips to my fingers and kissed them. My
skin tingled to the rough stubble surrounding his mouth.

‘It was just a dream, Madness. Go back to sleep.’

‘I can’t sleep anyway. Want to talk about it?’

He shook his head, laid back down and rubbed my
hip so that the cotton sheet wrinkled beneath his fingers.

‘I’d forgotten what it was like to dream,’ he
whispered. ‘It’s been such a long time. I just don’t remember them being so
intense.’

‘You’ve been through so much, Thom. Your
subconscious needs to deal with it.’

‘I get that, Alex, I do. But these recent ones are
something else. They’re more vivid than those I suffered when at Johan’s. I
thought they’d get better, not–’ He cut off.

‘How long have these ones been going on? A week?’

‘Mm-hmm.’

‘I have a great book for deciphering dreams at
home. Maybe we can work them out together, and then maybe they’ll go away.’

‘Then I’ll tell you about them tomorrow… maybe.
Not right now.’

I kissed him and he edged nearer, enclosing me in
his arms.

Thom didn’t tell me tomorrow. He acted as if it
was nothing. His usual way of dealing with things. But from the sheer horror is
his eyes, and the gloominess the dreams threw on his face, I imagined they were
about his mother and sister.

It was the first day of July and all of southern England
was experiencing a heat wave. We’d been staying in Dorset for a long weekend. Thom
basked in the tropical climate, having been unable to feel the sun for over one
hundred and fifty years. He’d turned a beautiful golden brown without burning.
I was jealous; being red-haired meant my pale skin would blister without much
provocation, even though I wore a high factor sun cream. Indeed, I was not a
huge fan of the sun, preferring drab, safe, grey skies and the sound of wind
and rain.

It was time to return home, to Halton Cray, having
mostly spent our visit lazing around on the sandy beach and swimming in the ocean.
Without a trace of nausea or speck of blood, Thom relished diving through the
rough waves of the freezing English Channel. He seemed surprised to see me
happily navigating the choppy waters. But I’d always preferred swimming in the
sea. Though on this occasion I loved it less; the current was very strong and
it broke one of my diving fins clean in half.

‘Alex,’ Thom whispered in a singsong, just as we passed
through Winchester, almost halfway home, ‘you’re eyes are almost closed. Why
don’t you recline your seat and sleep a little?’

‘I’m fine. I’m just enjoying this ride, it’s so
relaxing.’

I looked over to him, driving our new jeep (which
was second-hand, but just as good) with the windows down, the sunroof open. He
wore sunglasses and nothing to cover his well-formed torso that glistened with
sweat. And below, just jeans and decks. His black hair was blowing around
everywhere as he sang along to the radio.

‘We’ll have to get you to the barbers soon, you
know.’

‘I know.’ He glanced over to me with a huge grin.
‘I’m half-intrigued to grow it out like an 80’s rock star.’

‘Oh, God!’ I smirked, hoping he was winding me up.
He would grow a full beard, too, if it weren’t so hot.

I turned my head into the headrest and promptly
fell asleep.

The strong sun pecked my eyes open. Thom was carrying
me through Halton Cray car park, my arms neatly curled around his neck. I hadn’t
even realised we’d arrived or that he’d gotten me out of the car. He smiled and
kissed me as I closed my eyes again; the heat was too much to remain conscious.

It was Sunday afternoon and we’d beaten the
traffic back. I slept until six o’clock, then rose to find Thom cooking dinner.

‘These last few months have been amazing,’ I said,
watching him rinse the shellfish we’d bought fresh this morning to go into his
debut paella.

‘More than amazing, Madness. I feel like we’re in
a movie. It still doesn’t feel real; it’s too good.’

‘Don’t eat all the prawns, sir!’ I jibed. ‘You
shouldn’t eat them raw anyway; you’ll be ill.’

‘I don’t mind that, Madness. I want to experience
every feeling of life.’

‘You, and not me, are the nutter in this
relationship! At some point you’ll go too far and poison yourself.’

‘Last one!’ he said, throwing a grey prawn into
the air and catching it in his mouth.

‘And I’m now dating a seal,’ I muttered.

After dinner, which I might add was a success with
the chef still conscious, we watched TV before going to bed. As usual we left
the windows open to cool the mansions warm attic. Still, I sank uneasily,
knowing our new routine of Thom nightmaring would wake me within hours. I’d
spend an hour, usually, trying to calm him before he would relax. There was
always some delay in his waking up. He would settle down and sleep peacefully
for a while before sitting up with a start.

As usual, I woke in Thom’s bed to his
restlessness. My eyes slowly adjusting to the blackness of night. The Shockers
ran by harmoniously, having become the soundtrack to my dreams. I watched the
outline of Thom’s body beside me, tangled in the bed sheet, his massive chest undulating
with deep and rapid breaths. He groaned uncomfortably, and I sat up to stroke
his arm. When he at last became calm, I got up for water. The warm summer nights
had me regularly refilling my glass.

Pulling on a cotton nightdress, I headed for his
kitchen. Quietly closing the bedroom door, I switched on a small lamp. I didn’t
want to wake him now he was tranquil. His sleep pattern was very much human and
without six or seven hours a night he really was a cranky git.

As I turned on the faucet, I noticed something in
the room, out the corner of my eye. – I screamed!

The glass slipped from my fingers, smashing in the
sink. Someone was in the room. A shadow ran across the wall! It still ran now,
and fast towards the bedroom. I jumped back against the kitchen unit, still
screaming.

‘Alex?’ Thom yelled.

In a flash, Thom was at the bedroom door looking
round to me. My eyes still glued to the shadow, followed it as it sank quickly to
the floor and joined Thom’s feet at the threshold.

‘Oh–!’ I couldn’t speak. I held the space over my throbbing
heart.

‘What’s wrong?’ Thom was looking round the room
ready to attack something while stark naked.

Discovering no one else was present, he closed the
distance between us, even as I edged back from him.

‘What’s the matter, you lunatic? Are you sleepwalking?’

‘Your shadow!’ I pointed to the floor. ‘Your
shadow was in here, on its own! I saw it on the wall!’

‘This shadow?’ he pointed, cocking an eyebrow.

‘Yes – it’s attached to your feet now! But it wasn’t
when you came in here.’

‘Alex, you’ve had a bad dream.’ He gripped my
shoulders and pulled me towards him, inclining his head to gain eye contact.
‘Hey, look at me! Obviously, whatever I have is contagious! It was just a
dream. My shadow can’t leave me anymore. Besides, it could never leave my sight
anyway, and definitely couldn’t leave the room I was in. So you see; it was
just a dream. I am human now, Alex. I know my little bonuses contradict that,
but I am not the evil dead any longer.’

I began to believe him, partly because I wanted
to, partly because it
was
the middle of the night.

I put my fingers to my temples and shook my head.

‘I swear I saw your shadow running along the wall.
I thought someone was in here and–’ I paused and took a deep breath. ‘I suppose
I must’ve been sleepwalking.’

‘Alex, we’ve both been through a lot. The last
couple of months have been fantastically normal. Maybe you’ve been waiting for
the strange nonsense to start up again, I don’t know. But it’s understandable
you might start seeing things. You’re clearly on edge.’

I took another deep breath.

The tap was still running. He switched it off and
began clearing up the fragments of glass in the sink.

‘Pass me another glass,’ he said, pausing and tilting
his head.

He looked round at me.

‘What?’ I questioned.

He looked me over and moved my way. Grasping a
handful of my nightdress, he rubbed it between his fingers. For a moment, I
thought he wanted to christen his kitchen counter with our love. Then he let go
and looked to the wall where I’d been pointing.

‘You say you saw it moving along that wall?’

‘Yes.’

He went over and stood there to look at me.

‘And you were in here just getting water? You had
that green glass in your hand?’

‘Yes – why?’

He took a single sharp breath and fell silent.

‘Thom?’ I gulped.

‘I just realised, right before I woke, before I
heard you scream. I was dreaming about you. You were just standing there at the
sink, where you are now. You had a green glass in your hand, turning on the
tap.’

‘Are you
serious
?’

‘Afraid so.’

‘I knew I wasn’t seeing things! What the hell does
it mean?’

‘I think it means that my shadow has somehow taken
to having a life of its own; at night anyway.’ – He looked down to his
normal-looking shadow. – ‘I’m seeing whatever it sees, whatever it experiences,
in my dreams.’

‘But, Thom, you’ve been having nightmares!’

‘Yes, I realise that.’

‘Does that mean they’re not nightmares? They’re
real
?
Your shadow is living them and you’re seeing this under your eyelids?’

‘I think that might be what they call hitting the
nail on the head, Alex.’

‘So’ – I hemmed until I reached his shoulders to
steady me – ‘what’s happening in your dreams? Because I’m terrified to guess.’

Silence.

‘What have you been dreaming, Thom?’

‘Oh, God!’ He moved away from me, covering his
face.

‘What is it? Tell me!’

‘I can’t bring myself to say it, Alex.’

‘Thom, for God’s sake.’ I made another grab for
him, to gain eye contact. ‘Are you feeding by shadow at night? You need to tell
me!’

‘So you can leave me again like you did months
ago?’

‘That was different. I was completely unprepared
for anything like this. Besides, I came back remember! Just tell me if you’ve
been feeding?’

‘No!’ He shook his head. ‘The demon
is
gone. I’ve not been drinking blood! Not one drop! Alex – it’s worse!’