Shadow Dragon Box Set (Dragon Shifter Romance) E-Book

Mac Flynn

• Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

The complete Shadow Dragon series featuring all four ebooks!

One fateful night turns Elly's whole world upside down, but fate has a way of giving second chances to those who have enough determination to change destiny. Elly is whisked into that second chance, and she must overcome the strangeness of a fantastical new world and the sorrow that follows her to find her way and bring her one true love back to her.

Leseprobe

SHADOW DRAGON BOX SET

DRAGON SHIFTER ROMANCE

MAC FLYNN

Copyright © 2021 by M. Flynn

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Want to get an email when a new book is released? Sign up here to join the M. Flynn Newsletter, the online newsletter with a bite!

Wanting to find the rest of the series and check out some of my other books? Hop over to my website for a peek!

CONTENTS

Claimed By the Shadow Dragon

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Mated to the Shadow Dragon

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Bound To The Shadow Dragon

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Destined For the Shadow Dragon

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Continue the adventure

Other series by M. Flynn

1

Worlds alongside ours. Worlds of darkness and light. I didn’t know about any of that until that fateful night.

Or rather, I should say I’d forgotten all about it.

It wasn’t really my fault, but I’m getting ahead of myself. This story-my story-starts at the beginning, or what was the beginning of my life out in the big wide world. I had spread my wings from college and joined the ranks of the working class in the city of my birth and upbringing. It was just like any other city with streets, cars, and more people than you could count outside of a census. One of those people mattered more to me than even myself.

There I go getting ahead of myself again. Let me start on that warm day, a day that feels like so long ago.

“You’re looking at the clock again.”

I started out of my reverie and whipped my head around to the desk that shared my small, lifeless cubicle. A smiling woman of twenty sat there with a headset dangling from one finger and a grin on her brown-hair ringed face. The mischievous little elf, who went by the name of Roxie, leaned forward and her eyes sparkled with mischief.

“That’s the fourth time in ten minutes you’ve looked at the clock on your computer,” she teased me.

I spun my chair back to face my computer and shrugged. “I guess I can’t wait for the weekend.”

“It’s Wednesday.”

“I’m getting a head start,” I defended myself as I tapped away at a few forms on my screen.

The young woman rolled her chair over to my side and leaned an elbow on my desk. “‘Fess up, you have a date with that handsome sketcher of yours.”

“Painter,” I corrected her as another minute on the clock ticked away.

“I keep forgetting,” my friend mused as she tapped her lower lip with one finger. “How long have you guys been together?”

“Four years, right after we both graduated college,” I told her.

She furrowed her brow. “Didn’t he want to be a shrink and analyze your lost memory or something?”

“That was my first boyfriend,” I corrected my friend as I winced at those lost-suppressed memories. “And the less said about that relationship the better.”

“Weren’t you in that program to try to figure out what happened?” she wondered.

Some of my good humor fell away as my face fell. “Yeah, but I never could get my memories back from before I was ten. . .”

My friend clapped a hand on my shoulder and grinned. “Don’t look so down. What’s that old saying? Look forward or you’ll trip and fall flat on your face.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Who said that? Socrates? Plato?”

“Roxie,” she informed me as she leaned closer and wagged her eyebrows. “So has your handsome painter painted you yet?”

I snorted. “You mean a la the Titantic? No. He prefers still objects and landscapes so I can be jealous of fruit and happy little trees.”

My friend winced. “He doesn’t say that, does he?”

Another minute ticked away and the clock proverbially struck the hour. A pity digital clocks were so quiet. “No, he has the same reaction as you when I bring it up,” I told her as I began to gather my things.

“He really should make his hobby his work instead of working that night-to-five job in that office,” she suggested.

I laughed and shook my head. “He can’t quit his day job until painting pays that much, and that’s going to take a while.”

“Well, maybe he could paint stuff people wanted,” she mused.

I slung my bag over one shoulder and shrugged. “He’s just not that kind of painter, but I really need to go. He gets off soon, too.”

We exchanged waves and I hurried from the vacuous office building that I called home for nine hours out of every weekday. Some days I wished I could run away from home and make a new life at my apartment. That is, before I was thrown out for not paying my rent.

I joined the throngs of office workers on the busy streets of the bustling city. Skyscrapers towered above us, dazzling we simple ants with their crystal-clean windows. The concrete jungle was swinging with taxis and cars as people hurried to leave its steel confines for the wide open spaces of suburbia and beyond.

I swam against the current to one of the larger buildings where the shimmering wall of glass held the man with whom I had fallen in love. The lobby bustled with last-minute work-a-holics and overachievers, while those like me crammed the front doors eager to leave.

I caught one of the few elevators going up and climbed to the midsection of this vast sailing vessel, powered not by wind but by cold, hard cash. Most of the high finances of the city passed through this building, as evidenced by the expensive furniture and exotic plants that decorated the hall as I stepped off the elevator.

My destination was a quiet little office tucked away in the far corner. I met a familiar face on the way there.

“Hello, Elly,” the man called to me.

I stopped in front of him and grinned. “Hi, Jeff. Teaching the kids art?”

He tucked a crayon deeper into his front vest pocket and chuckled. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”

“Just a few minutes with Alec will teach anyone to spot a colored pencil a mile a way,” I returned.

His humor faltered a little and he glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the tell-tale office door to which I was headed. “Have. . .have you noticed something odd about Alec lately?”

I tilted my head to one side and furrowed my brow. “Odd?”

Jeff nodded. “Yes. He seems rather distant today. I had to speak to him several times to catch his attention, and even then I’m not sure he was listening to what I was saying.”

I frowned. “I haven’t noticed, but I’ll talk to him about it.”

Jeff grinned and patted me on the shoulder. “I appreciate it. If he’ll listen to anybody, it’ll be you. Now if you will excuse me, I have some finger painting to admire.” He winked at me and continued on to the elevator.

My heart wasn’t so light nor my step so bouncy as I walked down the hall. The office door with the name ‘Alec Blackwell, Financial Adviser’ on the front was closed. I rapped my knuckle against the hard wood.

“Come in,” came a soft and tired voice.

I stepped inside and paused on the threshold to take in the view. The office was immaculate, with a perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. There was a filing cabinet, large, thick-legged desk, and a great view to my left of the streets below. One of the drawers to the filing cabinet just to my right held folders in perfect alphabetical order.

Alec Blackwell himself sat behind the desk. He faced the large windows and one leg was folded over the other. The sun settled on his perfect features and added a tinge of gold color to his otherwise jet-black hair. While others looked stiff and puffed up in their suits, he wore the creased pants and vest like another layer of skin. Then again, he always looked perfectly dressed, even in jeans and a t-shirt.

Or maybe he just looked perfect all the time.

A few whispered words passed over his lips. “Fear is natural. Your response is what defines who are you.”

I froze thinking my presence had been found out, but he didn’t turn to me. There was something sad about those words, sad and a little bit terrifying. Still, I mustered my confidence and leaned my arm against the door frame and smile. “Hello, stranger.”

Alec started from his reverie and whipped his head to me. His somber expression changed to a grin as he leaned back in his chair. “Have I ever told you you have a talent for catching people off their guard?”

“It wasn’t too hard with you,” I returned as I walked over and seated myself on the edge of his desk. “You looked like you were in another world.”

His smile faltered and he returned his gaze to the window. “Maybe I was. . .” I tilted my head to one side, but he shook himself from his reverie and leapt to his feet. He wrapped his arms around me and swept me into a long, passionate kiss.

By the time we broke apart I was all flushed and out of breath. “What was that for?” I asked him.

He cupped one of my cheeks in his hand and brushed his thumb against my warm skin. “I just want to remind you that I love you.”

I smiled and tapped the end of his nose with my finger. “How did I manage to catch you?”

“With both our lucks,” he teased before he glanced at the clock. “But what are we staying around here for? There’s a chicken salad in my fridge that’s waiting to be eaten.”

I snorted as he wrapped one arm around my waist and led me toward the door. “That wouldn’t happen to be the same salad that was there when I visited two days ago, would it?”

He grasped the door knob and flashed me his wicked grin. “Perhaps.”

“I hope it hasn’t gotten so bad that it’s held up the rest of the food for their condiment money.”

Alec bowed his head. “If it has, I’ll fend it off.”

A soft rumble made us pause, and Alec whipped his head toward the window. I followed his gaze and noticed a dark cloud on the horizon. “Looks like a storm, doesn’t it?” Alec didn’t respond, but I noticed he clenched his left hand so tightly that his flesh paled. “Alec?”

He shook himself and looked back to me. “What?”

I leaned back and examined his tense face. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I was just. . .just thinking, that’s all. Now let’s get to that grub.”

2

Alec was one of the lucky people to have a car in his company’s underground parking garage. In a few minutes he had whisked us away from the hectic life in the city and out to quiet, slower suburbia.

It was during that drive that I had my chance to examine my handsome man. He didn’t look quite himself. His face was a little pale and there were shadows under his eyes. Though he smiled, the corners of his lips were tense, like he was forcing himself to keep them up.

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked him.

He sheepishly grinned at me. “It’s that obvious?”

My pulse quickened. “You’re not sick, are you?”

Alec’s smile faltered and he shook his head. “I’m fine, I’ve just. . .well, I just haven’t been sleeping well, that’s all.”

“Nightmares?” I guessed.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” he replied as he turned us down a street lined with apartment buildings.

My face fell and I set a hand on his arm. “Even with me?”

“It’s. . .it’s really nothing,” he insisted as he reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine.”

There was something strange in his voice that told me it was more than nothing, but I dropped the subject and instead turned my attention to the night sky. The promise of stars had been spirited behind the ominous dark clouds we had seen at his office, and far off I heard another quiet boom of thunder.

By the time we turned into one among many parking lots the air was full of the smell of rain. A two-floor apartment building stretched out before us. The weathered decorative window shutters and gaudy green color bespoke its age, but the paint was fresh and the ground, what little there was, was well-kept. We climbed out and headed to the front door, a plain metal entrance with a single dead-bolt against the trespass.

The door opened and a kindly old woman stepped out. She wore a flowered dress and her hair was tied up in a plastic hair net. “Good evening!” she greeted us with watering can in hand.

I smiled at her. “Good evening, Miss Hazel. How have you been?”

The woman heaved a great sigh as she sprinkled the water over the flowers in the pots on either side of the door. “Oh, my dear, what a day it’s been. Most of my children-” I couldn’t help but smile wider at the name she had for her tenants, “-have been behaving, but I’ve had to tell little Tommy to put his tricycle away three times today. It just should not be in the hall or poor old Mr. Johnson will trip over it again, and you know he doesn’t bounce like he used to. But that’s enough about me-” She interrupted herself as she looked over us with her kindly smile. “You two look like you have plans for tonight, so I won’t keep you longer.”

She stepped aside, and with a knowing look that age grants let us go on our way. I followed Alec upstairs to his second floor apartment. There were only four rooms, but Miss Hazel had made them as neat and efficient as possible. The kitchen and dining room occupied one, with a living room, bathroom, and large bedroom occupying the others. The apartment was at the corner so that the living room and bedroom had windows that looked out on different sides of the building.

The thunder I had heard earlier returned, but with more gusto. It was also joined by a flash of lightning that lit up the sky a few miles away.

“Nice night,” I quipped as I shrugged off my coat.

“Yeah,” was the bland reply I received from Alec as he tossed his own coat over the back of the couch.

Mine joined his as I watched him walk into the kitchen. “Hard day at work? The boss didn’t reject your proposal, did he?”

“It was fine,” he assured me as he pulled a bottle of drink from the fridge. “Want a little pick-me-up?”

“Do I ever,” I replied as I plopped myself onto a dining chair. Alec pulled down a few glasses and popped open the whiskey bottle. “And put an extra ‘up’ in mine so I can get through the rest of the week.”

I noticed Alec paused for a moment as he was about to pour the alcohol into the cups. “Sure thing,” he replied as he poured out the alcohol.

I leaned my elbows on the table closer in his direction. “Are you sure everything’s alright?”

“Work’s fine,” he assured me as he added water and ice.

“That’s not what I asked,” I pointed out as he joined me at the table and held out my drink.

He took a seat opposite me and stared down at his drink that he cradled between his hands. His voice was quiet, and there was a reluctance in his tone that pulled at my heart. “How long have we known each other, Elly?”

“About five years. Why?”

A bitter smile slipped onto his lips as he shook his head. “It’s. . .I just feel like I’ve known you all my life. That you’ve always been there, and I can’t imagine being without you.”

I laughed. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.” When my words failed to wash away the bitterness in his face I moved to the seat beside him and set my hand atop one of his. “Seriously. I’m not going anywhere.”

His face hardened as he stared with laser focus on the table. “No. I’ll make sure of that.” I leaned back and blinked at him. He shook himself out of his strange mood and managed a strained smile for me. “I’m not very fun tonight, am I?”

“You’re worrying me,” I admitted as I gave his hand another squeeze. That’s when I noticed a strange bump over the skin between the thumb and forefinger. I lifted my hand and revealed a blackened scar in the shape of a dragon’s head. “Did you draw this on yourself?” I asked him as I rubbed my own finger on the figure. The image didn’t smudge like paint or marker.

Alec jerked his hand back and covered the marking with his other hand. “Y-yes. I was having trouble concentrating so I drew that.”

“It’s very pretty,” I complimented him.

“I guess. . .” he murmured as he looked away toward the living room. He pursed his lips before his next words tumbled out. “Have you ever thought about when you were a child?”

I blinked at him before understanding hit me. “You mean the years I can’t remember?” He nodded. I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. “You know, Roxie was just talking to me about that this afternoon.”

His eyes darted to me and he arched an eyebrow. “And?”

I shrugged. “I just reminded her that I never could remember what happened. It’s all a blank. Where I came from, what my parents were like-”

“Just your name. . .” he finished for me as his voice trailed off.

I nodded. “Just my name. Elly.”

“And nothing more?” he persisted.

I raised my eyes to his inquisitive face and frowned. “No, but why are you bringing this up?”

Alec shot to his feet and strode into the kitchen. “Did you want something to eat?”

“Sure,” I answered as I looked at his untouched drink.

Another bolt of lightning stretched across the sky, illuminating the dark corners of the apartment, along with the darkened bedroom. The soft, cracking light made visible Alec’s easel on which I glimpsed a strange sight. The view was brief and made only to pique my curiosity. As Alec bent into the refrigerator I stood and walked over to the bedroom door where I flicked on the light.

The overhead light illuminated the large bed and dresser, and the tell-tale easel. An unfamiliar and eerie painting leaned against the wood frame. The landscape painting was of a dark woods etched with shadows and ancient trees. A stump of one massive tree stood at the forefront, its carcass abused by the duel cruelties of time and weather. The living trees that surrounded it stretched out their gnarled branches as though in supplication. Bare earth around its roots was the stump’s sole other companion.

A hand dropped onto my shoulder. I yelped and spun around to find myself face-to-face with Alec. His eyes lay on the eerie landscape his hands had wrought, and the look in them made me have a passing thought that the view was as alien to him as it was to me. The thought, however, was quickly shelved.

I clutched my chest over my heart and sheepishly grinned up at him. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Alec strode past me without a word and grabbed a sheet off his unmade bed. He draped the cloth over the painting.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him as I came up to his side. “I thought it was pretty good.”

He adjusted the corners over the sheet to make sure not a single edge of the canvas showed and bowed his head. “I don’t want you to see it. It’s. . .it’s not done.”

I arched an eyebrow. “But you let me see other unfinished-”

“I don’t want you to see it!”

His angry voice made me start back. He’d never yelled at me before. Alec closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

I set a hand on his shoulder and was shocked at how badly it shook. “What’s wrong?” I questioned him as I tried to catch his eye, but he turned his face away from me. I grasped his other shoulder and turned his body to face mine. “Alec, even a blind man could see that something’s wrong. What is it?”

Alec’s eyes darted to and fro and I could see the gears working in the back of them as he searched for the right words. “Elly, I love you so much, and I-” He lifted his eyes to mine and grasped my upper arms. “You know I would never do anything to hurt you. You’re everything to me, and I just want to protect you.”

My pulse quickened. “Alec, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”

Another bolt of lightning scorched the sky and lit up the room with its violent light. Alec whipped his head up to the dark sky and his eyebrows crashed down. “Damn it! Why does it have to be so soon?”

“What’s so soon?” I pleaded as I grasped the front of his shirt. “Alec, what’s going on? Please tell me!”

He returned his attention to me and shook his head. “I can’t, but just know that I love you. No matter what, always believe that, okay?”

I stepped back out of his reach and shook my head. “How can I believe anything when you won’t tell me what’s going on?”

“You have to leave,” Alec demanded as he spun me around and nearly tossed me out of the room. He slammed the door shut behind himself, but that didn’t stop another peal of thunder from shaking the apartment windows.

Alec managed to push me to the door before I spun around to face him. I balled my hands into quivering fists at my sides and glared up at him. “Why are you doing this to me? Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

Alec froze for a moment, his eyes searching my face, before his lips slightly parted as though to speak. Just as his lips moved he winced and slapped his right hand over his left one. Over the strange mark. He turned away and shook his head. “Leave.”

I stretched out my hand. “But-”

“Just leave!”

I paused, winced against his harsh voice, and dropped my arm to my side. “Fine. I’m leaving.” I turned toward the door and grabbed my bag which I slung over my shoulder. “Don’t expect me to come back.”

I stomped out into the hall and closed the door behind me. Just before the lock clicked shut I heard Alec’s whispered voice.

“For your sake, I hope you don’t.”

Out in the quiet hall I couldn’t stop my tears. They flowed down my cheeks as I rushed down the corridor and stumbled down the stairs. The cool night air greeted me with a frosty kiss as I stumbled out into the darkness. I stood a few yards from the entrance, my body quivering as I tried to suppress my sobs.

A sound pierced the storm. My head shot up and my pulse quickened when I realized it hadn’t been thunder. The noise had been a single gunshot.

I spun around and looked up at the second floor. Alec’s apartment was on the other side. I couldn’t see if his lights were still on or off. I didn’t need to. The gunshot was soon followed by a piercing scream. A plume of smoke billowed out of the rear of the apartment building.

I rushed inside, my mind tearing through a long list of horrible possibilities. All memories of our one and only fight were swept aside as my love for him, and my terrifying fears, overrode all else.

I reached the second floor and paused at the top of the stairs. A group of residents were huddled about Alec’s door. Faint whiffs of smoke drifted down the hall and burned my nostrils with its pungent odor. It smelled like burnt paint.

I rushed forward. Miss Hazel stood among the crowd, and at my coming she grabbed my arms and tried to push me back. “No, dear. You shouldn’t-”

I shoved past her and into the living room. The smoke hung thick against the ceiling, but the fire was out. The open door to the bedroom showed that what had burned was the canvas on the easel. Only half of the picture was still intact.

A few of the male residents stood beside the bed shaking their heads. Then I saw the figure. Their body was draped over the bed. An arm hung close to the floor where a gun had been dropped after they-

“No,” I whispered, and my voice caught their attention.

“Get her out of here!” one of them shouted.

“Come with me, dear,” Hazel pleaded as she grasped my arms.

“No!” I screamed as I thrashed in her hold. A few other men in the building grabbed me and pulled me away from the scene. “Alec! Alec!”

But I didn’t have to see any more. I knew Alec was dead. Dead by his own hand. After our only fight.

3

Visions danced in my head. Shadowy forms sprang up from the darkness. Clouds parted and revealed a dead stump surrounded by trees. I recognized it then. The painting from Alec’s apartment. Only this time the lonely glade wasn’t so lonely.

A cloaked figure stood behind the stump. Their hood hid their face in darkness, but I somehow knew they were staring at me.

Lightning flashed overhead and for a split second illuminated the grove. My eyes widened as I beheld other shadows lurking at the edges of the clearing. Their faces were mere patches of darkness, but I could see eyes. Red eyes, and all staring at me.

“Hey,” a soft voice breathed at me.

I started awake and found myself looking up into Roxie’s concerned face. She tried to give me a smile that was more filled with concern than good humor. “You okay?”

I returned my eyes to the screen and shrugged. “I guess.”

“You were talking in your sleep,” she told me as she took a seat in the extra chair. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“Sleeping or talking?” I teased as I forced my focus to remain on the screen. I didn’t want to look into her pity-filled eyes.

“Both,” Roxie replied as she set a hand atop mine. “I know what day it is for you. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m fine,” I insisted as I glanced at the computer clock. “I’ll be even better in five seconds.”

Roxie arched an eyebrow. “Why five seconds?”

“Weekend!” someone shouted from a nearby cubicle as the clocks struck the hour.

I gathered up my things and stood to face my friend. “Time for a little r-and-r.”

“Did you want to get a drink?” Roxie offered.

Those pity-filled eyes. I faked a smile and shook my head. “Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow, though.”

“Yeah, tomorrow. . .”

“Chin up,” I teased as I patted her on the shoulder. “We’ve got two days to get drunk and forget that we have to go back to work on Monday.”

Roxie squeezed my hand and smiled. “Don’t get too drunk, at least not without me.”

“I’ll be sure to call you when I open the bottle,” I promised.

She gave me a wink. “Just open a bottle of expensive wine. I’d know that sound anywhere.”

I laughed and shook my head as I scooted past her. “Just the cheap stuff for me, but later.”

“Later!” she called back as I strode down the hall to the elevators.

The slow, stuffy elevator ride allowed me to hide my fake smile in that cramped space, surrounded by people who wouldn’t have noticed an elephant marching through because the long weekend awaited them. I couldn’t get Roxie’s words out of my head. I know what day it is for you. Yeah, that day. That anniversary.

I stepped out of the office building and was greeted by a chill breeze that swept past me. The cold cut through my jacket and sank into my bones where my melancholy greeted it like an old friend.

“Thank you, Mother Nature. . .” I muttered as I walked to the local parking garage

It was a recent purchase, bought after my other method of transportation became unavailable to me.

“Unavailable. . .” I murmured with a bitter scoff. “I can’t even say the truth in my head.”

My legs took me swiftly to the car park and my aged sedan. I dropped into the car seat and shut the door, but made no move to start the engine. Images of that strange dream flashed across my mind. Images of that painting popped up in my thoughts. That half-burnt masterpiece on the easel, tucked inside that darkened room with murmurings of lies and shouts. It felt so long ago, but it was only a year. One year to the day.

I had to do it. I had to go see it. A rumble overhead caught my attention. A storm was brewing. If I wanted to get this done then I needed to do it now.

I started the engine and wound my way through the traffic to the familiar blocks of apartment buildings. The wind that had teased me on coming out of the office building strengthened and now knocked against the car windows like a mob. They brought more clouds and the air smelled of rain, but nothing had yet fallen. It was working itself into a terrible frenzy and wouldn’t let loose until it was good and ready.

I parked in front of the familiar two floor apartment building. Lights cast their glow over the ground and ghostly shadows passed by closed curtains.

I stepped out of my car and looked up. One of those apartments wouldn’t have any lights on.

“I knew you’d come, my dear.” I jerked my head to the entrance. Miss Hazel held the door open for me, and there was that pity-filled smile again. “It’s all up there if you want to look at it.”

I joined her and smiled. “You really didn’t have to keep it that way.”

“I wanted to, and it’s no hurt on me to keep one apartment empty,” she assured me as she led me inside. She grasped my hand and set a key in my palm. “Now you take as long as you want, and don’t be fretting about using the lights. That’s what they’re there for, after all.”

I leaned down and pecked a kiss on her cheek. “Thanks.” I slipped past her and walked toward the stairs.

“Elly.” I paused and half-turned back to the kindly old woman. A few tears glistened in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I truly am.”

I managed a shaky smile. “Me, too.”

I hurried up the stairs so she couldn’t see my own wet eyes, but paused at the top. The dark clouds had obscured the sunny hall in shadows, and at the end was the door. I swallowed the lump in my throat and strode forward. Nothing stirred as I reached the entrance and tried to insert the key. My hand shook so bad that it took a few tries, but I managed to unlock and swing open the door.

The silence that hung over the hall invaded the apartment. Silence and dread. I stepped inside and flicked on the light. The luminescent bulb illuminated the plain furnishings, untouched for a year. I closed the door beside myself and brushed my hand over the top of the entrance table. Not a speck of dust.

“Thank you, Miss Hazel,” I whispered as I dropped my purse on the table.

A flash of lightning made me jump. Thunder soon followed. The fury of the storm rattled the windows. I walked over to the glass and peered out. The angry clouds hung low over the apartment building, just like it had one year before. Like a ghost returned from the grave.

A shudder ran through me and I wrapped my arms around myself. “Why did you have to say that?” I scolded my mind.

The painting.

I rolled my eyes. My mind could be so demanding.

Another crack of lightning split the sky. I turned away from the fury and back to the silence. The simple bulb cast the door to the bedroom in shadow. I took a deep breath and strode over to the entrance. The wood seemed to glare back at me as I reached for the knob.

My hand froze around the handle as I heard a strange groaning noise. Had that come from the room? I leaned forward and pressed my ear against the wood. No reverberations, no movement, nothing. Just the oppressive silence.

“You’re starting to hear things,” I scolded myself as I straightened.

I turned the knob and flung the door open. The weak light at my back spilled only a few feet into the bedroom, but that was enough to see the easel. The charred remains stood defiant against gravity, and atop its perch sat the strange painting, or what was left of it. The neighbors had spilled gallons of water on it to keep the flames from spreading. Half of the picture was gone, but not the most important part. The stump was still there.

I stepped inside, but didn’t bother with the light. Deep down I dreaded a clear look at Alec’s final masterpiece, but I dreaded more the bed. The sheets had been changed long ago and the floor cleaned, but the repairs couldn’t replace the memories in my mind.

I side-stepped the picture and took a few steps to the bed, but I couldn’t make my legs move me closer. The white sheets seemed to be mocking my memories. My eyes lowered to the floor where Miss Hazel had somehow managed to clean the blood. I could still see the dark shape of that gun laying there. My chest tightened. Warm tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Damn it. . .” I murmured as I wiped them away. “Damn you, Alec. Why’d you have to leave me?”

A stomping noise made me stiffen. I whipped my head around expecting to see someone in the doorway. There was nothing, and yet the hairs on the back of my neck still stood on end.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”

I crept forward so I stood just to the side and in front of the painting. Something moved out of the corner of my eye. I turned toward the painting and my breath caught in my throat.

The shadows and trunk were still there staring back at me, but there was something else. I leaned in close and squinted my eyes. There it was. A face in the trees. It stared straight at me.

Then it moved.

4

I gasped and jerked back. The face moved out of the shadows and stalked toward the foreground of the painting. There was more than just a pale face. The figure was that of a painfully thin man with an overcoat draped over his frame. The flesh on his hands and face was the pallor of death, and the black eyes stared at me with an unbending will that frightened me more than anything.

I scrambled backward and hit the wall beside the door. More figures appeared, three in number. They were piggish men with flat noses and flaring nostrils. Their belts held scabbard sheaths and gun holsters.

I dared breath as they reached the bottom of the portrait, but I couldn’t move. Those black eyes had captured me in their horrific willpower. Warm tears streamed down my face as I tried to will myself to move, but nothing happened. Nothing to me, that is.

The pale man reached the edge of the canvas and then reached even further. His head extended beyond the boundaries of the picture and became three dimensional. The rest of him followed, as did his three snoutish companions. The last one caught his leg on the staples that strapped the canvas to the frame. He struggled for a moment before he pushed the picture away from him. The easel clattered to the ground.

“Shut up!” another of the men hissed.

The noisier pig sneered and nodded at the pale figure that stood in front of them. “Not my fault the damn thing didn’t work. He’s the one who did the magic.”

“Both of you shut up,” the third one snapped, and I noticed he sported a pair of tusks that poked out from his lower lips.

The pale figure didn’t pay any mind to his bickering cohorts. His attention was completely on me. My body began to shake as he stepped closer. His even, shallow breath wafted over me as his black eyes flickered over my person.

“So that’s the girl, is it?” one of the pigs spoke up. “Doesn’t look like-” His superior knocked him upside the head.

“What did I say about keeping quiet?” he snarled.

The stiff figure in front of me leaned back and raised its arm. The black sleeve slid down to reveal his pale armor. He reached up and, with one sharpened fingernail, cut a long gash in his limb. Thick blood congealed around the narrow wound and some of it dripped on the clean carpet.

The man, if I could call such a ghoul a man, pressed the palm of his other hand on one side of my face as he drew his bleeding arm close to my face. “Drink,” he hissed. His voice was as warm as the deep ocean. I recoiled in disgust and flattened myself against the wall. He pressed his arm against my lips. “Drink.”

I pressed my lips tightly together and tried not to breath in the scent of the blood. It smelled like death. The pale man reached up and pried my lips apart. My arms wouldn’t obey my silent pleas to stop him. He shoved his bleeding wound into my parted lips. The cold liquid slid inside my mouth and down my throat. I choked on the putrid flavor, somewhere between battery acid and rotten flesh.

He pulled his arm away and those unblinking eyes stared into mine. I unwillingly swallowed the disgusting bile and my whole body chilled like I’d swallowed a block of ice. As I stood there shivering, however, an unearthly black glow arose from my skin. The light flickered and danced like fire, and yet I was not warmed by its appearance.

The man stepped back and didn’t even glance at the others as he addressed them. “Grab her and take her.”

The piggish men hesitated, and the tusked one arched an eyebrow. “That’s it? She just needs some blood?”

The man turned his head to one side so they could see one of his terrible black eyes. They shrank back. “Grab her and take her.”

“Y-yes, sir,” the tusked man agreed as he looked to his men. He jerked his head toward me. “You heard him. Get her and drag her into the picture.”

The pair stalked past the others and they each grabbed an arm. The pale man turned away and I felt as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My body once again obeyed my commands, and I had only one command to give. Kick.

Fortunately, the piggish men were still men and my aim was true. I kicked one in the crotch and his eyes bulged out of his head before he squeaked and collapsed onto his knees.

His companion snarled at me. “Why you little-” Another well-aimed kick and he had joined his friend to worship the floor.

I spun around and dashed through the doorway. The heavy footsteps of the last piggish man followed, and I had only reached the center of the living room when his fat arms wrapped around my waist. He lifted me off the floor and my feet kicked the air beneath me.

“Let go of me!” I screamed as I thrashed in his hold.

“Stay still, you little bitch, or I’ll squeeze you like a melon,” he growled.

I stiffened, but I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. There wasn’t a noise in the apartment, and yet I could still sense the approach of that horrible pale figure. The man stepped in front of us so he stood between us and the windows with his back to the glass. Those hideous lifeless eyes stared into mine, but I forced mine shut.

“This one needs a good spanking,” the piggish man snapped at his compatriot. He glanced over at his two subordinates who were easing themselves onto their feet. “Get up, ya mangy sty-sleepers! Are you going to let a human woman beat you that easily!” The pair stood on shaky legs and glared at me.

“Take her,” the pale man commanded.

The piggish man turned us back to the bedroom. “I’m taking her, don’t you worry about that.”

A crash of glass forced my captor to spin around back to the windows. Even the pale man turned his face to one side to see what had happened. The curtains flapped in the wild wind that flew through the shattered windows. My breath caught in my throat when one of the curtains pulled back to reveal a shadowy figure. They wore a long, black trench coat that allowed them to blend almost completely with the darkness. Their hands were covered in black metal gauntlets with claw-like fingers and heavy boots fitted their feet over matching thick pants.

A broad rimmed hat covered their head, and as they lifted their face to us I saw that most of their features were wrapped in a thick bandage. Only one single yellow eye, his left one, could be seen, but that was enough. There was fury in that eye, an untamed anger that settled on the pig and the pale.

“Who the fuck are you?” piggish man growled.

The pale man stepped between us and the stranger with his back to us. “Get her into the portrait.”

“My men can take care of this,” the pig argued as he glanced at his men and jerked his head toward the stranger. “Get him!”

The pair drew out their short swords and charged the cloaked man. They swung their weapons down to slice his limbs off, but he raised his arms and the swords met a clang of hard metal beneath the thick gloves. The stranger, with an ease of a man swatting an insect, pushed them away from him. They stumbled back and the pale man was forced to side step to avoid them crashing into him.

The distraction was a good one as all eyes had been on the bumbling pair. When I next looked at the stranger I found myself face-to-chest with him. That terrible yellow eye glared at the pig who I felt tremble against my back.

“G-get back!” he commanded as he tightened his grip on me. “Get back or-”

Whatever he intended, he didn’t have time to finish the threat much less pull off the promise. The stranger’s hand shot out and wrapped around the piggish man’s many throats. The pig let out a garbled noise and released me to claw at the other man’s arm as he was lifted off the floor. I myself collapsed onto the carpet. My shaky legs wouldn’t let me stand, but I crawled toward the door and only glanced over my shoulder when I reached the entrance.

The stranger tossed the pig toward the pale man, who again dodged the attack with ease. The pale man stepped toward the stranger and raised his skeletal arm. A ball of swirling black light, much like the light around my body, formed in the palm of his splayed hand. The stranger tensed a second before the ball shot forward, when he dodged out of the path of the orb. The orb, however, swung around like a heat-seeking missile and careened toward the man’s back.

The strange spun around and swung his arm downward. His forearm struck the ball and the orb shot into the floor. The carpet burned and the wood in the sub floor burst into tiny splinters that sprayed everywhere. The orb left a devastating hole some three feet round, and the tenant in the ground floor vacated their room with a scream and a stumble toward the door.

I covered my face with my arms as the sharp wood rained down on me. The next thing I knew strong arms had wrapped around me and I was hefted over the trench coat man’s shoulder. He turned to face the pale man who now pointed both thin hands at us.

“Release her,” the pale man demanded.

The stranger’s reply was to jump down the hole. I screamed as we fell through the sub floor and dropped onto the carpet below. The man shot forward and crashed through the front windows, sending shards of glass everywhere, including on me. He cleared the parking lot in seconds and made for the forest of single-family homes that surrounded the apartments.

My position granted me a fine view of the apartment we had just vacated. The pale man stood at the window, his dark eyes glaring at us as we disappeared around the corner. I had the feeling we hadn’t seen the last of him.

My car, however, would never be seen again.

5

My new captor sped across lawns and streets, never slowing or looking left or right. I twisted around as best I could considering his strong hand on my waist pinned me to his shoulder. He had us aimed at the high-riser buildings in the distance, the commercial district which would afford me fewer witnesses should he have his way with me.

Damn my horrible thoughts.

“Let me go!” I shouted as I beat his back with my fists. “Let me down right now or I’m going to scream!”

“Scream then,” came the curt reply. His voice was slightly gravelly and hoarse, as though he didn’t have much practice speaking. Dressed as he was, like a fashionable punk-rock funeral director, I wouldn’t have been surprised if nobody had talked to him in years.

“I will!” I snapped as I opened my mouth big and wide.

The man, who until now had shot straight forward over fences and bushes, darted to one side. The motion jerked me to one side, though he kept a tight hold on my person. I tried again to scream, but he did the same, this time dodging a car that had hardly been in our path.

“You’re doing that on purpose!”

He replied with another jerk around a tricycle. My face drooped and I let my arms hang limply on either side of my head. Screaming was now off the table.

“Could you at least tell me why you’re kidnapping me?” I questioned him. Silence, but I wasn’t going to accept that as an answer. I grasped his back and raised myself high enough to catch a look at his bandaged face. The yellow eye stared ahead without blinking. I tapped him on the head. “Hello? Damsel wanting to know why you’re distressing her.”

The eyelid flickered for a moment. “To save you.”

I jerked my thumb in the direction we’d come. “To save me from the walking corpse and the three little pigs? Why are they even after me? Did I fry up their mother?” I detected a faint hint of humor in that yellow orb, but there was no reply.

However, there was an answer from my stomach as the motion began to take its toll on my strained body. A gut-wrenching pain struck me that made me double over atop him.

“What’s wrong?” he questioned me.

“Stomach,” I groaned through clenched teeth.

By this time his prodigious speed meant we’d reached the outskirts of the steel and glass metropolis. Streetlights illuminated the roads, but the chasms between the buildings were drenched in shadows. Few people wandered the sidewalks, though some stumbled along the roads singing to themselves.

The storm that had threatened to burst all afternoon still rumbled above our heads. Occasionally lightning would streak across the sky and light up the voids that man called alleys, but only for a split second. Just long enough for the mind to play tricks on the eyes.

The stranger stopped us in one of these dingy alleys and gently set me on my feet. My stomach lurched again and I stumbled over to a nearby wall to empty its contents. A bile of blood and food spilled onto the pavement, the sight of which made me throw up even more of the muck. Even in my spasm of vomiting I noticed a change come over me. With each puking the light that emanated from my body faded until the glow vanished. I raised my hand and watched the light dim to nothing.

“I have to be dead. . .” I murmured as I dropped my arm to my side and let it swing there. My stomach tumbled again, but the contents were already splattered in front of me. “And this is hell.”

“Can you move on your own?” the man asked me.

I flipped around and leaned my back against the brick. My face must have been ghastly pale in the dim light. I certainly felt like a sheet over a corpse. “Do I have to?”

He looked up at the sky and frowned when lightning shot across. “Yes.”

“Why?” I questioned him as I took a few deep breaths. “Why is any of this happening? Who were those guys? Who are you?”

The stranger grabbed my arm and tugged me down the alley. “There’s no time for questions. We have to reach the studio.”

I blinked at him. “What studio?”

“One that isn’t far, but the storm may pass at any time,” he warned me.

A droplet of cold water hit my nose. “I think it’s about to get worse.”

Then came the rain and all the miserable dampness that followed. My flimsy clothes soon became soaked and clung to my skin like I’d worn them through a washing machine. I kind of felt bounced around as the stranger with the yellow eye dragged me through the wet, puddle-filled streets, and wondered if that eye was more than just show. He navigated the trash can-strewn streets like he could see in the dark.

“Can you see in the dark?” I asked him between breaths, such was our pace. He barely missed hitting a car with his hip. I wasn’t so lucky and received a war wound in the shape of a forming bruise. “Can you see anything out of that eye?”

“Yes,” he replied as he skidded to a stop. I crashed into his backside, but he was as sturdy as a rock and I merely slumped against him. “Trouble.”

I leaned to one side to look around him and my breath caught in my throat. The Pale Man, as I’d come to know him, stood in front of us. The torrential downpour forced his dark hair against his scalp and his clothes pressed against his thin frame, accenting his terrible skeletal appearance. He didn’t heed any of the cold droplets, not even those that slipped into his eyes and drained down his face.

“Give her to me,” the Pale Man commanded.

The stranger stretched his arm out in front of me and narrowed his one eye at our foe. “She’s not yours.”

“Nor yours, Shade,” the Pale Man countered.

I looked up at the stranger and arched an eyebrow. “Shade?”

“I stole her in a fair fight,” Shade retorted.

“Give her to me,” the Pale Man insisted as he stretched out his hand. A ball of flame grew out of his palm and the light reflected off his unblinking eyes. “Or you will both die.”

“She’s too valuable to kill,” Shade countered.

“Not if she is not ours,” Pale Man argued as he drew his flaming hand back for a throw.

Shade swooped down and scooped up a handful of water from a nearby puddle. He flung the dirty liquid at the creature who stepped out of the way but couldn’t avoid the swing of Shade’s fist as the stranger slammed his hand into Pale Man’s cheek. Pale Man fell to the ground hard, but his eyes didn’t blink once as he lay there stunned.

“Come on!” Shade shouted as he grabbed my hand and tugged me past the fallen man.

We raced into another alley, but Shade turned a sharp left and slammed his shoulder into a metal door. The heavy, near-indestructible door gave way beneath his strength and we stumbled into a long, grungy hallway decorated with graffiti and filled with trash. He pulled me down the corridor and turned a sharp right into a small room that I guessed had once been a studio, what with the wide windows that now looked out on an adjoining brick building.

An easel stood in one corner, and atop its mount sat a painting. Not any painting, but the painting. The painting from Alec’s apartment.

Shade released me and slammed the door shut behind us. As he worked away at blocking the door I approached the painting. Every detail was the same, down to the bare, clinging branches on the trees and the shadow of the stump that stretched toward the foreground.

“This painting. . .” I whispered as I half-turned to Shade. “But how? How is there another one?”

“There’s no time to explain,” he warned me as he strode past me to stand beside the painting. He bit his lip and a thin line of blood slipped down his chin. “We have to go. Now.”

I stepped back and shook my head. “Go? Go where?”

A pounding at my back made me jump. I turned around and watched with a synchronized heartbeat as something strong beat against the door. My hand was snatched and I was spun around to face Shade.

“Forgive me,” he whispered.

I blinked at him. “Forgive you for-”

He drew me against him and pressed his lips against mine. My mind went into overload right up until the first bit of warm blood flowed into my mouth. My eyes widened and I tried to pull away, but he wrapped his other arm around my waist and held me closer. The thick liquid slid down my throat and I watched as another soft glow of light emanated from my body, but this was different. There was no darkness, only beautiful strands of brilliance that floated out of my body and arched back into myself.

The pounding behind us grew louder as Shade stepped back and pulled me along by my wrist. He held up his other hand and showed off a lighter. “Hold on, and don’t be afraid.”

He turned around and rushed at the portrait. I was dragged along and as we raced across the dingy floor the door broke open behind us. A ball of light flew past my cheek and struck Shade in the right shoulder, but he hardly flinched as we neared the easel. Light burst out of the painting and engulfed us in its warm brilliance. I was forced to close my eyes against the light and my foot tripped over something hard. Even Shade’s grasp couldn’t hold me as I tumbled to the soft grass.

Wait a minute. Soft grass?

My eyes shot open and I found myself lying on my back. A clear, brilliant sky hung over me. The stars twinkled as though to say hello, and a moon hung low enfolding the world in its soft light.

I sat up and swept my eyes over what appeared to be a clearing. A stump stood beside me. I’d tripped on one of its rotting roots.

My breath caught in my throat when I recognized the stump. It was that stump, the one from Alec’s painting. I raised myself up on my arms and looked around. The whole forest from Alec’s imagination surrounded us.

“H-how?” I whispered as I climbed to my feet. Shade stood close by with his eyes on a spot in front of the stump. A small fire burned the grass. “Are we trapped in the painting?”

“No,” he replied as he backed up to stand even with me. His eyes remained on the same spot. “We used the painting to travel to another world, but we have to leave now.”

“Leave?” I repeated as I looked around. “Like go to another world?”

“No, leave this meadow,” he explained as he grasped my hand and pulled me away from the trunk.

“But why?” I asked him as he tugged me toward the trees.

He quickened our pace to nearly a sprint. “Because if we can travel through the painting then so can they.”

“Then why haven’t they jumped through already?” I pointed out.

“Because I burned that painting,” he told me as we entered the trees.

I shook my head. “Then how are they-” My breath caught in my throat. “The other painting!”

6

“Exactly,” he confirmed as we hurried through the woods.

The twinkling stars were of no use to me as I stumbled across rock and root. Shade, however, had an apt name as he flitted through the shadows with the ease of an owl gliding in the night. I tripped over a large rock and fell onto the fern-covered ground.