Shadow Walker: (Urban fantasy romance) (Shadow Walker Trilogy Book 1)
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
SHADOW WALKER
SHADOW WALKER TRILOGY BOOK 1
BY TIFFANY SHAND
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Copyright © 2018 Tiffany Shand
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written consent of the author, except for brief quotes in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.
Cover Design by Melody Simmons ebookindiecovers.com
Editor: Lisa Maree Birch
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
Afterword
Excerpt from Shadow Spy
Excerpt from Denai Touch
Excerpt from Betrayed By Blood
Excerpt from The Alpha’s Daughter
Also by Tiffany Shand
Other Works
About the author
Prologue
Charlie McCray looked at her watch for about thousandth time and glanced down into the gloom on the floor below. The warehouse felt cold and smelt of dampness. Cracks of light shone down through the splintered glass windows casting eerie white pools onto the floor. Hell, she couldn’t wait to catch these guys in the act, find out what illegals they were trading and get the hell out of there. Her best friend and her fellow enforcer, Natalia, grinned at her.
What’s taking so long? Nat groaned in thought.
Tell me about it. I want this over with so I can have a drink and we can give Simon a proper retirement send-off. Charlie shifted in an effort to get her stiff limbs more comfortable.
Natalia’s smile widened. Sure it’s not because you’re dying for your promotion?
Charlie rolled her eyes. Yes, the big promotion where she’d become a lieutenant at just twenty-four years of age since their team leader, Simon, was retiring. She finally had the chance to lead their team and get to where she’d been wanting to be for the past six years. Running her own team. But first they had a gang to deal with.
Working as an enforcer often meant waiting around and working undercover. But Charlie loved the good she could do enforcing justice. She kept a close watch on Simon as he waited for his contact to arrive. Catching one of the Tears, a gang of ruthless criminals who liked to trade illegal artefacts and drugs had been something her team had been working on for months.
Be patient, Charlie told herself. You can’t afford to blow this.
She glanced over at their fellow team mate, Louis, who flashed her smile from where he perched on the other side of the upper floor of the warehouse. Ready to celebrate, lieutenant?
I’m not an LT yet, she reminded him.
I could kill for good beer! Lou turned his attention back to their boss.
Shush, we need to focus.
Aye, aye, LT. He gave her a mock salute.
Charlie just shook her head, tried to focus on the job. Hell, she couldn’t wait to celebrate but the job hadn’t been completed yet. They’d spent months setting up this operation. Plus, her boyfriend, Scott, was coming home too, so she had even more to celebrate. Everything was coming together. She’d finally oversee her own team and had her boyfriend home. After weeks apart it would be great to finally spend some time together. But she knew she’d have a lot of work to do after her big promotion.
The sound of the warehouse door creaking open made Charlie grip her gun tighter. A man dressed in a black hoodie came in with Simon’s informant. She couldn’t make out the man’s face. Lou, do you have a visual?
Not yet.
Nat?
Negative, her partner replied.
Charlie crawled along the floor, feeling the cold metal against her skin. She had to be careful, quiet or she risked giving them all away.
Simon, his informant and the newcomer gathered, talking in low voices. She tried to listen in on them through the comm link in her ear, but couldn’t make out much of their conversation.
Charlie, that’s him. That’s our guy, Lou said.
Her heart started to beat faster and she aimed her rifle at their target. The man pulled a small wooden box out of his jacket. Lou, can you see what that thing is? she asked.
Nope, nothing showing up on my scanner.
Charlie held up her own scanner with her free hand, and searched for what might be inside.
“This is the device,” Simon’s voice echoed in her ear.
Charlie bit her lip. This was it. The moment they’d been waiting for. She stared through her rifle scope, made sure her recorder was working.
The man flipped open the box. A brilliant burst of blue light blinded Charlie as a roar of thunder shook the air. The floor beneath her gave way. She screamed as she felt herself falling through space. Then darkness swallowed her up.
Chapter 1
Charlie tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear. “I thought transferring to a new unit would mean less stake-outs.” She glanced over at her new partner, Kaz. Kazia Snowden with her flaming red hair and sharp green eyes, looked and acted the opposite of her former partner, Natalia.
“It’s not a stake-out, we’re waiting for the artefact to be handed over to us,” Kaz replied. “Of course you could always go back to the office and get through that pile of paperwork you’ve been avoiding.”
“Hey, that’s your job, officer.”
Kaz rolled her eyes. “What’s the matter, McCray? Grunt work too much for you?”
Charlie snorted. “No, I just can’t believe the Arts, Antiquities and Collectables Division involves so much damned paperwork.”
“You could always go back to Major Crimes. I heard the chief left the position open for you, right?”
Charlie winced. Yes, she could still become a lieutenant and lead a team the way she’d always dreamed of, but how could she lead any team when her own were dead now? Deep down she knew she couldn’t do, it had even forced her to turn down her coveted promotion.
She felt familiar ache rise in her chest and fought to stay calm. It had been six months since she’d lost them and the pain still felt just as raw. “No, I told you I don’t work with Major Crimes anymore. That part of my life is over.” Hell, she’d only been working with ACC Department a couple of weeks. She had to give it a chance.
Charlie knew Kaz, an Ashrali fey, back from her days at the Enforcers Academy and decided it might be fun working with her again. She spotted a man in a black hoodie striding towards them. Her mind flashed back to the man standing next to Simon. Charlie gritted her teeth. Not now! Stay calm. She took a deep breath. One, two, three. Breathe.
“Hey, are you...” Charlie started to ask.
The man’s dark eyes widened and he pulled out a gun. “Bloody hell!”
Charlie knocked it away with a sharp kick. He lunged at her; she blocked and shoved him to the ground. “Stay down,” she snapped, pulling out her cuffs and yanking his arms behind his back. “Jeez, Little. What the hell are you doing here?” She knew the low-level street thug from her early days of working in Setara City. She hadn’t expected to bust him while working in ACC.
“God, McCray, why the fuck did it have to be you?”
Kaz only stared. “Nice moves, McCray,” her partner remarked. “Does he have the painting on him?”
Charlie patted down Little’s body and pulled a piece of parchment out of his jacket.
Kaz examined it. “It’s fake.”
“Jeez, McCray, I heard you’d gone soft, but I can’t believe you’re working in ACC,” Little remarked as she dragged him into the station. “Aren’t you bored out of your freaking mind?”
“No, it’s peaceful. Catching you reminds me how much I don’t want to go back to my old job.” Charlie took him through booking. Plus, my new job doesn’t get people killed.
Walking through the small station brought back memories too, but she forced them down. The small red brick building had been used as a school before the country’s revolution but had since been turned into an enforcer’s station. Kaz and Charlie took Little through the security scanner, showing their badges for ID then took him through to booking.
Little fiddled with his cuffs then stared at Charlie. “Seriously, McCray, I used to enjoy seeing you around. You’re cool, well, cool for a cop anyway,” Little said with a grin.
She flinched, she really didn’t want to be reminded of the old days. “That was a long time ago, Little.”
Charlie handed him over to the desk sergeant and headed back to the cluttered office she now shared with Kaz. She slumped into her rickety desk chair and scowled at the pile of paperwork.
“You did good out there, sarge. Doesn’t it make you miss Major Crimes?” Kaz asked.
Charlie sighed. She knew Kaz had just been biding her time until she could join Major Crimes herself. It was the dream for a lot of enforcers. She hadn’t had an office when she’d worked in her old unit and this looked more like a cupboard than an office. With its skinny window, desks that looked like they’d been through a war zone and the endless piles of books and paperwork, it was a far cry from her old life.
“Look, no one really wants to work in ACC, I’m only doing it because the experience looks good for when I tried to apply Major Crimes,” Kaz told her.
Charlie tried not to wince. She’d been just like Kaz a few years earlier. Young, eager to join the newly formed Major Crimes Unit. Setara hadn’t had much in the way of law enforcement before and the city had needed a lot of help. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” she muttered and gulped down the station’s foul coffee.
Kaz slumped into her desk chair, shoving paper to one end of her own desk. “I still don’t get why you want to be here. I mean you’re a Denai witch, for crying out loud.” Denais were immortal witches who used their gifts to enforce and ensure justice with their powers of telepathy, empathy, compulsion, divination and being able to sense the truth. Charlie had been born Denai medium, her powers worked on the dead, not the living.
“I’m a medium,” she corrected. Or at least I was.
A gangly looking man with a mop of brown curls tapped on the door. Charlie smiled when she saw Nigel with his chequered shirt and cargo pants. The third unofficial member of her new team. He’d joined ACC like Kaz – for experience.
“Hey, sarge, the chief wants to see you in his office,” he told her.
Charlie groaned. Now what?
“Thanks.”
Charlie headed up to Chief Whitely’s office. She still had no idea why the chief had decided to work in Setara City after the country’s revolution. Maybe he had felt pushed out after the Excalibar team – her aunt’s investigation team – had moved to Elaris years earlier. Setara City wasn’t the place it had once been. She took a deep breath as she knocked on the door. If he wanted to talk to her about moving back to Major Crimes again he’d be wasting his time.
Charlie opened the door and saw Jason Talbot there instead of Chief Whitely. He had short dark hair, and silver eyes, towering over her at six and half feet. “Uncle Jason,” she gasped. “I mean er, chief. What you are doing here?”
Jason smiled, moved around the desk and wrapped his arms around her. Goddess, I hope no one sees this! One of the reasons she’d come to Setara in the first place was to get away from her family’s influence in Elaris.
“Hey.” He gave her a warm smile.
She groaned, closing the door behind her so no one else would see the exchange. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. What’s Chief Whitely gonna think with the commander being here? Well, Jason is his boss so I suppose he can’t object. “Please tell me Aunt Cate didn’t send you to check up on me again.”
“No, but she still worries about you – we both do.”
She’d spent a few weeks with her family after losing her team, although she loved them and they knew the downsides that came with being an enforcer it hadn’t helped. “I’m fine,” she insisted, resting a hip against the visitor’s chair. “Is that what you came all this way for?” Please don’t ask more questions about how I’m feeling, I just want to get back to work.
“No, I came to talk about your case.” Jason leant back against the desk and folded his arms.
Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. After the bombing Excalibar Investigations, the team of enforcers led by Jason and her aunt, Cate, had investigated but hadn’t found the people responsible. “Have you found something?” she asked, wringing her hands together.
“Maybe. I know someone who can help you get close to the Tears, but–”
“Tell me,” Charlie snapped. She’d do whatever it took to find the people responsible for killing her teammates. Come on, just tell me, I didn’t expect you of all people to keep things from me.
“You don’t have the clearance to work with Major Crimes’ files now and you broke all ties with them.”
Charlie gritted her teeth and shoved her hands into her pockets. “This had better not be a trick to get me back with them,” she hissed. “Since when does clearance matter? You’re the chief, plus the Grand Master. You and Aunt Cate are the highest legal authority over Magickind. Why wouldn’t you just give me the clearance?”
“Charlie, you know I’d never trick you. I won’t force you back either but there are rules in place...”
“Ha, since when do you care about rules?” Cate and Jason were famous among the enforcers for breaking the rules and forming their own investigations team separate from the traditional enforcers constabulary.
Jason sighed. “I can’t hold out on reforming your team. I’ve left the position open because I know how much you wanted to lead them.”
Charlie looked away and felt the sting of tears but held them back. Crying did nothing. “I told you, I don’t want that. I don’t care about any of it.” Charlie folded her arms, hugging herself. “Reform the team. I know there’s a lot of enforcers who’d kill to join.”
It had been her dream too. Once.
She turned to face her uncle. “Tell me about the lead.”
“It’s not much to go on, I think he can help you find some answers.”
“Give me the details. I’ll go right now.” Paperwork could wait a little longer. Finding her team’s killers trumped everything. “Who is it?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
Chapter 2
Charlie pulled up outside the club Nocturne, a large red brick building with darkened windows and black double doors. Unbelievable! She couldn’t believe Jason would send her here of all places. She sat staring at the club for several minutes, gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. Maybe Drake wouldn’t be there. Hell
, his main club was in Elaris so there was a good chance he wouldn’t be around. She’d spent the past six years trying to avoid seeing him again and had hoped this day would never come.
Get a grip. You’re here because of your case – okay, not officially my case, but they were my team. Nothing will stop me from getting justice for them. She took a deep breath, pulled on her leather jacket and glanced at herself in the rear-view mirror. With her brown locks pulled back in a loose knot and only a tinge of makeup, she wondered what Drake would think of her now. She’d been just shy of eighteen when they’d last seen each other.
Her deep brown eyes had dark circles under them from lack of sleep. Why should I care what Drake thinks? She clipped her badge onto the belt of her dark black jeans and strode towards the club. She wasn’t an awkward teenager anymore; she was a woman, an enforcer. Plus, it wasn’t as if anything would happen between her and Drake. She was only here to find out what he knew, then they’d go their separate ways again. Besides, she had Scott.
Charlie took a deep breath, pushed the doors open and stepped inside. She put on her Denai face to show a neutral expression. Denais never gave away their true emotions and she didn’t want him to see hers either.
Bright glaring white lights broke through the dark interior of the club with its black and white chequered floor and black and white tables and stools.
Definitely Drake’s style. If demons have style.
She spotted a giant of a man with a spattering of ginger hair and a short beard by the door. His dark eyes fixed on her she walked in, eyeing her badge. “Hi, I’m...” she said.
“I know who you are. The boss is expecting you, he’s in his office.” He motioned to a door at the back of the club. Her eyes widened. Expecting her? How had he known she’d come? Had Jason told him?
Ah hell, no backing out now. Part of her wanted to turn around and run back out. If she walked through that door, she’d be inviting Drake into her life again and she didn’t think she was ready for that. Charlie took another breath, counted a few times to stay calm. Here we go.