The Killing of a Shadow
Book 1 - The Killing of a Shadow
—Chapter 3 - The Request
“They call him ‘the Shadow,’ and right now, he’s staying in a heavily guarded palace right here in the country. He throws parties almost every day and requests girls be brought in from all over the world for him to rape, torture, and then kill. He is also known for crashing weddings and stealing the brides so that he can rape them and sometimes murder them in front of their families. This madman needs to be stopped,” the captain says as he looks at her with furious intent.
He tries to control his anger, but the images of those girls and the image of the Shadow’s face always make him feel this way.
Why is he showing me these pictures? What does this have to do with me? she asks herself. As she looks at the photo of this man, she instantly feels dizzy again. Those dead, dull eyes look back at her and suddenly give her chills up and down her spine. She looks at his face in the photo and gets the courage to look at the dead girls again. This time, she’s able to focus and take in what he’s done to them. Many of the girls looked like they were in their mid-teens. Others look like they may have been no more than twelve years old. Alex can feel the captain patiently watching her as she continues to look at the horror that’s on those photographs. Her face feels hot, and her shirt is soaked through with sweat. Every time she takes a breath, it feels like the hot air gets even hotter and that she’s going to vomit.
Finally, she looks up at him, and with a broken and shaky voice, she asks, “Why are you showing these to me, sir?”
Captain Marcs looks down at her. With his head tilted to one side and a questionable look on his face, he replies, “Because I want you to kill him.”
The Shadows Return
Book 2 - The Shadows Return
—Prolgue
“They fooled us, Alex . . . about everything. I watched that motherfucker drug you right before they dragged us in here and locked us away,” he says, squeezing my hand. Then he continues, “It was all a fucking lie.”
I take his other hand and look at him in disbelief. Everything I did up to this point to get here was one of the worst experiences I had in a long time. The kidnapping, the waterboarding, and the torture were all to prepare me for the possibility of what might happen if I were captured. The realization hits me like a knife to the gut, and I start muttering under my breath.
“No . . . this isn’t happening. This is just a dream. You’re dreaming,” I mutter to myself.”
“Liam pulls me in closer. “Alex, you’re not dreaming because they brought us in here last night. I saw them drag your body in here.”
I hear his erratic breath as well from the pain they caused him. Looking at him with dread, I already know why we are here and who brought us. Ever since I left my deployment from Afghanistan, I knew that one day, I would pay for what I had done to Asim and his men. My actions were justified, but to the father of the man I killed . . . it was my death sentence.”
Whispers of the Crimson Sun
Whispers of the Crimson Sun
—Prolgue
“I used everything I had while the man stood there, frozen like a birch tree with eyes widened in fear. The words poured from my lips uncontrollably, as if I had saved them just for this moment. I had never performed this spell before, and the anger inside me fueled the energy that resonated through my body and into him and everything around him.
Suddenly, the air turned cold, chilling my skin. My eyes bore into his, locking them in place. The words flowed from me with such intensity that I no longer had control over myself or the magic that followed.
“As the night falls dark and the pale moon is full,
You shall remain youthful as a doe
Escape is forbidden, for you are bound
Until a crimson flower at last is found
With eyes like moss and skin like milk
Love must flow as smooth as silk
Born of both night and day
She alone shall light the way
Once kissed by the whisper of the crimson sun
Only then shall your freedom be won.”
The words poured from me like a faded whisper that seemed to echo between the trees. His bright eyes suddenly widened in horror again, then slowly closed as if he were falling asleep under my spell. I stood there for some time, watching him as I placed his heart into my pouch. I remember stepping away, leaving him lying asleep on the cold ground, alone.