Hunted Shadows (Book 1) In Heavy Editing

Part 11

Erric's POV

I have been stalking this human who was being guarded by our people. my mother had ordered her to be watched, but I had other orders. My orders were from the commanding Beta, he was worried she was a possible threat. My orders were to kill her if I saw she would be a threat, my people wouldn't agree with what I would do if I found she was a threat but I had to face that fact. There were few of us, even if we outnumbered most large wolf packs 10:1. So far we only had 45,000 shadow shifters, this pack was; responsible for most of our younger members' deaths. The Alpha had a vendetta against us apparently.

This girl was always just out of my reach, always getting away at last moment. I saw something powerful lurking just beyond her soul, like a shadow. It was always there, swirling around her, but never did anything. This time when I saw her in the cellar of her house it wasn't there, but something was different about her. I looked deeper this time and saw something that should have been impossible. I didn't see corporal body, I saw a cautious shadow moving swiftly through the darkness of the cellar. I sank deeper into the shadows but knew she could see me, all shadows could see each other. She spotted me and her eyes grew, I knew I had to use my gift given by a guardian of the heavens. Almost every shadow shifter was gifted a special ability by these guardians. The powerful shadow was gone, but it hadn't left her. It no longer stalked her as a shadow, but it didn't leave her.

I had left her alone when my people started asking questions about my hanging around her. It had been a week since my uncle came and told me another of our young was dead. He said she died mid-shift, which was completely uncommon since Death had us as his warriors. They had all mourned, but when Cathy and her husband came home they were happy. They told us we had gained a shadow in our ranks, but came with no new face. Cathy and Steven were my parents and I hadn't seen my mother so happy in a long time. A wolf pack had destroyed her happiness, though she refused to say who. They threatened my sister who was only an infant and a year younger than me. They were able to hide me, but my sister had a strong aura about her and the wolves would have found her. Cathy had made sure she was taken care of by other creatures, made sure she believed she was only human for her protection. Her aura was hidden by my aunt, who is a witch. She hadn't been this happy since, it made me wonder who it was hat made her eyes shine again.

Seeing her golden eyes in the dark stunned me. I could see her fear and knew I couldn't let her get away this time. I stretched out my powers to paralyze her where she stood. I felt something violent hitting against the restraints I had on her. It was causing my hold on her to weaken. Whatever it was hitting my power was strong, stronger than me at least. I now saw her as a threat, but with her being a shadow I couldn't do anything to harm her. I don't know if she knew that though, she seemed pretty scarred.

"Now I know you have questions, I also know that due to my power you can't talk." She glared in my direction, and to be honest, it was quite scary. I felt my power waning and knew I had to make this fast. "I'm going to release you enough for you to talk, yell and I will put you back to not talking. Ok?" She nodded her head still glaring at me. I released enough energy for her to be able to talk, this also helped to further strengthen my power again.

"This is as clichéd as possible, but who are you?" Reasonable question, but I agree about it being cliché.

"I am Erric Venna, not that it matters to you."

"Venna? I've heard that name somewhere. Must have been a family I stayed at. Why are you here?"

"Someone wants you watched and/or killed, but seeing as you are a shadow there'll be no killing you."

"Yes, only living until I am over a thousand." She knew? How long has she been a shadow to know that?

"Sometimes that doesn't happen, but this is a chat for another time. Someone is coming to look for you, don't mention I was here ok?" I turned to walk when I heard my mother call out my name.

"Erric Amar Venna! Where do you think you are going?" I sighed and turned around, losing all hold on the girl.

"I came to tell you that you are needed back home." I hoped she would take the lie. She didn't do that however.

"And you were harassing Marcella, to tell me I was needed at home?" Cathy cocked a perfectly arched eyebrow at me. I knew I had been caught, and this time I would have to explain myself.

"She startled me, I was looking for you."

"You expect me to believe this? Did you know you've been stalking your sister?" That questioned stilled me. I didn't expect to ever meet my sister, I didn't even believe she was alive.

"Sister? She survived the shift?" Nothing against her, but shifting twice at the same moment was impossible to do. Simply a death wish if you ask me. You see Cathy is a shadow shifter, her mate is a horse shifter. I only took after my mother, but we were told by my aunt that she would take on both forms. Cathy's mom was a shadow shifter and her father was a warlock, she took after her mother. She has four sisters and they all took after their father, each was a different specialty witch. We have a seer, a regular witch, a telepath, and an elemental/shadow. The last can't turn into a shadow so much as she bends light.

"Yes, sister. She died, at first, but death spoke to her and sent her back."

"Death sparred a soul? Why?"

"We don't know, all he told her was that it wasn't her hour to die and that she had a very special gift. We don't know what yet though, it hasn't shown." Death gave a gift?

"Death gave her a gift?"

"We don't think so, he never gives out his gifts. Unless of course she is our warrior. Meant for two, a guardian and a love. But seeing as she hasn't met a guardian yet we don't know." That made sense, if Death spared her soul it means he has plans for her. But the legend speaks of a brave warrior who is of royal decent, not a shadow family descendent.

"Can we get out of this cellar now? We can continue this meeting in the living room, yeah?" Marcella spoke up after fidgeting for a while in her corner. I could see this was making her uncomfortable and conceded. She watched us leave and followed closely, I didn't blame her I had tried to kill her.

Cathy led the way to the living room, I didn't pay any attention to the people in the house. I knew this was wolf territory, but I didn't expect there to be no guards around this house. Being that it belongs to the Alpha's little sister. In theory it should have been so heavily guarded you couldn't get a feather in without inspection. The Alpha didn't seem like a careless man, so why leave his only family open to attack.

"So what's with the lack of guards?" I motioned to all the windows without men outside them.

"Alpha tried, but she released them of their duty every time." Marcella spoke up from behind me, I could feel her eyes boring into the back of my head watching me closely.

"You submit to him?" For some reason the mention of her submitting to anyone made me angry.

"No, but there are times when I know not to provoke. Respect in the right places can get you far in life." It made me sigh a little in relief, though I didn't know why.

"Speaking of the Alpha, he is on his way to see for himself if you are okay." Cathy spoke from in front of me. She sounded on edge. "We have to leave while he is here, he can't know what you are Marcella."

"Have you ever tried talking to him about the incident?" Marcella asked Cathy. I wasn't even a part of this conversation anymore.

"Many times, but as you know he kept killing innocents. He tried to kill you too once, that was before I gave you up."

"Well he will have to listen now, I am his niece. And we all know Abby is no push-over, she won a dominance fight against him. She didn't take his title though, said she didn't want it."

"I will stay around in the shadows, if you can convince him to listen I will come out and try."

"Challenge accepted." Marcella winked at Cathy. I was beyond confused now, I had no idea what they were talking about. What challenge? What incident? Why does she need to convince this Alpha?