Shade of Darkness

by D. N. Leo

  “Let’s go,” she said to Caedmon after signaling Shaun and Len and asking them to take care of the remaining recruitment process.

  They walked out the back door to a small alley. On the ground in front of them, she thought she saw the shadow of wings spreading above and slightly behind them. She looked at Caedmon and knew he had seen the same thing. But when they turned and looked, they saw no one.

  Chapter 11

  Nathan strode into the warehouse-style headquarters of Ethesus. He loved what he did, especially when he was winning. He loved Ethesus business so much that he didn’t mind the fact that he had devoted his whole life to building it up and had nothing of his own.

  He had no family, no friends, and most importantly, no offspring. He knew before the great war, there was a rule among the shapeshifters about mating for life. He was glad it had ended with the ruined civilization of humankind. How backward would that rule be these days? What if his mate died? In this current climate, where he engaged in a major fight every second day, there was no guarantee anything would last forever.

  But sometimes he wanted to have little cubs and some companionship.

  He settled himself on a thronelike chair made of steel and precious wood. He glanced across the floor. His men were disciplined enough to stay sober and work on what they what they were supposed to during the working hours. He couldn’t care less what they did outside, but in here, as long as they took care of their bikes, collected the debts allocated to them, and provided protection for businesses on the outskirts of the city, life was good for everyone.

  “Nathan!”

  He turned in the direction of the voice that called his name and saw Hanx, his second in charge, approaching. Hanx looked to be in his thirties, but Nathan knew he was over a hundred years old. And because he was a much older lynx than Nathan, he had never given Nathan full respect.

  “Yes.”

  Hanx winked. “I heard you killed an ice creature. No shit!”

  “I didn’t kill it. My wheel did. But then an asshole dark angel crashed my bike.”

  “Who dared make Nathan Breene angry?”

  “The name was Azriel. I’ll collect his debts later.”

  “Sure you will. Hey, I’ve got good news. The Amaraq leader chick is incapacitated.”

  “How’d that happen?” Nathan didn’t like what he was hearing, and his gut was telling him Hanx was being shady again. Ethesus wasn’t exactly noble, but under his rule, Nathan despised cheating.

  “Who knows, and who cares? But I heard the injury was severe. They have to recruit new managers for the flight clubs and all. I took the opportunity to send someone in.”

  “To do what?”

  “Hello? Information, mate! If you don’t remember, let me remind you the Summoning is coming up, and we still have a chance.”

  “A chance to what? The territories have been divided between Ethesus and Amaraq like this for years. I’m happy with things the way they are. Why try to fix things when they aren’t broken?”

  “Nathan, it is the ultimate goal of Ethesus to host the key!”

  “Says who?”

  “The Ethesus tradition.”

  “We’re bikies, Hanx. And we’re happy. We’re good at what we do. If you mess with Amaraq, there will be war and unnecessary casualties. I have no interest in handling the flowers and herbs of their natural medicine clinics. The fight clubs are attractive, but I’m happy with what we’ve got. It’s lucrative enough.”

  “It’s never enough, Nathan. And you know for sure Amaraq will find every opportunity to knock us out on our asses. I have to preempt that.”

  He stood and approached Hanx. “What did you do, Hanx?” He knew what Hanx was about to say even before he heard it, and he hated it. Old habits die hard, and he knew Hanx had very poor habits gambling with creatures in the multiverse and the no-man land of Xiilok. Nothing good ever came from Xiilok.

  “Well, they’re recruiting people, so I sent someone to join their competition.”

  Nathan flew toward Hanx and in one swift move pushed him backward, slamming him against the wall with his forearms and choking him. “If you sent an Ethesus fighter into Amaraq as a spy, I will break your neck right now. I don’t care if you have rank here—I don’t give a fuck! You have your own little group inside Ethesus, and you think I don’t know about it. Backstabbing and sending spies isn’t my way, and I’ll break your neck for doing that under my name.”

  Hanx pushed him away. “I’m not stupid. But I’m not you, and I don’t have respect for your practice. I sent a contractor who has no ties to us. I’ll do whatever it takes to get their fight clubs. If I get their business, I’ll sell all the other bits off to the douchebags in the desert. And you’ll get all the glory because you just happen to sit on this throne and pretend to be noble.”

  “I’ll get the fight clubs with a fair fight,” Nathan growled.

  “Last time, it was a draw. And that was before Alyna became leader. She was human then, but I’d be willing to bet Pukak has turned her into a mage. She has super power now. You have no chance of beating her in a fair competition, Nathan. Stop daydreaming and be realistic.”

  “I’ll see to that. Call your spy back.”

  “The contract has already been signed and money paid. How am I going to renege on that?”

  “I’ll talk. Who’s your spy?”

  A round bag rolled in from seemingly nowhere and stopped at their feet. When they looked closely at it, they saw it wasn’t a bag but a piece of fabric wrapped around something. The fabric fell away, revealing a man’s head. The man’s dead eyes stared into nothingness.

  They heard footsteps. From the door of the warehouse, a woman walked in. She was tall, formidable, and clearly a fighter judging by her agile movements and posture. She pointed at the head. “Do you like my present?” she asked.

  “This is my spy!” Hanx said.

  “The woman or the head?” Nathan asked, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t like either of the answers.

  Chapter 12

  The beginning of time.

  Thunder gazed at Bloodstone Mountain. She had climbed it so many times, both for practice and for fun. She had never thought of it as a living thing—the Scorpion king’s flesh and blood.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you return. It’s not fair to attack someone when he’s down and incapable of defense. And the prophecy is against me. It says if you wake, I’ll die. So I can’t let you wake.”

  She raised her arms, gathered her energy, concentrated, and clapped her hands together.

  She knew how to call in thunder strikes. She knew the strength of her power. As an infant, she had eliminated hundreds of spider-wolves with her clapping. It was her usual practice. She had broken stone off this mountain before. But this time, she cranked it up a notch.

  Three long, rumbling strikes hit the mountain. She could feel the ground under her feet shake and moved back so the mountain wouldn’t collapse on her. She clapped her hands again. A few more strikes and she would kill the sleeping king.

  Then there was a haunting hum drifting through the air and the sound of something cracking deep below the ground and stone and dirt shifting and falling. The ground shuddered, and a crack ran from where she stood to the top of the mountain.

  She wasn’t sure now if the mountain would fall and she would kill the king. What she did know was that something was awakening.

  She ran away from the crack in the earth. And then she clapped once more.

  She turned back and saw the stone face of the mountain drop off like flakes of skin and rain down to the ground. As each piece fell, it morphed into a creature. The creatures were of different shapes and forms. Some looked like apes, some like giant spiders, and others like elephants. But they all had one thing in common—they had been created from the blood ice.

  They charged at her. She clapped her hands again. Groups of them exploded. It was just like she had killed hundreds of spider-wolves before. But the more of them
she blew up, the more stone skin the mountain shed, and the more creatures were formed. Each of her claps killed some, but not all, and then more were created.

  Seeing the odds were against her, she stopped clapping. She wasn’t sure if running was a good idea, and she didn’t even know where to run. She couldn’t go back to the cottage and drag this problem home for Keymaster to solve.

  She heard a stomping sound from the opposite direction. She hoped she hadn’t cracked other mountains and created even more bloodstone creatures to chase her. She turned toward the noise and saw a magnificent white horse galloping toward her.

  A male voice cried out, “Hop on!”

  “Bloody hell, are you a talking horse?”

  “I’m your Teacher.”

  “But I saw you in a woman’s form not too long ago.”

  “That form can’t take you on her back and run like the wind. Now hop on! Quickly, Thunder.”

  She did. In a short moment, they had fled the disaster zone. Bloodstone Mountain was far behind them.

  She glanced around, not sure where Teacher had taken her.

  The horse stopped, and she jumped off. The horse shuddered, then vanished. The woman’s voice returned. “I saved you, Thunder. You owe me one.”

  “Why can’t I see you now?”

  “That’s the price I have to pay. The horse was the last tangible form I could take. I came back for you, came back to tell you the prophecy wasn’t about you. I lied. I thought the Amaraq mage killed my children, but I was wrong. It was an angel that killed my family. And you are the child of angels.”

  “You want me to seek revenge on your behalf? But how can I be sure your family was innocent?”

  “I have nothing more to lose. I am telling you the truth. I was a predator. I killed many, and my family paid the price. It is the same with your Keymaster. He killed until he met you. There is something in you that transforms evil into goodness.”

  “If you have truly become good, you wouldn’t seek revenge, given you were in the wrong.”

  “But my family was innocent. Why kill them? If I am the evil one, why not kill me?”

  “It might be because your sins were so deep that your death was not enough of a punishment.”

  “That is not just, Thunder. A good angel cannot take innocent lives to punish another just because he thinks I deserve to suffer for what I did. Not only isn’t it just, it’s worse than evil.”

  She nodded.

  “I know you are a wise and very special kind of angel. Clapping out thunder isn’t just a talent. It’s a power only a god might have. You could have become a god if you had been raised correctly. And I think someone killed your parents because of that. We might share common enemies, Thunder. I’ve told you this before, but now I have proof.”

  “What’s your proof?”

  “The prophecy says that when the Bloodstone Mountain wakes, Keymaster will die.”

  “Why didn’t you say so before? I just awakened it!” She rushed away, heading back to the cottage. Teacher’s voice followed her.

  “I didn’t anticipate you would wake the mountain. I thought you’d keep it asleep if I tied it to your life instead of his. The prophecy can be interpreted in many ways. Keymaster might die not because of the mountain, but because of something between him and whoever wants the Scorpio key. That’s the connection with the mountain, not the fact that it is awakened or not.”

  She skidded to a stop. “Does that mean if I really kill the sleeping king and put the mountain to sleep forever, then Keymaster won’t have to die?”

  “That’s speculation. What I meant by proof is that I didn’t overhear the prophecy. It was written on a stone in ink from the house of gods. The prophecy connects all of us. And it has to do with you and the angels.”

  “How?”

  “I found you because I saw a light. I don’t know what Keymaster saw. But our lives have changed since we met you. We were meant to protect you and teach you the skills you’ll need for your revenge and survival. And now, with Bloodstone Mountain and the Scorpio key, it has all come together.”

  “How can you be so sure it was ink from the house of gods?”

  “I…” He paused. “A long time ago, I killed a messenger from the house of gods for profit. I saw the message, and I saw the ink.”

  She walked away. “I won’t let Keymaster die. If he never finishes the key, he’ll never deliver it, and he will upset his client. When they approach him, I’ll talk to them. I’ll reason with them and prevent them from killing him.”

  “I fail to see how you can convince them, but it is a better plan than killing the Scorpion king.”

  When she reached the cottage, she stormed inside and made a beeline toward the workshop. Keymaster was nowhere to be found—and the Scorpio key was no longer on the workbench.

  Then she saw a small note on the table.

  Thunder,

  I have completed the key and am now delivering it to my client. I will be away for a few days and will make sure I bring you a present when I get home. Take care, and don’t be too naughty. Don’t spend too much time in the woods with your Teacher (Yes, I know about him).

  Love from Keymaster

  She had never felt this degree of panic in her life. She knew now that even if she was a god, she was ill-equipped. She had no way to communicate with Keymaster. She couldn’t call him. She didn’t have a psychic connection with him. She had no idea who his client was.

  She had spent her life practicing the skills for her revenge, but right now, those skills did nothing for her.

  She wiped the tears off her face. “Teacher!” she cried.

  “I’m still here!”

  “What should I do?”

  “The clue is in the ink. The ink from the house of gods.”

  “In this?” She raised the note she was holding.

  “No, in the note written to Keymaster.”

  She zeroed in on a paper on the table. There, written in glowing text on the paper, it said,

  Thank you for completing the Scorpio key, Keymaster. You will be well compensated. Come see us, and bring your little assistant with you. She deserves a reward, too.

  “He didn’t bring me because he knows it’s a trap.” She glanced around the empty house. “Keymaster!” she shouted as tears streamed down her face. But all that came back to her was the echo of her own voice.

  Chapter 13

  Caedmon pushed Alyna behind him. “Did you see that?” he asked.

  “I saw the shadow of something…something with wings. But I can’t see anything now, and I can’t be of any use while standing behind you with you casting your shadow on me.”

  He turned around and saw Alyna with her hands on her hips. “Casting a shadow on you? Do you think this is all about my male ego, risking my adrenaline surging and turning me into an animal?”

  “I don’t care what percentage of you is human—as long as you have a fraction of human male in you, it means you can’t handle the idea of working with an alpha female.”

  “You’re being unreasonable, Alyna. I’m here to help…”

  “I don’t need your help! Go back to where you came from.”

  “Fine. And thanks for turning me into an animal for nothing.”

  “You consider your life to be nothing? Well, please yourself. I’m sorry I saved you. It might be the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life, you a…s…s.” She breathed the word out heavily, long and slow, as if she didn’t want to let it out but had the incredible urge to do so.

  “Alyna!”

  “What?”

  “We’ve been drugged.”

  “What?”

  “Stay still.” He placed his finger on the wriggling shadow of a small worm under the skin on the back of her neck and applied pressure, guiding the worm from her neck down her left arm. She could see it now as it wriggled down to the front of her forearm. She pulled out a small knife and cut into her skin directly in front of the worm’s path. Caedmon pressed the wor
m down to the open skin and pushed it out.

  It dropped to the ground. She squashed it with her foot. Then she turned him around to look at his neck. “Where’s yours?”

  “Don’t worry, Alyna. Mine is dead somewhere in my bloodstream. The worm carries a stimulant designed for a specific target and a particular purpose. In this case, I think it targets mages and triggers a chemical that penetrates the part of the brain that controls aggressive emotions. I’m not a mage. Plus, my Eudaizian blood naturally counteracts and kills these foreign creatures. You’re not a pure mage. Otherwise, you would have gone insane.”

  “And how do you know all this?”

  He smiled. “It’s a cheap trick that shady contractors in the multiverse use all the time. Especially those from Xiilok.”

  “What’s Xiilok?”

  “A universe you don’t want to visit.”

  “How is this drug administered?”

  “It would have been shot out like a bullet, but it’s so small you don’t feel it going in. Once inside, it develops into the transmitter and then travels throughout the body. It’s common in weapons…” he trailed off.

  She looked at him. Neither of them needed to verbalize their thoughts—they both rushed back to the fight club.

  Inside the club, they found a scene of massive destruction. Bodies lay on top of one another. Blood was everywhere.

  Alyna rushed toward the bodies, but Caedmon pulled her back. “They’re dead, Alyna. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “Who did it? Why?”

  He wiped away the tears she didn’t know had fallen.

  “Why poison these people?” she asked. “Many of them are trainees. They just wanted to learn skills to protect themselves. Why?”

  He pulled her into his arms and let her weep. “I don’t have an answer for you. The drug can’t do much damage. It’s only a stimulant. The violence was already inside these people. The drug just stimulated it. These people killed one another, and no one is responsible for their deaths but themselves.”