Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  “It was even more of a nightmare after that, family services got involved, psychologists were sent in, and all sorts of people wanted to get involved for ‘my own good’. Next all of ‘his’ former friends got hauled in for questioning and the Press had a field day. They tried pressing the two of us as to what happened, the other kid didn’t know, and the Cat wisely didn’t trust any of them, so I feigned ignorance as well. The psyche folks were the worst of the lot, some of them I think were more upset over the deaths than over the abuse, and everyone seemed more than willing to overlook the five hundred pound gorilla in the room.”

  “That they were killed by an animal?” Circe asked.

  “No, that they were killing children,” Shadow growled. “Some of the people indicted were powerful or connected people. Pedophilia was bad enough, though many got off, well at least legally,” Shadow smiled nastily at that, “but if it had come out just how evil they were actually, that they were killing kids left and right, tossing them away like a used Kleenex when they were done with them, well they would have been hung in the streets by an angry lynch mob. And the powers that be just couldn’t have that.”

  “So what happened next?” Tomas asked, “I take it there is more to your story?”

  Shadow nodded, “Yes, there is more. Eventually I was re-united with my family, but there were ... problems. It had been nearly four years since I had been taken, and after some of the things that had been done to me, well there isn’t any going back from that. My parents were uncomfortable with me, I had changed a lot, and I couldn’t tell them it wasn’t just from what that man had done to me, some of it was from my coming into my powers, from my cat side. My siblings didn’t know what to make of me either, and eventually word got out in school, and you can imagine the problems that caused.

  “But the biggest problem probably came from the Cat. The Cat needed to be let out, it needed to stretch its legs and learn to be what it was. And the Cat needed to hunt and we had a nice list of exactly who needed hunting. At first it was just all the ones who had thought they had gotten away with what they had done to me and Wayne and the countless children who had gone before. Sometimes I’d sneak out at night and be gone for several days hunting them down. Of course for that I got labeled as a problem child and a runaway. It was explained away by some psychologist that I was rebelling against the man who had abused me, by acting out against my parents because he was no longer there. Of course I couldn’t tell them the truth, that I was out killing child abusers and the Cat lost all track of time. So it led to a lot of awkward moments.”

  “The New Jersey Devil.” Tomas said looking up at Shadow. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

  Shadow nodded, “Yes, that was me. I don’t think they ever really figured out what kind of animal I was and if they did, they kept it quiet. But with the old legend of the Devil, it was such a good fit to the folklore, that once I was coined that, it stuck.

  “By the time I was a senior in high school, I had become so wrapped up in what I was doing no one would have anything to do with me. Also I had beaten up too many kids who had teased me about my past, and well, I had a bit of a temper. I was pretty much a loner at that point anyway, I didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone, part of that was the Cat, and part of it was just what had been done to me, I wasn’t at all willing to open up to anyone or let anyone get close. But I was excelling in my studies and got several scholarship offers.

  “College was a new start, because no one knew who I was, nor did they care. I was still a loner, and I didn’t really ever make any friends there, but I did hook up with a martial arts studio and immersed myself in that as well. My sensei in many ways became the father figure I had desperately needed. He taught me self-control and responsibility, he taught me values, integrity, and he taught me how to really fight. When he discovered what had been done to me, and what I had become, he viewed training me as a sacred honor. His views on child predators were rather inline with my own.”

  “So just how did you end up here?” Circe interrupted.

  “Well I knew the ways of the people who had abused me, and I spent a lot of time hunting them down. Some people go on vacations to faraway and exotic places, me I’d go to cities and suburbs and all those mundane places people wanted to get away from. I’d lay in wait for my prey like a predator at the local watering hole, and then when I found them, I’d wipe them out. I was very busy, sad to say, but the number of kids I saved made it all worthwhile. But one day, many years after I had left college and gotten a steady job, I realized that I had no friends. I had never slept with a woman. I had never made love to anyone or been loved. I had never been in a relationship. All there was to my life was the hunt of those evil people, their destruction, and nothing else. I was hollow inside, I was less than even an animal, I was nothing more than a vehicle for vengeance, a machine.”

  Shadow looked around at them while they digested that little tidbit. He could see Shirley was uncomfortable with it, could feel the sorrow she felt, but she wasn’t pitying him, she didn’t see him as a cripple.

  “So I sold everything I owned, quit my job, and came here. I started with the underground for two reasons: my lack of social skills and all the really hot women seemed to hang out there,” Shadow leered at Circe who actually blushed. Circe was extremely hot, had a body like a supermodel and in the looks department was right up there with his mate to be honest.

  “You saying I’m not hot, Hon?” Shirley teased.

  “You, my Love, are the exception that proves the rule.” Shadow purred. “But I knew my behavior was bizarre, and I knew no one would question it there. Plus to be brutally honest, I had a long trail of dead bodies in my wake. I wasn’t sure I was even capable of fitting in with society at all, much less the civilized and law abiding portion of it.”

  “So why do you look like a panther man and not a regular man?” Circe asked, “I’ve always wondered about that.”

  Shadow shrugged, “Rather than be all man or all cat I enjoy being both together, it’s a physical representation of what my being truly is.”

  “So is that your power then? You’re basically a werepanther?”

  “Sort of, there’s much more to it than that, and no I won’t go into details, but I do have one other power.”

  “What’s that?” Circe asked curious, and even Tomas and Shirley perked up again.

  “I can tell if people are good or innocent,” Shadow looked at Tomas and Shirley, “or if they’re evil,” and he turned to look at Circe who got suddenly uncomfortable.

  “Only two things saved you at first, Circe,” Shadow said softly. “The first is that you never harmed children and seemed to feel about them as I did. The second is that the Cat just went gaga over you, your powers over animals did extend to me considerably.” Shadow smiled, “But as time went on you steered further and further from your evil ways and I like to hope that it wasn’t just my doing, that as you got older and wiser you changed your ways. Yes, I know I put you through a lot of shit, but you were important enough to me that I had to try and save you, if not for your own good, then for my sanity.”

  “So don’t fuck up all his hard work, Dear,” Shirley said suddenly. “And on that note, who wants a drink? I know I need one!”

  It was late and Shadow was curled up in bed with Shirley and Janet, feeling exhausted, but in a pleasantly spent kind of way. Circe had told him he had given her a lot to think about, and while she would never be a saint, maybe it was time to stop being a demon. If Shadow could let it go, then perhaps it was time for her to let it go too. Shadow knew she had been viciously raped by a couple of men when she was sixteen, and that had a lot to do with what had shaped her. It gave Shadow hope that the worst of his women was trying to change. He yawned and drifted back off to sleep with pleasant dreams then.

  The next morning Shadow awoke with a raging hardon and the desire to fuck until he dropped. Janet wasn’t in bed; he could hear her making breakfast and chatting with the children throu
gh the closed bedroom door. Shirley he realized was kneeling on the bed with a leg to either side of his head, looking down at him smiling, her crotch inches away from his nose.

  “What are you up to?” he asked a bit fuzzy headed. He was still tired, but oh was he horny. He grabbed her and pulled her closer and buried his muzzle in her sex.

  “And three, two, one ...” Shirley giggled counting down and just as she said ‘Zero!’ Shadow’s eyes got wide as a certain scent filled his nostrils.

  Shirley was in heat.

  “Surprise!” Shirley laughed. “This is your reward for not dying on me, you like?”

  “I like!” Shadow growled into her sex and flipped her over quickly onto her back and moved between her legs. “I like, I like, I like!” He growled even louder and mounted his mate. It was fast, it was hard, and it was frantic, but Shirley loved every second of it, and so did Shadow.

  He did it again shortly afterwards, but took his time, telling her how much he loved her and how happy he was to be breeding her. The third time and all the times afterwards that day were much more athletic, and enjoyable, and at times maybe a little kinky. It was nearly dinnertime when they finally emerged from the bedroom and even then Shadow couldn’t keep his paws off of her, nor get too far from her side. It was different than all the other women he had bred before, and for the next two days he spent every minute proving to Shirley just how much better it was with her than it had been with anyone else before.

  For Shirley’s part it was definitely the experience of a lifetime, the others had told her how single-minded Shadow got when making a cub, but this seemed to be beyond that description. When he finally passed out from exhaustion she was almost to that point as well. And she knew for certain that she’d have no problems doing it again no matter how much of a pain childbirth was, the look of utter devotion and love in his eyes alone made it worthwhile. The fantastic sex of course didn’t hurt either.

  She looked at him as he lay there, asleep, curled against her. He was wild, he was nasty, he was tough, and he could never be reined in. But he was still hers, and she was his. Life was good.

  Shake The Ground

  Shadow walked into Bell’s, almost instantly the place went quiet. He walked to his booth in the back, the people in it rushing to get out of it before he even got close. He sat down, leaned back and nodded to the waitress who came over and looked at him.

  “Buy a round for the house, Steph, on me.” He said as she put his usual drink in front of him.

  “Sure thing, Shadow,” she said softly.

  “So, is this anger, respect or fear?” He asked looking around.

  “All of the above I think,” she said walking back to the bar.

  Shadow picked up his drink as the bartender starting setting up a round for everyone in the bar. Shadow noticed that a few people nodded and tipped their drinks to him in acknowledgement, and that a few gave him a nod, and a few didn’t even look in his direction. But none refused the free drink at least.

  He was still sore in spots, it had been nearly three weeks since he was last in here, he wasn’t a hundred percent yet, but that had never stopped him before. Appearances had to be maintained after all.

  The bar slowly picked back up, and he relaxed flagging the waitress over he ordered some food and another drink.

  “Hey, Shadow,” Cynthia, an ex-girlfriend from some time back who had since become rather connected greeted him and slid into his booth sitting across from him. “Nice to see you’re up and about.”

  “Well nice to know that somebody feels that way,” he chuckled.

  “People are a bit freaked is all. The pictures from the crime scene made it around last week, and well, you did kind of crush his face between your jaws.”

  “That bothered this crowd?” Shadow asked with an ear flick as he motioned with his drink to the rest of the bar.

  “Word is there were a few members of the city’s super team there.”

  Shadow shrugged, “So?”

  “And about a dozen dead members of the Ravens.”

  “The Ravens might want to leave town,” Shadow growled. “Crossing Circe was crossing me. The ones that had taken up with that child molester got off easy, trust me ....”

  “Child molester?” Cynthia blinked and leaned back a little in her seat. Shadow noticed the noise level nearby had dropped, people were listening.

  “Why do you think he took Circe’s child, Cynthia?” Shadow was a little growly as he said that. “He told me what he was going to do to her, showed me in my mind.”

  “So the rumors are true then?” she mumbled softly.

  “That he was a child molester? Of course,” Shadow grunted.

  Cynthia looked at him, “No, that you and Circe have a child. There were rumors she’d had a kid, and well, you’re the only one anybody figured had half a chance.”

  Shadow thought about that, “And if Circe’s kid is mine what does that mean to everyone?”

  “No one has ever seen you hunt down another super. Yes they remember Laughing Boy, but he came after you. Same for Jin-Tao. People like predictable, you have been a little unpredictable of late. They are starting to fear you, and not in a good way either.”

  Shadow grinned at her, “There’s a bad way to be feared?”

  Cynthia sighed, “I’m serious here, Shadow, you’ve always been a wildcard, but you never gave the big boys a reason to fear. Now you’re running with Tomas’s crew and you killed the Dispatcher, who was definitely big league material.”

  Shadow shrugged, “So what do they want to hear, Cynthia?”

  “They want to be sure that this isn’t going to happen again, otherwise they might just decide to put aside their own differences and band up against you.”

  Shadow leaned back in his seat and pondered that a moment, taking a drink from his glass. Cynthia was here to feel him out, and probably send a message. He knew she was living with Harbinger, who’d been a key figure here longer than Shadow had been around town. But not that much longer. Kingpins turned over fast in this business and everyone knew it, Harbinger probably felt Shadow might be a threat to his position and was feeling him out.

  And he was a threat. Shadow was working on a new form now, and his powers would branch out once again. He didn’t want to be a Kingpin, but he wanted them to realize that he was pretty much their equal now as well.

  “This is what you can tell them,” Shadow said softly, he didn’t want everyone in the bar to hear his words; “I am neutral. I will help Tomas’s team when I think the balance needs it. Otherwise I will mainly be what they thought I was.”

  “And just what is this ‘balance,’ Shadow?”

  “For the most part, business as usual. I have no desire to run anything or change anything, I like the status quo, which is and always has been my nature. I will not take on or go after anyone unless I’m forced to. They just need to keep one vital thing in mind.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If anyone seriously messes with one of my women or one of my children there will be an immediate and extreme reaction. Don’t even think of hostages or the like, because what I’ll do then will make this last bit look like a church social.”

  “Circe and the Angel both are active players, you can’t expect them to get special treatment,” Cythia warned.

  “Oh, as long as the game is played by the general rules and no one is getting raped, mutilated, or murdered, I’m not going to intervene. Much. But if people go beyond the usual rules, there will be blood. Remember that.”

  “I’m not sure how some folks are going to take this, Shadow.”

  “Oh, it gets even better,” he smiled.

  “Howso?”

  “Circe and the Angel aren’t my only women, just the two most important. And no, I’m not telling you who the others are though you may be able to guess.”

  “You’re not being very re-assuring here, Shadow,” She warned.

  “No, I’m not, and I’m not going to be either. I don’t
ask Harbinger for re-assurances, do I?”

  “But you’re not on his level, Shadow.”

  “Yes, I am.” He said softly causing her to lean forward to hear him. “I’ve been on his level for a lot longer than any of you have realized. Let us be completely honest here, they don’t care that I killed 'The Dispatcher'; actually I’m sure they’re all happy I did, because he would have went after them next. But they’re afraid that my newfound success might give me big ideas. Am I right?”

  Cynthia nodded.

  “He’s dead because he tried to kill one of my women and kidnapped my child. He’s dead because he was going to molest my child. I told you this already. It has always been known that if you cross me, you pay the price. Now you tell me, are the six of Harb’s lieutenants, who are all watching us while trying to act coy, going to attack me? Or are they going to get up and leave peacefully? I need to know because my food is about to be delivered and I’d hate to have my dinner ruined.”

  “You’re not worried about the other men here?”

  “No, they’re going to let your men go first, see what happens, and then decide what side to choose. Myself, I’ll just withdraw quietly because I don’t want to risk Bell’s wrath and lose my bar rights. But then I’d have to do something to save face wouldn’t I?”

  “You seem fairly confident that they’ll hang him out to dry.”

  “It’s traditional around here,” Shadow laughed. “So, why don’t you send the dogs home and join me for dinner?”

  “My boyfriend might get jealous.”

  “I’ve got enough women, any more and they’d probably lynch me.”

  Shadow watched as Cynthia motioned to the others who all got up from their respective positions and left, enjoying how another ten in the bar suddenly got rather antsy.