by Jan Stryvant
“It’s nice to get out again,” Circe said leaning into him as he drove. “Tell Shirley that I really appreciate her watching my daughter for the evening. She’s really one of the few I trust.”
“I have a better idea,” Shadow purred, “Why don’t you tell her yourself and stay the night?”
“You sure?” Circe asked surprised.
“Of course I’m sure. I bet she’d enjoy having you in bed with us tonight.”
“Sounds kinky.”
“Yeah well, you both are, more so than me I think sometimes.”
Circe laughed. “Can I ask you a personal question, Shadow?”
“Of course. Just don’t ask if you can’t stand the answer.”
Circe paused a moment and thought about that. “I think I can stand the answer.”
“Then ask.”
“How do you feel about me?”
“My cat side loves you, and my human side loves you, when you’re not pissing it off that is.”
Circe pondered that a moment. “But what about Shirley?”
“Shirley is my mate. I love her completely and unreservedly. She is a part of me.”
“So where does that put me?”
“Second wife,” Shadow purred.
“Second wife?” Circe sputtered. “What do you mean?”
“Shirley is senior wife, you’re more than just a lover or a concubine, so that makes you second wife.”
“And do I get any say in this?”
“Of course you did.” Shadow looked over at her and smirked, “you fell into that roll when you shared our bed. Now you’re stuck with it. Don’t think I won’t enforce it either. You’re too important to me, Circe, you keep reforming and one of these days I’m sure Shirley will ask you to move in.”
“You’re kidding!” Circe gasped.
“She likes you, never think otherwise. She cares about you and our daughter. Shirley is a competitive and dominant woman, and she would love to have you under her thumb, so to speak, where she could watch out for you and keep you out of trouble.”
“Well I never ...” Circe almost growled it out, she liked Shirley a lot too, but this felt ....
“That’s right, you never,” Shadow growled, he had a feeling where those thoughts were going, “and that’s your problem. You never had anyone who cared about you enough to want to fight for you, to want to make you behave in a civilized manner.”
That made Circe think. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Why do you think I love her so much? After her, you are the next most important thing in my life! I’ve invested a lot of my time in trying to make you a better person, and she sees that, and agrees with it, and actually feels the same way about you now that she’s gotten to know you better. If she asked me to choose, I would choose her, and she knows it. But she loves me so much that she will never ask me to choose.”
“Wow.” Circe whispered and cuddled back up against Shadow. “I don’t think I’ve ever had another person care about me like that before.”
“What about me?” Shadow mock growled.
“Sorry, but you’re not really human,” She giggled, “So you don’t count.”
Shadow sighed dramatically, “Oh the abuse I take.”
“So what about Liz and Nance?”
“Liz is a concubine and an old friend. Shirley allows that because of the friendship and child involved. As for Nance, well I found out later, but Nance called Shirley and damn near begged for her to let me keep seeing her. I’m the only male in her life surprisingly, and she wanted to keep me at least part time. As Shirley had already decided to allow me to keep seeing you and Liz, she was fine with it. I guess that makes Nance the junior wife. Especially now that she’s had my son.”
“So, do you invite her over too?”
Shadow smirked at her. “What do you think?”
“Bastard.”
Shadow laughed.
“So what about ‘whats-her-name’, that little maid of yours running around?”
“Sex slave, pure and simple.”
“And she let’s you have that?”
Shadow laughed again, “We have that. She belongs to both of us.”
“Oh. Oh!” Circe laughed. “I guess Shirley and I need to talk some more.”
“So you’re staying the night then?” Shadow purred.
“Who am I to refuse my husband and senior wife?” Circe laughed.
“My sentiments exactly ....”
Karen
A Call from the Past
Shadow was sitting in his booth at Bell's when the alarm on his phone went off. He bolted upright and headed out the back door pulling out his phone to look at it.
The location was out of the city. It wasn’t even in the same state. He stopped and stared at it confused. His homing beacons piggybacked over the cell network, and at this distance it took a few minutes for the location to resolve.
It was six hundred miles, to the southeast. Shadow blinked. Six hundred miles. It wasn’t Shirley; it wasn’t any of the kids. But it was an alert, he had to go.
Shadow ran down the alley and caught a cab, there was only one way to get that kind of distance quickly, “Airport, and I’ll give you two hundred if you get there as fast as humanly possible!”
The Cabbie looked at the bills in Shadow’s hand and took off like a shot. He tried to figure out what was to the south in that direction; there was a major city there, somewhere. He called Shirley as the cab rocketed through the streets
“What’s up Shadow?”
“I don’t know, I have to leave town.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“One of my beacons went off.”
“One of your what?”
“You know that bracelet I gave Janet?”
“Oh, yes. But she’s right here.”
“Well one went off about six hundred miles from here.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet. But I have to get there as quick as I can. I’m almost at the airport, I’ll call you later.”
“Be safe, Shadow.”
“Yes dear.”
Shadow hung up and looked out the window trying to figure out just what he was going to do.
“Do you want the public terminal or the private one?” The cabbie asked.
“What’s the difference?”
“Public is airlines, private is charters and stuff.” The Cabbie replied.
Shadow thought about that and had an idea, “Private!”
“Okay sir.”
Shadow looked at the jet, it was a Gulf Stream something or other and they were more than willing to fly him on a moment’s notice. He followed them in and sat down as they got the plane started, and then moved out to the runway. By the time they got airborne a half hour had passed since the alert came. He was pacing the aisle as they flew, there wasn’t a lot of space there, but he was too nervous to sit still. He had no idea what the signal meant, how one was even coming from a place so far away.
“How fast will this thing go?”
“How fast do you want?” The pilot asked.
“I want to be there now,” Shadow growled, “but I know that’s not possible, so how long?”
“Well an hour to get there, we have a good tail wind, say another half hour for the approach and landing.”
“How fast if you don’t have to land?”
“What?” The pilot said looking at him.
“Just how fast if you don’t have to land?” Shadow growled.
“If we don’t land we can be over the city in about an hour.”
“We don’t have any parachutes,” the pilot warned him.
“I don’t need one.”
The pilot shrugged, “alright then.”
Shadow went back to his pacing, checking his phone every so often to make sure that the signal had not moved, it hadn’t. Of course he didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. For all he knew, whoever it was was dead. Shadow growled
softly to himself, if whoever it was, was dead, he’d kill everyone involved. He could feel the anger building, waiting wasn’t good for him, the madder he got, the more vicious he became.
Eventually the pilot told him they were almost there.
Shadow checked his phone and the range and direction to the signal; it was getting close, ten miles and closing.
“Open the door, I’m going!” he told the co-pilot who was getting out of his seat.
“Slow down, this is dangerous!”
“So is making me wait,” Shadow growled. He checked the phone, “Three miles, now let me out of here!”
The co-pilot went to the rear cabin door, “Okay, we’re slowing down, we’re at ten thousand feet, watch out you don’t hit your head on the tail as you go out the door, and let yourself slow down before you do whatever it is you do. You’ll still be doing one hundred and fifty knots when you go out that door, if you don’t want to lose that phone, better hold on to it tight!”
Shadow stuck the phone in his muzzle, it was small enough, and as soon as the door opened he dove out low and tucked into a ball.
The buffeting was fantastic, he lost the duster, it didn’t come off so much as get ripped apart and off of his body. He almost lost his shorts as well, but by then he’d slowed down enough he could open up and spread out. Looking around he was still pretty high up, higher than he normally flew. He shifted forms to his winged form at that point, but kept his wings in close. He was still traveling fast enough for that to be a little painful and he carefully opened them up to slow down to something he could actually deal with. He took the phone out and looked at it, it took him a little bit of maneuvering, but a couple of minutes later he was over the right building, and coming down in a slow spiral, wings fully extended.
The building was in what looked like an industrial district. Night had fallen during the flight, and though he had perfect night vision, the lack of color made it hard to tell if it was a thriving area, or an abandoned one. From the air the roofs looked fine, which didn’t tell him much. There was a sniper on the roof however, set up to cover approaches from the east. So of course Shadow took him coming in from the west.
He had a radio that Shadow took. He left the rifle, but took the bolt out and tossed it. He also had a knife that Shadow took. Shadow moved across the roof to the exit, listened a moment to make sure that no one was on the other side, and then entered the building.
He was on the fifth floor of the building according to the signs, best he could figure it, what he wanted was two floors down. Peeking out the door, there wasn’t much to see on that floor and from the looks of it, the building wasn’t being used. Shifting to his stealth form Shadow went straight down to third floor. There were guards here he found, so he must be on the right trail.
It was short, it was brutal, and it was completely satisfying. Shadow smiled and went through the door. Someone on the radio started checking in with the guy on the roof, and when he didn’t answer, things started to happen. Shadow took advantage of the confusion to head down the hallway, but he didn’t get far before the body on the roof was found and things went to hell. He ran into two more men before he found what he was there for, both died without saying a word but by then the other two on the back stairwell had been found and panic was setting in.
He saw her then; she was hanging by her wrists, head slumped and unconscious. It was dark and she was bloody, but before he could do anything further the doorframe behind him exploded from bullet fire and he had to dodge to the side. He shifted to his fighting form once more and turned to face the man coming through the door.
“Who the hell are you?” The guy said looking rather shocked.
“Death,” Shadow growled. He knew he had a lot of blood on him and probably looked the part. Plus this one seemed to be in charge.
“Then back to hell with you demon!” he yelled and attacked.
Shadow wondered why he didn’t use the gun, and found out soon enough. He was another mentalist, Shadow had heard a speculation that certain powers seem to almost run in fads. It had been several years since he’d tangled with the Dispatcher, now he figured it was this city’s turn to deal with this kind of villain. Fortunately Shadow was more than ready for this now and shifted once again. The look on the other man’s face was priceless when Shadow strangled him.
He clicked the radio and spoke into the mike, “Your leader is dead, I suggest you leave or I’ll kill the rest of you too.”
It got very quiet on the radio then and he heard what sounded like people running away from him and out of the building. He turned back to the hanging woman and cut her down.
It hit him in an instant, it was Karen! She must have kept one of the bracelets from so long ago. She was alive, weak, but alive. She’d been beaten pretty heavily, seemed to have a few broken ribs, and a lot of abrasions and cuts. He figured she’d been whipped as well. On her left ankle he found the bracelet and turned it off, it was nearly dead most likely, to still be working after more than a decade was amazing in and of itself.
He picked her up carefully and made for the roof. He didn’t want to run into anyone else, not until she was safe at least.
The trip up to the roof was made unharassed; Shadow laid her down on the mat that the sniper had been using. He’d snagged a bottle of water and some candy bars along the way from a break room that he’d passed, and sitting her up he took a piece of cloth and started to clean her face with some water.
“Shadow?” she said weakly as her eyes opened a bit.
Shadow purred rather loudly and held the bottle so she could drink a little, “Who else?”
“I wasn’t sure you would come.” Karen whispered between sips. “It’s been so long.”
Shadow kissed her forehead, “Don’t be silly. I’m just glad that bracelet had enough power left to actually work. I didn’t make those with longevity in mind.” Shadow handed her one of the candy bars, the sugar would help get some energy back. “So tell me, what happened?”
“I got captured of course.”
“Where is the rest of your team?” Shadow asked softly.
“I think one of them is dead now,” Karen took a deep breath and closed her eyes trying not to think about it, “it was pretty bad, we walked into an ambush. I got grabbed while we were retreating.”
“When did that happen?”
“How long ago did I hit the panic button?”
Shadow thought about that, “About two hours ago.”
Karen nodded, “Last night about two AM I’d guess then. When I came to I managed to press it then, right before they whipped me.”
Shadow growled at that.
Karen laughed softly, “and here I was unable to enjoy it too.”
Shadow tapped her nose, “I don’t recall you ever enjoying pain, Kitten.”
Karen gave him another weak grin, “I tried it out in college a few times. Was interesting, but not really my thing. You made me a bit too dominant to enjoy those roles anymore.”
Shadow smiled, “Well good. So do you need to go to a hospital, or what?”
Karen looked around and noticed the dead body of the sniper off to the side. “Any more of those?”
Shadow grinned, “Of course.”
Karen shuddered a little, “You haven’t changed much, have you?”
“Hey, ten years ago I wouldn’t have let any of them get away, they’d all be dead. I only killed those I had to tonight. Besides, anyone messing with one of my kittens doesn’t deserve to live.”
Karen smiled, “I’m not your kitten anymore, Shadow.”
“You will always be my kitten, and I will always be there if you need me.”
“Even if you’re not fucking me?” Karen giggled and started in on the candy bar.
Shadow nodded, “I think my wife would have words if I brought home yet another woman.”
“Your wife?” Karen looked up at him, “So the rumor is true?”
Shadow nodded.
Karen looked at him
a moment, “Is she a super then?”
“What do the rumors say?”
“That she’s a super-hero and you’ve pretty much changed sides.”
Shadow shrugged, “Who else would put up with me?” and he grinned at her.
“So what’s that bit about ‘another’ woman?”
Shadow’s ears flattened in embarrassment, “Well she let me keep a few of my closer girlfriends, pretty much the ones I have kids with now.”
“I wonder what Circe had to say about all that.”
Shadow raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised you remember her.”
“She had you on a leash half the time, hard not to.”
Shadow nodded, “Well, she’s one of the ones I was allowed to keep.”
Karen’s eyes got wide, “You’re kidding me?”
“Nope,” Shadow smirked, “And my wife has her completely under her thumb. Circe’s even given up her life of crime.”
“Wow. Sounds tough.”
“She’s sweet, you’d like her.”
“I’m married now, Shadow,” Karen warned and stuck out her hand and he gave her another candy bar.”
“Yeah, I know. How is your husband?”
“He’s sweet, once a week he takes me out and treats me like a complete fuck toy. I love him.”
“Is he a super too?”
“He’s a genius, but he doesn’t have any powers at all. I suspect by now he’s probably going crazy.”
“What about my daughter?”
Karen looked away, “She’s doing well, and she’s doing very well in school.”
Shadow put a finger under her chin and moved her head until their eyes met. “What’s wrong?”
“Well ... Well Jake has been her father, he’s been great to her, been there for her. I don’t think it would be right for you to meet her Shadow. You haven’t been there.”
Shadow sighed and did his best to compose himself, “She’s my daughter, Karen, she was the sweetest gift you could have ever given me. I’m not going to barge in and demand parental rights or any of that. But one day you’re going to have to tell her, and I’m going to have to meet her. It can wait until she’s older, there’s no rush.
