Into the Darkness

by Nora Ash

  It felt as if I was seeing the world through a blur as the men crashed against me, grabbing for my wrists and neck. I fought them on pure instinct, clawing and kicking and biting like a wild animal, but it was useless against their brute force.

  A stinging slap smacked my head into the wall, dazing me for a moment, and when I regained my focus, my wrists had been zip tied together and a strong hand had a hold of my jaw, pressing hard enough to make tears spring to my eyes. I tried kneeing the man who was keeping my body pressed against the wall in the groin, but all I got out of that was a hard punch to my stomach.

  Pain exploded in crippling waves. I slumped to the floor, dry heaving from agony unlike anything I’d experienced since the time I broke my leg after falling out of a tree house in second grade. I’d never been one to get into fights, and this was the first time someone had ever truly punched me. Actually experiencing the sort of pain I’d feared from them left me stunned and gasping for air.

  “Well, you’re fucked now,” someone growled above me. “Think you can kick me in the balls, huh? I’ll fucking show you!”

  I cried out when a heavy boot impacted with my thighs, kicking them apart, and again when someone grabbed my pants and ripped, leaving my lower body exposed to the cool air.

  “Guess we’ll fuck your pussy and cut off your fingers. And maybe your toes too, just for the hell of it.”

  Whatever hadn’t kicked in of my survival instincts before did so now. I scrambled on the ground to get up and run, not caring that I was bound or that the five men in the alley with me were much stronger and undoubtedly also faster than me. All that mattered was getting away.

  Snide laughter echoed through the alleyway as the men watched me crawl a few feet before one of them placed a foot on my back and stepped down, landing me flat on my stomach with a pained cry.

  “Where do you think you’re going, cunt? We’re just about to get star—”

  The voice was interrupted by a soft thud and an odd, metallic singing through the air directly above me, followed by a gurgle from the man who had been taunting me.

  Then another, much louder thud echoed through the alley as his big body collapsed next to me. I stared into his face that was still locked in frozen surprise. A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He was dead.

  Before I managed another scream, the alleyway exploded into movement and shouts that quickly turned into howls of pain.

  As quickly as I could, I turned over onto my back to see what the heck was going on. The sight that met my eyes sent pure terror through my body.

  The Shade.

  His name pounded in my head as the large shadow that had joined us in the alley whirled around, slicing through my attackers with his iconic dual blades. Blood and chunks of body parts rained around me like macabre confetti at a parade. In what was probably less than ten seconds, though it felt like an eternity, only one of the thugs was left standing, and he was too preoccupied with clutching at his bleeding arm stump to put up any resistance. With an almost casual flick of his wrist, The Shade swung one sword, decapitating him.

  I was vaguely aware of my entire body trembling like a leaf, but the vast majority of my focus was glued to the dark figure.

  He looked down for a moment, surveying his handiwork before pushing at one of the bodies with his foot, as if testing if his victim was truly dead.

  And then his glowing blue gaze met mine.

  I wanted to scream, or to scramble away, but my body was too numb to do either. I could do nothing but watch as The Shade pointed the tip of one blade at my throat, letting the flat side nudge my chin up.

  “So,” he said, his voice a low hum in the silence, “you belong to Lightning?”

  Five

  There were bad men in this city. Some preyed on the weak and helpless. Some terrorized entire neighborhoods, profiting off the despair festering in St. Anthony’s very core.

  None of them were more than ripples in the darkness compared to The Shade.

  He was the quintessential Evil, having slaughtered thousands for no other reason than his own amusement, if the rumors were to be believed, and he possessed no such thing as a conscience. Or a soul. And he was here, alone in the alley. With me.

  The cold steel of his sword pressed just a tad firmer against my skin, and I swallowed thickly from the silent threat. Now was not the time to lose my ability to speak, if I wanted any chance at not ending up like my attackers.

  “Y-yes,” I croaked. “He m-marked me.”

  “He did, did he? And yet here you are, wandering around in the darkness without any protection. How… curious. Get up.” The last two words were an unmistakable command, though his voice remained eerily soft.

  I scrambled to obey, using my bound arms to prop my body up against the wall. The Shade watched me as I somehow managed to get my abused body upright, keeping his sword pointed at my throat until I was finally on my feet.

  “And how come Lightning’s favored pet is traipsing around the industrial quarter late at night? I would have thought even he would consider that a terrible idea. He knows what lurks in the darkness in this city.”

  The way he spat out Lightning’s name, as if it tasted disgusting on his tongue, made me remember the rumored rivalry between the two superhumans. Apparently there was something to it—I could just hope that Lightning had been right when he said that even The Shade wouldn’t harm me as long as I carried his mark, despite whatever animosity hung between them.

  “He doesn’t know,” I said, feeling just a touch of relief when he finally lowered his sword. Not that he needed it to harm me.

  “Oh?” His full lips curled into a wry smile. “The little kitten is sneaking around behind her master’s back? What could possibly draw that sort of disobedience out of a soft, little human?”

  Master? Disobedience? I frowned at the implication. “He’s not my master.”

  I probably should have kept my mouth shut. In fact, when I saw the dangerous shift in The Shade’s glowing eyes, I knew I should have. I instinctively pressed my back against the wall behind me, wishing that he would stop staring at me like I was a particularly tasty-looking mouse and he was a cat.

  “If he took you as his, you would not think to question the terminology.” The Shade lifted one sword again, his perfectly-defined muscles flexing behind the skin-tight black suit. “Show me your mark.”

  Dread mixed with the fear pulsing through my veins in steady beats. I had zero desire to turn my head and display my vulnerable neck to this dark creature, but I only had to glance at the floor to get the gist of what would likely happen if I disobeyed him. Even the relative darkness of the alleyway couldn’t completely hide the bloody display.

  Slowly, I turned my head and pushed my braid out of the way, trying to keep my eyes on The Shade as his focus flickered from my face to my exposed neck.

  Yet despite my attempt at following his movements, the gust of wind enveloping me was the only warning I had before he was suddenly standing less than six inches from me, his big frame looming over me. He was huge. I hadn’t realized just how massive he really was before, because his lithe movements as he unleashed death on my attackers were a complete contrast to the bulk of his body, but now… now, that he was so close he was blocking off my view of the skyline with his body, I noticed that he was even bigger than Lightning.

  The effect was more than a little intimidating.

  I swallowed a whimper and forced myself to stand completely still when The Shade braced a hand on the wall next to me and bent his head to my neck. When he inhaled deeply just above the place Lightning had bitten me, every hair on my body stood on end. Yet it was nothing compared to how the low growl he breathed into my ear set my entire skin ablaze with fear and… and something else. Something that made the goosebumps crawling along my skin harden my nipples and my breath catch in my throat.

  Then he pulled back, once again towering over me.

  “It would appear you haven’t been fully claime
d, kitten.” The Shade’s deep voice was hardly more than a whisper in the darkness above me, but it carried a harsher note to it now. “He forgot to fuck you.”

  “W-what?” I did my best to steady my breathing. Every cell in my body seemed to recognize the danger The Shade posed, and the continual supply of adrenaline was sharpening my senses beyond their normal reach, making me able to feel his body’s heat and see the full curve of his mouth and a thin scar running across his upper lip in the dark. But it was also making me feel drugged, as if I didn’t have a full connection from my brain to my limbs, and my legs and arms seemed oddly numb and tingly at the same time.

  “You don’t belong to him until you spread your legs and accept him into your soft little body.” He lifted his chin to indicate the still-exposed part of my neck where I’d been bitten. Then he took a few steps back and, before I even registered the movement, sliced one razor sharp sword through the air, cutting through the zip tie around my wrists.

  At my startled gasp, he lifted both arms, sliding his twin swords into the scabbards mounted on his back. I couldn’t help but notice the way his muscles flexed and bulged with the movement, underlining his strength with casual ease.

  “Oh,” I gulped, not entirely sure what to think about any of it. The memory of how willing I had been to spread my legs for Lightning when he bit me made blood heat up my cheeks. If The Shade was speaking the truth—which, frankly, wasn’t exactly a guarantee—then why had Lightning stopped when he did?

  “Isn’t that just typical your beloved hero?” The Shade took a few steps forward, once more boxing me in against the wall. Despite my newly-gained freedom, his hulking presence made me feel even more trapped than when my hands had been tied.

  “He loves to be seen as the great savior, yet when push comes to shove, he doesn’t have the balls to go through with it. Do you even realize how vulnerable you are out here, with a half-mark on that delicate little neck? If someone were to snap it, it would be viewed as nothing more than an insult—no laws would be broken. No, he’s just arrogant enough to think the threat of his retribution is enough to warn us off.”

  I didn’t bother mentioning that quite a few laws would be broken by killing me. A man who could slaughter five people without a moment’s hesitation was clearly not referring to human law.

  “P-please, don’t,” I managed to croak out as a full body quiver made me tremble and press harder against the wall.

  He cocked his head. “Don’t what? Snap your neck? You write conspiracy theories involving the supe community and the most corrupt mayor in this damned city’s history, and then spend your evenings snooping around where you don’t belong. One really couldn’t be faulted for thinking you had a death wish, Kathryn.”

  Kathryn. He knew who I was. He knew about the fucking article.

  A fresh wave of dread made me swallow in an attempt to press my heart down from my throat.

  “I…”

  “What are you looking for in the industrial quarter?” His entire demeanor shifted in the blink of an eye, his wide shoulders squaring up to take up even more of my field of vision. What was visible of his face for the black mask smoothed into cool stone.

  “Nothing,” I whispered, and then yelped when his right hand slapped against the bricks right next to my face.

  The Shade leaned down, holding his face an inch from mine. He narrowed his eyes, leaving absolutely no doubt in my mind what would happen if I defied him. “Lie to me again. I dare you.”

  “Superhumans!” I squeaked. “I-I’m looking for supes. Or anything related to them—you.”

  He pulled back an inch, giving me just a bit more room to breathe. “Why?”

  “I need something tangible—proof. I know my article hit on something real, and I need to find the connection so I can out the responsible parties.” Outright stating that I was trying to pull down the corruption in the city to one of the worst criminals in it was surely not the smartest thing to do, but the blue gaze spearing mine gave me absolutely zero desire to test him with another lie.

  The Shade smirked. “And Lightning knows nothing of this?”

  “He told me to keep my head down and stay away from it,” I whispered, praying my honesty would save my life.

  The Shade looked downright amused, and the threatening pressure of his presence eased as he straightened back up and gave me a thoughtful look. “So you are a defiant little human, hm?”

  “I thought you said his claim wasn’t valid. If I’m not truly his, I’m not really defying him.”

  Now he grinned, letting the faint light from the city reflect off his white teeth. “And lippy, too. Either you’re very brave, kitten, or very stupid.”

  At this point, I was pretty sure it was stupid.

  “Even if Lightning had claimed you fully, his mark wouldn’t have protected you from human thugs. Did you really think the supe community were the only ones keeping an eye on you after that bomb you dropped on the Internet?”

  “I… didn’t think about it,” I admitted. Shame made me bite my lip and drop my gaze. When my eyes met the dead stare of the last survivor’s decapitated head I looked back up, fighting the sudden onset of nausea. Even though Lightning’s visit had made me come to terms with the very real danger looking into the supes posed, I hadn’t imagined it could result in humans stalking me like this.

  “You’re way out of your depth, little girl,” The Shade said. “I don’t even think you realize how far yet.”

  A high-pitched laugh burst past my lips before I managed to clamp my jaw shut around it.

  “I think I have a pretty good idea!” I made a vague gesture toward the broken bodies on the ground, without making the mistake of looking down again. “God, I can’t even think about what they would have done to me if you hadn’t saved…” My voice trailed off as I realized what I was saying. Another giggle escaped my throat. “You saved me.” The Shade had saved me from torture and death. I was so far out of my depth that I’d taken a left turn into the outright absurd.

  He watched while my hysteria slowly subsided. When I finally got a hold of myself again, a wave of gratitude so strong it nearly knocked my legs out from underneath me swept through my limbs.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much. If you hadn’t come…”

  “You would be dead,” he said, his voice as soft and emotionless as when he had first spoken to me.

  “If there is anything I can do to pay you back…” I grabbed for my bag on some ridiculous instinct, then realized I must have dropped it at some point during the fight. “I’ve lost my bag, but if you help me find it, I can pay you…” My voice died at the incredulous look in his burning blue eyes.

  “You think I killed them for money? That I am some pathetic vigilante saving damsels in distress to get paid?”

  “No. I know who you are.” And what he was. I swallowed nervously at the way his eyes flickered when he looked me over. “Why did you save me?”

  The Shade pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest, making his pectorals and biceps strain underneath his suit. “There is something you can do to pay me back for saving your life, Kathryn.”

  Uh oh. There was a quiet, but distinct foreboding behind his dismissal of my question. I looked up at him, willing my body to stop its trembling as I waited for the price he would claim in return for my life. Why hadn’t I just kept my mouth shut?

  “Accept my mark.”

  Six

  I blinked. Twice. “W-what?”

  He narrowed his eyes, and the glow from them illuminated his mouth’s firm set. “You heard me. Is your life worth that much, kitten?”

  I wasn’t entirely sure if he was threatening me with what would happen if I didn’t accept. I didn’t feel like asking.

  “Um…” My mind raced as I stared up at him, and I wished it would stop circling back to what he’d said Lightning had failed to do to mark me properly.

  “Wouldn’t… Wouldn’t Lightning mind? H-he said I was his.” I was grasping at
straws, throwing the hero’s name in front of me like a flimsy shield, even though I didn’t hold much hope for its effectiveness.

  The Shade twisted his mouth into a dark smile, and then he leaned forward, bracing both hands on each side of my head, boxing me in fully. “Oh, I’m counting on it.”

  I gulped. He was way, way too close again, the heat from him radiating into my skin through my clothes.

  “Look at it this way—where was he tonight? Where was he while you were being threatened and abused? You are not safe with him as a protector. I, on the other hand, will watch over you—make sure you are safe from harm.” The Shade lifted one gloved hand and let his fingers trail up my neck before he grasped my jaw. “Be smart, kitten.”

  Be smart. The irony of hearing Lightning’s words echoed from The Shade’s deviant lips wasn’t lost on me.

  “Now? Here?” I croaked, trying to think of anything that could give me just a few moments to think—to reel my mind in from his hypnotic stare and overpowering presence.

  “Yes,” he murmured, smiling at my lips’ trembling and the undoubtedly terrified expression plastered across my face. “Now. Here. I want you to spread your legs and accept my claim.”

  Well, that cleared up any confusion about whether or not he intended to make up for the part Lightning had been enough of a gentleman to skip.

  “I… uh, I… don’t think….” My voice trailed off to an indistinguishable mumble when his burning gaze lowered to my mouth and he brushed his thumb over my lower lip. Unexpected heat traveled through me at the light touch and I recoiled as far as the wall against my back would let me.

  “What are you doing?” My voice was sharp with accusation, even though my heart pounded with fear. Would he really mind-rape me into allowing this, into allowing him to… Oh, God, why was I even asking—he was The freaking Shade! Of course he would!

  The Shade smiled. “I’m not doing anything, kitten. That sweet pulse between your legs is all you.”