Of Shadow Born

by S. L. Gray

  Movement at the edge of her vision had her bracing for another attack. When she turned her head, though, and spotted Kade locked in a surreal dance with the other rancor, she felt a little better despite the dire situation. He had caught his beast beneath the front paws as it faced away from him, legs flailing wildly. It bucked and struggled in his grip, but his attention wasn't on the monster. He stared hard at her, his gaze almost a physical thing.

  "Invisible!" he shouted. "Think see-through!"

  "See-through? What does that mean?" But Kade was gone again. Still, he hadn't just left her there to fend on her own as evidenced by his grunts, the rancor's hisses and the sound of fighting. He didn't answer. She'd have to figure it out for herself.

  The thing continued to struggle against her hold, choking itself as it pressed its neck into her hands. It coughed and wheezed even as it strained to reach her. It shifted its not-inconsiderable weight and cotton tore as easily as paper, the fabric of her blouse snagged by a claw. The cool, hard surface of the wicked talon grazed her skin without drawing blood. Too close for comfort. The mythological creation was all too real.

  And she could no more turn invisible than she could sink into the ground. Except Kade had touched her and allowed a bullet to pass through her body without hurting her at all. If that was the sort of invisible he meant...

  The rancor hissed again. It cocked its head and fixed an angry golden eye on her. The pupil shuttered open and narrowed again, as if it needed to focus to be certain of where it would strike. Its tail thumped impatiently against her knee.

  Melanie crushed her eyes shut. Invisible. If she couldn't see the beast, then somehow in this suddenly crazy world, it had to follow it shouldn't be able see her either. She just had to find a way to make being unseen real.

  She thought of air. She thought of being hollow. She imagined her fingers on the bird-like neck passing through feathers to flesh and bone. She struggled to keep that image in her mind. No gore, no guts, just her hand breezing through what now seemed solid. She fought against the wave of panic rising up to meet her with each breath. If it didn't work, she might lose a finger. An eye. She could lose her life.

  Not going to happen. Not tonight. Not while she could still hear Kade wrestling with his own problems. The odds were stacked against her, but she could still beat them. She squeezed her eyes tighter. She willed herself to ignore the killer above her and its fetid breath. She reached deep, searching for some magic switch that would make her disappear.

  She remembered the knot coiled low and tight in her stomach. As if she could actually touch it with a thought, a chill unfurled from that spot, sweeping over and through her like fog on a January night. Goosebumps lifted on her arms. She shivered hard and exhaled, nothing more than a hiss of sound. In her mind's eye, her breath left her body as a stream of silver mist.

  The rancor struck at last. Melanie felt its beak pierce her skin and braced herself against pain. She'd failed. She must have failed. Kade's name was on her lips. If she could call out, if he could help her, he would. He'd get there. She opened her eyes to search for him before it was too late.

  The world had all turned black and white. The trees above her were dark, spectral shapes blotting out a hazy gray sky. They moved as if a breeze stirred them, but she couldn't feel it on her skin. She couldn't feel anything, she realized. Not her heart beating, not the monster that pinned her down.

  She couldn't see it. The beast that had attacked her, pushed its beak into her skin, was gone. Panicked, she sat up, knowing that any moment it could return and finish what it started. Something must have scared it off. Maybe she'd passed out and was dreaming now.

  A new movement caught her attention. A shadow within shadow hurtled toward her. Maybe the monster had plucked out an eye and this was how her brain readjusted, throwing everything into grayscale. She climbed to her feet. Ready. She had to be ready for whatever charged her way.

  She found herself caught in a bear-like hug and staring into Kade's broad features. His mouth moved but she heard no sound. A dream. A nightmare. Something.

  Then all at once, sound returned, a roar like wind in her ears, then Kade's familiar voice, thick with relief. "...did it," he finished and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "You did it, Melanie. You're safe."

  Safe. The word echoed through her and, for a moment, she believed in it. She felt safe standing here with Kade's arms around her. When the moment passed, she remembered she'd closed her eyes, pushed, and landed somewhere Else.

  She looked harder at the world around them. The color still hadn't returned, not completely or in the depth and range of shades she expected. There were hints of it, here and there. She lifted her hand and saw a hint of pink beneath shadowed skin. The trees still hung on to a slight tinge of green, but there it stopped. The sky was gray, the ground pitch black and the rest of the world fell somewhere in between.

  As safe places went, it was not quite paradise.

  "Where are we?" She took a step back and he let go. "This isn't the park. I mean, it must be, but it didn't look like this." She let her gaze wander the clearing. "What did I do?"

  "This is Shadow," he answered. "We're standing...between. It's a place between places. Behind the veil, a different plane, whatever's easiest to understand. You went sideways," he explained. "Guess that proves your blood once and for all. Takes one of us to make that slide."

  "So the rancors...?"

  "Have to be summoned back to this side. Someone can open a pathway to the real world and let them pass through, but they can't do it on their own. You're safe," he said again, "but we're not staying here."

  Relief thrummed through her. "Good. I kind of like the Technicolor world." Right now, her boring apartment with its solid walls and boring furniture sounded good. She wanted to go home.

  She let Kade lead the way. There was no telling where they'd end up if she tried to navigate the shadows. She could recognize the usual landmarks, proving they were headed in the right direction, but they had all changed somehow. The buildings were less substantial from this side. Windows that had always just been empty now seemed menacing as if they took note of Melanie's progress.

  Kade didn't falter, despite the fact he kept her hand in his and shortened his steps to match her stride. She stayed with him, more or less shoulder-to-shoulder. If she slowed down, he did as well. They didn't speak, but nothing needed to be said.

  It was only when they reached the apartment and had ghosted up the stairs that she balked at all. Melanie stopped at the door, frozen mid-reach for the doorknob. She curled her fingers against her palm and let her hand fall.

  "I wouldn't be able to open it, would I?" She didn't look at Kade to see his response. "Can we go back? Can we step sideways again? I don't think I want to know what this side of my apartment looks like."

  "If you want," he said, a little hesitantly. His hand now rested at the small of her back, but she couldn't be sure if she actually felt heat radiating from him or if she'd just imagined it to remind herself they were still real. "I'll take a look, make sure we're okay. Don't want to step out of nothing in front of your neighbors."

  She startled. "Out of nothing. I didn't think." She looked around the landing now. Doors and corners, but none of the floor's other residents, thank God. Kade moved away a few steps and Melanie hugged herself. She wanted to lean against a wall, let her spine bow and shoulders sag, but she wasn't sure she wouldn't simply drift through and that would steal the little bit of self-control she still had.

  "Take my hand." Kade's voice surprised her again, low and closer than she expected. She glanced up at him, summoned a smile and slid her hand into his as he asked. Odd how the simple touch made her feel better, as if she was borrowing his strength.

  He pulled her against his side, transferring her hand to his other. His now-freed arm slid around her waist. "We'll go on three. One. Two."

  Color bled into the world like watching paint flow back into an artist's work. Warmth returned with her other s
enses and another shiver rippled through her. Kade held her closer and she didn't complain. They walked through her front door together as they'd done half a dozen times already. Like nothing in the world could be wrong or different in any way.

  Peace was short-lived.

  "You need to pack a bag," Kade told her. "Whatever you need for the next couple weeks."

  "Weeks." Melanie stopped where she stood. "What do you mean, weeks? I have a job. I have a life. I can't just put all that on hold."

  "You don't have to," he agreed matter-of-factly. "It's been done for you. You've got the time off at work. Will have until someone figures out what happened. Think of it as a sudden vacation."

  She frowned. "People don't tend to die when I'm on vacation."

  "And they shouldn't. We're not trying to make a habit of this." Kade smirked. "But you've been handed the opportunity to get away for a while and you're taking it. Pack a bag."

  She could stubborn it out, she knew. She could set her jaw and square her shoulders and do headstrong with the best of them. The fact remained that she was in trouble, though. Giving ground felt somehow like giving in, but if she wanted to keep fighting, she didn't have a choice. She could put her foot down another day because she'd have one. They could argue about him giving her orders then.

  So she glared at Kade for another few heartbeats, then turned on her heel and marched down the hall to her room.

  The cab ride across the city to Kade's apartment was tersely silent. Melanie kept her backpack on the seat between them, a makeshift barrier against a host of things. The urge to lean into his arms again. The temptation to thump him, just once, on the chest in the hopes of erasing the hint of a smug smile that touched his lips.

  The building they drove up to looked more like a warehouse than a structure that would house apartments. There were no landscaped trees or bushes arranged around the front facade, just a simple staircase leading to a battered door that looked more likely to keep the unwanted out than welcome visitors in.

  "This is where you live?" Melanie ducked her head so she could see all three stories through the cab window. "You're sure it's safe?"

  "You might not want to go walking around the neighborhood alone," Kade confessed. "Especially at night. Good thing we don't have to worry about that, do we?" He handed a few folded bills to the driver, then opened the door and climbed out. "Come on. I'll give you the tour."

  She clutched her backpack against her side as Kade punched a security code into the number pad beside the door. It unlocked with an echoing thunk and he braced it open for her with his hand above her head.

  The hallway beyond, at least, had decent carpeting. The wallpaper was light and took advantage of the cramped space. From here, she could appreciate what someone might see in a place like this.

  "Upstairs," Kade prompted, touching his fingers to the small of her back again. He carried her other suitcase in the opposite hand. He guided her to the second floor and farther down the hall, directing her to another unmarked door.

  There was no number posted, no welcome mat waiting outside as there were in front of other apartments across the way. It might have been a vacancy, except Kade produced a key.

  "Be careful when you get inside," he warned as he turned the key in the lock. "It'll take a second for your eyes to adjust. I'll be right behind you. Don't worry."

  "I don't until someone tells me not to," Melanie pointed out, voice wry to her own ears. She took a deep breath as Kade nudged the door open, steeling herself for the worst as she crossed the threshold.

  Nothing attacked her. Nothing growled or barked or bit. The air felt cool where it touched her skin, but that didn't count as out of the ordinary. There was no telling how long it had been since he'd been home. With no bodies or appliances running, any San Francisco apartment could turn uncomfortably cool, fast.

  The fact that the room beyond the door was dark likewise didn't strike her as odd. Kade had warned her and it only made sense that the lights would be off and furniture hard to make out compared to the light in the hall. Only when Kade closed the door behind them and the shadows deepened did Melanie hesitate at all.

  "Is there a light switch somewhere?" she asked as the first finger of dread crept up her spine.

  "There's a lamp." She felt him brush past her, heard the snap of something clicking, then squinted against the flare of brightness.

  It was almost better with the lights off. The apartment, if it could even be called that, was nearly barren. There were a few pieces of furniture, but not enough to fill the sprawling space. She'd been right in her estimate of the building itself, judging by these rooms. It must have once been a warehouse and been divided up by someone with an entrepreneurial mind.

  The walls and floors had been resurfaced and painted dark. The support structures that held up the floor above had been hidden inside columns of a matching shade. There was a couch and a pair of mismatched chairs, a low table and a few more lamps around the room that didn't match the one Kade had turned on.

  No walls divided the kitchen from the living room. There were no bookshelves and no stereo, no television she could see. There were only two visible windows and those had been covered with dark, heavy drapes. "No wonder you wanted to stay with me," she murmured before she could stop herself. "What do you do here? Other than eat."

  Kade chuckled and came back to her. "I have a bedroom. I sleep," he said. "Sometimes I read. Mostly, I practice."

  She twisted to look over her shoulder at him. "Practice what?"

  He shrugged. "Whatever I need. The shadows make it easy to concentrate on our powers. There's no better place for you to learn how to control them than here. With me."

  "Our powers." The shiver that swept over her came on too suddenly to fight. She leaned against him and he made room. "That still doesn't make sense to me."

  "It will," he promised. "Give it time."

  Time she might not have if the other side had its way. She nodded nonetheless. "I will," she told him, "but if I'm staying, we've got to talk about your color scheme. Gray doesn't always go with gray."

  He laughed. "As long as you're staying, you can decorate it any way you like. Make yourself comfortable and welcome to your new home."

  ~

  She slept like a child, boneless and unconcerned. One arm stretched across the bed, palm up, the fingers curled. No doubt she'd flung it out in the midst of a dream, or used it to help turn herself as she found a new position and drifted deep into blissful oblivion. The slight curve of her lips proved her rest peaceful. It seemed almost a shame.

  A shame to disturb her and wake her up. He sat beside her, his slowly solidifying weight hardly tilting the bed. He ghosted his hand along that arm, following skin toward the vulnerable crook of her elbow. Tracing higher along her bicep, close enough to feel sleepy warmth and yet not touch. Not quite.

  He could lose himself in the peaks and valleys of her body. Graze a breast with the back of his knuckles and watch the nipple tighten beneath her shirt. Skim his hand up the inside of her thigh toward the dark thatch between her legs. She would open to him. She would sigh and twist and spread herself, offer him the pleasures they'd shared the night before.

  She would cry out into his kiss and he would savor the taste of ecstasy, delving into her over and over until he'd spent and sated himself. Then he'd leave her as he had before, with nothing but the vaguest memory. He could come to her for a thousand nights and each one would surprise her, thrill her, make her beg for more...

  If he had all the time in the world, he could cherish her. For now, he had other plans.

  He brushed the pad of his thumb against her lips. They moved beneath his touch and Noura wet them, the pink of her tongue still startling against the dusky rose of supple skin. Her lashes fluttered and he felt himself smile. Her eyebrows tugged together and she roused toward waking. When her eyes opened, she focused slowly.

  Then smiled, a languid shift of expression. The nightshirt slid up her stomach as she st
retched, revealing tempting skin, the fabric draping breasts that made his palms itch with need. It would be so easy to steal an hour in her arms.

  Then the frown returned, puzzlement carving deep lines on Noura's forehead. "Wait," she murmured, pushing up on her elbows. "You weren't here with me—"

  He clapped a hand against her mouth, muffling her scream. He held on, fingers pressing hard enough to still her but not bruise. The spell was broken. A sigh escaped him as he leaned in close and brushed his mouth against her ear.

  "I need you," he whispered. "Oh so very badly. You and only you, Noura. No one else will do."

  She tried to fight him. She put up a valiant effort as his body melted into nothing and he buried his essence in the cradle of her mind.

  Chapter Fifteen

  "I can't feel my legs."

  "Then you're not doing it right."

  Melanie's sigh of frustration echoed through the room. "You keep saying that and I keep trying, but that doesn't mean I'm going to magically know what to do."

  "I've told you," Kade countered. "Close your eyes, remember to breathe, reach for the shadows."

  "Which is making my legs go numb!" She held up a hand before he could argue again. "I think I'm done. We've been at this all day."

  "It's only been a few hours. You can't just give up."

  "And I can't run a marathon just because I've got tennis shoes. I'm done," she insisted again and moved across the room. She paced to the couch and fell onto it with a groan, her eyes drifting shut. "My back is happier already."

  Kade exhaled sharply. "So if we're not training, what are we going to do?" He felt certain he could sit in silence longer than she could stand.

  Her shoulders rose and fell. "You could talk to me."

  He bit back an oath and headed toward her. She never seemed to run out of questions. He understood how this might all seem overwhelming, but training was more important than an endless Q and A. Talking wouldn't save her or keep Penumbra's men from attacking. He claimed the opposite end of the couch. "I don't know what else you expect me to say."