Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  Shadow touched his nose. “I know the scent that gay sex usually leaves. That time I had you meet me to get Fiona you hadn’t showered.”

  “I’ll remember that next time.”

  “Doesn’t bother me none. I don’t have the right to go judging other people’s lifestyles to be honest.”

  “So why are we here Shadow?”

  Shadow sighed, “This whole thing, it’s bothered me and I can’t really seem to put my finger on why. That Mayor, he was as bad as Scorecard or Laughing Boy or any of them really. His death was well deserved. And the DA just wanted to sweep that all under the rug?”

  “Shadow, just how many people have you killed?”

  Shadow shrugged, “I don’t keep score, seems kind of wrong to make a contest out of it.”

  “So why are you so upset that the DA wanted to go after you? From his point of view you’re just as bad as the others. Hell, maybe you’re worse. DA’s do keep score and while the former mayor killed maybe six, or seven people, that’s a small number compared to you.”

  Shadow shook his head, “But the people I kill deserve it. If it wasn’t self-defense then it was because they were killing and destroying others. No one with a decent sense of morality can look at anyone I’ve killed and say that they didn’t deserve it.”

  “You sure of that?” Tomas said looking not at all sure.

  Shadow nodded, “Yeah, I am. There are some things just so vile that there can be no forgiveness. There are other things that when you do them, you place yourself beyond the protections of civilized law. I hunted those in the first group for many years Tomas; I came here because it was starting to destroy me. Now I contend only with those in the second group and only when I have no choice.”

  “I never met an avenger before,” Tomas said looking over Shadow in a new light. Avengers were rare among supers, their power triggered by events often so heinous that most were insane. They hunted and killed only a specific kind of criminal until eventually they were killed, usually by those with no understanding of the people the avenger hunted, thinking his victims innocent.

  Shadow thought about that for a few moments, “I never thought of myself like that, but maybe you’re right. Maybe I was. Maybe to some extent I still am.” He sat there a few more minutes. “The thing is, if the DA pushes too hard on me again Tomas, him and I are going to have words. In private. On my terms. He won’t like that very much, and I’m afraid that I might do something I’ll regret very much.”

  “Because it’ll make you wanted?”

  “No, because I may hurt or kill someone who doesn’t deserve it. The DA may be an ass as far as I’m concerned, but he’s a good man and he means well. He just doesn’t understand the rules of the game.”

  “You do break the law a lot you know.”

  “Yeah, I do. And if he comes after me for that it’s one thing. But killing people is something that I do Tomas, but only when they deserve it. Justifiable homicide is still on the books, he needs to stay out of my way on that.”

  “Judge, jury, and executioner?”

  “You’ve killed, Tomas, we both know it isn’t that way. They judge themselves; we only carry out the sentence.”

  “But the mayor isn’t the only one in the last year, was it?”

  “The fact of the matter is, I didn’t kill the mayor.”

  “What?!” Tomas sat up straight shocked, “Then who did?”

  “His wife.” Shadow shook his head and sighed, “It was supposed to be a murder-suicide. She reached over and grabbed the wheel and ran them off the bridge, then turned the car off and set the alarm. Turned it into a veritable cage. She’d had enough of his lying and cheating, and shady behavior. She gave him quite a piece of her mind while he was trying to get the seat belt off and then get the door open.”

  “And you know this because?”

  “I was hiding in the back of their SUV. I was going to kill him later that night.”

  “Well if his wife was going to kill the both of them, what happened? She’s still alive after all.”

  Shadow nodded. “I waited until she passed out, then I just undid her seat belt, opened the door, pulled her out and closed the door behind us. I got her to the surface and gave her mouth to mouth until she came too. I took her home, put her to bed, and told her she shouldn’t be paying for her husband’s crimes. Just tell everyone she wasn’t in the car and consider it fate that I was there to save her.”

  Tomas thought about it a minute. It had gotten darker as they sat there, and now it was starting to snow. The weather service had been warning about a large storm, and an early snow.

  “You should change sides, Shadow.”

  “You mean I should pick yours. I still haven’t picked a side in all of this, Tomas.”

  “You know what I mean. You’re a good person deep down.”

  “I’m still too problematic. I still have issues to work through. Ask me some year when I’ve got less blood on my claws. I was still a pretty bad boy this year. Cleaning up some of Scorecard’s loose ends wasn’t pretty.”

  “Care to tell me about it?”

  “Hell no! I’m black mailing half of the city’s premier social circle with it. I’d be an idiot to share that before it wears out!” Shadow said smiling wanly at Tomas.

  “Alright. Well see you next month, Shadow.” Tomas got up and pulled his collar up against the cold.

  “Yup,” was all Shadow said and he just sat there in the snow, not doing much of anything as Tomas walked away.

  Shadow sat there quite a while, he didn’t have a coat, and he took off the shirt as it started to get wet, because he didn’t want to get soaked. The snow itself landing on his fur wouldn’t melt, the fur keeping it far enough from the heat of his body. He wasn’t really that cold, and it was coming down heavier by the hour. Snow was his enemy in so many ways, it showed his tracks, left a trail. But he could sit in it for hours and stare at the trees, the bushes.

  This was a good year, or it should have been. He had a new lover, Nance wasn’t a fucktoy, she was in the same category as Liz and Circe. Karen was improving, and his finances were getting back on a firm footing. Nance had scored some big money because of her actions, so she’d paid Shadow back most of what he’d loaned her.

  But the whole grand jury thing still had him spooked. He spent a lot of time in the shadows, not being seen, not rising to the attention of the media, or the politicians. A lot of the bad guys played it big, living large, and they burned out most times pretty quickly too. Scorecard had been in the town seven years and now he was due to be hung before Christmas. Shadow was more interested in the long haul, and he didn’t want any of that notoriety or fame. From either side of the good/bad divide. All he wanted was lots of young willing women to satisfy his lusts and a few friends on the side. He’d killed too many after his change and while learning his powers. It wasn’t in the dozens.

  It was in the hundreds.

  New York, Boston, Philadelphia, they’d offered him up a huge supply of offenders to be punished. He’d find one, then he’d find the whole ring of them, their support network, and the New Jersey Devil would strike again. Of course the police would keep it quiet and the local pols would downplay it. It never paid for his victim’s crimes to be made public when there were always a few in the circle who were upstanding citizens and connected men. Nope, can’t connect them with pedophilia and the murder of countless innocent children.

  They’d almost caught him once. But he learned, he grew, he evolved. Then one day he realized his anger was consuming him, and he was just as dead as those he’d sought to save. Or as Tomas had put it, avenge.

  So he quit. He decided to start a new life, to do the things he never had and have the things he’d always wanted. When he’d come here, he’d been pretty nasty at first. But he’d come so far in just a few years. He wondered if he’d be able to go farther still?

  He could only hope.

  Saying Good-bye

  Another year had gone by, and Kar
en had just turned eighteen. She’d graduated school, gotten accepted at a rather nice college back east, and Shadow had made arrangements for her to train her powers via a friend of Tomas's. He didn’t want her going bad, and he had told her so. Her powers had at this point come to full fruition, what she would do with them he wasn’t sure yet. She could go the super’s route, or with her ability to place things in stasis she could probably be very worthwhile in the medical field as well.

  She was as beautiful as the day he’d first found her, more so actually, her chest having gotten fuller, her hips just a tad wider and her butt a little rounder. She was quite a woman, and he had to admit he’d miss having her at his beck and call, a willing sex slave to his desires for all that she’d become her own woman when he wasn’t around. But in his presence, she was all his, she reverted almost completely to what she had been when he found her. He was stifling her growth, and at this point he was sure she even realized it.

  “Well a few more days and you’re on your way to your new life,” Shadow said smiling a little wistfully. He just come back from working on some of his more illicit business arrangements. It was Friday and Karen left Monday morning. He’d decided that he’d spend her last weekend here with her.

  Karen nodded and sighed, she didn’t really want to go, she liked belonging to him, but he was right. She needed this, to go off and do her own thing, live her own life, be her own person. He’d promised her that once she was done with school, if she really wanted to, she could come back.

  “I’m going to miss you, Shadow, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” She smiled as he pulled her close and kissed her.

  “You’ve been good for me too, Kitten. For the first time in a long time I actually care about someone again.” He purred nuzzling the top of her head.

  “Then why can’t I stay?” She wheedled one last time.

  “We’ve been over that,” he purred. And they had been over it. He loved her; he loved her enough to know that staying with him was the worst thing he could do to her. She would never be his equal; he would never let her grow up. He was still far from being a good person as well, he had a lot more healing of his own he needed to do.

  “Well I got you a little going away present,” she said smiling up at him.

  “I thought I was the one who should give you something to remember me by?” He asked.

  “Oh you’re going to,” she laughed and winked at him, “You’re definitely going to.” He felt her hand slide down between them and undo her jeans. She dipped her hand in them and then brought it up and rubbed her fingers over his nose.

  “What ...” He started to say and then it hit him and his eyes went wide. She was fertile; it was that time of the month, something she shouldn’t be going through if she’d been taking her pill. If he fucked her now, she’d be pregnant. He got hard as a rock instantly, he’d never bred before. But ....

  “I don’t think I should take advantage of you like this.” He said it very slowly; it was the hardest thing he’d ever said. Every cell in his body was screaming for him to fuck her, and fuck her now. She was his, he could do it, he could. But he shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t.

  He suddenly noticed that his left ear was in considerable pain and he stared dumbfounded down at Karen, who was twisting it and staring at him.

  “Do I have your complete attention now?”

  He nodded dumbly.

  “If you do not fuck me here and now, by god I am going to out into the street and fuck the first man I meet and have HIS baby. If I can’t have you I will have this.”

  Shadow smiled slowly, and realized he was growling rather loudly. “There is no way you’re setting foot outside in your condition. I’d end up killing way too many men.” He pulled her against him, and looked down into her eyes, “You win, let’s go make a cub.”

  Shadow picked her up and carried her to his bed, he didn’t bother undressing her, he just cut her out of her clothing with his claws, then went rather feral on her, pushing her onto her back on the bed he crawled between her spread legs and took her then and there.

  It was animalistic, it was hot, it was just pure breeding and nothing else. The look in her eyes was priceless, he’d never taken her like this before, and they both enjoyed it immensely. He lay on top of her panting for several minutes after he’d finally cum inside her. Next he flipped her over and took her on all fours, doggie style. She moaned and yelled, crying out his name as he pushed her down into the bed, arching her ass up even higher for him to pound into as he growled and snarled until he finally came in her once more. Again it was wonderful.

  They spent the next twenty-four hours straight in bed screwing their brains out. They’d spent a lot of time pleasuring each other in the past, each knew what the other liked, and now they spent hours giving that to one another, and then some. Every time Shadow felt his sex drive flagging he’d stick his nose in her sex and take a deep breath. That scent and the primal pheromones that went with it would do their magic and he’d be rock hard again in moments.

  For Karen it was the most wonderful sex she’d ever had, he was making a baby in her, his baby! Every time she thought about it, she came just that much harder.

  For Shadow it was one of the most mind-blowing experiences of his life. The cat’s instincts were all over him, and the human ones were more than happy to go along for the ride. He knew that the sex he was doing now would have a consequence. In nine months, he’d have a child. THAT was going to give him something to think about.

  They went out Sunday night to the most expensive restaurant Shadow could think of and ran up the largest bill that he thought they could. He wanted to remember this night always, and he wanted Karen to as well. Afterwards they went home and made love; slow, passionate, gentle sex.

  In the morning he took her to the airport, they kissed good-bye, and he watched until she boarded the plane and then it flew off into the sky. Taking a piece of him with her.

  Then he went home and for the first time since Wayne’s death, he cried.

  Shirley

  A Chance Encounter

  Shadow looked around the room. He didn't see any traps, not that he expected any. The two guards who had been watching the door were unconscious, he'd taken care of both of them with a drug that inhibited their short-term memory, but they wouldn't be out for long. He needed to get this done, and get it done quickly, before they regained consciousness.

  Walking up to the cage, he pulled out the key ring he'd gotten off of one of the guards, and dropping his stealth form so the woman in the cage could see him, he put the key into the lock.

  "Shadow!" she gasped and huddled in the corner.

  "Quiet," he said and started on the second lock. He'd never seen a lock set up like this, the locks were mounted on the wall and kept the bars that held the door closed from moving. It would definitely be hard to reach, much less pick, by anyone in the cage.

  "What are you going to do with me?" she asked, sounding scared.

  Shadow sighed and looked at her, she was called 'The Angel' and she was gorgeous. She had two huge white feathered wings, which was how she got her name. She was part of Tomas' team, and she'd gotten captured only a couple of hours ago.

  "I know what I'd like to do," he said shaking his head and opening the door. "But I don't think...."

  That was about as far as he got, when suddenly he locked up. Completely. He just stood there. He wondered suddenly if he'd missed some sort of trap or spell. But he hadn't seen anything in his stealth form.

  "Come here and undo my shackles," Angel said and standing up, she turned away from him. Spreading her wings slightly she held her arms back from her body. He could see that they bound with some heavy shackles with arcane writing on them.

  He walked forward and went through the keys, looking for the one to undo her restraints. It was a curious sensation, he had no control over his body or his actions as he found the key, undid her shackles and tossed them on the floor. He wasn't being directly
physically controlled, but the compulsion he was under was unshakable.

  "Why thank you, Shadow," she said with an obvious hint of sarcasm.

  "You're welcome," he replied, surprised that he was able to actually talk. She hadn't compelled him to say that, he'd done that on his own.

  She started a moment and looked at him, then shook her head.

  "I think it will be quite the surprise for them when they come here looking for me, and find you instead, don't you?" she said as she exited the cage, closing the door and leaving him behind.

  Shadow swore under his breath. There was no way she'd get out of here alive by herself!

  "You'll die!" He warned her.

  "You mean you'll die," she said, scowling at him.

  "No," Shadow said. He tried to shake his head but he was pretty much frozen in place still. He wondered how long it would last once she was gone? He also wondered why she hadn't done this sooner to those who had captured her.

  "You don't know what you're up against. You'll die."

  "Oh, and you can help me?" she asked, sounding rather angry. "You just want to take me home and rape me like you did Fiona."

  "I never raped Fiona."

  The Angel's eyes got rather wide then and she stared at him.

  "We're running out of time," he warned her.

  Swearing she opened the gate up, "Lead me away from here. But one false move and I'll make you do something suicidal!"

  Shadow nodded, he could move again, he could feel he was still being compelled, but right now that compulsion was to get her the hell out of here. Which had been his original intention all along, so he could work with that.

  "Follow me, don't speak, don't ask questions, and if I tell you to run for your life, do it and I'll hold them off."

  He didn't look to see what her response was; he came to the door, checked it, and then peeked outside. The guards were still down. He led her out of the room, locked the door behind him, and gave the guards back the keys. When they came too, they'd be confused for a while, by the time all the effects of the drug wore off, they wouldn't remember being on the floor, or even being confused.