Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  “I notice you don’t include yourself in that group.”

  Shadow nodded, “I’m not a good guy. I was once I think, but I sort of drifted away. All the killing I did, it sort of numbed me to what was right, what was wrong, what was good, what wasn’t. I can still smell evil, and I’ll go after it, but I’m neutral these days. Shirley may change that, the good Lord knows she is pulling me constantly in the right direction. But I can be one cold hard son of a bitch and everybody knows it.”

  “So what about me?” Jill asked softly.

  “What about you? Talk to me, Jill, tell me about you. Tell me who you are and what you want. We’ll go from there.”

  “Are you going to kill me?” She asked scared.

  “Not if I don’t have to, not if you don’t make me. So talk to me.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “What do you want? Who are you? Be honest, what would make you content?”

  “I notice you didn’t say ‘happy’.”

  “I don’t know that I have the power to make you happy, but maybe I can help you make yourself happy. So talk to me ....”

  Jill took a deep breath, “I want to be special, I want to be powerful, I want to have money, and I want to have men at my beck and call. I don’t really want to be famous; I’ve seen the baggage that can come with that. But I want to be somebody!” Jill looked a little embarrassed and looked away a moment, but then had second thoughts and looked Shadow straight in the eye, “I’m not going to be embarrassed about it, I want it.”

  “What are you willing to do to get that?” Shadow asked softly.

  “Anything!” Jill said immediately.

  “Anything? Absolutely anything?”

  “Ye ...” Jill stopped and thought a moment; anything was a pretty broad statement after all. “Okay, not exactly anything, I’ll take any risks or pay any price; I won’t do it at the cost of someone else. It’s my debt, my responsibility I guess you’d say.”

  “So, you’re saying you’ll do anything to get it, as long as you’re the only one paying for it, you’re not doing it by using someone else.”

  Jill nodded. “Basically yes.”

  Shadow thought about that a minute, it was better than he’d hoped for. This might work out after all.

  “Okay, first of all, yes I believe that you have latent super powers.”

  Shadow noticed Jill sat up straight and brightened considerably at that.

  “Secondly trying to activate them will probably affect you in some manner, possibly something bad. When you gain something, sometimes you lose something.”

  “What did you lose?” Jill asked suddenly.

  “A number of things to be honest, my patience was probably the most important.” Shadow laughed, predators are supposed to be patient, and as a stalker he was, but that was a different sort of patience than the one he had problems with.

  “Third, the power you get, you might not like. And fourth, I’m not sure if your power can be activated by any means we have at available. So you may end up always wanting but never getting. That could be the cruelest thing of all.”

  “I don’t care Shadow! I want this; I want this with all of my being.”

  “Okay, well let me talk to Tomas. Your information did help us some. I’ll see what he can do.”

  “Thank you, Shadow,” Jill said as he stood up to leave.

  “Don’t thank me yet, we still don’t even know what your power is.”

  “You can’t tell?” Jill looked surprised.

  “No, I can only sense a potential, that’s about it.” Shadow said as he left.

  “So, you want me to call in some favors to see what we can do for her,” Tomas said.

  “Yes, that pretty much covers it.”

  “She didn’t do all that much for us, Shadow.”

  “She did tell us about their next move, and gave you enough insight to realize they were part of a larger death cult. One that the government can now keep an eye on to make sure that it never gets that powerful again.”

  “Still, it’s a lot, Shadow.”

  “Yes well,” Shadow leaned over and put his hands on the desk and brought his face level with Tomas’s. “There is the little matter of you owing me now, isn’t there? You tricked me into coming here. She’s going to pursue this no matter what you can do for her. I’d rather she feel indebted to me, you, and the feds for this than to somebody on the bad side of the equation.”

  Tomas ‘hmmmed’ and thought about that a moment. “You have a good point there. I especially like the point where you admit to me getting the better of you!” Tomas laughed at the unpleasant expression on Shadow’s muzzle. “Oh please, after all the crap you’ve given me over the years you had to expect some payback sooner or later.”

  “Crap? Me? Really now, Tomas ...” Shadow looked hurt at that.

  “Who was that woman in the basement ward you had me cover for ...?”

  Shadow gave him his best innocent look and changed the subject. “So you will help Jill then?”

  Tomas smiled, knowing he had won that argument and returned to the matter at hand. “Yes, you and Shirley can accompany her out to our facility in New York. The treatment doesn’t take long. It’s the recovery that can be difficult.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because they have to learn to control their new abilities. They don’t come on gradually, it’s just full force, all at once.”

  Shadow nodded, “Kind of what I went through.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Okay, I’ll tell Jill and Shirley and get them ready.”

  # # # # #

  Shadow put the phone down. “Well they’re done, we can go in any time now,” he said to Shirley.

  “Did they say anything else?” She looked concerned, they’d been here three days now, and they’d put Jill through the process this morning. It was now four in the afternoon.

  “They said she came through okay, no negative side effects.”

  “Did it work?”

  “Yes.”

  Shirley punched him in the arm, “You going to tell me what her power is?”

  Shadow shrugged, “They didn’t tell me. Said they wanted to see our reaction.”

  Shirley sighed and shook her head. “Well let’s go over there and see for ourselves then.”

  They linked arms and headed down to the test area. The installation was a pretty large one; Shadow had been surprised by it. Apparently it was something of a secret. People thought there was a major telecommunications center here, and there was. But there were a series of specialty labs buried in the ground beneath it. Supposedly a converted set of military bunkers left over from the last world war.

  “Shadow, Shirley,” Tomas said walking up as they got there.

  “Here to see the results?” Shadow asked.

  “Already did. They wanted to run through some tests with me first. Was interesting.”

  “What kind of tests?”

  “Go on in and find out.”

  “How is Jill?” He said very softly, the undertone of a growl in his voice.

  “Fine, and happy. Everyone she sees for the next few weeks are all going to have to go through this little test routine, they’re still gauging her. Training will start tomorrow. Now, go inside already.”

  Shadow looked at Shirley who shrugged and they went inside.

  “Shadow! Shirley!” Jill said and ran over and hugged them both as they exchanged greetings.

  “How are you feeling? Let me look at ...” Shadow had grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back at arm’s length to get a good look at her, “Woah ... you look ... well if you weren’t my sister I’d say hot.”

  Jill laughed. “I know! I’ve got faster reactions, healing, senses, I’m even a little stronger. But that’s not all of it.”

  Shadow had let go of her and was looking her over, she was definitely a lot hotter looking than she was before, and she was a good looking woman then. If she wasn’t his sister, and he wasn’t m
arried ... He snuggled Shirley a little, not realizing he had drifted to her side and had an arm around her.

  “So what’s the big thing?” Shirley asked.

  “Well there are two of them, they’re not huge, but they’re still pretty good.”

  “And?”

  “Well the first one I’m hitting you with right now, let me turn it up to the full effect.”

  Shadow looked at her; he wasn’t sure he saw anything different. He looked down at Shirley who was looking at Jill, and he stood behind her and put his arms around his wife. She felt nice and warm in his arms. Now that all of this was over maybe the two of them could go find someplace to spend a little private time together.

  “Shadow,” Shirley said. “I hope you’re not planning on screwing me right here on the floor in front of your sister and everybody else ....”

  Shadow ‘huhed’ and realized his hands were starting to get a little frisky with Shirley not to mention the raging hardon in his shorts. He suddenly noticed the room had a rather strong and very interesting odor to it.

  “What’s that scent?” he said sniffing a bit more. It was definitely coming from his sister, and it was making him horny as hell.

  “Pheromones,” Jill said. “I can put them out now, and drive guys crazy, among other things,” she winked. “Interesting effect it’s having on you.”

  “What, cause it made me horny?”

  “No, because you’re bugging Shirley and not me. Most of the guys start making passes at me; you didn’t at all, until I turned it all the way up. Then you went after her, also I’m surprised that you can smell it. Normals and most supers apparently can’t”

  “Well he is my mate,” Shirley said smiling.

  “And you are my sister.” Shadow added. “Not that I want to experience it, but can you do other things with them as well?”

  “Oh yes, several. I need to practice with it a while yet. Work on my control a lot.”

  “So what’s the other thing,” Shadow asked, leaning down to nibble on Shirley’s neck, causing her to lean back against him a bit more.

  “I have a limited morphing ability!”

  “Limited?” Shirley asked, “Limited how?”

  “It’s very slow. The bigger the change, the longer it takes. I could probably look completely like someone else, say you Shirley, but it would probably take a couple of days. You look a lot different. My sister though, I could probably do her in just a few hours.”

  “Huh, interesting.” Shadow said and looked at Shirley, “Those pheromones didn’t affect you, did they?”

  “I suspect she can only affect males, am I right?”

  Jill nodded.

  “However your paws are definitely having an effect all on their own.”

  Shadow grinned. “Good.” He looked at Jill, “You’ll have to excuse us; it’s been hours since we had sex.” Shadow started dragging Shirley to the exit. Not that she was resisting any.

  “What?” Jill looked surprised.

  “You got his engine most definitely wound up,” Shirley laughed. “Now I get the fun of unwinding it. We’ll see you at dinner.”

  “A very late dinner,” Shadow growled smiling.

  “Ooo! I think I saw an empty office up the hallway, let’s grab it!” Shirley giggled as she and Shadow left the room.

  “Are they going to do what I think they’re going to do?” Jill said looking at Tomas who had just came back into the room.

  “Undoubtedly. And if that office is not well sound proofed, you’ll probably get quite an earful, Shirley is rather shameless and Shadow, well he just sort of gets carried away at times.”

  “You’re kidding ...” Jill said looking out the doorway as sure enough, her brother and his wife ducked into one of the offices down the hallway. At least it was late enough that most of the people had gone home for the day. Except for the few working with her.

  “Your brother there has a reputation that is second to none in the performance department,” Tomas said softly so it wouldn’t carry, “a well earned one from all reports. And Shirley there is most definitely his equal, though he has told me he thinks she’s even kinkier than he is.”

  “Her?” Jill said shocked, “Kinky? Miss prim and proper?”

  Tomas laughed, “Jill, she’s sleeping with a huge freaking cat, and apparently it’s not how many times a week, but how many times a day. The only reason she’s not covered in scars from his claws is her healing abilities. And that’s the least of it.” Tomas laughed again, “don’t be fooled by Shirley’s public persona, they were made for each other in more ways than one. Also, don’t ever cross her, she won’t kill you, but you will most definitely regret it.

  “So, shall we go talk about your future?”

  “Sure. By the way, why aren’t you affected by me? I got less of a reaction out of you than Shadow even.”

  “Oh you had an affect, don’t think you didn’t. But I also have someone else, and my self-control is much greater than his. Now, lets go find a place away from the noise they will surely be making and discuss things.

  Shadow lay across Shirley’s lap in the row of seats they had commandeered on the plane flight back home. Not that it had taken much to take the seats over. Other than Tomas there were no other passengers onboard the small government jet.

  “I’m bushed,” Shadow yawned.

  “Me too ...” Shirley said yawning as well.

  “Well maybe if you two had slept rather than fool around ...” Tomas grinned chiding them.

  “That last shot Jill gave Shadow before she left for further training was worth it, trust me,” Shirley sniggered.

  “I have to agree,” Shadow purred snuggling Shirley again. “At least she got what she wanted; she’ll have men at her beck and call, and no doubt will end up with some measure of power and fortune to make herself happy.”

  “And at least we’ll be able to keep her out of trouble.” Tomas added.

  “I can’t wait to get home.” Shadow purred and closed his eyes. Home, the word had such a nice sound to it. He finally had a home. Had it only been eight years since he'd moved there?

  “Me neither, I suspect Circe and Nance will be very happy to see you, Hon, it has been a while.” Shirley giggled.

  Shadow sighed, “And Liz. And Janet. I think I better get some sleep while I still can.”

  END