Shades of Darkness

by Nora Ash

  Judging from Mirome’s shocked expression, he certainly wasn’t used to being denied by a human. He quickly recovered, though, and turned a disapproving stare framed by his trademark pearl-and-feathers mask at first The Shade and then Lightning.

  “That girl needs discipline.”

  The Shade quelled the immediate image of Kathryn chained to his wide, four-poster bed that statement conjured. He glanced at her, and saw outrage plastered across her cute, round face. Yeah, compared to other, claimed humans, she was undoubtedly spoiled, but he liked her that way—free-willed and kinda obnoxious. No other woman he’d met while dressed as The Shade had had the guts to stand up to him like she did.

  “She is not a slave, Mirome.” Lightning’s voice was unusually clipped, and it dawned on The Shade that—unlike him—Lightning had taken up a protective stance, carefully wedging his shoulder in between Kathryn and the man criticizing her. To The Shade’s dismay, he realized that his enemy was protecting her, when he himself had failed to react. It didn’t matter that Mirome was no threat to her—he had stood passive and let Lightning assume the position as her primary protector. The instincts tied to the mark he’d given her and anchored somewhere behind his ribs flared, squashing any rational thoughts on the matter.

  His hand landed on her shoulder before he realized he’d even moved, his lips pulling up in a silent snarl of warning at their host.

  Fuck, why couldn’t he think straight when it came to her? He didn’t fight the pull from his magic core, like Lightning obviously did, but it was still a novel—and not entirely pleasant—sensation of not being fully in control of himself.

  Mirome gave him a contemptuous stare, and The Shade had enough decency to smother his aggressive facial expression. “I see. Regardless, what you wish to discuss is not suitable for human ears. If you want my help, she goes to the human quarters in the basement for the duration of your visit.”

  It was a reasonable request—Mirome was not used to treating claimed humans as more than servants, at best, and it was technically against their rules to allow a human as much knowledge of their ways as he and Lightning already had revealed to Kathryn. But… just the thought of not having her in his line of sight made his stomach turn. Those hellish hours where she’d been in Bright’s hands had killed any and all desire to let her walk around unsupervised. A glance at Lightning’s pinched lips told him that the other supe was as reluctant to follow their old teacher’s command.

  “Oh, whatever.” Kathryn folded her arms across her chest with a huff and glared at Mirome in what could only be described as a highly insulting manner. “If you need to treat people like lesser beings to feel better about yourself, just because we don’t all fly around shooting lasers out of our eyeballs, then fine. I’ll go sit in Human Daycare and wait for Your Mightiness to impart your knowledge to worthier creatures.”

  The Shade did his best to conceal his snort of laughter behind a cough, somehow managing to send his human a chiding look. She only glared in return. It would seem she’d lost her inherent fear of him somewhere along the line.

  “I’ll take her,” Lightning said, breaking the awkward silence following Kathryn’s less than subtle display of dissatisfaction. “C’mon, Kittykat. Maybe someone will feed you so that blood sugar doesn’t drop any lower, huh?”

  Kathryn’s reply was drowned out by the rush of anger in The Shade’s veins when his enemy pulled her away from his light grasp on her shoulder, and began leading her deeper into Mirome’s lair. It would be a cold day in hell before he let Lightning go anywhere alone with her again.

  Instead of roaring out the challenge building in his throat, he reined in his embarrassing instincts that had his entire body throbbing to punch Lightning for pulling her out of his grasp, and followed the two. As surely as if he’d been leashed to the little human currently bitching about elitism and racism to no one in particular.

  He could sense Mirome trailing behind them, and knew the older man would undoubtedly have more than one comment about their arrangement, once they were in private quarters. He grimaced, wishing he knew what there was to say about it. Truth was, he had no idea why he didn’t feel like ripping Lightning’s throat out for thinking he had any sort of claim to Kathryn—only when he thought his enemy might take her away from him did his instincts flare.

  Not that that mattered in the long run. Once Bright was dealt with and Kathryn was safe, he’d kill off the hero and then explore exactly what it was that made this woman so different from all the others. Primarily with his cock.

  “We’ll come get you as soon as we’re done. You’ll be safe here.” Lightning had stopped in front of the only wooden door in the narrow brick hallway. He touched Kathryn’s cheek in an apologetic gesture and leaned over to open the door.

  “Feel free to ask my humans for food,” Mirome supplied from behind The Shade. “Tell them you’re my most honored guests’ human and they won’t hesitate to obey.”

  It seemed like a peace offering, and Kathryn’s angry glare broke for a moment, the corners of her mouth slipping up into a grateful smile as she stepped through the door, but before she managed to thank their host, Mirome turned to him and Lightning. “As for you two, I’m sure you’re eager to be introduced to my newest crop of pleasure girls before we get down to business.”

  Eight

  Lightning

  The shocked expression flashing across Kathryn’s features at Mirome’s casual remark was the last thing either of them saw as the door was slammed in her face.

  Lightning gave their host a measured look. As wise as their old teacher may be, he had never been above pettiness, and Lightning was fairly certain he had purposely tried to hurt the human bold enough to give him attitude. Judging from the look on her face, it had worked.

  As much as that place behind the ribs where the magic connecting him to Kathryn seemed to be rooted throbbed to soothe his temperamental little human, he couldn’t deny a certain level of satisfaction in knowing that the thought of them with other women did, in fact, hurt her. He hadn’t managed to figure out exactly what his possessive urge to hover around her 24/7 meant, but the volatile instincts awakened with his marking of her definitely appreciated that she didn’t want him to sleep with someone else.

  Unless, of course, her jealousy was reserved for The Shade.

  Lightning gave his enemy a resentful side-glance as the three of them walked down the corridor toward Mirome’s private chambers. Why the city’s most feared villain wasn’t terrified of the obvious pull to the girl was beyond him, but it was irritating as all hell. Bad enough that he was obviously competing for her affections with his archenemy—the chance that he was losing was real.

  No one spoke until the door to Mirome’s lavish office closed behind them with a smooth click. Their host turned around by his desk, fingers pressed against each other and a small smile gracing his lips.

  “So. Shall I call on a couple of girls? The tension rolling off you two suggests it’s most certainly needed.”

  “No.” Lightning frowned at The Shade, irritated with his echoed denial. If he’d opted to fuck another woman, Lightning had a sneaking suspicion his favor with Kathryn would have dropped drastically. But no. The one time in his life the goon opted to do the right thing obviously had to be when his normally moral free approach would have been most welcome.

  Perhaps The Shade was also plagued with a complete disinterest in any female anatomy not occupying Kathryn’s deliciously rounded body.

  Fucking mark.

  “How very interesting.” Mirome’s eyes sparkled ominously behind his extravagant mask. “And I suppose this sudden lack of need to fuck anything that moves is related to your recent and rather embarrassing public claim on the fat little spitfire sulking in my basement at the moment?”

  “Don’t even think about insulting her.” The hissed words came from The Shade, but the low, threatening growl resonating in the office originated from Lightning’s own chest.

  “My, my. So fie
rcely protective. Does she know how lucky she is? I bet she doesn’t. I bet you two don’t even understand what’s going on.”

  Lightning clenched his fists and swallowed the angry sound. “We’re not here to discuss her, Mirome. We need to know what you can tell us about Bright.”

  Mirome’s face lit up in a playful smile. “You don’t! Ha, I bet that must be driving you both mad. Tell me, are you not the least bit curious as to why a simple human has instincts you never knew about flaring like a bonfire? Or am I wrong? Do you not have a messy, sticky web of icky feelings for the girl?”

  Lightning exchanged an uncomfortable glance with The Shade. As much as he didn’t want to think too hard about his own reaction to that blasted mark, he did want to know what the fuck was going on.

  “Tell us—” The Shade began. Though his voice was gruff, it didn’t erase the pleading note to it. “What do you know about our connection with her, teacher?”

  “Ah.” Mirome tilted his head and gave them a sly look. “I suppose it depends. When you first saw her, what made you choose to mark her?”

  “She needed protection,” Lightning muttered, leveling a glare at The Shade. “He marked her in a childish attempt at pissing me off.”

  The older man rolled his eyes. “I don’t care about the excuses you gave yourself. I mean the real reason. You aren’t noble enough to claim a human just for her own protection, or you would have had several hundreds by now. And you,” he pointed a teal-tipped nail at The Shade, “wouldn’t take your first human servant just to annoy him. So tell me—what was it that made you decide that this girl was worth your mark?”

  Lightning stared at The Shade, willing him to speak first. But he didn’t, the fucker—he just raised an eyebrow at Lightning at his stare and crossed his arms. Stubborn as a mule.

  “I had to,” Lightning finally said. “I saw her, and I knew she had to be mine. I don’t know why, only that my magic wanted—no, needed me to.”

  The Shade nodded his consent, choosing to stay quiet. Coward.

  “Ha, that’s what I thought!” Mirome swiveled around in a colorful flurry of silken robes before perching elegantly on his desk, legs crossed and hand wrapped around a knee. He watched them with cat-like amusement glowing behind the blue eyes marking their race. “You, my dear boys, have found a mate.”

  “A what now?”

  “A mate.” Mirome unclasped his hands from his knee and waved it dramatically. “It seems to be cyclical, this flare in our magic to spread its spark. It’s happened since the very beginning. As you well know, we are the result of our noble ancestors breeding with humans, too. Once every few centuries, the magic craves new blood, and so it makes you crave the one human on this planet who will be a receptive vessel to your unique essence. If we were a more sentimental race, maybe we would call it the soulmate principle. In reality, it’s just a convenient way for our ancestors’ superior genes to spread to a slightly wider pool. She is breeding stock, your mouthy human.”

  The Shade frowned. “But the magic never transfers when we have children with humans? Everyone knows this.”

  Lightning gave him an incredulous stare. Really? That was his most pressing question right now?

  “Ah, everyone knows that you cannot breed the magic into a regular human, true. Very few know that, for some of us, there is exactly one human who will let your power take root. It’s amusing, of course, that you two share one. I don’t think that’s happened before, but who knows. I doubt anyone would have been keen to share such information. Can you imagine? Double dipping your wife with a brother. You’d never even know if the children were really yours or his.”

  Whoa, wife? Children? The room seemed to spin, slowly picking up speed, and sweat formed on Lightning’s forehead underneath the mask. He forced his mind away from those two terrifying words, focusing instead on something he could analyze without risking a goddamn panic attack.

  “Why is this not something every supe learns about as he grows up? Why have we never heard of a single supe-human couple? And how do you know about this, when even Bright and the Council seemed oblivious to what could be causing… this?”

  Mirome’s smile quirked up at the corner. “Would you have made the strength of your attachment to this human known if you’d had a choice? If this was widely known, the less savory of us would be hunting for mated couples. These deliciously breakable little humans make for such good blackmail material, as long as their owner cares enough about them. Did you never wonder why our most sacred rule is to never go after someone’s marked human? Who cares if the little thing you picked up for their superb blowjob skills gets killed? But a mate…? Widespread ignorance is the best defense. And how I know?” He winked. “Who better to be our race’s Secret Keeper than the man who killed the last? It’s in the job description. Whoever kills the previous one gets to pick up the mantle. Of course, I had no idea that when I offed Lithica, she would hand over all these delicious secrets. I consider it a perk. I did always enjoy a good, juicy secret—like the one you two now share.”

  Lightning scrubbed both hands over his face. He did vaguely remember Lithica’s death. She had been one of the old and great ones, and he’d had no idea Mirome was responsible for her murder. Not that it mattered now—there were more pressing concerns to deal with.

  “Kathryn will give us a Dragonborn child.”

  Such as that.

  Lightning winced as The Shade’s quiet statement forced his mind back to the one thing he didn’t know how to cope with. One look at The Shade, however, and it was obvious that the villain was horrifyingly okay with the idea. His eyes shone with an odd reverence, and his jaw was set with determination. As far as Lightning could tell, he was ready to go knock up their unsuspecting woman right this moment. Who knew The Shade had fostered dreams of procreating? Or perhaps it was a new revelation, and he was just basking in dreams of taking over the world with an army of evil little offspring. Lightning gave him an acrid look.

  “She won’t give us anything if we don’t figure out how to get rid of Bright. Can we please focus on what we came here for? Or would you rather plan car pools and packed lunches while I eliminate the threat to her life?”

  The last part earned him a dark look, but it did at least seem to pull the criminal out of his disturbing procreation plans.

  “He’s right. We need to kill Bright before we uncover more of this, Mirome. Will you help us? Will you help us protect the future of our race?”

  He did always have a flair for the dramatic, even back when they were young men training together. But then again, so did their teacher, so it was probably a decent tactic. Lightning smothered his eye roll and looked to Mirome, setting his mouth in a serious line. “We need your help, old teacher.”

  The older man’s smile was no longer present, his eyes dark with unease, but as he glanced from The Shade to Lightning, he sighed, his shoulders slumping. “You don’t know what you’re asking. Bright… he is stronger than you think. And sly. He’s got allies where you least expect them. Don’t fight him—join his ranks, or flee the city with your mate. If you don’t, you will die.”

  Nine

  So what if they were having sex with two gorgeous, slender, long-legged women? Who cared, anyway? It wasn’t like I was their girlfriend, or something ridiculously human like that.

  I stabbed a gravy-covered piece of potato, picturing Mirome’s smirking face as my fork pierced the tuber. Whatever my messed up relationship with the two superhumans was, no one had ever promised any sort of fidelity. Heck, I was sleeping with both of them, so it wasn’t like I had much of a moral high ground to stand on.

  It didn’t make the twisting jealousy in my gut any easier to handle, though.

  “Is it true that you belong to both The Shade and Lightning?”

  I glanced up from my plate to the man leaning on the kitchen counter, eyes eagerly locked on my sulking form. I knew that look well—it was approximately what I looked like as well, when I was fishing for particularl
y juicy gossip.

  “Yeah,” I said, carefully putting my fork down on the plate as I examined his older but very handsome face and slender physique. He had probably been in the household for some time now, taken in in his younger days for his good looks. And he probably knew all the gossip that Mirome did, judging from his approach now. I’d been left on my own after a sulky young woman had slapped a stew up on a plate for me when I said who I was and asked for food, but this guy didn’t stay away like the other humans that had left the room with my arrival.

  I might have been relegated to the kids table, but maybe I could still get something useful out of this visit. I mean, apart from knowing that the two men I felt way more for than what any sane woman should were busy having sex with someone who wasn’t me.

  “How did that happen?” my new friend asked. He crossed the floor and slid down on the bench by the table right across from me, eyes eagerly scanning my face as if the explanation as to why not one but two superhumans had chosen to claim me could be found somewhere behind my obvious plainness. “Their hatred of each other is infamous.”

  I sighed dramatically. “Lightning was trying to keep me safe—some really bad people were after me, and in the end, he could only save my life by marking me. But he didn’t want to force himself on me, so he didn’t complete the claim that night. He said he wanted to give me the choice. Then, The Shade found me in an alley one night.” I lowered my voice to add tension to the story. I’d never been the greatest storyteller, but Mirome’s servant seemed enthralled. He leaned across the table, lips slightly parted with complete focus.

  “Lightning had to go out that night, and I… I was foolish and thought I’d look into the bad people myself. But they found me first, and nearly… nearly killed me.” The emotion in my voice was genuine this time. The memory of that night in the alley where I thought I was going to get raped and murdered still brought a lump to my throat and caused chills to creep down my spine. “The Shade saw my mark and decided to save me, to use me against Lightning somehow. But he… he changed his mind. And decided I had to be his.” It wasn’t a completely truthful explanation of the events that had led me down this path, but it held enough truth to resonate with the gossip-hungry servant.