by S. L. Gray
She rolled the top of her pajama bottoms over like she sometimes did with her sweats at the gym. It helped to keep them on her hips and she felt like she might need to move. This little exercise was making her feel better, even if it assured she wouldn’t go back to sleep.
She bounced on her toes, being careful not to actually leave the ground. She could bob up and down, but if she really jumped, she’d shake the floor. That would catch Kade’s attention no doubt. She didn’t need him right now. She needed to do this for herself.
“You thought you were dealing with someone who’d just collapse and cry? Think again, crazy shadow army. I’m not going to make it easy. If you want me, you’re going to have a fight on your hands.”
Feeling brave, she threw a couple experimental jabs at nothing. She’d seen fights in the movies. There were kickboxing classes at the gym. She could keep her hands up, bob and twist and square off against an unseen opponent. Shadow boxing, she thought, watching hers move with the motion, ducking and weaving as she did. Her silent companion.
Her too-tall, gangly, misshapen companion. Melanie’s stomach churned as, in the middle of throwing the next punch, it dawned on her just how long and spindly her shadow’s arms had become. The angle of the light behind her made it look odd, she told herself. There was nothing sinister about the shape. Nothing she hadn’t seen a hundred times before.
She stopped bouncing and let her arms fall to her sides. Standing this still, her shadow was nearly formless. Yes, someone would recognize it as human, maybe even female, but that was all. It was just a shape. No malice oozed from it. It didn’t threaten. It couldn’t intimidate on its own.
Melanie moved, stepping toward her shadow and the far corner where she’d imagined the conspiracy moments ago. As she got closer, leaving the light behind, her shadow shrank, retreating. By the time she reached the corner, it had all but disappeared, swallowed into the depths the light couldn’t quite touch.
“That’s right. In my home, I’m the one in charge. You do what I say or you get wiped out.” It felt right to whisper the threat into the darkness. She didn’t need to shout to make herself understood. Recalling the words Kade taught her, she repeated them, brushing a hand through the air, not quite touching the wall. She imagined scattering the blackness, watching it recoil from her touch. In her mind’s eye, it would dissipate like the fog burning off on an autumn day.
It shouldn’t have worked. Nothing should have happened, and yet, as she swished her hand back through the space, she swore she felt something move. Something clung to her fingers for a moment, like tendrils of cool mist, then slipped away.
She froze. Her heart was pounding again. She must have been closer to the wall than she thought. It could get cold in here on rainy nights. She had a draft she’d never pinpointed before. She had not just felt the shadows move.
Except they were still shifting. Something brushed her fingers again, making her suck in a sharp breath then hold it. She went motionless everywhere, except for her eyes. Those, she kept moving, searching the darkness in front of her, hoping and yet not wanting to see anything near her hand.
She didn’t know how long she stood there before she took another breath. Twenty seconds, maybe closer to a minute. It had been a long time since she’d recorded how long she could hold it. She hadn’t thought about it since childhood, at least, when she would sit at the bottom of the family pool, close her eyes and try not to float until she couldn’t help it, until her lungs were burning.
She thought it would help train her lungs to let her take deep breaths like everyone else. She’d joked with her mother about winning the world record for the longest time without air. Nothing else touched her. The darkness stopped swirling. Melanie exhaled and let her hand drift down to her side again.
And yet, something about the corner was different. Though she couldn’t feel air currents moving anymore, there was still a curious kind of openness, like if she wanted, she could step into and through it. She could push through the shadows like a waterfall veil and come out on the other side to find herself...where?
“Nowhere,” she said out loud, backing up abruptly. The sense of menace she hadn’t felt when this whole investigation began suddenly washed over her, chilling her to the bone. Even if she could somehow step through the wall, if the rules of logic really had abandoned her and made something insane suddenly possible, she wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t go. Not alone. She was smarter than that.
She turned her back to the corner and the shadows and went back to bed. She climbed beneath the covers and hauled them up to her chin, but she didn’t lie down or turn out the light. She sat, arms wrapped around her knees, chin pinning the blanket atop them. She watched the shadows in the corner, making sure they didn’t do anything shadows shouldn’t.
She sat and she stared until she fell asleep.
~
Leaving Melanie didn’t strike Kade as the best idea. When it came to business with the IU, though, dragging her in deeper would be even worse.
His cell phone had been vibrating for at least five minutes before he decided to stop ignoring it and see what the hell was so important. Not an emergency, Garamendi told him, but since things had quieted down after the incident and Melanie didn’t need him, he could take a few minutes and come talk to the boss.
It wasn’t so much a direct order as a pointed suggestion. Despite the fact Garamendi had all but shoved him back into duty, Kade didn’t think fighting him about this would make getting through it any easier, so he’d go.
He didn’t crack the door on Melanie’s room before he left, though he stood in the hall and listened for a while. There was silence on the other side. No reason to disturb her if she was resting peacefully. Besides, while his attention might be elsewhere during this impromptu meeting, his body would still be in the apartment. He could get back to her at the speed of thought.
The shadow-born called it fading. Scientists and shysters called it astral projection. Whatever the term, it came in handy when Kade needed to be in two places at once.
"You're in a good mood." Sylvie Idle fell into step beside him, keeping up with Kade's long strides despite the fact he topped her by a foot. "You in a hurry to get somewhere?"
"Status report," Kade answered. "Garamendi called me in."
Sylvie snorted, not at all delicately. Then again, she'd always struck him as less the handle-with-care type and more tread with caution. Curvy and petite, people tended to underestimate the data specialist, but Sylvie could more than hold her own. "That'd explain why you look like you want to choke someone."
He smirked. "Thought you just said I was in a good mood."
"Sarcasm, Kade. Learn to love it." They walked a few more paces before she asked, "So why the face-to-face?"
Kade kept moving. "What, he didn't tell you? I'm on the job. They threw me in the deep end. Penumbra's not just after this woman, they've already tried to take her out." The crack of the gunshot echoed through his mind again. Was it the bullet meant for Melanie or an older memory dredged up tonight? It didn’t matter. If he never heard that sound again, he’d celebrate.
Sylvie stopped walking, drawing them both up short. "Look. If he busts your chops, it's just because he's worried. You surprised everyone by agreeing to come back."
Kade wasn't ready to talk about what had kept him away. It would happen eventually but the pain of losing his father and brother in one colossal catastrophe still felt raw. He shied away from examining his memories of that night. Replaying them for someone else might cost too much.
Still, Sylvie had been a friend for a long time now and she deserved at least a little courtesy. He summoned up a smile and did all he could to keep the edge of bitter anger out of his voice. "Had to," he told her. "Better than spinning my wheels, playing what-if for the next fifty years. Besides, he made sure I owed him.” He still hadn’t figured out exactly how they’d tracked him. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. He’d been enjoying the illusion of privacy.
Kade held up a hand to forestall more banner waving. "I get it, Sylvie. I do. We're okay."
She studied him a moment, then broke into a bright smile that reminded him just how gorgeous she could be when she relaxed and was herself. It made him realize too polished and pretty wasn't his thing. He liked his beauty less planned out, more surprising and unexpected. Like Melanie's smile when she'd been caught off guard, sudden but sincere.
He shook himself, dragging his thoughts back to the here and now. Sylvie shook her head at him and backed away.
"Just wanted to say my piece. I'm done and I won't do it again. I can't handle that much fussing over anything. Oh!" She paused before she turned away. "Nice job with the phantoms. I especially liked the exploding."
He laughed, the sound half a groan. “Why am I not surprised you were watching?"
Sylvie spread her arms. "That's what I do, big guy. I see everything."
"I thought you were crunching numbers and making maps and colored charts."
"That too," she allowed. "But I can't record it if I don't know about it, and I don't trust anyone's eyes better than my own. Nice job," she said again. "It didn't reconjure in case you were worried. I think you caught our bad guy unprepared." Those words delivered, she waved and turned away, disappearing down a side hallway without the slightest echo of a footfall.
A feat made all the more impressive by the high ceilings and polished marbled floors. The headquarters weren’t quite an ancient temple, but the halls were certainly very old. The heads of the organization liked preserving tradition as much as training new recruits. Little changed as a result, including the surroundings.
Which meant Kade knew exactly which twists and turns to take as he made his way toward Garamendi's corner office. He took note of those who shadowed in and out of sight around him, nodding to the few who looked his way long enough to acknowledge him. Being tucked deep in the heart of shadow meant there were no lobby doors to tug open, no street-side delivery entrances. The only way in was to pass through the veil and the only way out was kept secret.
It made the place more than a little surreal, though, Kade had to admit, trying to see the hallway as Melanie might. Indistinct figures appeared and winked away. Some seemed to pour out of the shadows between flickering wall sconces. Others simply slowly disappeared. Oh yes, this would rattle her scientific mind. She'd gape and stare and he'd try not to laugh.
The same way he tried to ignore the fact that he'd claimed her. Maybe not in body, but she was his. His to protect. His to convince she could trust him. Kissing her, letting her kiss him, wasn’t the best way to go about that, but it had happened. They would talk about it and they’d move on.
Later. This wasn't the time. Especially not with a door swinging open beside him, untouched and untested.
"Just the man I wanted to see."
Kade squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. He pushed a hand through his hair out of habit. Straightening his shirt wouldn't make a difference with the cloth not really there, but it was the principle of the thing. "Have I mentioned that's creepy?"
"Probably," came the answer. "Want to ask whether I care?"
Dominic Garamendi stood squarely in the middle of an office too big for him. Longer than it was wide, his desk stood at one end beneath a painting of an outdoor scene that probably didn't really exist anywhere. It gave the illusion of looking through a window pane and that was all that mattered. An escape, an out, somewhere for the mind to soar. Otherwise the room might have been a tomb.
A very nicely appointed tomb, with a thick Berber carpet and cushy, overstuffed chairs. Rumor was the desk itself had been carved from the heart of a single black walnut tree. Kade wouldn't put it past his supervisor. Garamendi liked to surround himself with the best. He had high standards and let it be known when he disapproved.
His teams got no free passes on that count. He was exactly the taskmaster Kade needed and exactly the sort of person he'd been going out of his way to avoid.
Though he was going gray, it looked good on Garamendi, just like the three-piece suit he wore. Kade suspected his boss was closer to his father's age, but couldn't be certain. The man gave away as little as possible at a glance. Some people called that careful planning. Others called it artistry. Kade called it intimidating as all hell.
Garamendi gestured toward a chair. "Make yourself comfortable. Want a drink?"
Kade smirked. Half-shifted into shadow or not, he appreciated the offer. He just couldn’t accept. "This a trick question?"
"Ah, right." Garamendi moved toward the built-in bar along the wall. "Pity. You look like you could use it. You’re a whiskey man, right?" He poured a glass for himself without waiting for an answer. "You get enough sleep?"
So being watched didn't end when the threat was resolved. Kade tried not to snort. "Yeah, I'm good. You wanted a status report?"
"I thought we'd talk a little, first." Garamendi settled behind his desk, looking every bit as comfortable as if he’d been resting at home. Then again, for all Kade knew, the boss had simply moved in. "To getting back into the action," he toasted, lifting the glass before he drank.
Kade unclenched his teeth. "Action," he echoed, and sank onto the other chair. "If you're worrying, don't. I said I was good."
There was a running poll among the members of the IU about whether Garamendi disturbed more people when he scowled or when he smiled. If he'd been asked, Kade would have voted smiling just now. The ex-military man cracked a grin that sent shivers up Kade's spine, and leaned back in his chair. "I'm not worried about you."
Kade arched an eyebrow. "Melanie?"
Garamendi lifted his glass again. "The phantoms weren't after you."
It was one thing to know it himself, another to hear it come from Garamendi's lips. "So they know she's attached to the shipment."
"Which was delivered yesterday. That's not enough time for word to spread unless someone had her under surveillance."
Kade frowned. "Why? I mean, why would they? Why spend the time to track someone like her? She's not exactly a threat."
"Depends on what's being threatened." Garamendi balanced his glass on the arm of the chair. "If the tablet's in that shipment, phantoms are just the start. And if she's connected in some other way—"
"How?" Kade frowned. He was holding something back, waiting to see what Kade might confess. "How could she be connected, Garamendi? How could she have something to do with this that you don't know about? Isn't that your job?"
Garamendi chuckled. "You make it sound so easy, keeping track of everyone. There are a lot of souls in San Francisco. More on the entire West Coast. People slip through the cracks."
"So you're saying you think she's one of them?" The thought alone made his heart pound. It felt wrong, completely wrong. He balled his hands into fists. "No way, not a chance."
"I'm saying I want you to think about why you feel the need to defend her." Garamendi's voice didn't rise above his usual growl. "Tell me why you kissed her."
“She kissed me,” he said before he spotted the trap. Damn. Talk about getting defensive. He’d been set up and he was out of practice at getting out of his own tangled mess.
It was that damned connection he could feel tugging at him even now, urging him back to her side. It’d been there since the first peek through the binoculars and it wasn’t getting weaker, that was for damned sure. He'd protected her with his powers and he'd kissed her because...
A thought snapped into place, plunging quickly into suspicion. "Are you saying you matched me up with a Siren? And now you think the Siren's a spy?"
Garamendi's mouth twisted wryly. "Been at sea lately, Kade? Nearly been drowned?"
"No and no, but if that isn't what you mean, then just say it. What the hell are you talking about?"
Garamendi leaned forward to put his glass on the desk. The ice cracked dramatically as if it had been planned. "I'm talking a
bout echoes."
Kade stared. He waited for the punch line that was apparently not to come. He calmed himself, tried to keep his thoughts cool. Casual. Composed in the face of absurdity. "Please tell me you don't believe in those old stories."
Garamendi's expression betrayed not a trace of humor. "As much as I believe we can walk through walls."
Kade laughed out loud, surprising himself. Though Garamendi's eyebrows hitched, the other man didn't crack a grin. "You really think you just happened to hand me the case with my predestined soulmate? Now?" He shook his head. "Crazy."
Garamendi watched him levelly. "Stranger things happen every day."
"Yeah? To who? Give me a name, someone I can talk to. Not the fairy tales we all hear growing up. Give me someone real."
Garamendi leaned to one side, opening a drawer Kade couldn't see. He could hear the rasp of the sliders clearly enough, though, and the shifting of paper within.
The supervisor held up a single manila folder and tossed it toward him. It stopped neatly at the lip of the desk. Garamendi gestured with his chin. "I can't give you someone to grill. That's as close as it gets. Go on, read it. It'll be enlightening."
A curious sense of dread swept through Kade as he reached for the folder. He flipped it open.
Incredulity was replaced by rage. A picture of his father, faintly crooked smile curving his lips, looked up from beneath a single paperclip. Kade's gaze snapped up fast and met Garamendi's. If he'd been able, he would have struck his employer dead with that look. "Screw you. You leave him out of it."
Garamendi didn't apologize. His chair squeaked faintly as he tipped it back, putting a little more distance between them. Not a retreat, just more room to weigh one another. He didn't say a word.
"Screw you," Kade said again. "Let him rest in peace." As much rest as his father was going to get, having been killed by the enemy. As much as he wanted to believe echoes were nonsense, Kade wanted to think a soul couldn’t be tortured after death even more. Wanted to. He hadn't yet convinced himself.