Shadow Of The Nightshade

Death

Shadow

For some reason, I thought I would make it to the Zeta Tubes before Gabriel. It was naive, stupid. Probably what he expected.

I should have known better.

A whiz in the air. A instinctive sidestep. An arrow lodged itself in the wall behind me.

Gabriel. Behind him stood an army of killers dressed from head to toe in black, the standard uniform for assassins but they weren't just assassins. They had as much freewill as I did, maybe even less. Maybe I knew some of them. Maybe I didn't. But I was sure of one thing: they hated me.

It had always been easier to control soldiers with emotion rather than fact. Be patriotic. The enemy is evil. We are justice.

Every war was just and only the side you were fighting for mattered.

Gabriel leaned over the main computer looking like he belonged here. He looked up and surprise flitted over his pale features. 'Shadow!' He straightened up. 'Fancy meeting you here.'

The moment our gazes met, I felt claws scratching at the back of my mind, trying to weave between the very fabric of my sanity. I was too familiar with the feeling. It made me nauseous and sick when I thought about why it was happening.

Eli.

A smile stretched Gabriel's lips when he heard the thought. I stilled, shocked and he pulled away from the computer to walk towards me.

Only a few steps away, he stopped. 'I told you I would find you.'

'I didn't run. The heroes captured me,' I tried to explain in an attempt to somehow diffuse the situation. It was useless, I knew. But still, I tried. Eli was here. Gabriel wanted me dead. He would used him to refrain me and—

Pain flared in my chest. I stumbled forward and the mind trying to invade mine pause for the briefest moment. Enough chaos for me to send a command to my ring.

Attack.

Electricity crackled all around me, attracted from my hand to the weapons my would-be killers held. I shut my eyes, trying to stem to ache building up within my skull.

Every attempt the heroes made to break my barrier tugged at my wounds, reopening them before my suit could patch them up. It was only when I taste blood on my tongue that I feel the pain of biting into it. Not much time has passed, maybe a few seconds. In the same amount of time it had taken me to immobilize half of Gabriel's men, Eli had gotten a grip and forced his way passed my mental defenses while the heroes finally gotten themselves free.

'Ah,' Gabriel looked at my hand, at the blood dripping down my fingers, 'that's what you're hiding.'

I rushed towards him and a handful of assassins intercepted me. If it was before, I would have considered sparing their life but now I didn't have the time. I had to end this before anyone got hurt.

When one of them swung their sword in my direction, I opened my palm and forced the energy around me to collate into the specific image I had in mind. I parried with the katana formes from my will.

It had been ages since I had last summoned it and the subsequent drag in my psyche slowed me down. Weakened by poison, I was nowhere near strong enough to wield its power, but I needed to.

I cut through my attackers, weaving between their blades to stab into their chests, but in the end I was still too I slow. By the time only a dozen men stood between I and Gabriel, I felt Robin enter the room.

The assassins pulled away from me, leaving me standing in a sea of corpses.

Gabriel stepped out from behind his shield of loyal soldiers and began to clap. 'As brutal as ever.'