Shadow Knight Saga: The Shadowlands

Chapter Eleven

Shayne exited her closet in a black tank top, black denim, cuffed Bermuda shorts that made her long, toned legs look even longer and thinner, and black, tightly laced, Dr Marten combat boots. She was pulling some black fingerless gloves on when she looked up and stopped in mid-step.

Standing in front of the wall of windows, looking out over the Hudson River, was Vee. The borrowed, fitted jeans accentuated his long, muscular legs and firm ass and he stood barefooted, his arms in the process of pulling a shirt over his head, but he had stopped half way through the motion to enjoy the late afternoon sun and the view. His tan, olive skin looked like glistening bronze and his light brown and ash streaked hair was luminescent, the sun creating a small halo-like glow around him.

Shayne bit her bottom lip, admiring his muscular back and strong, broad shoulders. The way it forms a perfect triangular shape, something she's only seen captured by artisan masters of sculpting and oil paints, only iterates how pulchritudinous he is.

"See something you like?" Vee said without looking at her.

"If I say yes will you laugh at me?" Shayne said before she could stop herself.

Vee shook his head in disappointment and pulled the shirt over his head turning to face her. As he turned, pulling the thin fabric down over his muscular body, the sun caught on something on his back and reflected silver. Shayne gasped, her eyes widening.

"You know," he said, tugging at the fitted ringer, "I expect the blue haired Don Juan to dress me like a piece of eye candy, but not you. I thought you had more self restraint than that," he hollowly scolded.

Shayne shook her head, trying to clear it. 'I'm seeing things...I have to be!' she thought. 'It must be from the demon poison. It wouldn't be the first time.'

"What's wrong?" Vee asked, grabbing the shoes and socks sitting on the floor and headed towards her. "I'm just messing with you, Cupcake. If you want to eye me like the hot piece of man-meat I am that's fine. I won't even press charges."

"Thanks," she said, trying to wrap her mind around what she saw, what she didn't see, what he said, why he's here still. "They're Maddox's clothes," she blurted out, and turned on her heels and hurried back into the closet to grab two black leather studded belts.

Vee was waiting for her when she emerged, shoes on, a look of concern—a first that she's seen from him—on his face.

"This one should fit," she said, handing him one of the belts before putting the other on. "It's a combination of iron and silver studs so it doubles as a weapon."

He nodded, looping it through his belt loops. "But of course. What's wrong? Who's Maddox?"

Shayne shook her head. "Forget I said anything. Let's go before it gets too late."

Vee wanted to press the matter but he knows enough about the stubborn young woman, that he actually knows nothing about, to know that she'll get defensive and closed off, possibly even strike him, so he obediently followed her in silence down the stairs and out the front doors.

His mother used to tell him that you can attract more flies with honey than vinegar. He hates that approach but he knows that it's the only thing that will get him the information he wants to know. But at the same time he isn't sure why he wants to know. He can't deny that the stubborn creature known as Shayne is enigmatic. By far, she is the most interesting thing in the Shadowlands that he's seen. Elves, faeries, demons, shadow monks, dragons, imps and nymphs were shocking, but for some reason they were to be expected in his opinion. The bastard children of the Fallen, humans with the blood of bad angels coursing through their systems, are walking the earth battling evil in order to have a chance at heaven. That was more of a surprise. But what was even more surprising was to hear that he, himself, is a nephilim...according to Shayne and Omniel. He's assuming that his father must have been the nephilim because his mother wasn't a warrior at all. She was the calmest and most nurturing person he's ever met, so much in fact that they lived off of the land in order to prevent impacting the environment. She wouldn't even permit him to eat meat since innocent lives are taken—the animals—in order to satisfy a primal barbaric temporary urge...those are her words and feelings, not Vee's. However he has never eaten meat purely out of respect for his mother and her views on it. Not many young people embrace the vegetarian lifestyle so it was a pleasant surprise to find that Shayne and Zeke do.