"Example of a Solid Shadow made from a Super's physical Shadow using dark magic to solidify their form, with their magic they can allow the owner of the shadow to wield it themselves, or take full control. One of the reasons why Daemons and Enchanted have been hated and feared even after the Daemon Wars. "
~From Aunt Venessa's Notes on Shadows from 200 years ago
Alex's POV
I watch for a moment as he disappears into the crowd, my body frozen as my heart breaks into a million pieces.
My biggest fear come to fruition.
The look of absolute horror and despair on the Incubi's face cracks my heart the more I think about it. That look, directed at me, felt like it confirmed all my darkest insecurities and my deepest fears, a look into darkness that might draw you in, and never let you go.
There's hands on my shoulder, and I feel myself being shaken, the familiar and startled face of Johnathan bringing me back from the pit of despair that seemed to open up around me.
He's talking to me, but it takes me a few moments to be able to understand what he's saying, my mind struggling to catch up. "....okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost." I finally manage to make out just before my body catches up to my brain and I'm pushing Jonathan out of the way, the scents of strangers and the thick smell of arousal threaten to erase proof of my Soulmate, but my nose is strong and I follow the tantalizing smell of cinnamon and roses out of the door. I'm following the trail of the scent quickly, not wanting to shift into my wolf form and startle him, but a few yards away from the door, his smell vanishes.
The last remaining hope that I managed to hold on to, slips between my fingers, emotions too intense to begin to describe grips my heart.
I stumble to a stop in the middle of the road, earning weird glances from those around me, but I pay them no mind. I don't care about any of them. The only person in the world that I felt was made for me, wants nothing to do with me. What kind of twisted fate is that?
Bile roses in my stomach, the alcohol that offered a mild relief and bliss to my troubles only making my stomach churn now.
I turn towards the bushes along the side of the road and find myself puking in public for the first time since I was sixteen and dumb with James and a bottle of Moonshine.
I shiver in disgust at the sour bite that lingers in my mouth, and I realize after a moment, that there's someone standing beside me. From his scent I can tell it's Johnathan, but he doesn't say anything. In fact, this is the first time tonight that the bastard hasn't uttered so much as a word.
"Come to rub it in?" I snap harshly, surprising even myself. I know I don't mean it, Johnny has never been a malicious person. Just an asshole that takes 'telling it like it is' a little too far.
I open my mouth to apologize, but to my surprise he just laughs. Like a genuine full belly laugh as he shakes his head and nods to some giggling girls that walk past, ignoring me completely. Not that I care. I just stare at Johnathan, rising up slowly until I'm standing beside him.
He immediately starts walking towards the path we came from, and I don't even have it in me too remind him of the mission we came to accomplish in the first place.
The bit of information we got at the beginning of the night no where near the confirmations and information we were sent to retrieve.
Every part of me feels like a failure. A flake. Can I even call myself a wolf, much less Beta of the Autumn Falls Pack? I feel like a fucking joke. Thankfully Tobias is still asleep, anxiety raising in my throat as I realize I'm going to have to explain to my wolf that the person that we've been waiting for, the man we wanted to cherish forever with affection and love in return, ran away from me with a face full of horror and disgust.
I feel nauseous again.
Johnathan's pace is slow, so I have no problem catching up and matching it.
At this rate we won't get to the pack until just before the meeting. But I can't care. Honestly I'm not even sure I feel like going home at the moment. Of going home to the reminder that I'm destined to die alone in that house surrounded by the ghosts of those that used to love me.
My chest squeezes at the thoughts as we leave the city, trees enveloping us as we walk.
"Don't give up." Johnathan tells me randomly, his hands stuffed in his pockets, posture relaxed and carefree as ever.
It almost makes me want to throttle the wolf. But honestly, Johnathan's way of being has always been the constant rock in our ranks. He may be an asshole and a pain in the ass that doesn't follow instructions in the slightest. But if you need someone to have your back, to remain calm, to steady you when you wobble, to be a constant in a world of chaos, he is the man you call for.
Apparently the same man can be useful when your life gets shattered as well.
Who knew?
"Sometimes those who grew up without true love, fear it because of the vulnerable place it puts you. To fall to your knees and bare your scars and heart towards those you've know to harm you is a terrifying thing to do. Don't forget, Boss, you're a man deprived of love and touch, yes, but you're also a Divine Child of high status who just tried to claim a Hybrid in the middle of a bar." He tells me his pace nor tone never changing. As if he's merely taking a midday stroll, shooting the breeze over what to eat for dinner.
Like it's nothing.
And for a second I hate him for it.
Especially for the fact that he's right. Though, one thing he said confuses me. "Wait, what do you mean, Hybrid? Wasn't he an Incubus?" I ask, thinking back to the fox ears and tails.
Johnathan laughs again before shaking his head and patting me on the shoulder as if I have a lot to learn.
Condescending bastard.
I find myself huffing at the commander, barring my teeth just the tiniest of bits, when I realize even now, he's managing to keep my attention on him instead of the thrumming pain in my chest.
Over time as James has gotten more busy and begin to grow exponentially, he and Cody pushing themselves and each other to new heights all the time, I've started to get left behind. The glow of them following their paths almost blinding. And suffocating. And it kills me every time I think it. Because I love both of them, I want nothing but happiness and blessings.
I just wish I could get them as well.
"Of course you didn't notice. How are you my superior, again? Starting to think maybe I should try out for Beta." He mutters, beginning to stretch like a moron as we walk down the main road, the moon lighting our way home.
Before I can beat the bastard up, which I still have a mind to do, he answers.
"On his neck and probably on his sides, he had runes on his skin. Long term ones. The only people who have those are Magi, it looked too old to have been bought within the past hundred years. Seems like your Soulmate is a Warlock-Incubus Hybrid. Probably for the best he ran. Your kids would have been Frankenstein." He whistles lowly, laughing when I lunge at the asshole, the worm barely able to dance away.
We throw insults back and forth and I find myself finally stepping away from the ledge in my mind, the darkness that seemed to want to embrace me back.
Eventually we're just walking again, and I find myself actually enjoying the piece for once, my mind and body constantly in motion lately. We're about halfway home when I hear Johnathan speak again. "What was it like? When you saw him?"
His voice is soft. Curious.
Like he genuinely wants to know.
I think about it, the moment seared in my mind for as long as I live. Those moments before he realized were... "It felt like I was alive. It was like I was a blind man my entire life. Like I just had no senses at all, and suddenly every barrier around my heart, my mind, my being was just, gone. And all that was left was him and his scent. And he was beautiful." I answer honestly and while the words hurt, the also fill me with this comfort just with remembering that curious, kind gaze I captured in my heart.
"I've seen the way people change so drastically when they find their Mates. My parents always told me how differnt things were after they met each other. A part of me is scared that means losing my essence and turning into someone else. Someone that wouldn't ever understand the type of man I am now." He admits to the stars and the grass and the trees, his words passing through me like I'm not even here.
"I guess I'm not quite sure who I am. Not beyond my titles and those that I love." I tell the moon and the broken mana light that lays smashed on the ground.
"What if the love of my life is a Vilin Officer, or a Vampire, or an Angel even and they beg me to leave behind my life as a Commander. My life as your friend. The whole shit show would fall apart with me. And I would fall apart without it. So do I chose love and destiny, or do I act selfishly and choose myself?" He asks Celeste, and we wait...and wait for a response, but we don't get one.
Instead, I say. "What a sad world we live in where there's a difference between love and happiness."
We don't say much after that for a while and that's okay for me. I'm thinking about the least awkward way to tell James and the others that we didn't get much information and why, when there's a rustle of leaves in the forrest.
Johnathan and I immediately still.
Without a word passing between us, Johnathan side steps towards me, keeping his attention towards the darkened Pleasure Forrest which helps seperate the regions from one another. The woods are dark, the mama light only reaching about two feet through the darkness before the solid night seems to engulf the light. As if the sun should be afraid of the insatiable night.
The hair on my back stands straight as Johnathan reaches my side, and with him as backup, I allow myself the few vulnerable moments it takes to shift into my wolf form. To a human the movement would feel like an instant, a blink all it would take to miss it, but for a Supernatural, those few moments are all that's needed for my head to hit the ground, my body shredded to pieces. So I lean into the security that Johnathan provides and land on four paws, my nose awakening it's heightened senses, every scent in a five mile radius entering my nose at once.
Johnathan hops onto my back, one knife stashed into his belt, the other held faintly in hand, his left hand settled into my fur, gripping the patch at the base of my neck tightly to not risk falling.
From two o'clock from our position, I manage to make out a scent that feels more than smells almost dark. Oily. It's earthy though, dense and vile, the scent so suffocatingly thick that I choke on the fumes as I struggle to find their source. My eyes water, but that doesn't stop me from seeing the flash of movement from behind me, spelling out an ambush as Johnathan prepares to attack.
There's three shadows coming from behind and two in front, their bodies made of a murky black night, blending in with the shadows of the trees and the clouds that have overtaken the moon. There's a blood curling hiss that ravages through the night, echoing from the trees and embedding itself into my soul. My heart pounds in my chest but I force my heart and mind to still, and focus on launching myself at the two in front of us, doing my best to make sure we don't get surrounded if there's more where these came from.
Fear fights its way down my throat as memories of two years ago resurface, but I don't let it hinder me. We've been training for two years for the return of these things.
I refuse to lose now.
I leap towards the shadow on the right who's bodies emulates that of a woman, her black and grey body nothing more than a puppet for whichever Enchanted or Daemon is out there watching us.
Either way, one thing is for certain.
This shadows issue isn't just a Vollmond and Melamar problem.
Despite our hopes, it seems like this issue is indeed bigger than us. Bigger than we were ready to admit. And as I snap my jaws at the shadow, my canines close around air as my target turns their once solid arm into wisps of smoke, solid objects passing right through. Holding on tight, Johnathan grunts with effort as he slashed a twin blade at her head, but to my surprise, the shadows dodges it, as if afraid of the weapon.
Hoping that I've stumbled upon a weakness, I go to lunge at the shadow again, wanting Johnathan to take advantage and use his knife to immobilize her, but just as I feel his weight shift to deal a blow, his body is ripped off of my back, leaving my back open and vulnerable to attacks.
Knowing I have no other option, I decide to shift back to human after I give myself a running start, leaping over a large rock formation, giving myself the few moments I need to land on two feet and gather my breath as my hands reach towards the pouch around my waist. Blessed with mana and an intricate spell that took some Magi an entire week to do, my pouch can carry any and everything I want whether an entire feast, or a mana laced bow, my last present from my parents before they passed away.
While tradition dictates that as wolves we fight as a wolf-human duo as in unstoppable machine, I prefer a more modern way of fighting.
Keeping the pouch open, and with arrows in mind, I dart from behind the rock formation, catching sight of Johnathan as he wields his long curved knives against two of the Shadows that try to corner him against the trees. Knowing I have to get rid of my own pursuers before I can help, I turn and find the biggest of the bunch barreling towards me, his frame larger than my own by an entire foot.
Luckily, my smaller body allows me to avoid his tackle, ducking beneath his squeezing arms, rolling past the grab as he struggles to get his massive body to come to a stop. Before the bastard can turn around, I grab an arrow from my pouch, smirking to myself when it's orange tipped, glad I practiced with pulling out the things I needed from the pouch all this past winter. I pull the string back, fufilling a deep breath before I let it fly, the arrow zipping through the air before embedding itself into the shadows right shoulder.
Thankfully I practiced my aim as well.
The force of the impact triggers the flint inside the arrow head causing the magnesium and gunpowder to light, exploding while still inside the Shadow's shoulder.
The bright flash pains my eyes a bit but I don't look away as the arm falls to the ground, the rest of the shadow caught in a blaze of flames that tower like a wall around the monster. Not allowing myself the time to admire my work just yet, I roll onto my feet, reaching for another fire arrow to send flying at another shadow, two of them charging me at once barely giving me time to react.
I release the tension on the bow, allowing the arrow to fly, while it doesn't hit the shadow it lands on the ground around him, immediately setting the dry under brush on fire. I smile as this forces the shadow to follow his companion... right into my trap.
I quickly grab two arrows, launching them in succession, the two landing within seconds of each other. The fire arrow flared alive once more, both this time, an arrow marked with water magic and mana releases a spray of water that turns into a thick steamy fog the moment it touches the air. Immediately with the lack of light and the fog, the area is trapped, locked at a standstill.
That is, if Johnathan and I didn't have our senses on our side.
With the cover of night, I shift back into my wolf form and stalk the shadows through the foggy maze using my nose as a guide, the wispy bastards torn apart and burned, their vile dark essence heavy in the thickening fog. I tear them apart, one at a time, spitting out the weird smokey fleshy that dissolves moments after it's killed.
When I finally manage to find the last piece, I make my way towards Johnathan, finding him just outside the edge of the fog with a corpse like shadow at his feet. While it's still moving, Johnathan took the liberty of liberating the shadow of its legs and one of its arms before tying the torso to one of the large rocks I used as cover before.
I snort as I take in his handiwork.
"This one can talk." He tells me shocking the shit out of me. So far none of the shadows we've seen or encountered can talk. We assumed they weren't conscious beings but merely magic puppets used to do ones bidding. But perhaps they chose not to, either way the revelation doesn't sit well with me.
My stomach churns as I contemplate the possibilities this simple truth could spread out.
"Fuck you. Satan will kill you all and Get her revenge." I hear loud and clear, the voice of a fierce woman, and I realize that it's the shadow speaking. I don't know what I expected when Johnathan said the shadow spoke, but it's certainly wasn't this.
What the hell is going on?
"Let's bring her to the pack. Maybe we'll finally get some answers. maybe tonight wasn't a total waste after all." I mutter and Johnathan nods and grabs the shadow, tying the torso to his back, the front of the shadow facing me, though it's not like we can see her features, her body maintaining her mask of darkness and a silhouette waiting to be seen.
I shake my head form the thoughts and focus myself, grateful for the opportunity to not go back empty handed and useless. I couldn't handle that on top of the rejection. I'll go back to the pack, report in, get some rest and try to come at this again in the morning with a sober and clear head.
I normally would feel euphoric about the catch we have the possible information we could get, but in this moment, all I can think about is an auburn haired fox boy that broke my heart the moment it roared back to life.
I sigh to myself. I can't fix or do anything right now so there's no point in killing myself about it.
So I lock away those feelings and instead reach out to James through the pack link to let him know that we're on the way.
Johnny and I knock up our speed ensuring that we'll beat the sun home and make it there even earlier than planned. I find myself curious about what the shadow will say. Those that our allies have caught haven't given much information in the past before dissolving into mist and disappearing. I'm hoping that maybe my luck of today will finally change.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay I love Johnathan I don't care. And I'm also happy with making sure Alex still got a win. What do you guys think will happen next?
Thoughts?
Comments?
QOTD: Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuit or Outback's Rolls with the brown sugar butter?