Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) (12 page)

‘Swords?’ Twilight said. ‘You people do realise you’re going up against me and a woman who can wrap that blade around your head with her hands?’

The reply did not come from either of them. From the roof on the opposite side of the alley, a voice said, ‘Bind them,’ and Cygnus gasped as she felt something crawling up her legs. She looked down to see something which looked like solid shadow rising rapidly upward to wrap her in some sort of constricting mass of blackness. A motion on her right drew her attention to a fourth dark figure who was making the kind of gestures you expected from a magician. Then the view vanished as the blackness enveloped her.

It seemed to smother Twilight faster, and the attackers should, perhaps, have seen that as a bad sign, but they were closing in when they realised that the effect was spreading wider, growing rapidly to encompass almost the entire rooftop.

‘I’m shadow,’ Twilight’s voice said from the blackness. ‘You can’t contain me. Certainly not like that.’

A flurry of black darts flew out of the shadows, hitting the woman in a line across her chest. She fell, stumbling, and then letting out a gasp, before falling face first onto the felt surface of the rooftop. Another burst flew out across the alley to hit the apparent leader and he fell just as quickly.

The others were starting to move when there was a weird sucking, shattering noise and Cygnus burst out of her shadow prison looking more than a little irritated. A sword slashed at her and she caught it on her arm, glaring at its owner.

Twilight materialised out of the shadows, facing the second survivor, the one who had cast the binding spell, or whatever it had been. He still looked as though he thought he could actually win, drawing his sword and moving toward her. Her straight-bladed weapon slashed out and he slapped it aside before striking at her, the blade sliding wide as she stepped around his stroke and slid the point of her weapon through his chest.

Cygnus was having more trouble with hers. He slipped around her punches with apparent ease, and sliced at her arm with his sword, but the edge did not even leave a mark. She threw another punch, connecting this time, and the force of the blow combined with the sight of his third comrade falling apparently made him view discretion as the better part of valour. He turned, running back the way he came, though he seemed unsure of his footing. She was about to go after him when she heard Twilight behind her.

‘Let him go. We have three for the police to question and he might tell whoever sent him not to try that again.’

Turning away from the figure vanishing into the darkness, Cygnus gave a nod. ‘That one’s going to need a hospital.’

‘They all will. I’m not sure what those shadow shards do, but I doubt it’s good.’

‘Any idea who they are?’

Twilight looked down at the figure bleeding at her feet. ‘Nope. Maybe Tonaldo found some new assassins to try on us.’

‘You don’t think the powers they had were a bit… coincidental? I mean, shadowy traps?’

‘You think they were after me for some reason?’

Cygnus gave a shrug before picking up one of Twilight’s victims. ‘Don’t know, but I don’t like it.’

~~~

‘We failed, Master Durant. The girl is… powerful and her colleague almost invulnerable.’

Durant looked down at the kneeling Shade. The man was expecting punishment and, in truth, Durant felt like obliging him, but it would have been unfair under the circumstances. He would find a more subtle way of showing his disapproval.

‘It was unlikely that a simple assault would succeed, Markov,’ Durant told him. ‘You will make a full report. I want details of the fight,
full
details.’

‘Of course, sir.’

‘The girl, Morgan, must be taken alive, and we may need to resort to what the Shadow Court does best to achieve that. Gather everything we have on this city. Update all our information. I want to know who
all
the players are before we begin this game in earnest.’

~~~

The woman in the red dress smiled as Rex entered her bedroom. The suite they were occupying was sumptuous, and she liked sumptuous, and now Rex was here to give her some good news, if she was any judge of people.

‘What have you got me, Rex?’ she asked.

‘They’re in an apartment block over in Churchton,’ Rex replied. ‘I hope you don’t mind the trip. We thought bringing them here might tip our hand a little sooner than you’d like.’

‘They?’

‘Jack found a couple, teenagers. Since it’s your birthday and all, we thought a couple might be more fun.’

Her smile brightened. ‘You’re both wonderful. I should be able to get hours of fun from two… Are they in love?’

‘Certainly looked like it. He even tried to protect her. Jack was careful not to leave any marks. He knows you like them clean before you get started, Diamond.’

Slipping from the bed, she walked over to him and stroked his cheek. ‘When I’ve finished with them I’ll have something special for the both of you,’ she purred. ‘Now, take me to them. I want to unwrap my presents before it gets too late.’

New Millennium City, MD, 2
^nd
April.

The shadows in the corner of the room thickened and then reformed into the shape of Twilight. She frowned, looking around the room where two people had died.

She was still getting used to her new night vision. Before she had been pretty good in dim light, and that had always muted the colours. Now she could see perfectly, but it was like looking through a grey-scale camera. Even so, she could make out the spray patterns on the walls, floor, even the ceiling. Someone had more or less painted the room in blood.

The rest of the evidence was no less disturbing. There were still the remains of some ropes attached to the frame of the slim, single bed. More ropes dangled from a bracket which had been fixed into one of the wall joists. One of the victims had been hung up, the other stretched out on the bed. The boy forced to watch what was happening to his girlfriend? Or the other way around?

‘The reports on UltraNet suggested both were tortured before they were killed,’ Andrea commented. ‘I’m kind of glad the bodies aren’t here.’

‘Someone who does that kind of thing isn’t going to stop at just two.’

‘And two suggests they’ve done it before. There may be a trail of similar bodies leading up to these ones.’

Twilight gave a grunt and vanished into the shadows. A second later she was standing on the rooftop above, where Cygnus was waiting for her.

‘Anything useful?’ the blonde asked.

‘Not much more than was reported, but I got a feel for the place. Someone took their time making sure their victims had a really bad time dying. And I think we’ve got a serial killer here, probably from out of town or we’d have heard of something like this before.’

‘As if this city didn’t have enough to deal with,’ Cygnus grumbled. ‘You think we should bring Red in on this?’

‘I think we should bring Red in on this, yes.’ Twilight frowned. ‘We need to catch this one fast, partner. He’s one
really
sick puppy, he’s going to do it again, and this is not exactly our raison d’être.’

3
^rd
April.

Andrea opened the door of her apartment on the third knock and found herself looking at Mrs Petrowski, the landlady. She was an overweight woman with an overbite and a perpetual scowl, but Andrea had always got on fairly well with her.

‘Mrs Petrowski, to what do I owe the pleasure?’

‘Yeah, well, it’s not going to be a pleasure for either of us.’ The woman made no move to enter, which seemed odd.

‘What’s up?’

‘I’m going to have to ask you to leave. The building insurance doesn’t cover having an Ultra living here, see? I’ve had a couple of complaints, but I could ignore that…’

‘I’m thinking she’s not ignoring that at all,’ Twilight remarked sourly.

‘The insurance though… No, if anything happens they could hold you up and say it was someone trying to get to you. You’ve got to go. A week. Yes, a week and then you’re out.’

‘But–’

‘A week!’ The heavy woman turned, her face flushed, and hurried away down the corridor.

Andrea slammed the door and then fell against it. ‘Well… fuck!’ she said. ‘What am I going to do now?’

~~~

‘Easy,’ Cygnus said from the shelter of the radio mast on the top of the Trade Tower, ‘you move in with us.’

Twilight was less bothered by the steady drizzle falling on her. Her suit and cowl covered far more skin and the cold did not bother her at all. She sat with her back against the metalwork, looking morose.

‘Andrea’s not keen. She’s saying it’s an imposition and it was fine for a few days while we were getting used to this, but–’

‘Stuff that. We’re friends as well as partners. You’ll never find another apartment in a week. Not one you’d actually
want
to live in anyway. Your room’s free, and it’s just about as big as your apartment is. And it’s got its own bathroom.’

‘You should talk it over with June…’

‘She enjoyed having you there as much as I did, but if it makes you feel better, I will.’

Twilight giggled. ‘Andrea says she can see the headlines now: “Ultrahumans in Lesbian Love Nest.”’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Cygnus replied, all seriousness, ‘June’s not an Ultra.’

4
^th
April.

‘You know,’ Jacob said, ‘they let me out of the hospital because I’m fit to leave.’

Andrea continued to hover as she walked him to his door. ‘Maybe, but you’re still on medical leave and you’re going to rest. Heather said she would drop around later and bring you up to speed on the work stuff, but you are
not
to get too worked up over anything.’

‘There’s something to get worked up about?’

‘Actually… no, not that I can think of.’

‘So, nothing to worry about then.’ He opened the door. ‘To be honest, I’m still tired and I’m going to sit on my chair and watch… I don’t know what I’ll watch, but something mind-numbing. Want to come in?’

Andrea paused. ‘Yes, but if I do, I’ll probably put your recovery back.’

He gave her a grin. ‘Want me fit and strong before you molest me?’

She grinned back. ‘Basically, yes.’

~~~

‘Your landlady may be a bigoted piece of cat shit,’ Red stated, ‘but she has a point, in a way.’

Andrea frowned at her and took a sip of wine before replying. ‘I’ll agree with the first part. What’s she got right?’

‘You need somewhere with better security. You’re out in the open now, like I am and Bobby was. Moving in with Cygnus is a good idea. Her place has excellent security.’

‘That’s settled then,’ June put in. ‘We can move you over tomorrow. There’s no point in staying where you’re not wanted. And by “we” I mean you and I can supervise Cygnus while she does all the heavy lifting.’

Andrea giggled, and then went back to sober very quickly. ‘What about that other matter? The one in Churchton.’

‘My contacts are getting me the police reports,’ Red replied. ‘I’ll go over them when I get them. You’re right, that one needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible, but that’s not a conversation I want to have now.’

Andrea nodded. ‘Sorry, it just came to me.’ She glanced at her partner standing beside her. ‘I think we both want that one nailed as soon as possible.’

Cygnus nodded. ‘And that’s one case where someone else is going to have to do the heavy lifting.’

5
^th
April.

Mrs Petrowski had not looked especially pleased to see Cygnus, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, carrying Andrea’s stuff out of the building. Considering that she had wanted her tenant gone, that seemed odd. As a couple of other tenants turned up to glower at the two Ultras and June, it became a little clearer: several of the people in the building, including the landlady, were simply prejudiced.

On the other hand, a couple of people stopped by to say goodbye to Andrea. She barely knew them, but they seemed genuine. They all said that Petrowski was wrong kicking her out, which made Andrea feel better but it just made Cygnus more annoyed. They seemed to know that the woman was doing it to be rid of an Ultra rather than because of the insurance.

They had been working for about forty minutes and were almost done when a van pulled up beside the one they were loading. The ACPN logo was painted on the side and Cygnus frowned at it, wondering what was going on. A blonde man holding a microphone emerged, followed by a shorter woman with a camera. They headed straight for Cygnus.

‘Jackson Sanders,’ the blonde said, ‘with ACPN. We heard you were here and we hoped to get a small piece for the “Ultras About Town” segment…’

Cygnus glanced at Andrea, seeing her shake her head slightly, and considered telling the man
exactly
what was going on anyway, but… Smiling, she turned back to the camera. Sanders waved his hand in a ‘roll it’ motion.

‘Cygnus,’ Sanders said, ‘you’re normally seen fighting muggers and other criminals around the city. What brings you to Friendship this morning?’

‘I’m just helping a friend move house,’ Cygnus replied, keeping her tone light. ‘Super-strength isn’t just useful for throwing Tower Block into the bay.’

‘We don’t see Ultrahumans doing normal things too often.’

‘Because it’s not really that exciting, Jackson. Ultras don’t become different just because they start exhibiting powers. We’re just like everyone else, really. I go shopping, I go to clubs, and I help friends when they need it, just like anyone else would. Most Ultras aren’t freaks.’

‘So you have a life beyond saving people?’

‘Of course. But my private life got far too public before Christmas and I prefer to keep it to myself, when I can. I’m sure no one’s really interested in what kind of beans I buy at the store.’

Sanders gave a chuckle which was distinctly insincere. ‘Thank you for your time, Cygnus, and good luck with the move. And that’s a wrap. Thanks, that was great.’