A Plague of Shadows

CHAPTER THREE-2

NEARING THE NEXT INTERSECTION, Bee slowed as always to check the crossing path was clear in both directions. It seemed like Bee was blinded by the darkness, it took so long. Cold seconds passed, ticked off by drops of rain from the wires above. Mina spent the time flipping her dagger and catching it. She let out a heavy sigh, expelling all the air in her lungs so loudly Astrid turned to glare at her, a frown on her alabaster face. Mina scowled back, canting her head, as she breathed deeply and exhaled again, almost masking a rustle ahead, past the intersection.

A rat? She smiled, then that turned to a frown as she cast her gaze around, looking for the source of the sound, as a shimmering cascade of dust fell from the eaves just past Bee's head. Mina slipped the blade back in its sheath and drew her gun. On a roof?

Blood buzzed in Mina's ears as a rush of adrenalin coursed through her system. Without conscious thought, she pulled her gun from its holster. Scanning the rooftop and the alley, checking for any other source of danger, her eyes passing over the others – no one else looked up, no one else saw the threat. Her pulse beat against her eardrums and her nerves made her skin tingle. Ahead she saw a shadow form on the rooftop. She sprinted forward, using a fire escape like monkey bars to launch herself past Astrid and the others, landing cat-like in the next intersection, coming to a stop in front of Bee. Sliding to rest against the far wall, kitty-corner to the others, she took a steadying breath then aimed at where she'd seen the shadow, firing off three shots with barely a breath between them. The shadow disappeared, and a shower of splintered cement rained down on Bee's head.

"Argh!" Mina charged at the wall, intent on climbing it with her bare hands. Instead, she found her forearm locked in Bee's iron grasp, the woman scowling at her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Mina pulled her arm away. "There was something up there." She gestured to the rooftop. "I saved you."

"It was probably a pigeon, disturbed by all your huffing and sighing." Bee let go of her arm. "And if it wasn't, all you've managed to do is scare it off."

Mina breathed in deeply through her nose, stopping herself from huffing at the last second, she let it out in a long, slow exhale. In the quiet, she heard another sound she'd missed before. Her eyebrows drew together.

"It wasn't a pigeon!" Sha said from the back, her voice tight, and too high.

Mina's mouth twitched, the smile at the fact that she was right turning to a frown at the low, heavy sounds of a funeral dirge in her blood. Before she could shout a warning, blinding flashes of gunfire filled the night, followed by the scent of blood.

"Run!" Adeh's deep voice boomed.

Mina tried to push towards the action, to help whoever had screamed, but Bee shoved her forward. "If he says run, run." Mina realized she had no choice in the bottleneck of the alley, and took off down the narrow lane, clearing a path for the others to follow. As she ran, her stomach churned, worrying over the thought of who had been hurt. Killed.

She slowed at that thought, stopping to catch her ragged breath. It was only then she realized that she was alone. And where she'd heard that sad, low, trudging drone before.

"Gargoyle," she whispered to the night.

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