Shade of Exposure (Three)

Five

Five:

Walking out of Hidden City for what seemed to be the final time felt numbing to me. The chill of New York was almost welcoming, rushing life and frost back into my flesh. One or both seemed to work as a jolt bringing me fully to my senses.

Being outcast and blamed for all manners of things appeared to be my lot in this life. Blaming the shade seemed like the easiest and safest bet for those in charge. After all, if people have a rational scapegoat, why bother to investigate matters and suss out the problems? Humans and immortals alike tend to believe the beautiful and well-sculpted lies over the ugly and convoluted truths.

Sky seemed to be fuming so hot that I expected the air around her to begin to sizzle and steam up from the heat escaping her body. Her outrage on my behalf was warming, and endearing. The truth was, I didn’t feel too lonely being shunned by the supernatural community, not while I still had a sister of my choosing to walk beside.

It appeared my life was one perpetual fall from grace, complete with a rewind feature, so I can keep faceplanting on the floor, reliving the pain repeatedly.

“What I cannot seem to understand, is that they are claiming your face was plastered on the news, but you were wearing a mask. How can they use that to bump you out?”

Sky told me, and I shrugged, and I hitched to a stop mid-step and I swore vividly to myself.

“Skylar, you have to move your villages, now! That mask, is a gift, one of Nix creation. I doubt the Architects will miss this detail.”

I told her, and she gave me a look and said, “Or that you were wielding a reaper’s blade. Nadia's hand forges all her weapons, so I am sure they will discover that juicy little tidbit as well.”

My eyes widened and Sky winked playfully and reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, mom already moved the people, she called me and told me as much when I woke up to her lecture about exposure risks. Let’s just say she was not too happy that I am likely to end up on a Disney float, after this latest discovery.”

Sky jokingly said, and I sagged in relief.

“That’s great, I was so afraid that they were going to pay for my shortsightedness.”

Sky slapped me on the back, and we kept walking towards the waiting town car. Apparently, the monkey suit was too much of a gentleman to force two young ladies to hoof it back to their apartment, even if one was now banished and the other in self-imposed exile.

“So, what’s the next play? I know you too well to believe you’re backing out of the fight just because you lost sponsorship.”

I sniffed and looked at Sky and sarcastically put in, “You know me too well, Sky.”

She grinned back at me, and she gave me another playful wink.

“It’s what sisters do best, know one another, and prep for their sibling’s impending lunacy.”

She said in a faux-chastising tone. I laughed openly and threw my head back and my dark hair flung back whipping against my back and shoulders.

“Well, If I told you where I am now about to go, you’d likely disown me as a sister.”

I told her honestly, and Sky stilled noticeably even though her legs kept moving. She seemed to analyze me for a single moment before she intuitively spoke, “You’re going to see that shrew, aren’t you?”

I shrugged and looked down and away, yeah, I was busted. No way in hell Skylar didn’t see through my not-so-subtle evasion.

“I could be headed to the Disney people now, just to assure they are making that float proportionately accurate. I mean, no one wants their dragon lady bits to look off in a float representation.”

I said, and Skylar seemed almost like she was hung between laughter and homicide at the moment.

“You know, the Architects will be looking out for you as well. They could come after you to pry information about the shade you are harboring.”

Sky grinned a terrifyingly toothy grin.

“Let’s hope so, I have been so bored with battling these aimless dead things. Something I can really sink my fangs into would be a nice change of pace.”

I shook my head and murmured, “Geeze, no wonder your mother thinks I am a terrible influence on you, even I feel like one right about now.”

Sky snorted and slapped me on the back a bit more firmly than necessary.

“How about we stick to the topic of seeing your terrible taste in lady friends and leave my mother out of this.”

I gave her a look, and said, “Nadia and I are…”

What was I about to say, ‘just friends?’ The question was, were we merely friends? We have kissed and shared a few moments that friends did not share, but we were not lovers, at least not yet.

“You care to finish that sentence?”

Sky grinned wickedly, seeing the conflict in my inner musings. She knew me too well, knew that I was still coming to grips with my attraction for an unbelievably bad girl! Nadia had been the leader of the reapers for a thousand years. She recently managed to break free of the expressions binding her to their commands. The Architects, amongst other things, employ powerful geas to command loyalty, even when people do not willfully desire to do their bidding.

Nadia had been present for the many mass atrocities committed by her hands, yet she was not in command of her actions at any of these moments. Geas so powerful that they bond her to behave and move according to the will of the Architects had chained her to a fate of service to them, at least until this geas was broken.

“Maybe later, I’m still not sure…”

I confessed in a slightly hushed tone as if concerned my words might carry to the ears of my confusingly appealing ageless immortal beauty.

For an eighteen-year-old young adult just starting her prime years, I was like a damn monk! I haven’t been with anyone since my girlfriend, and that was well over two years ago now. Loneliness had already begun to saturate my pores and take root in my soul.

“Shut it you, don’t judge me, not when your tastes run towards the tall lanky nerd I grew up with.”

I said, and Sky seemed almost to trip over her own feet as she took a careless step.

“Careful, it’s icy out, you might fall and bust your ass. Dragons still get hurt when they bust their asses, right?”

I inquired sarcastically, and she grinned a lethal-looking grin at me.

“You’re not making that grave any less deep by talking more.”

She pointed out to me, and I nodded in emphatic agreement.

“Damn straight, but maybe we can turn that grave into a fox hole, and we can have some cover for this battle we seem to be caught up in constantly.”

I offered her in a cute tone, and Sky laughed, despite herself, and the various serious topics we had woven into this otherwise sarcastic and banter-like conversation.

“Maybe, but if history is any indicator, fox holes often double as mass graves later.”

Sky said darkly, and I sighed, looking off into the darkened mid-day skies.

“This weather is intense, even for New York in deep winter. Could there be something else going on around here?”

I asked aloud, not expecting an answer, but Sky looked off at the horizon, and she thought to herself for a long moment, then she looked into my eyes and said, “I’ll make some calls, and see if that is possible. This is indeed ominously bad weather. The snow smells too fresh for the city, something I have noticed, but had no reason to ponder deeper until now.”

She told me in a confused tone, and I felt a chill rush along my spine. I could tolerate the deep-arctic-like weather fine, but for humans, it was a death sentence combined with the dead roaming on the loose.

“You know, you always tend to see things no one else notices.”

I looked into Skylar’s baby-blue eyes once more, and her reptile slits flashed for a moment as if impulsively to the direct eye contact.

“Apparently, that is what my type do best, see things, and m******e people. We’re really useful.”

I said in a chilly tone, and Sky gave me a slight smile and said, “Yeah, not buying any of that self-pity, put it back on the shelf and close the door. You have all you need Hannah. You clearly did not need an entire faction to back you to do whatever it is you are planning to do, or else you might have tried to play ball a bit more with the King.”

I shrugged and offered, “I could just be a short-sighted fool?”

She nodded and cheekily amended, “Well, of course, but given the givens, you are the fool I would rather hang with when the fangs and swords start swinging.”

Nothing was biting or derogatory about how she earnestly spoke this truth to me.

“Bright side, at least we still have a home!”

I said, and Sky nodded in agreement.

“Excuse me, are you two ever going to get in this damn car?”

Clarke asked, sticking his head out of the back of the town car. Sky seemed to run a full mental gauntlet of emotions in under five heartbeats. I could even hear her thoughts when she clumsily pondered if Clarke had overheard my comment about her taste in guys. Then I caught glimpses of memories of them kissing, and him rounding first base, headed to second.

“Ew, jeez mind out of the gutter! I need mind bleach, right meow!”

I exclaimed, and Sky looked over at me in an annoying way.

“Bully for you Hannah, next time keep your mind out of mine.”

I scoffed and said, “Please, you can’t blame a girl if you leave the door wide open and advertise free cable!”

I told her, and she sniggered and gave me a dark look of morbid amusement.

“Maybe I will leave it open again, then you will see what I plan to let him do tonight.”

She told me, and I immediately blocked out her thoughts. She smirked triumphantly at me; she knew exactly when my mind had retreated from hers. Skylar was usually perfect at keeping her thoughts from everyone. I was the only one both powerful enough, and close enough to her emotionally to peer inside her mind. All things considered, she handled my accidental intrusions very well, for a Nix dragon. Anyone else capable of breaching her mind might wind up dead in a ditch—or fox hole as the situation might be.

“Ok, just no more free access to the Sky and Clarke show. I already don’t like men; do you want me to hate them as well?! I mean, I get to see more than enough dudes flashing things for my attention without ever asking for them.”

This was a dark truth to the post-internet age. Men were far too eager to send pix and usually didn’t even care to check a birth date to the girls they were sending them to. From the look of comprehension on Sky’s face, I could easily ascertain this was not something unfamiliar to her either. Part of me was worried she was leaving a trail of dead perverts in her wake, but then again, we're hardly talking about the best and brightest of creation.

“Seriously, what the heck are you two doing? Kerry won’t let me pull off without you!”

Clarke yelled out the window and I gave him a strumming motion with my fingers as if I were playing an imaginary violin. He finally shut up and just waited for us to finished slow walking to the car.