Shade of Exposure (Three)

Nine

Nine:

“God, it smells like shade ass in here!”

Sky exclaimed in a mildly irritated tone. She seemed to be taking the latest development better than could have been expected. Considering she was not breaking down my door looking to maul Nadia to death.

It did not elude my notice that Nadia was staying inside my bedroom and keeping a wall and a door between her and the nix apex bestie living with me.

“Well, good to know you can differentiate shade ass from regular non-shade verities of ass. Do we smell better, perhaps a fragrance of roses?”

My question had been rhetorical, but Skylar rolled her eyes and wiggled her middle finger in response. Kerry seemed to be relatively neutral since returning to my sin-den. She did not appear to care one way or the next about who I did what to behind closed doors.

“Shades have a slight variance of body chemistry that differs from humans or nix.”

Kerry explained, and I arched a quizzical brow at her and asked, “And you can smell all that?”

I inquired, and she shrugged and said, “We have the best sense of smell in several dimensions last I heard.”

“Unless something new and deadlier has evolved in our seclusion.”

Skylar chimed in, and I regarded my friend carefully, as not to poke the grumpy territorial dragon anymore than I already had.

“Look, I need you to promise not to maul Nadia if I am not physically here to stand between you two.”

I told her, and she leveled a dangerous expression on me, one I had seen when she was ready to phase-shift and bite a literal head off. Her baby-blue eyes were slit vertically, and her tiny fragile redhead look seemed somehow nightmare-like, despite still looking mostly like a high school girl coming home from class for the night.

“You want me to make nice with the former leader of the reapers?”

She asked in a low tone that scared me more than any yell or scream could. I was familiar with her female family behavior enough to know that when they got quiet, they were truly ticked off. Sky was at her most lethal right now. Only a blind, deaf, dumb fool would miss that now. Part of me was truly worried because Sky and I could bring an entirely new meaning to the words catfight.

For one thing, she was a dragon and not a cat. The other thing, I was one of the only known species strong enough to be equally as annoying to fight solo. Granted, I did not turn scaly and soar through the sky on massive leathery wings as she did, but that would be very cool!

“Look, just hear me out, ok.”

I said, and Sky crossed her arms and leaned back against the hall wall and seemed to lazily consider me.

“Fine, but I make no promises. I don’t care how good she delivers a fake p***s to you; I don’t like or trust her.”

She told me, looking past me into the door where Nadia was standing. I could see the neutral look on Nadia’s face, she was no stranger to Sky’s sentiments, and she certainly knew she had enough blood on her hands to warrant these feelings. She said nothing in her defense, and she seemed to look at me, as if pleading for me to stop defending her.

“You know what type of geas she was under, correct?”

Skylar bit her lip and she seemed to fume, I held my hand up and pleaded again.

“Sky, just stay with me for a minute.”

Finally, she gave one bob of her head in confirmation and she seemed ready to fire off the most logical next line of argument, mainly that it did not excuse her of the murders.

“Imagine if you were in a crucible, changed, and completely stripped of everything that made you, you. Then, you were bond to the well of a psychotic higher-being. You would end up doing a lot of things you neither wished to do nor could you control the outcome. Not so long as the geas held you to their will.”

Skylar cut a hard expression towards Nadia, and she said, “So what, you just say, ‘my bad.’ And everyone is supposed to be ok with you all of a sudden?! What about the countless nix lives you’ve ended? What about all the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who have grieved for your victims? Do they no deserve justice?”

Skylar asked her, and I looked into Sky’s eyes and I nodded a wide bob of my head.

“Yes, they deserve justice, by taking down the asshole Architects who pulled the proverbial trigger by using that geas to commit murder. Think about it, she was a loaded gun, they were the triggermen. Your grievance is with the wrong being, Sky. You assumed she was working of her own free will. Now that you know better, why don’t you consider what it must have been like for her to spend so many years shackled to a job you cannot outrun, and an oppressive leader you cannot disobey. I know you are smart enough to be able to picture this situation in reverse. Wouldn’t you rather utilize this amazing thousand-years of Architect information to our advantage?”

I pitched her the argument at a fevered pace, desperate to reach Sky. Skylar fixed Nadia with a stern look and commanded, “Drop your mental defenses, now. I want to see.”

Nadia looked at me, and I nodded reassuring her.

“I’d just trust her since Sky is more likely to go for your throat if she plans to kill you.”

I said, and Sky preened like this was high praise, I guess in her apex world it was. Sky was a straight shooter, no poisons or backstabbing in her world, nope all old-fashioned dragon claws upfront if she has a problem with you!

“I cannot control what you’re about to witness, however, I would ask you to have Hannah and Kerry vacate the apartment before we begin.”

Nadia said, and she swung her gaze to me, and she looked sad.

“There are some things I would pray you never have to see.”

Sky nodded stiffly and said, “Fine by me, Hannah will believe me if I tell her I was not satisfied here.”

(Meaning, Nadia ends up dead.)

“Hey, it’s fine, I’ll just try really hard not to listen in!”

I cut in and Nadia shook her head.

“Honey, please, please leave, just for a few minutes. It is not anything I would ever wish my most beloved to see. I am not sure it is possible to regard someone the same once you see truths as dark as mine.”

She said cryptically. While I was mildly hurt that I was being kicked out of my apartment, I bit my lip, deciding that I had to leave, since this seemed to be the only ounce of mercy Skylar was going to extend to Nadia. I didn’t want to be the one to exacerbate this situation.

“Come, we can scan the block for zombies.”

Kerry said, she seemed to find just the right pause to cut in and pull me from the house. She had a real skill with royalty and politically dicey situations. I gave Nadia one more lingering look of concern, and she nodded reassuringly to me, so I sighed, and I reluctantly grabbed my coat from the hanger in the living room and I came out with Kerry. I was worried that I would be returning to a bloody scene of a murder, and I knew Nadia would not defend herself against Sky. Nadia held some profound guilt where the nix was concerned, guilt that seemed prime to cost her everything.

“I’d better come back to a living lady friend, ok.”

I said, pointing a reprimanding index-finger at Skylar, who gave me the finger for the second time in ten minutes.

“Are you bringing your sword?”

Kerry asked, and I huffed and shook my head.

“Nah, figure I will look a lot less obviously freaky if I don’t tote around a large butter knife today. It’s still daylight outside, and well, my visage is plastered on TV, best to be careful.”

She seemed to reluctantly nod in agreement.

“I see how that could be disconcerting. However, I highly doubt anyone is going to notice your visage since you were wearing a mask. Not to mention, you look too young, mortals have this interesting hang-up about youth and weakness in women. I get it all the time, especially around men.”

She muttered the last part and I wanted to inquire deeper but thought better of it. I was poking one alpha female, so best not to poke a second. Sometimes, I wondered how the three of us managed to reside together without one of us ending up dead. We all have powerful wills and all of us were strong immortal beings with nasty levels of expression at our every whim and will.

“I’m guessing they don’t have a nix box to check on your dating apps, huh?”

I asked, and Kerry snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Nah, but I usually just swipe whatever looks juicy. She confided, and my eyes widened.”

Kerry was a few years older than us; she had just celebrated her twenty-second birthday. I should not feel so amazed to learn she was sexually active. I mean, I am still only eighteen, and I could have out sexed a proper lesbian porn star a little while ago!

“Do tell more and spare no detail.”

I told Kerry in an insistent tone, and she sighed, and muttered, “I knew that was a mistake.”

I waved her off as we stepped outside, and I noticed that the sun seemed to be hidden behind thick dark grey clouds, much denser than the usual types in the northern US during a winter storm. I was no stranger to winter snowstorms, but the sky seemed almost smothered behind the density of the cloud cover.

There was something ominous about the air, and the weather as the storm seemed to gather more. The snowfall was beginning to increase steadily.

“What’s bothering you?”

Kerry asked, and I pointed up at the sky.

“Does that look natural to you?”

I asked, and she frowned and shrugged.

“I’m not the one with true-sight. You can see far beyond my range, Hannah.”

Kerry seemed none too thrilled to admit this to me, but as per usual, she was honest and blunt.

“Look, I don’t know what I see. I know it looks, off.”

Kerry ground her teeth for a moment, and she said, “I can put in a message with a friend who works in the local Hidden science and research department. I am sure he can decern if this is just another winter storm or some new and terrifying phase of the Endless War.”

I nodded and I gave her a small smile.

“Thanks for that, I know it must sound ridiculous, but the sky has been bothering me all day. I just didn’t know how to broach the subject or who I could even go to if I did.”

My confession was met with a slightly stiff shrug.

“It’s been a long and colorful day, for certain. Part of me is sad about my change in vocation, but the rest of me is honestly unburdened. I too happen to find the Hidden to be much too tiresome and pretentious. Despite our many differences, you and I are disturbingly similar, Hannah Graves. We simply wish to do good, and not spend our entire lives explaining our every mistake before kings and political courts.”

Kerry’s statement surprised me. I knew she had a bit of a vigilante streak in her, but this was all news to me. I had assumed her more a company gal. I suppose she was merely following the only path open to her when the nix shunned her.

I kept finding myself drawn to the dark sky and the ominous heaviness in my chest seemed only to build and weigh me down more as time passed. I hoped her friend could put me out of my misery soon.