Shade of Exposure (Three)

Twelve

Twelve:

Nadia was resting for the entire evening, and the storms seemed to gather the dead things as well as also seemed to come out in force. Tonight, I could hear sub-automatic machine gun fire opening on the dead creatures, which told me the national guard had landed in Brooklyn.

New York was officially a warzone, and the larger-than-human-life secret about the paranormal and the immortals was completely out now.

“You could just allow the mortals to deal on their own and keep your head down.”

Sky told me, and I gave her a chastening look and quipped, “Who are you, your mother?”

She gave me a toothy grin and a single snap of her head.

“Just playing shade’s advocate, ya know. It’s not on you to fix this universe, Hannah.”

Sky told me, and I gave her a small almost sad grin in response.

“Bully for me, but I’m not going to sit by and let humans die fighting when I know I could prevent it.”

Sky tossed me the black cat mask, and she picked up a considerably sized broad curved weapon sheath. My eyes were locked on her in disbelief and I murmured, “That thing is bigger than your entire scrawny body!”

Narrowing her eyes to dangerous slits she murmured, “Careful there unless you enjoy the taste of dragon flames.”

Her grin was feral, and I matched it with one of my own, then I pulled the black cat mask over my face, obscuring my features as well as providing me some extra layers of plated defense against extreme danger.

“I’m thinking all of season one of Bat Woman once we get home. It is a thematic night in the making. Come along now wonder girl.”

Kerry moved over, donning her black cat mask which seemed almost like mine, except the features were grinning more comically, almost like the cat was drunk.

“Did you slip a few times with the whittling knife?”

I wondered aloud and she sniffed gustily beneath her mask and said, “Please, we used hand lasers to carve these out. Nothing weaker will have any effect on this material.”

“Right, since I know all about alien metallic woods from your homeworld.”

I snipped, and Skylar finally pulled a mask down, hers was a purple panther, with bloody fangs.

“Oh, that is super cool! Can I get the bloody effect too?!”

I asked, and Sky sighed and shook her head.

“Not once the masks have been treated and hardened. Now, you could withstand multiple direct hits from a higher-being and still trust this material to protect your little shade noodle.”

She informed me, and I shrugged and waved them on, picking up the short black katana that hummed with expression. Nadia seemed to be embellishing upon the enchantments, or else the blade was growing in the power of its own volition.

“Stay safe, Hannah Graves. I have so many positions left to claim your small tight ass in before you die.”

Nadia said, and Sky made an exasperated noise and brushed past us as Nadia leaned over and kissed the cheek of the mask in a goodbye.

“Keep that blade in your hand, it will never forsake its wielder.”

She said, and I frowned not exactly sure what that meant, and she smiled faintly at my confusion.

“Your age is cute sometimes; I will explain later.”

She finished, and I pulled her tight against me in a firm hug goodbye.

“It feels like we’re having one of those anime goodbye moments like in the shows.”

I told her and Nadia whispered, “Go bujide.”

Which roughly translates to say, “have a safe trip.”

My eyes lingered on her for another long moment before I followed Kerry and Sky out the door and into the night. Outside we were confronted by a wall of snow nearly measuring seven feet in some areas around the block. My bones felt almost instantly cold, despite being completely immune to trivial mortal concerns like hypothermia.

“Is it too late to decide to move to Florida for the winter?”

I asked as we leaped atop the small arching entrance of the nearby hotel. Above the thunder and the blasting sub-arctic gales, we could hear the rattling sounds of high-powered machine guns.

“Kerry, are you sure you want to do this while also not in your dragonkin form? Sky should survive the toxin, but you could die if these buggers bite or scratch you.”

I asked her, and Kerry smiled slightly beneath the mask, or so my senses told me. Her emotions radiated with warmth at my concern, despite our often-combative repertoire, Kerry did seem to appreciate our friendship.

“I’m certain mortals will die if we stand here with our tails up our bums.”

Kerry snapped, but there was no heat to her words.

“Wow, I’d pay money to see that show!”

I said, and Kerry swore in a tangent about how perverted I was. I often forgot how hetero-norm nix was because Sky was very evolved.

“Hannah let's keep that closet door closed right now, you’re tormenting my second-ranking female.”

Sky chastised me, and I grinned beneath the mask and snorted.

“You got it, now, let's go crash the party. Just be warned, I will be keeping score since this is a competition.”

Both alpha predators seemed to gleam at the challenge. There was a good reason why I managed to hang with such powerful beings, we all had similar predatory instincts, even if we also had morals and scruples to help dictate how we acted upon them.

We trudged along the side of the lower-rise buildings, following the loud rattling and roaring noises of combat. I could see many humans barring their doors now, hearing the commotion around them. I could hardly blame the girl who released the video now, considering it at least gave humans a fighting chance at survival in Brooklyn. Since they knew something truly was prowling the night right now, they had the common sense to begin to bar their doors and lock uptight. I even spotted a few men boarding up their apartment building and several more sitting in waiting behind rifle scopes.

“Well, at least it’s not the south, where we would have to worry about Jack Daniels loaded hillbillies with shotguns everywhere.”

I commented and Kerry quickly added, “Nope, just a buncha angry Brooklyn guys with sawed-off-shotguns and unregistered handguns.”

I sniffed in mild amusement, as we came closer to the action. None of us jumped right into the fray, since we were all bright enough to consider the fallout should the mortals turn their weapons on us.

“What the hell are those people doing?!”

Kerry pointed towards a small contingent of huddled dark-dressed beings and I saw sickly grey-black expression flaring around them all. I swore to myself and realized what I was seeing, as I flashed into action.

“Stop!”

I thundered out, speeding ahead of the national guardsmen’s flank, the deadly expression slammed into my body, and I gagged and choked, as the crushing oppressive force fought against my resilient figure, threatening to break my body in a chaotic wave of dead expression.

This was a form of chaos element that I had never experienced firsthand before now. It was the newly minted necromancer expression I had heard about from Spencer Kacey.

“Hey, only I get to hurt her!”

Skylar snapped, as she descended on the four figures with her massive great-sword, and she spun a bloody arc, and when she landed, I noticed Kerry had done similar across the street where another three former human necromancers had been waiting to pounce.

“Are you ok?”

Sky asked, and I grunted and bobbed my head. The men and women swung their weapons on us, and I looked at Sky.

“Uh, might wanna jump out again, unless you feel like dodging bullets.”

I told her, and we both leaped overhead, and we each landed amid a throng of dead things gathering up on the block. Our blades flew into action, slicing, sundering, and hacking. It took what felt like an endless lifetime before the guardsmen seemed to decide against engaging us, and they concentrated their auto-fire on the dead around us.

“You know, this is sorta like playing World of Warcraft. At least in that, we are now the armored heroines holding the deadly enemy’s attention while the archers fire on them.”

Kerry rolled her eyes as she suddenly appeared beside me, and she cleaved through two charging skeletal dead.

“How in the hell do they get those to walk?!”

I asked, and then Sky pointed to the sickly black expression etched to the bones.

“Expression runes carved into the bones. The necromances are also carving runes into their bones too since Grendel decided the best way to kill them was to burn them alive.”

We’d all heard about Grendel’s grand display of power, melting the rune-carved flesh from all the necromancers in the club they first raided once being put onto the death expression practitioners.

“Hey, um, do these things seem to be moving as if with a united purpose, or is that just my imagination?”

Sky asked, and I noticed the behavior seemed more intelligent than it had been. I was not certain what that meant, beyond the probability that someone once again held their invisible leashes.

“Well, I guess where there is a necromancer, there is a way?”

I asked, and Kerry hummed in agreement as she beheaded another approaching zombie.

“That’s not good, because the mortals will lose more people to a united zombie army.”

Kerry told me grimly, and Sky cut in.

“Not to mention, the dead will become part of that army, feeding the endless loop of death and resurrection.”

Our situation was dire, and the days were growing darker, not just literally, but figuratively.

“Can you track the necro lords to their hidey holes?”

I asked Sky, and she frowned and considered the question for a long moment.

“I might be able to track the horde’s movements backward in my phase-shift. But that would mean leaving you two to fend for yourselves.”

I waved her off and said, “Off with you already, fly little dragon.”

Sky gave me a lethal look that told me I was not funny.

“Kerry, I’m dropping my clothes around the corner of this building, please tend to them until I need them.”

She said, her tone more like a friend than an apex barking orders at an inferior. Sky never abused her people, even in any small way.

“Yes ma’am.”

Kerry said in a crisp tone as ridged as any soldier across the block.

Boy, are they about to be in for a show…

I mused to myself, and I began to move backward, towards the guardsmen, as I defended our flank from a small throng of zombies as Kerry and Sky moved behind the building we had been standing nearest.

“Hey, you guys might not wanna freak out, if you look up and see a big freakin dragon, she’s cute, cuddly, and not going to eat you.”

I said, and several of the guards looked at me like I was a sword-wielding lunatic. In their defense, I was certainly wielding a damn sword at the very least.

“What are you?”

One with bars I recognized as Sargent’s stripes asked me.

“I’m a shade, which means I am not a human, and I am telling you to back up a bit, and let my friend do her thing, and don’t shoot at her.”

I warned them, and the Sargent seemed to consider me for a moment, as I steadily backpedaled and hacked at the dead now closing in on us.

“What the hell?!”

One of the soldiers exclaimed as Sky roared and flapped above the roof of the building, and her fingers flicked out, blasting a concentrated burst of azure dragon flames across the column of zombies converging on me.

“See, cuddly…”

I said to the Sargent, as Sky flapped her powerful wings and took off trailing the inky death expression trail.