deadly night shade 2

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The Queen of the Tempest
“What have you come up with?” Shade asked, bored with the persistent men already.

“We’ve got us a cinch,” Roy assured him.

“Then why do I doubt you?” Shade asked, revealing his boredom.

“Because you think we’re idiots,” Rich replied lightheartedly.

“Precisely,” Shade muttered.

“Be amazed at this,” Rich said as he drew runes from his pockets. Shade lifted his head to read the witch hieroglyphs that were now second nature to read to him. They all said tempest. Rich threw the runes on the ground and said a quick lyric in a warlock tongue.

“You did this why?” Shade asked, rolling his eyes.

“To summon the great Queen of the Tempests,” Roy said quickly, waiting for the woman to appear from the runes.

“You have the lyrics wrong,” Shade exhaled sharply, rolling his eyes.

“What?” Roy asked.

“The last word is Key-hoss, the warlock word for chaos and tempest,” Shade clarified.

“You just became a warlock, how would you know?” Rich growled, frustrated that the woman hadn’t appeared yet.

“Because I’m the only human to survive the transformation, I know this because knowledge of the demonic world keeps coming to me, replacing my human self,” Shade replied. “You’re looking at the one man who can travel through worlds without runes, without anything.”

“So I am summoned by a worthy man?” a woman asked.

Shade turned toward a woman with long blonde hair and grey skin, dressed in a blue robe that barely covered any of her. “Me?”

“Do you think I would leave the demonic realm for two men who can barely call themselves warlocks?” she asked slyly.

“He’s engaged,” Roy said quickly.

“That’s too bad,” she reached out to touch Shade’s face only to have her hand swatted away.

“Go do your thing before I send you back,” Shade said menacingly.

“I like him,” The woman said with a smirk.

“Go do your job before he sends you back,” Rich said as he walked a safe distance away from her.

“You really wouldn’t appear because I’m not all-powerful?” Roy asked, taking a large step backward.

“Yes,” she said as she walked out into the woods behind Shade’s house.

“Really?” Roy asked in disbelief.

“Really,” she replied, raising her hands to the sky.

Shade stood to the side of the demoness, not interested in anything. “Make with the dark magic so the witches sense it and react.”

“You don’t like the witches, eh?” Rich asked with a wicked grin.

“No, I’m not against them,” Shade snapped.

“No witch killing?” the demoness asked.

“If you kill them I’ll use your soul to resurrect them all,” Shade said darkly.

“Yes sir…” they all muttered, intimidated by his dark aura and eloquent voice.

Frostgem shivered, “Do you feel that?”

“We’ve got a strong one…” Ravenwater closed the book he was reading without marking the page. Slowly, they stood and walked upstairs to where the others were.

“You can feel it, too?” Windfire asked, finally crawling out of bed after being there nearly a week straight.

“We wouldn’t be bothering you if we couldn’t…this one’s big,” Frostgem said quickly, urging their leader to get to her feet.

“You expect me to just get up and do what took Night Shade away from me?” Windfire asked as she reached for clean clothing blindly from her drawers.

“We want you to do your job, or else resign your title,” Shadowstorm snapped.

Windfire glared at her cousin, “For that I’m getting a shower, drying my hair and taking my good old time before we get ready to send this demon back to the Nethers.”

“Good!” Emberstrike cheered, pushing Windfire toward the bathroom.

Windfire did as she said, taking a relaxing hot shower and washing away the pain that had surfaced from her losing her beloved. She took her time, feeling refreshed and still dark and depressed.

She looked at herself in the mirror and laughed. “Shade sure as hell wouldn’t want me now…” she whispered, remembering his new adopted name. She decided to just dress quickly and brush her hair out. It was rather selfish of her to want to take longer to anger her cousin. She emerged from the bathroom and took off down the stairs, joining her cousins who were ready and expecting her. They stepped outside and saw the ominous storm swirling above the city. “Why do I have a feeling that I know where the storm is originating from?”

“Because we all have the same correct hunch,” Shadowstorm said flatly.

“You don’t think Shade…” Windfire started, and knew exactly that what she didn’t want to think was happening.

“Accept it, you have the hots for a sexy warlock,” Frostgem said with a laugh.

Windfire blushed, “You act like it’s lust!”

“No, we just call it as we see it,” Emberstrike said with a shrug.

“I heard that all warlocks have forked tongues,” Ravenwater said with a laugh.

“Where’d you here that?” Windfire asked, creeped out by her cousin’s accusation.

“I read it in the Book of Shadows,” Ravenwater replied. “So sneak warlock boy a French kiss and tell us if its true or not.”

Windfire glared at him, “Shade does not have a forked tongue…”

“Just for kicks?” Ravenwater asked.

“Let’s go,” Windfire said bitterly.

They walked through the woods behind their house and followed the ominous clouds that were moving swiftly toward one location, predicted to be near Shade. “You know this counts as a betrayal,” Emberstrike said thoughtfully.
“If it does, then he’ll…” Windfire bit back the last word and kept moving in silence.

“Die…” Frostgem said sadly.

“If Shade’s eve behind this. For your information there are other warlocks in the damn world!” Windfire growled.

“How many of them do we know personally?” Ravenwater asked. “And how many of them do you think would show me their tongues?”

“Gah!” Windfire hissed, not believing the conversation they were having.

They arrived in a small clearing of the woods. There were no warlocks in sight as they had expected. “Stand firm,” Frostgem said, scanning the area quickly.

“Who dares to disrupt me?” a woman hissed.

“Go back to the nether world or I’m sending you back!” Windfire shouted.

“Ah, a Sorsha of great power…yet of great grief,” the demoness shook her head as she appeared. “Who is the man you hold so dearly to?”

“Again, go back yourself, or we’re vanquishing you,” Windfire repeated as she tried to hid the sting of the words.

“Did I make the strong human hurt?” she asked.

Shade glared at the Queen of Storms from the tree where he had been standing. “She’s hurting Windy…” he muttered, gritting his teeth.

“Leave her alone!” Ravenwater hissed.

“Oh please, the man is the weakest link if he’s a white witch,” the Queen rolled her eyes.

Ravenwater frowned. She had hit his biggest insecurity with one statement, “Leave Windy alone…”

The woman raised her hands toward the sky and began calling the lightning of the storm down to her hands. Shade leapt down from the tree branch, ignoring the shock of the impact. His sword was drawn and as black as his eyes and hair.

Windfire gasped when she saw the drastic change in the man she was in love with. His gentle eyes had dark rings beneath them giving him a very evil air. He wore all black and moved silently behind the lightning caller. He smiled gently when he saw Windfire and nearly blushed when he realized she wasn’t only paying attention to him because of his surprising entrance.

“You’re all going to die to the Queen of Storms,” she said as she shot a bolt of lightning toward the shocked coven of witches.

Shade snarled as he watched the lightning getting fired from her hands. He’d have no time to stop her attempted kill of the witches. He stepped swiftly through the shadows and tackled Windfire to the ground. The other witches rolled and ducked to get out of the way, but Windfire was too distracted by his presence to think straight.

Windfire recovered from the shock of the tackle and fall and blushed when she realized that Shade was lying defensively on top of her. “Sh-Shade!” she stammered.

“Yes,” Shade replied, glancing over his shoulder at the storm witch.

“Y-you saved me…” she realized.

He smiled, “I can’t break a blood oath, can I?”

She hugged him tightly, partly from fear of oncoming pain, and partly for her deep feelings for him. “Shade…how did she get here?”

His deep voice nearly made her melt, “I don’t know.” He pushed himself up and found the other witches throwing an elemental assault at the witch who was countering it easily. “You can’t kill her with ice, water, wind, lightning, fire, earth, wood or metal!”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Ravenwater asked.

“Light and dark!” Shade ordered as he picked Windfire up with ease.

“W-what?” the demoness asked.

“H-he saved Windy…” Frostgem muttered.

“Go back to the nether or I’ll slay you with your own magic,” Shade advanced slowly toward the demoness.

“No!” she hissed, angered by the betrayal. She shot a bolt of lightning at Shade who simply deflected the lightning. She gasped and kept the assault coming with all of the different spells she could summon.

“You’re just wasting your time…” Shade said darkly, glaring into the woman’s eyes. The woman disappeared into the air before Shade reached her. “Damn it all to hell!” he growled, looking around desperately.

“You’re helping us?” Shadowstorm asked Shade with a glare.

“Does it look like it?” Shade asked, sending a blast of dark energy into a tree.

“Why are you helping us?” Emberstrike asked, glaring at the warlock.

“Because my fiancé is in danger,” Shade said flatly.

“F-fiancé?” Windfire repeated.

“You knew about the demon before…” Ravenwater said darkly.

“No,” Shade shook his head, “I came to see what had such power in these here woods.”

From the shadows Rich and Roy were staring in disbelief. “She doesn’t know that he’s obsessed with her?” Rich asked.

Roy shrugged, “I don’t know if we should get involved with that…”

Rich grinned, “I have an idea. Come back to Master’s with me.”

“Pretty warlocks don’t last long,” the woman said as she shot a bolt of ice at Shade.

Emberstrike threw a barrier around Shade who threw his arm up defensively. After the attack stopped, the barrier dissipated. Shade nodded toward the young witch and released a black orb from his hands and shot it into the tree where the attack had come from. “Then end my reign,” he challenged.

“Sh-Shade…” Windfire blushed, watching him toss the magical attacks at the demoness that was hidden amongst the tree’s leaves.

“Sweetie, don’t get too attached,” Shadowstorm said soothingly.

“What do you mean?” Windfire asked.

“He’s fighting this one time for you,” Shadowstorm muttered.

“For me?”

“He won’t let you die unless he’s the one to kill you,” Frostgem muttered.

“You don’t believe that, do you?” Windfire glared at them.

“He said it himself,” Emberstrike pointed out.

“I know what he said…” Windfire replied, not wanting to believe for a second that Shade would do an ounce of harm to anything.

“So pretty, yet foolishly fighting for a woman who cursed him,” the woman called from the trees’ tops.

Shade glared at the woman for pointing out the obvious, and hated himself for not being able to hide the blush from his cheeks. Shade drew his sword again and shot several bolts of darkness into the canopy, grinning when he heard one hit flesh. He continued the barrage of attacks of darkness and gripping shadows that paralyzed the elemental caster.

“God, he’s amazing…” Windfire drooled, watching him dart into the treetops to finish what he had started.

“He’s not even human anymore,” Ravenwater said quietly.

“He’s still handsome,” Windfire slipped, covering her mouth and gasping after she had done so.

Shade stopped when he heard Windfire’s words, trying to keep his concentration. “You’re so dead…” he spat as he dove at the woman, she teleported out of the way causing Shade’s attack to nearly send him to a painful fall. He managed to catch himself with the sword, having to abandon it for balance and fast reactions.

“I wish he’d fight where we could protect him…” Windfire sighed.

“Of course you do,” Frostgem said quickly.

“I mean so we could put him in barriers,” Windfire added, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“There is something sexier about him now with a more evil air,” Emberstrike admitted.

“He wasn’t bad looking before or anything,” Shadowstorm said quickly.

“But now he has a forked tongue,” Ravenwater said quickly, getting slapped on the arm by Windfire.

“Wow, he’s intelligent…” Shade said flatly before shooting another bolt of darkness at the Queen who took most of the hit before teleporting away again.

“You really have strange company…” the woman remarked from behind Shade. He turned slowly and found himself being shoved to the ground. After pushing him she launched a bolt of lightning at him, hoping to finish him off.

“Shade!” Windfire cried when she saw him falling. She saw the lightning chasing Shade and nearly died, “No!”

Shade felt the impact of the lightning as he crashed into the ground, hitting with his dead body weight and no resistance. He gritted his teeth and gripped the grass and dirt on the ground as the electricity coursed through his body. Windfire darted over to him, kneeling down and pulling him onto her lap. “She’s coming,” he spat as he tried to shake off the pain and stand.

“Lay back down,” Windfire ordered.

“No, you’re not fighting her!” Shade objected as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet.

“Shade…”

“I’m stronger than you think,” he said with a smile.

“But…” she started to object.

“I survived the transformation, this pain is nothing,” he helped her too her feet. She blushed, nodding once.

Roy and Rich appeared behind the trees, watching Shade and Windfire. “He hasn’t told her. Our plan will still work,” Rich smiled.

“Good, because he’ll kill us if he finds out that we’re telling her everything,” Roy commented. They darted around the outskirts of the trees and found a safe rock that was far away from the battle. The case for the ring Shade kept tainted on his finger was placed in plain sight on the giant rock.

“Think she’ll see it?” Rich asked.

“I’m more worried about her reading my handwriting or not believing us, not going with it…” Roy tapered off. With that, the two warlocks were out of sight and still out of mind, back in Shade’s residence.

“Who dies first? The warlock or his witch lover?” the demoness asked.
Shade and Windfire blushed at the accusations, Shade reacted more violently by sending a blind bolt into the trees, knocking the woman down, sending her to the ground and unable to cast any spells to save herself.

He followed through with slashing her to bits with his tainted sword. She stared wide-eyed at him as she took her last few breaths, never hearing an explanation for the betrayal. “And now the pretty warlock sends you back to the demonic realm where you belong,” Shade growled, pointing the diamond ring toward her. She disappeared into the air like rising smoke.

“You’re amazing,” Windfire muttered taking a step toward her dark hero.

“It’s something else to actually be useful in a fight,” Shade said, sheathing the sword.

“Should we…you know…” Frostgem said, yanking on her cousins’ arms.

“Go?” Emberstrike guessed, helping her tug away Ravenwater and Shadowstorm.

“Shade, I’m sorry I got you into this,” Windfire said weakly, trying to hold back her tears.

“If it weren’t for me being a warlock, you’d be dead,” Shade said quietly, approaching Windfire.

“But you went through hell to become this,” she said, motioning toward him.
He laughed, “I didn’t want to be a burden you were always protecting, Windy. It was my stupidity, not your kindness.”

“Are we still be spied on?” Windfire asked shyly.

“From afar, yes,” he said, his eyes not leaving hers. “You are gorgeous…” he shook his head in disbelief.

“As you are handsome,” she retorted.

He wanted to kiss her…every ounce of darkness in his soul wanted her to be his again. He was so deeply in love with her, and he couldn’t stop what he was feeling no matter how hard he tried. He was becoming desperately obsessed with her. He had summoned a witch from the nether world so he’d have an excuse to talk to her!

He leaned close to her and stopped himself from kissing her lips. He instead wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest, keeping a tight grip on her. She returned the affection, kissing his cheek every few seconds. Tears streamed down her cheeks as they did his, “Shade, I miss you…”

“I know, Windy.” Shade said quietly into her ear. “I know because I miss you just as much.”

“You can come back and we’ll find a way to fix this, so you’re not a warlock anymore,” she sobbed.

“I’m not a pathetic human anymore,” Shade whispered. He began comforting her by stroking her hair.

“Why can’t we be like this? Just go home like this never happened?” Windfire asked.

“I’ll come back to you as soon as I can,” Shade promised.

“Why can’t you now?”

“I don’t trust myself, now,” Shade admitted.

“I trust you, Night Shade…”

He stopped breathing, thinking, his heart may have even skipped a beat as she muttered his witch given name. “I’m fighting the urge to kill you as it is. I’m not the human you fell in love with…”

“I don’t care if you kill me or not, I just want you to hold me…” Windfire cried.

“Go home. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Shade said confidently.

“I..okay,” she nodded. She stared into the sincerity of his eyes, kissing his lips gently once. She let go of him and turned away from him, glancing back over her shoulder a few times. He was still standing there, triumphantly, her warlock love and a dark hero.

When she was out of sight, Shade let the human part of his mind fade and was his evil self once again.

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deadly night shade 4