Shadow Angels

PLAGUE

I crouched on the roof, watching the man’s progress. He was flirty, confident. Easy target.





I glanced behind me at Nyanja. She was smiling encouragingly, ever the good older cousin. I wasn’t so sure. My thoughts kept jumping around, and my heart was beating a little bit faster than normal. But to be a true Plague member, I had to do this, convictions or no. Besides. It wasn’t like I could do anything but.





Nyanja was already a Plague member, and if I decided to veer a bit off course . . . purposefully fail the test . . . well, I knew Shades banished for less. I’d be accused of becoming an Angel. A threat. A wimp.





No, thank you.





I silently leaped from my high perch, falling to the ground without so much as a whisper. No one noticed me.





How could they, the mere mortals?





I strode forward, adopting a no-nonsense attitude and a breezy confidence that would blow anyone off my scent. No human would suspect such a well purposed young individual of theft. Or murder.





And then – disaster.





Right in front of me. I instantly ducked into the crowd, hastily making my way behind a group of teenagers. An unidentified Shade - could it be?


No way. Here? Now? In a Plague operated town?  But she was there. The mark on her forehead was as clear and stark as daylight. There was no way of telling whether she was Plague or Angel, but I’d have been informed beforehand of any missions or patrols going on down here. Either she was an outsider, an illegal, or an Angel.





I spared a quick glance at Nyanja’s form. She had flattened herself out against the roof, backing up slowly. She was definitely trying to hide.


I gulped. It had to be a Shadow Angel. Nyanja would know. She’d also know that no junior Plague members were trained to take down an Angel. It was suicide, right? The black haired, slightly overweight, middle-aged woman didn’t really scream danger, exactly, but I’d been trained well enough to know my basic duck-and-cover skills.





The woman scanned the crowd, and I pulled down the hood to my coat a bit tighter, hopefully hiding the distinct mark that any Shade could point out in a heartbeat. I pressed my front against a railing, leaning as far as I dared in an effort to limit any chance of being seen and show only my back.





Humans bumped right into me, and I could hear a few confused voices muttering half-hearted apologies to what their eyes told them was a human figure. Of course, I would be forgotten in the millisecond it took to pass me by, and later the gap in their memory would be replaced by some inanimate object. Maybe they’d imagine a vendor’s cart, or some boy that they’d apologized to. Probably they wouldn’t even think about it at all.





I had lost sight of the woman. If she was a Shadow Angel, then she hadn’t spotted me. I was safe. Letting out a short burst of air, I slacked off my suspicious surveying to turn around. Guess I’d have to find another target now.





I managed to nearly walk into the woman I’d been so hard-set on avoiding.





Her eyes were black and fierce, or that’s what I figured. Shadow Angels were always fierce. And set on exterminating any Shades in their way. What exactly their way was, the Darks hadn’t ever specified. Just that we stood in the way of it. Maybe they were trying to take over the world? I knew we wanted to take over the world. Just a less offensive, benefiting, peaceful takeover.





“Hello, there.” The woman’s voice sounded surprisingly soothing. Sweet. Maybe too sweet. I shuddered.





“Hi.” I regarded the potential Shadow Angel with suspicious eyes. “How’s the day going for you?” Now that was a loaded question. The three common code words were, ‘cold’, ‘cloud’, and ‘out.’ The question I just asked was a basic identifier. Depending on her loyalties, the Shade should answer accordingly.





Of course, she could always lie . . . but even with the violent feuds going on, there were some war rules. Especially with a Shade that wasn’t actually a full member yet – i.e. me.





The woman avoided the question. “What’s your name?”





Another basic identifier question. Typically, Shadow Angels named their female members after birds, and male members after angels, though it wasn’t uncommon for them to have regular names, as well. Plague members were named after predator animals, and usually in different languages. Nyanja was an exception.





If she wasn’t going to answer my question, I wasn’t going to answer hers and Shadow Angel or no, I was getting a bit nervous about this confrontation. She didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know who she was, and she wasn’t very eager to tell who she was, either. Nyanja had disappeared – surprise, surprise? – and I was on my own.





Time for me to go.





“It’s been wonderful talking to you.” I muttered graciously, albeit rather sarcastically. With that, I jumped over the railing, onto the street below, and took off.





Unfortunately, a few people noticed this. Contrary to popular belief, we Shades are not invisible. We just require a bit more noticing. Most people are used to NOT noticing. In school they learn to ignore the unpopular kids. Soon, they don’t even see them. They learn to ignore what’s really going on in the government (ha ha). They learn to ignore their parents. And as they grow up, they continue to ignore anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.





We make people feel uncomfortable.





There must have been a few people who actually still had a bit of brainpower left in the crowd, ‘cause there was more than one shout as I plummeted down more than twenty feet to the highway.





Luckily, I’d been taught how to land correctly, and my impact with the ground didn’t hinder my ability to speed off into the background.


Call it bad luck.





Call it wrong place, wrong time.





But even as I raced off into the evening, someone had caught me. Caught me bad.