The Original Chronicles of the Nightshade

Moonlight

The slight breeze whistled through her ears as her feet pattered in a silent rhythm across the concrete roofs. The night was as chilly as the others, but her blood ran hot and the clouds had parted to provide a shimmering moon in the air, providing the pale light of night's life. With a grunt, she launched herself to the next building but knew she was running out of rooftops to use for her escape when she saw the water tower. The other buildings were too tall for her to scale without someone getting a good shot in.

As she landed on the next surface, her bare feet scraping across plaster, she was quick to duck under the cover of the roof access door that overlooked the edge of the building, letting the shadows shroud her in the darkness. A bullet whistled past in that instant, making her heart hammer. She hated bullets. That shell of metal and death, that could end lives with the click of a trigger. Nothing but glinting metal shaped into a fingertip and launched out of an explosive device, leaving nothing but blood and corpses with every click. Whoever created that disgrace to warfare was obviously a lover of barbaric ends.

With a deep breath, she pulled her hood over her head to cover the inky black flesh she was supposed to call a face. Her eyes flashed in the darkness as she steadied her breathing and tried to focus. She thought she had the upper hand with these guys, but they were no street thugs looking to mess with the local homeless villain. They were more disciplined and skilled than that. It should have been obvious when they came out of nowhere and didn't carry crowbars and metal chains. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that street thugs got classier over the years...but she did know better. These were trained killers, assassins of a sort. They could even be one of those enhanced assassins that have been in the winds. The ones manufactured to feel no pain and kill until there wasn't a single drop of blood left their bodies...but that sounded more like the undead. They had been able to keep up with her up to this point, vaulting across buildings and scaling houses, and her hopes of tiring them out were shattered after they followed every step she took without a car.

The million-dollar question: Who on planet Earth would want her dead? A name came to mind, but that didn't seem to fit his style. He was more of the 'fight-me-like-a-man' sort of guy. Maybe it that mysterious Indigo person who had been stalking her for the past couple of months. Considering that he– or she– hadn't shown up to have that chat with her, she assumed that 'Indigo' was still buying time. That left her with no other suspects.

There was a long silence where Nightshade had to listen to their careful foot steps inch closer towards her, while staring at her potential freedom. How many were there? Three? Four? She could smell the rich, sickly sweet cologne off one of them and instinctively scrunched up her nose in disgust. How can anyone put on that stuff and not gag? Especially when making a kill.

It wasn't until they were right around both ends of the escape route that she launched herself from her hiding spot and dove off the edge. The men cried out, firing blindly at their target, all but hitting her body. There was an elated feeling of freedom from pursuit that rushed through her body, as her scales gently opened to slow her fall and she reached out to the next structure top. Before her fingers could grasp the edge, hot metal ripped through her right shoulder, screaming through her mind and, too late, her scales snapped shut to protect the rest of herself. Her body stopped its graceful arch and she pivoted toward the hard asphalt below. Gritting her teeth, she braced herself for a hard landing that never came.

She was met with another force that smoothly collided with her own, taking her away from the rings of metallic terror and fear of predators. She was smothered with masculine muscle and faint traces of cinnamon filled her nostrils making her feel unnaturally light-headed and unreasonably giddy.