By the time Lucas and Kaitlyn found me in the morning, I had finally stopped running. Instead, they saw me lifting the twenty-five pound weights I had been struggling with earlier. Not that I was doing much better, but I could at least hold them without risk of letting go. I had gotten tired of running a little after five, so I had moved on to something else instead.

  “Wow, early morning for you?” Lucas said, his normal grin spreading across his face. “I didn’t even hear you this morning. How long have you been at it?”

  As I finished my set, I put the weights on the ground, gesturing to them. “These? Since about five this morning.” Kaitlyn’s eyebrows rose, and Lucas looked like he was going to say something, but I cut him off. “I got tired of running, seeing as I did that from eight till then.”

  That got their attention.

  “You’ve been up the whole night?!” Lucas’ voice was filled with concern. “Aren’t you the least bit tired? You should really go lie down.”

  “Honestly,” Kaitlyn groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We can’t afford to have you work yourself to death Ray.”

  “I’m not tired at all, and I feel fine! I tried to go to sleep, but I just couldn’t.” Meeting each of their eyes, concern from Lucas and judgement from Kaitlyn, I couldn’t help but sigh. “My body just didn’t feel tired, and I didn’t feel any exhaustion for that long. Well, mental exhaustion.” My whole body was aching in pain, sore from the workout I pushed it through. Strangely though, it didn’t feel nearly as bad as I thought it might. “Though I might need to rest now. I was hoping the workout would make me tired, but it didn’t.”

  They both exchanged a look. Lucas gave a shrug.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but if he’s not tired, then he’s not tired. Maybe a side effect like the memory thing from yesterday?”

  I felt myself freeze at the mention of yesterday. Images of Frostveil flooded my head. It was all still so surreal, knowing what happened. The others carried on, either not noticing or not caring to comment.

  “It’s possible. We can always ask the boss and see what he thinks.”

  “I wouldn’t bother him.” I said. “Last night he sounded really busy. He seemed annoyed that I interrupted him.”

  “Understood.” Kaitlyn said with a nod. Then, with a gasp, she turned back to me, narrowing her eyes. “What exactly did you need to talk to him about last night?”

  “Oh! Umm, well I decided on a name. So I was making sure to give it to him as he requested.”

  “Name huh? So you sticking with Crow?” Lucas asked excitedly. “Oh, or maybe you went with-“

  “No! No bird names! I veto it. I’ll call the boss and demand he change it. His annoyance be damned!” Turning to me, she glared daggers. “It’s not a bird name, right?”

  “A-absolutely not!” My face was heating up from all this, and started feeling self conscious on the name I had chose. “But I’m not sure if the boss even liked it, so he might pick something else.”

  Neither of them had anything to say to that. Not wanting to let it fall into an awkward silence, I spoke up again changing the subject.

  “So, what’s the plan for today? Was there anything we needed to do?”

  “Well, you’re warmed up, and we are in the training room.” Kaitlyn started. “Plus you and I never got to spar yesterday. So let’s do that.”

  I gulped nervously. The beating that Kaitlyn had delivered on Lucas yesterday was all to easy to remember. The looks she gave me though seemed to leave little room for changing her mind. With a thought, I reached out to the crows scattered throughout the compound. While they flew to my location, I flexed the muscle in my brain and summoned ten more crows in front of me. Making my way to the farther end of the room, the crows flew in, and surrounded me. I think there were close to thirty of them now, and the strange aura was much stronger today. I also released Shade, who appeared at my side.

  Kaitlyn’s hair was golden and weightless once more as she stood across from me.

  “Damn Ray,” Lucas spoke up. “The crows with their aura, and the spooky shadow guy really make you look, well, scary.” He quickly followed up, chuckling nervously. “Which is fine! Great even, given we’re villains.”

  “Shut it Lucas, I’m going to need to concentrate. It’s hard to do that with your yapping.” Kaitlyn snapped. Gone was the concern she had last night. Was it a one time thing?

  She’s distracted. Act now.

  The thoughts were right. I needed every advantage I could get. Attack. With one thought, Shade rushed Kaitlyn. She managed to dodge by pushing herself out of the way with a blast of light.

  “It that’s how you’re gonna be.” Her voice was cold. “Have it your way.”

  All I could think was shit.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  In two bright flashes, Kaitlyn was in front of me. With Shade far away, I was defenseless. With a thought, I had a group of crows fly at her face. A quick burst of light and all of them were gone. I noticed too, that the aura that fell off the crows had weakened from the loss of those caught in the light. There was even residual light that seemed to chase the shadows around me.

  I saw her cock her arm back. There was a flash, and I felt something hit my stomach. Hard. I was doubled over in pain on the floor, struggling to catch my breath. Another flash, and then I felt something slam into my back. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. My body had been in pain from the workout, but this was so much worse. I was blinded, and couldn’t get up. I was completely at her mercy.

  Use your other eyes.

  I would have slapped myself, but Kaitlyn did it for me. I went sliding across the ground from her last hit, but I did manage to link my vision to one of the crows.

  The first thing I saw was that I only had a handful of crows left. Counting the one I was using to see, it looked like there was only seven. Kaitlyn’s light had decimated my… what do you call a group of crows? Regardless, the light had destroyed all of them it hit.

  The second thing I saw was Shade just standing there. It seemed to be staring off at nothing. No, not nothing. I looked closer, trying to follow what I assumed it’s gaze was. It was starting at where my body had landed.

  Finally, I saw Kaitlyn stalking towards me. Her hands were both glowing. Making sure the rest of the crows were out of the way, I watched. It would hurt, but maybe, just maybe, the crows vision would see something I couldn’t. Something I could use. I did nothing to fight back as Kaitlyn hit me with her next attack. There was a bright light, but not a blinding flash this time. I could see her arm pulled back as all the light gathered in one fist. Then, as she punched, her fist never moved. Instead the light flew at me, faster than I could comprehend. It slammed into me, knocking me into the air, before I fell on the floor again. I felt everything as I watched my body. Even though I had figured something out, I wasn’t going to be able to use it in this fight. Kaitlyn won.

  “I yield!” I cried, unlinking my vision from the crow. “I yield. Ow. That fucking hurt!”

  “Well. At least you’re not too weak. Lucas could only take one solid punch when we first started to spar.” She reached a hand out towards me. Staring at it, I debated not taking it. Andree would have just stood up on his own. Instead, I accepted the hand.

  You can only trust yourself.

  “Thanks.” I said, ignoring the thought. “You’re pretty strong. Light… Would not have expected it to hurt that much.”

  “You’ll need to learn some basic self defense. If your shadow creature is too far away and the enemy gets in close, you’re finished. Lucas, help him out with that over the next few weeks.”

  “Yes ma’am!” He gave a mock salute. “Anything to keep you from beating the shit out of me, ma’am.”

  “Ha ha.” Was that the hint of a smile on her face? “Well, I think I’m done for now. Don’t know about you Lucas, but I’m going back home. Are you sticking around?”

  “I want to, but I should probably get home. People start to wonder where I am ya know. Can’t have them go looking too hard.”

  Ahh, right. They both don’t live here full time. It’ll just be me.

  Kaitlyn turned to me. “Hey, I want you to at least get outside and walk around a bit. You’ll need to be familiar with some of the streets and roads once we start going out on jobs. Try and get used the the city. Who knows, maybe something will click for you while you walk around.”

  “See ya Ray!”

  I waved as they both left the training room. I’d eventually listen to Kaitlyn’s advice, but for now, all I wanted was a shower.

  A burst of cold wind cut to my bones, making me shiver. Even bundled up, the air outside was far too cold for my liking.

  There were two reasons I was up here. The first and most important was that I had been told to. Kaitlyn was not someone I wanted to cross. The other, was to collect my two crows I had left behind yesterday. They were both flying above me as I walked. I didn’t really have a goal in mind, but I did make sure to stay away from Frostveil. Mostly, I was walking through different back alleys. Being villains, I felt these would be our most traveled paths so it’d be good to know them. They were a veritable maze, which would be good for losing people in, but if I didn’t understand the maze, I’d be getting lost myself.

  As I turned to walk down one alley though, I paused. There was nothing wrong with it, nor was there anyone else around to spook me. Yet something about this alley made me feel… uneasy.

  You’re stronger.

  Right, I had a shadow that could kill people. What should I be afraid of? I tried not to think of all the bruises that covered my body from the quick match with Kaitlyn. Still, even if it is unease, I felt compelled to check this place out. Nowhere else had given me this sort of feeling. I walked further down the alley.

  It opened up into a small little area. It was a dead end, so the only way out was the way I had come from. Again, I felt that unease start to swell within me. What was it with this place? I took another few steps forward, looking around. That’s when I smelled it.

  In the corner there were some trash bags piled up. This wasn’t an uncommon sight, I had seen plenty of others when going through all the different back alleys. What was different here was the smell. It was a smell that was unfortunately quite familiar to me. A smell that would haunt my dreams if I could sleep.

  Death.

  And yet, as I inched closer to the trash bags, the smell wasn’t nearly as strong as what I had experienced in the room. Sure, the smell got stronger with each step, but it was almost… faded. Once I was right next to them, I could see that they were on top of something. They weren’t covering it very well, but from a distance you wouldn’t have been able to tell.

  It was a body. A corpse.

  It looked old, like it had been out here for some time. It looked like a man, but I wasn’t about to move things around to confirm. He had a suit, and what must have been nice shoes at one point. Then there were the holes. They were all throughout his body. Each one was about the diameter of a water bottle, and they seemed to have punched all the way through. Looking at the ground, I could now see the blood streaks leading to the body. He had been drug to the corner, hidden away. No one had found him.

  What was his story? What led to him dying like this in some dirt alley?

  He had it coming.

  Did he truly? How was some stupid thought in my head supposed to know. The only thing I could tell though, these wounds weren’t from a human. Exalt. We were called Exalts. That had to be the cause here, nothing else could do something like this.

  I backed away from the body. Then I ran back out of the alley. I didn’t stop running till I was back on the sidewalk near the street. Should I tell someone? Or would that just cause more problems? Surely someone is missing him? These thoughts and more rushed through my head. I didn’t tell anyone though. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. Because of what I was now.

  A villain.

  Yes, I’m a villain. I work for a villain organization. I’ve murdered one person, and was found at the 24th murder site of the killer known as The Reaper. Telling anyone would just raise unnecessary questions.

  So I walked back home, putting the man out of my mind.