Neither S.I.L.E.N.T. nor his agents had found anything yet, though they’d keep looking. Nightshadow, however, had needed at least one night off to relax and recoup. His body had practically demanded it, so he’d given in—but only for the one night. He couldn’t think of a better way to spend his free time than with Piper. He’d found himself thinking more and more about her recently and smiling.
Whenever she looked at him, her green eyes glowed with adoration. She never complained about his age, scars, or frequent disappearances. She simply accepted him and savored his company whenever he was around. Despite the longer days and nights taking a toll on him, seeing her gave him something to look forward to after patrols. He’d repeatedly checked out her background and had cleared her of being a reaper child. She appeared to be what she seemed: a lovely, spry young girl who cared about him.
She hadn’t tried searching through his belongings and never bothered him about any of his exes or money or anything. She never demanded all his time. Whenever they did get together, they had a great time, dining together, eating, and the sex was amazing. So he saw no reason not to bask in her affections and see where their feelings for each other took them.
The waitress returned to pour Piper another glass of red wine and refill Nightshadow’s water. As a rule, he never touched alcohol. “Goodness!” the waitress said, seeing Piper’s necklace. The flame-shaped gold flashed and flared in the room’s dim light.
“
I know!” Piper replied. “It’s incredible!”
“
You’re very, very lucky,” the waitress said. She looked both Nightshadow and Piper over and knowingly grinned. “You both are.”
“
I agree,” Nightshadow said, sipping his water and enjoying the way everyone in the restaurant gawked at his date’s beauty.
The waitress said their seitan scaloppinis with lemon-olive sauce would be ready soon and dashed off to another table. Piper’s smile suddenly faded. A shadow fell across her face. Fingering her necklace, she said, “You know this thing probably costs more than that waitress makes in an entire year. None of the waitresses here could possibly afford this. Neither can I. Not without your help.”
She started unclasping the necklace.
“
Mark, I love this necklace, and it might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but I don’t know if I can accept it.”
He held up his hand to stop her.
“
Piper,” he said, “I wanted to give you something special.”
“
Give it to someone who deserves it,” she said, “or sell it and give the money to charity.”
“
I have more than enough money to give to charity and buy necklaces just like that for twenty girls, but I only bought the one for you.”
“
Mark, I can’t.”
“
I insist. It’s my money. I’ll do with it what I want. Besides, if you say no, I’ll just buy you a half dozen more.”
Piper flashed him a wicked smirk. “You’re kind of making me want to say no.”
“
You never do,” Nightshadow said. “Not to me.”
“
I suppose it’s all in how you ask.”
***
Later that night in bed, she tore into him with animalistic vigor like she’d never shown before. She bit and scratched and screamed in all the ways he liked. The entire time, she left the necklace on but nothing else. Despite his fatigue, he dug down deep for the energy to keep up. Eventually, they wore each other out and collapsed down together into a sweaty pile. She sat up and cradled his head in her lap while playing with his hair. He lay still and enjoyed the dark, sullen silence. For the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel any pain or aches. He simply relaxed.
Someone somewhere was crying out for help. Madmen were plotting to destroy cities. Gangs were going to war. The Spider-Specter, the reaper children, and many, many other criminals had to be found and stopped. However, tonight, he had to rely on his network, the police, his fellow Invincibles, and S.I.L.E.N.T. to keep the world in one piece. Still, he fought down the itch to check the news and see if something was happening that might need his attention. However, if a true crisis occurred, he had alarms that would go off. But they were silent, so he could take it easy for now. His friends and allies would get by fine without him for the one night. He needed the rest too.
Much as he hated to admit it, he was getting older. He couldn’t keep going at the rate he always had. He’d only kill himself. No, he had to learn to trust in others to help with the work. He couldn’t micro-manage everything for them. Plus, they all had their own skills and resources (many of which he lacked) to put to good use. Besides, if he thought they couldn’t handle things, he wouldn’t be working with them in the first place.
He curled up comfortably in Piper’s lap and, slowly, closed his eyes. Piper’s voice softly chimed:
“
Trees do bend
“
Though straight and tall,
“
So must we
“
To others’ call,
“
Long have I waited for your coming home to me
“
And living deeply our new life.
”
Nightshadow recognized the song as an old church hymn from going to Catholic mass as a child with his mother. He hadn’t attended church services of any kind since her funeral many, many years ago. Nonetheless, he liked the tune. Piper sang it well.
“
Where did you hear that from?” he asked.
“
You told me about it,” she answered. “It was your mother’s favorite song.”
His eyes snapped open. “Did I?”
Immediately, Nightshadow plunged the depths of his memory, trying to recall such a conversation.
“
Well, you did,” she replied, “or I read about it in an old magazine or something.”
“
Right. Of course.”
Maureen Risen, the matriarch of the Salome City’s first family and the woman Nightshadow claimed was his mother in his Mark Risen identity had been a world famous philanthropist. Even before her mysterious death in a plane crash more than two decades ago, hundreds of newspapers and magazines had run stories about her charitable endeavors.
It was possible that she’d had the same favorite song as Nightshadow’s actual mother and Piper had read about it somewhere. But was it likely? Or was he just being paranoid? Was he trying to ruin a good thing? Did he not want to be happy? Was he going to investigate Piper yet again? How many times did he need to? He’d found nothing suspicious in her background, but he had been driven to keep checking and re-checking. It was pointless. And what was he overreacting to now? She was only singing a song. He had to accept that, sometimes, things were what they appeared. Coincidences did happen.
Piper sang again, and he fell asleep in her arms.
***
The next morning, they again made furious love and shared a fruit salad for breakfast, feeding each other by hand. Though Nightshadow was heading off for work, he told Piper she could hang around the penthouse awhile.
“
Sleep in and relax,” he said. “You have that audition later? The TV murder mystery, right? Well, rest up for that and blow them all away.”
“
You got it!” she said, crawling up out of bed to kiss him on the cheek.
On the drive to the office, Wally noted that the boss was actually smiling and looking almost happy for a change.
“
I had a good night, Wally,” Nightshadow said. “I think I’ll be having more of them from now on.”
As Mark Risen, he signed off on his company purchasing a whole block of lakeside townhouses and inspected the properties in person. After strength training for a few hours back at his office, he spent some time begging around Triangle Park before bartending at Torchlight while the owner’s thrash rock band, “Human Lighter,” played. Cutthroats and thugs from all over came to hear their old boss, the underworld crime lord “the Glow,” sing. Nightshadow kept a close eye on all of them and memorized the underworld gossip he overheard. However, no matter what else occupied him that day, his mind still battered away at the Spider-Specter case.
Nightshadow sympathized with vigilantes who took extreme measures. Often, he wondered how much murder and destruction he’d have prevented if he’d simply killed the Death Reaper before that maniac could go on another rampage. Still, he’d seen too many murders ruin too many lives. One murder’s ripple effect (even that of a scumbag) affected whole families, friends, business associates, partners, and more. Also, he hated the idea of martyring some psychopath and seeing that inspire someone else to become a living nightmare in their stead. More importantly, he knew his place. While he acted outside of the system, he never set himself above it. He did what law enforcement and other authorities couldn’t and vice versa. Everyone played their roles in the system and it worked. Well, most of the time it did.
He wondered what had made the Spider-Specter snap. Nightshadow knew the Spider’s whole life story and had counted him as a friend. He’d never have thought him capable of murder.
Years ago, a mad scientist think tank had experimented on David Walks On Walls, injecting him with various kinds of radioactive spider DNA until S.I.L.E.N.T busted them. S.I.L.E.N.T. scientists undid most of the genetic damage done to David, and he moved on with his life, finding a job as an auto mechanic and having a son. David and his girlfriend broke up, but he and his boy seemed to get by well enough without her. At age four, David’s son Danny began developing spider-powers. He had no trouble mastering them, but his father insisted he hide them, fearing they’d draw the wrong kind of attention, even out on the isolated little Cherokee reservation where they lived.
After a mugger shot his father dead because Danny didn’t use his spider-powers to protect him, Danny went to live with his mother in Daylight, Nevada. Having learned that he couldn’t waste his potential as only a teenager, Danny became the Spider-Specter, wanting to help those who couldn’t help themselves. As a young adult, he moved around a lot, never staying in one city overly long, but always chipping in to fight crime and save lives wherever he went. For a while, he’d even lived in Salome City and, with Nightshadow’s blessing, patrolled the streets.
However, things went bad for Danny.
Super-criminals kept finding out his secret identity and making his life hell. Danny was never sloppy with his secret identity though. He never told the wrong person who he was. He simply had bad luck. He’d lose his mask at the wrong time or someone would recognize his voice or some criminal would manage to somehow track him down.
Nightshadow helped him change his and his family’s civilian identities multiple times. He’d even helped them move to different cities. Last Nightshadow had heard, Danny was safe and had gotten engaged. Thus, he’d decided to retire from the superhero game, though he came back every now and then to help out with a big crisis. What had changed? What could possibly have happened that Danny would go from enjoying his new life with his fiancée to murdering Doc Lethe?
While Nightshadow pondered this while slinging drinks, a thought struck him. Like the Spider-Specter, Danny’s fiancée Carly had apparently fallen off the map. Before her though, Danny had always had a girlfriend or two. He did well with the ladies and, even when the relationships failed, he tried to stay friends with them. Maybe, despite his frequent name changes, Danny had kept in touch with a few of them, and one of two of his exes might know how to reach him.
***
Nightshadow remembered Danny talking about Jenny, Lea, Mandy, and Jasmine a lot when he’d lived in Salome City. He’d moaned and groaned about having to break up with each of them due to the pressures of his double life until he met the next girl that fascinated him. They were as good a place to start as any. After bartending, Nightshadow returned to his Triangle Park lair and got onto his supercomputer to delve into the girls’ backgrounds for anything suspicious. While he was at it, he checked for any red flags that might indicate that they were reaper children. He found nothing alarming, but double and triple-checked each girl’s background to be thorough.
The next few weeks saw him following the girls around, searching through their apartments, and sizing up their friends, families, and associates. He also installed microscopic cameras and hearing devices all over their workplaces and homes to continue surveillance on them even when he was out patrolling and pursuing other cases.