SHADOW COMPANY: BLACK TAIL

By Thomas Elliott


























I ran down the alley blindly firing my sub-machine gun over my shoulder behind me hoping to
God I hit something. I could hear the thing crushing the pavement behind me as it ran and wondered
briefly about what would happen if it caught me.
I ran a little faster and ducked around a corner hoping to lose it. I glanced over my shoulder to
see the large scaly monster skid into the opposite wall of the ally knock some bricks loose then shake it's
self off and continue the chase. I fired a few shots towards it before my gun clicked empty.
"Son of a bitch!" I screamed while desperately fumbling a reload. I tried to drop the barrel
shaped magazine out of the gun almost slipping on it when I finally did. I pulled the next magazine out
from its holster of my body armor. Just as it came free the scaly thing behind me roared scaring me
enough to make my grip on the ammo waver.
I jammed the clip into the weapon and ducked around another corner and slid to a stop. I raised
my gun towards the entrance to the small alley and waited. The monster slowed this time to make the
corner and it's face cleared the edge of the wall first.
I emptied the entire magazine point blank range into its face with the muzzle flash making it
seem like day in the small alley. The gun clicked empty so I lowered it slightly.
The monster just blinked at me as if it was generally surprised that I had tried something so
stupid. I started to slowly back away from the monster before turning and running like my life depended
on it. Which it certainly did.
The thing caught up to me pretty damn fast. It flung me a good forty feet down the alley and
into a wall, the impact sending my SMG skidding along the ground. I slid to the ground slightly
concussed while desperately trying to think of a plan.
I yanked the Shadow out of its holster and flicked it on and watched as the green lines flowed
across the black metal of the gun. The Shadow was a rather large hand gun I inherited from my parents.
Although "gun" is a loose term because instead of bullets it fired small pieces of metal that were roughly
the size and shape of a credit card. I think the thing used magnets but that was just a guess it could have
used black magic for all I knew.
The monster was getting rather close to my position at this point so I aimed the massive
handgun at it and pulled the trigger. There was a loud sound of discharged electricity as the round left
the weapon and flew towards the monster striking it in the shoulder and continuing through into the
wall behind it. The monster fell but continued towards me as best it could so I leveled the handgun with
its head.
I was about to pull the trigger when the monster lunged forward and grabbed my ankle and
yanked me towards it. I lost my grip on the Shadow and tried to get out of the monsters hand before it
killed me. I yanked my knife out of its holster on my shoulder and drove it down into the monsters
fleshy hand.
It was not happy about this and demonstrated this unhappiness by throwing me back down the
alley and into a dumpster. I landed hard in a pile of trash and hurried to right myself and face the
monster.
By the time I got up the monster was practically at the dumpster with its mouth open ready to
eat me. I did the only thing I could think of and jammed a grenade down its throat before I dived back
into the dumpster and covered my head.


I pulled into the driveway of my small raised house. While the house isn't pretty, it's home to me
and my brother. The house itself is raised about a story above the ground on stilts creating a small
garage like area underneath. The neighboring houses are rather close making the house look smaller.
I parked the bike in the garage, tossed my helmet on a shelf and ran my hand through my short
brown hair. I hopped up the stairs, opened the door and stepped inside.
My older brother Kevin was in the kitchen fixing my shotgun while my friend Albert worked
through some type of magic formula .
Kevin sat hunched over the table his usually neat black hair sticking up at odd angles. It surprises
most people who know about us that I'm the one that does most of the fighting. Being that I am only
five foot nine and one hundred and ten pounds and Kevin is easily six eight and two fifty pounds it is
easy to understand the confusion.
Albert was reclining slightly in his chair with a book on his lap with a pencil tucked behind his
ear. Albert was small for his age. Really small. Standing five feet tall and weighing somewhere in the
ninety pound range he wasn't really cut out for monster hunting. Or at least he wouldn't be if he wasn't
an apprentice to an extremely powerful wizard who also happened to be his uncle. He was also good
with numbers and talking to people. These were two skills I was very much lacking in.
As I stepped into the room Albert noticed me first.
"Hi there Daniel." He said in his usually cheerful greeting. I was not in the mood for cheerful.
I tossed the two pieces of the SMG on the table where they landed with a clatter. Kevin looked
up at them then moaned and put his head on the table, Albert flinched and fumbled his book.
"I'm afraid to ask. But what happened?" Asked the large bear of a man that was Kevin .
I grabbed a glass and poured myself some orange juice before checking the clock and
responding to him. The digital clock above the stove read two forty am. I sighed and leaned against the
counter starting to pull off some of my black body armour.
"Monster stepped on it."
"Did you get the teeth?" questioned Albert excitedly.
"Grenade down its throat blew it's head clean off."
Albert sighed, "So that's a no then."
I looked at him and shrugged in boredom.
"Good." Grunted Kevin. "Damn thing deserved it for breaking my gun."

Albert glanced at Kevin annoyed. Kevin ignored him fiddling with some of the broken parts of
the gun. Albert tired of Kevin's lack of response turned to me.
"You know Dan when I said I needed the teeth I meant in one piece not scattered across town,"
Albert looked back down at his work then glanced back up at me. "My uncle is going to kill me for this
you know that."
"Just tell him I blew it up like you always do." I responded taking a sip of my juice. I set the glass
down and unstrapped the Velcro that held on the armours chest piece.
"That will be the third time this month I've used that excuse," He quickly erased something he
had just written and started trying to rework it before continuing. "Besides Mac said I had to do it
myself."
"With Magic?" I asked startled.
"Yea..."
I exchanged a very concerned look with my older brother. While Albert is a rather powerful
wizard he lacks control. I once saw him aim at a pop can and take out a building behind it without
actually touching the pop can.
Kevin spoke first, "So old Mac said that you were supposed to use your powers to take on the
monster?"
"Yea. Look guys I've got a lot better."
"Your uncle knows you're going to take out the town right?" I said from my position by the
counter. Part of the Velcro had caught on the armour and was putting up some resistance.
Albert glowered at me from his books. While he did do a lot of collateral damage he was an
important part of Shadow Company.
We started Shadow Company after our parents got killed by a vampire. Kevin and I decide to
hunt the thing down and kill it. Which we did.
As it turns out decapitation by sniper rifle does actually kill vampires. Who knew?
After that we started Shadow Company hoping to protect people from the things that go bump
in the night. We had done pretty well for ourselves too. A few months after it's creation Albert joined
our ranks as the resident spell slinger. Together we made some hard cash and had slowly began
upgrading our equipment.
Kevin looked over at me and tossed me the shot gun on the table and explained the basics. He
said to should have enough punch to go through an engine block and he also found a way to minimise
the recoil. Kevin is probably one of the best gunsmiths in the world which is good considering our line of
work.
Kevin glanced over at the snapped SMG.
"I'll see what I can do about that. I should have it working again in a couple of days but for now
you should get some rest," He said "You've got school in the morning."
I headed upstairs and went to bed. I decided I would pay Kevin back when I got the chance, he
really deserved it.
I really had to stop breaking all of his guns.
I went to sleep dreaming about having a decent breakfast the next morning. I was really looking
forward to toast, not sure why.
I didn't get my damned toast.
In fact I didn't get breakfast at all. I missed the bus and I ended up having to take my motorcycle.
All in all it was a bad start to an equally bad day.
Once I got to school I had to fight my way through the rest of the day battling tiredness and
sleep deprivation as I went. By lunch I had a major headache, was in a slightly homicidal mood and still
had to find a way to pay Kevin.
I was sitting in the cafe trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes when Albert took a seat across
from me and set down his tray.
"You ok there Daniel? You don't look so good." He said looking at me with a slightly concerned
expression. Good old Al always there to brighten your day.
I fixed him a murderous glare and said nothing.
"Hey look I know you're not exactly up to it but I got a job for us for tonight." He explained.
I dropped my head to the table and groaned loudly. I was going to kill Albert. I would feel bad
about it later but I was going to kill him anyway. I hadn't gotten a full night's sleep in two weeks and if I
didn't rest soon I was going to get myself killed making a dumb mistake. But if Albert had agreed for us
to do a job I didn't have much choice.
"What's the job?" I asked annoyed that I wasn't going to sleep tonight. Again.
"Some priest asked me to take out a rather dangerous werewolf that has moved into town."
"And you agreed?" I exclaimed.
"Well yea. I figured it would be easy since we still have that crate of silver bullets Kevin made a
few months ago." He explained.
"How much is he paying?" I sighed.
"Ten thousand dollars on delivery," he said and started eating his sandwich. He sat there for
awhile with a thoughtful expression on his face, "is it just me or is it bad that we take money from the
church."
"It's just you." I grunted.
"So are we taking the job or not?"
I thought about it for a few seconds. I could probably pay back Kevin with ten grand and
probably has some extra left over.
"Call your guy and tell him we'll take care of it."
Albert nodded and pulled out his cell phone.
I put my head back down and tried to take a quick nap. I was soooo going to regret this.



I don't remember much of the rest of the day. I'm fairly positive I slept through my last class but
I'm not sure.
Somehow I ended back up in the library for my spare at the end of the day. I headed to the small
room at the back. The room was warm and quiet but unfortunately had no door. I took a seat on the
floor then put my head back and waited for the ride home. Maybe I could get a few hours of sleep
before I had to go fight the werewolf.
Several people talked quietly throughout the room but I managed to tune them out and nod off.
I had just gotten to sleep when someone sat down next to me, waking me with a start. I was a little
annoyed because the library was nowhere near busy enough to justify sitting next to a sleeping person. I
was about to say something to the person until I actually looked at them and realised she was rather
attractive. She had short black hair and bright green eyes that kept darting nervously around the room.
I decided to stay quiet because I also happened to be nervous mostly because attractive girls
didn't tend to talk to me much and when they did, I tended to say stupid things. Monsters and demons I
can handle, but talking to the opposite sex not so much.
She finally stopped scanning the crowd out in the library and turned to face me.
"Are you Daniel Scth?" She asked quickly.
"Uh...Yes." I stammered nervously wondering how she knew my name and what this was about.
Personally I was hoping she was going to ask me on a date. It was totally possible. Unlikely but possible.
"Leader of Shadow Company?"
God dammit.
"Yes." I said slowly quickly seeing where this line of conversation was going to end up.
"I need your help."
I knew she was going to say that, I just knew it.
"With what exactly?"
She looked nervously around the corner at some people entering the cafe before answering,
"There are some rather powerful people trying to kill me. I need you to escort me safely to a small
village about a day's drive from here."
"Look I'd love to help you but I have to hunt a werewolf tonight. I'd recommend contacting the
police or maybe.... Uh..." I started before noticing that she had taken a small handgun from her bag and
was aiming it at me. This day just keeps getting better and better.
In our isolated little spot there was no way anyone could have seen what she was doing and at
this range there was little room for error. If she pulled that trigger I'd be dead plain as simple. I tried to
stay completely still hopping she wouldn't shoot me.
"Who hired you." She asked keeping the weapon trained on me.
"Who hired me to do what exactly?" I asked genuinely confused.
"Who hired you," She started her voice a low snarl," to kill the werewolf?"
"I didn't talk to him directly Albert did, said it was some priest guy person. What's the hell is this
about?" I stammered.
"How much did he agree to pay you?"
"Ten thousand. Why?"
"How much would it cost you not to kill it?" She asked
"Depends on the reason." I said calmly. "So why don't you want it killed?"
"The werewolf is rather important to me. I don't want it killed." She answered.
Well that was annoyingly unspecific. This whole situation was going to go to hell fast and I really
didn't want to get involved if I didn't half to. But seeing that I already was I wanted some questions
answered. Mostly because I hate being shot at especially when I have no idea what's going on.
"What makes this werewolf so important?"
As if in answer to my very stupid question, I saw glossy black fur grow suddenly along her upper
arm she covered it with her opposite hand faster than I could blink. In the rush she dropped the gun and
I snatched it up off the floor before she could go for it. I looked back up at her. Instead of a human I was
nose to nose with a large black wolf.
It was at this point I realised the gun was not going to help me much.
She rushed me and hit me in the stomach hard enough to knock the gun from my hand. I
scrambled to move away but she was on top of me in seconds pinning me to the floor with her paws.
Her jaws were just inches from my face I turned away as they slowly moved towards me.
Someone drawn by the sounds of the fight had come towards us. Just before they rounded the
corner my opponent changed back into human form.
From his perspective it would have been a rather interesting scene. Most of her clothes were
either ripped or torn and mine had long gashes down the front. Not to mention her straddling me with
her face inches from mine.
"Hi!" I said cheerfully.
He stood there and stared for a second before the she-wolf waved him along. He coughed
awkwardly and left without saying a word.
After he had gone I used my impressive skills of negotiation to salvage the situation before I was
killed and most likely eaten.
"Don't kill me." I yelped doing my best to raise my arms to protect my face.
She backed off of me and quickly grabbed her gun then picked up her stuff and left.
There was no way I was going to kill her and I sure as hell wasn't going to let this priest guy do it
either. I had a good guess that she had done nothing to upset the priest other than be a werewolf and
exist. She was desperate and sacred, hell, the only reason she had attacked me was because she thought
I was going to kill her.
I was going to help her or die trying. I leapt to my feet, grabbed my stuff and took off after her.
After bolting from the cafe and rounding some corners I finally caught up with her.
"Hey uh...um wolf person...wait up." I panted.
She glanced over her shoulder at me, "My name is Kate Canis."
"Right. Kate. I'll help you." I exclaimed, "No charge."
"Why? What's in it for you?"
I caught up to her and started walking beside her. I noticed she had her hand awfully close to
her gun.
"Nothing. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do." I said.
"You were going to kill me for ten grand. How does that fit into your precious moral code?" She
snarled.
I raised my hands defensively, "That was a misunderstanding"
"You kill things for a living some of them were probably innocent!" She shouted jabbing her
finger at me.
"People don't call us unless the monster is directly attacking people. Which leads to the very
interesting question of what you did to get called in." I said
"I didn't kill anyone!" She growled.
"Never said you did but that still doesn't answer the question. Why is he after you?"
She stared right at me practically snarling, "I don't know. He and a couple of others came to my
house and killed every werewolf in the house. Including my parents. I just barely managed to escape."
Wow.
Man did I feel stupid and heartless. She had just lost her whole family and here I was accusing
her of murder. God Kevin was right I needed to start thinking before I started speaking.
"If you still want my help I can get you to that village."
"How much do you want?" She asked.
"I was going to kill you tonight I don't deserve your money."
"Ok then. Which way."
I led her out to the parking lot and over to my black and green bike. I gave her the only helmet
and we set off for my place.






I sat at the kitchen table and explained to Kevin what had happened while bandaged a rather
nasty gash on my arm which had started bleeding on our way over. Kate the cause of this particular
injury was asleep on the couch in the living room. Lucky her.
"Good god this is another fine mess you've gone and gotten us into." Said Kevin once I had
finished my explanation. He tightened the bandage causing me to wince slightly but he continued as if
he hadn't noticed.
"Hey Al made the deal not me. I don't even think he ever actually spoke to them face to face.
But none of that matters now. We screwed up now we fix the problem," I said.
"Next time use your brain, rather than trying to stop a genocide single handily," He said and
smacked me in the back of the head. He tightened the bandage a little more before tying it off.
I grabbed my spare shirt up off the kitchen table and pulled it on. My old shirt lay in the bottom
of the trash can since it had become what amounted to confetti loosely held together. I plucked the
Shadow from its holster that was hung over a chair. I sat down and started checking it over making sure
it worked
"You got a plan for this or..." he said. I shook my head in response.
"Thought not." He grabbed his revolver off the top of the fridge before sitting back down in his
chair.
"What are we up against?" He asked
"The way Kate tells it sounds like a small extremist group. Decently armed, well informed, Well
funded," I looked up at Kevin , "God how do I keep getting myself into this stuff?"
"Because youre an idiot, have a stupid sense of honor and a strong moral compass."
"I need to fix that."
He just laughed at me. The heartless bastard.
"So what. Thirty to forty guys versus one amateur wizard, two professional monster hunters
and a werewolf." He closed the chamber on his revolver with a flick of his wrist. "Seems like decent odds
to me."
"Not sure I would call you professional, but pretty much" I said, grabbing a screw driver off the
table.
"Hey now, that's just cold."
"What was the last job you were on?" I taunted.
"Must have been that one back in December."
"It's May outside right now." I said "You remember what outside looks like right?"
He punched my sore shoulder to get me to shut up. Which was completely unnecessary. I
continued working on the Shadow. I tried to scrape off some of monster guts that were still stuck to it
with the screw driver.
"So what's the plan so far?" He asked starting to check the sights of his revolver.
"We load up the truck and drive straight to the village. It's a straight shot along the highway.
Should take about a day." I explained.
"That," He said pointing at me," is a terrible plan."
"Yea I know."
"Too many variables."
"I know."
"They'll kill us before we reach the highway." He said jabbing the table.
"I know!" I exclaimed looking over at him, "Its a work in progress ok! You got any better ideas."
He leaned back for a few minutes thinking. While he wasn't as good with a gun as I was he could
work a situation to his advantage with minimal resources and a very limited understanding of what was
going on. He hasn't let me down once.
"Give me a few minutes and I might." He said casually. I continued working on my gun while he
thought.
I heard the door open and Albert come in he stopped and stared at Kate for a second before
continuing on into the kitchen.
"Who's the chick?" He asked stepping into the room.
Instead of answering, both Kevin and I stared at him angrily. I rapped my fingers on the table.
Albert looked back and forth between nervously.
"So...." He started," are we going after the werewolf or uh what."
Kevin coughed.
"Nope." I said.
"What's going on then?"
"You screwed up Albert that's what's going on" said Kevin with a calm detached anger. Kevin
doesn't show anger like a normal person he just stares at you quietly and plots your slow and painful
demise. Right then I could tell Kevin was livid and he had every right to be. Albert had done something
incredibly stupid by not looking into the case properly. Hell if I didn't need him I probably would have
broken his nose.
"We have rules for a reason Albert! We don't kill innocents is rule number one!" I shouted
jabbing my finger at him.
"What innocents are you talking about?" Screamed Albert in confusion.
"The werewolf you idiot , she's the innocent," growled Kevin from his position by the fridge.
"What?" Albert shouted then glanced back and forth between us, "It's a werewolf they kill
people. They're dangerous."
"Only when they lose control" corrected Kevin "The rest of the time they're nice people."
"And we don't kill nice people." I continued.
"Well my contact said this one has lost control," explained Albert, "killed its whole family."
Well that complicated things. Either Kate was lying to me or the whoever was trying to kill her
was covering his tracks.
"Who was your contact?" Kevin and I asked in sync.
"Like I told you earlier, a priest." He said pointing at me. I have no idea if he had actually told me
about this but at that point I was too tired to care.
"He give you a name?" I asked
"He just told me to call him Priest." responded Albert sheepishly .
"You didn't actually meet face to face with him, did you?" Asked Kevin who had started pinching
the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Well ,Um...no, not exactly." Said Albert.
I slammed my head down on the table and sighed.
"You want to hit him or should I" asked Kevin. I waved my hand at him to go ahead and heard
the thwack of Kevin's fist hitting flesh followed by a yelp of pain from Albert.
I heard Kate wake up in the other room and suddenly remembered why we were here. We had
a lot of work to do.
"Look Al the person in the other room is the werewolf, Her name is Kate and she asked me to
get her to a safe place so that's what we're going to do," Albert started to interrupt me so I looked him
in the eyes and shut him down, "this is not a discussion it's an order."
Albert held my gaze but soon looked away in defeat and found a seat at the table. It was right
around then when Kate walked into the room.
"Now since none of us actually know anything about the "Priest" I am going to talk to someone
who might." I looked around at the room, "Kate youre with me. Kevin, Albert get the truck ready."
I headed out the door with Kate following close behind me. We hopped on the bike and started
pulling out the drive way.
"Keep your head down." Yelled Kevin from the front door.
I gave him a thumbs up and powered out of the drive way. It was time to see a pastor about a
priest.



I pulled into the church and cut the engine stopping the bike in a space near the door. It was late
and the church was almost empty. Several Lights were on in the parking lot making the building seem
warm and inviting.
"So why are we here again?" Asked Kate regarding the small square building with suspicion and
mistrust.
"Because I need some information and Father Donald is a good source of information." I said
climbing off of my bike.
"Just letting you know werewolves in general have not had the greatest relationship with the
church." She said nervously. "They tend to hand out silver bullets. Oh and there was that whole
Inquisition thing."
"Father Donald is part of the supernatural friendly side of the church. He'll help out new
werewolves or vampires with no teachers. He also helps keep tabs on the big monsters that come
through." I explained. "He's one of our top clients to boot."
"I have yet to meet a pastor that wouldn't try to kill a werewolf."
"Let me guess you guys mostly deal with Catholic minsters right."
"Um yeah."
"And there's your problem," I explained, "Father Donald is Protestant, totally different."
Kate sagged her head in annoyance and pulled off her helmet then swung her hair back over her
head. I just stared at her awestruck. For a scary wolf chick she was kinda hot. I mean she could probably
kill me without trying, but, damn.
I noticed that she was looking at me so I snapped my head towards the church and pretended to
be admiring the architecture, which might have made sense if the building was not a massive stone brick
with a cross on top. Like I said earlier not so good with the ladies.
We found Father Donald in his small badly decorated office hunched over his desk talking to
someone over the phone. The Father was a small, nervous and rather thin man. He had very little hair
on the top of his head and what was there was not going to be for much longer.
I stood waiting in the doorway while Kate stood against the wall outside the room. It took him
several minutes to notice me. He wasn't the most observant person.
"Hello Daniel good to see you again." He said after finally hanging up the phone. "What can I do
for you today."
"I need some information about a certain priest." I said casually stepping into his office and
taking a seat.
"Which priest in particular?"
"One who has been going around killing innocent werewolves." I explained. Donald started
getting extremely nervous. He knew.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He stammered nervously. He was a terrible liar.
"Who is he Donald?" I said leaning forward slightly and resting my right hand casually next to
the Shadow. He flinched at my slight movement.
"He is here to deal with the werewolf problem." He explained.
"What problem?" I asked moving my hand slightly closer to my gun.
"The problem with them existing, he wants to wipe them out."
I heard Kate flinch at that line. The Father hadn't noticed.

"How?" I asked curious about how I could stop it.
"There is a certain werewolf in the area, that he believes contains the key to creating a sort of
anti-werewolf nerve toxin. It would cause their transformation to burn out their nervous system. One
hundred percent fatal in all cases."
"And you helped him?" I growled standing up out of my chair.
"Yes."
"How could you turn on them like that? After all you've done for them. After all you've worked
for." I shouted slamming my hands onto his desk.
"That was my job. Gain their trust. Learn all I could." He said with a smile. "It was all far too
easy."
"You traitorous bastard. I should kill you right here." I said pulling the Shadow free of its holster
and aiming it at his head.
"It wouldn't do you any good. I already told them where youre keeping her. If you hurry you
might still be able to watch your friends die." He said with a laugh.
I shot him in both knee caps dropping him to the floor with a thud. He screamed. I walked
slowly over to him and put my boot on his chest pinning him to ground.
I pointed the oversized pistol at his head.
"If you see an oversized lizard with no head while youre down there tell him I said hi"
I pulled the trigger putting a metal round through his shoulder. He screamed in pain so I kicked
him in the jaw to shut him up.
I turned around to see Kate watching me from the door way.
"I probably would have killed him" she said plainly.
"Death is too good for him."
We ran out of the building and over to the bike. I slapped on my helmet and revved the engine.
Kate hopped on behind me and we tore off into the night.