A/N: I own none of the characters, they all belong to L.J Smith. I only own the one Shadow Man I created.

This chapter was solely created by a song:

Artist: Thom Yorke

Song: Hearing Damage

Chapter Six: Fury

Aching. Throbbing. Pain.

Blood pounded against his skull, each pulsating beat sending every nerve-ending afire. As if his very skull were being constricted and snapped back. Like a rubber band. Any second he'd welcome death with open arms. It was agony to strain any muscle that could lift his head.

Causing the pain to ricochet.

His hands flung to the hair on his scalp crushing the roots with such intensity. And would surely rip the follicles from the tender skin should he use his strength. However, his limitations were quick to consume him once more. Leaving every limb suddenly quivering as he fell back against the grit of rock holding him up.

With an audible thud.

Inwardly, he cursed. Blinking once, twice, he stared up at the darkness above him as the confusion swirled. How had he gotten here? Why was he here?

"It'll take an hour or so for the sensation to pass." A shadow appeared by his side; their chuckle quiet against the entombed silence. Their tall form nearly swallowed him in shadow as they loomed over him.

Like the tales of old as an Angel of Death.

A low growl rumbled from within his chest, a grunt. His eyes peered through the thick of long, sooty lashes. No doubt waiting for the tremors to cease. The index of his finger twitched upon instinct as the shadow bent over him.

"Welcome back..." the figure whispered in a cool voice.

The power within it was overwhelming. He felt it. Like electricity that crackled against his skin and encompassed the air. A long, withheld breath cracked through the sealed skin of his lips as it expelled from his lungs. His first, real breath in what felt, forever. "Who..." His voice faltered in a strangled croak. He cleared his throat to smooth its disuse. He tried again, this time the words forming, "Who are you?"

His confusion was evident.

"I am what you are." The shadow stated simply. Their breath was like a wintry chill as it brushed against his skin.

How odd.

He found the stranger's answer to be... unsatisfactory. The weakness that bound him here was loathed. He fought to sit up a bit straighter if just for a visual. Yet it caused the nerves to spark like hot pokers. "Argh!" he screeched. His hands flew back to his scalp as his posture slumped into a fetal position. Fingers curled into fists as the tendons beneath his skin tightened.

The shadow emitted a low and throaty sound. Laughter. "As said before the sensation will pass. But you must allow it to." As they laid a hand on their arm, however, he jolted. They were like icicles.

A frostbitten wind.

Gradually as the pain receded, the quaking lessened. Until finally he was able to lift his head. One finger unraveled from the next. He stared intently at the pale digits. He flexed them once, twice, as if he'd never seen them before. Turning the hands over he gazed at the slender shapes. Thick tendons interlaced with a web of blue veins shone beneath flesh of moonstone.

"...Where am I?" he asked, voice filled with unbridled wonder.

"Ah." The shadow sounded pleased at his question, leaving him to digest this all. "That is the right question, isn't it? You are where you were first created many centuries ago." Their frigid breath against his neck, they moved an inch closer. "Before I was deemed and took your place. Much time after you were carved out of the rune stave."

"Rune stave." The name sparked a familiarity. He heard the transition in his voice as the coarseness from disuse continued to soften and even. His mind flooded with more questions than the answers he was receiving. "Rune stave, the name sounds... familiar. Why?"

The shadows snorted then; their voice touched with a hint of disgust. "Well, it should. You've been forced to live in a makeshift exile, since. Just as that insipid human intended. She carved you off the rune to end your life." They sighed, tsking. "Took you away from the world you were born, blinded you with lies only to leave you for dead."

"She?" A girl? A human girl?

"Yes."

"A girl killed... me?" It was as if his mind were trying to surface from the dark abyss of ... of what? It was all a blur. Slipping through his hands like water the harder he tried to hold on. Unable to piece together this reality he'd been brought into was maddening. Before... before what? Where had he been? How did he know her? Who was this girl that had killed him?

And why?

How had she done it?! He knew somehow... he was powerful. He could feel the power humming through his veins like an electric current. Festering within. As if he'd opened the gateway to the source of his power, he was suddenly consumed with a fiery rage that threw him on his feet. Like a slow flame that licked through the very layers of his skin. Ready to scourge the planets until he found... her. "Who is she?" he murmured in a low, dark voice.

The shadows smile was evident as the hostility manifested, coming off him in waves. "Oh, you know her well, very well."

The man's jaw twitched in response.

"She destroyed your, how do you say, Shadow Man's soul?" The shadow added. "Of course, that was for her own benefit."

"A Shadow Man...?" For a moment the rage quieted as surprise took hold of his voice. Quick to return as a barrage of raw memories came rushing back...

Clawing, fingernails bloody as he choked up blood. Dribbling down his chin. Pain. Sharp pain as if the flesh were being scorched from his bones. He screamed as the glowing eyes around him grew sharper, jagged mouths pulled into malicious grins from the creatures that surrounded him. "You will be cruel to every maiden who seeks you and games unable to beat you..."

The last of the voice echoed as he emerged from the fallen memory, "Yes... my first birth was one."

"And you are again. Though this time the process wasn't nearly as painful." The bemusement was clear in the shadows voice as the man turned from him.

A long silence followed thereafter. Coming to this realization, he nodded. The pain had faded like a long, distanced memory. Every muscle in his body was alive now, pulsing like a heartbeat beating faster and faster. Ready to tear apart the worlds to find this girl whom his fixation now rested. Even as he strained to remember anything about this, human. His fury only grew, intensifying this dark thirst that coiled up from within. It caused sheets of rock to fall around them as the room trembled under his wrath.

In the darkness, the shadow simply smiled cruelly. "You wanted to be with this girl because you... loved her."

Silence prevailed as the rocks tumbled from the cliff face beyond. Through the haze of lightning that struck overhead, two oily, black eyes now stared back at the shadow, poised like a deadly cobra waiting to make his strike. "Love.

"Precisely." The shadow nodded, unaffected. "A poison to your mind."

His face twisted into an ugly, skin-over-bone snarl. "Poisoned."

The shadow ground his hands into the slab then and faced the man now standing before him. The gasoline had been poured and he the match as a blue fire torched the resurrected man's eyes. The perfect culmination to set his plans in motion. "I... I brought you back from death and carved your name back into the rune stave, old one. You've been resurrected back into existence by me. I can see this has influenced you, which is why I am going to give you the assignment. To help you regain what has been lost to you."

"Eradicate." The timbre in the man's voice shook the clouds above causing thunder to rumble under his words.

The shadow saw the man's eyes flash with an unmatched vengeance. "Yes," they nodded. "You were bred for games; a favorite pastime as one of your given talents." He chuckled darkly.

"My games." The reborn Shadow Man shook his head. "She'll be mine to devour."

The shadow beneath the cloak flashed a crooked, predatory smile. And let my game, commence. "Now that the times are different, I assume you want an update

... Julian."

NOTES:

Please don't forget to vote for this story! I put so much loving work into each chapter and love the series.