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I WAS KEPT BUSY ALMOST every night for the following week. I assumed my colleagues were just as run off their feet as I was. Ruen seemed tenser and surlier than usual when he picked me up to take me to see our boss to receive my bounties. He stayed stonily silent throughout the short drive to the silver tower. He barely even winced when I mangled a popular song.
“Have I done something to annoy you?” I asked when he pulled into the parking garage.
“No more than usual,” he retorted.
“Then why are you being so weird and quiet?”
“Believe it or not, my world doesn’t revolve around you, Ms. Sterling,” he said snidely as we exited from his vehicle.
My colleagues had already arrived. A silver Mercedes, black jeep and dark silver pickup truck were parked nearby. “We’re the last to get here,” I said.
Ruen rolled his eyes at my statement of the obvious. He jabbed the call button for the elevator and waited impatiently for it to arrive. Smiles of welcome came from everyone except Felicity when we entered Lord Gilden’s office. The redhead scowled at me, then nodded at Ruen in acknowledgement.
“Hey, guys,” I said, then smirked at the weredragon. “Hi, boss.” Dragons hated to relinquish anything from their hoard. Paying us in a group was always a painful process for him.
Drake and the team were sitting on black leather furniture over to the left side of the office. The lord eyed my red leather pants and skimpy see-through black top that revealed my bra and tattoos. I wore my hair down to cover my gold dragon tattoo. “Now that you’re all here, I can proceed with my meeting,” he said.
I shot a look at Ruen for not filling me in that we weren’t just here for our usual payment. “What’s going on?” I asked as I took a seat on a couch next to Hugh. The werelion had his arm slung over Theo’s shoulder. Blond and muscular, the affable shifters were my favorite colleagues. Zahir and Yareli were more reserved, as were most vampires I’d met so far. Otis and Felicity were almost crackling with excitement. As humans, they were the frailest members of the team. They didn’t always get called in on group hunts, which I was assuming this was about.
“As you’re all aware, a rogue fairy has been causing havoc in Nexus for the past year,” our boss said. I went on full alert, surprised that she was finally being mentioned again.
“She’s the one who sold the amulets to necromancers to enhance their power, my lord?” Zahir asked for verification. Short and slender, he had swarthy skin and black hair. Both he and his wife were Egyptian and were exotically good-looking. Yareli’s hair was extremely short and she wore a loose-fitting black dress to hide her weapons. She stroked his thigh possessively.
Drake inclined his head in confirmation. He was the picture of masculine elegance and power even when he was lounging casually on his seat. “She also sold the spell book to the coven who summoned the demon you hunted down in Sector G of the sewers.”
“Have you finally managed to track her down, Lord Gilden?” Felicity asked, leaning forward eagerly. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she wore a tailored navy blue suit that fit her slender body perfectly. Otis was dressed similarly to the lions in a t-shirt and jeans.
“We don’t know her location,” Drake replied and my spirits sank again. “But I have reason to believe she’s planning to assassinate me soon.”
“Like hell she will!” I exclaimed more loudly than I’d intended to. All heads turned towards me and I flushed slightly. “I mean, that’s not happening on our watch, boss.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, Ms. Sterling,” the dragon said with a hint of amusement in his eyes. “I’ll be hosting a ball in two weeks’ time. The elite of the supernatural community in Nexus has been invited. I’d like you all to attend the ball and act as my bodyguards.”
“I thought weredragons were almost impervious to normal injuries,” Yareli said with a slight frown.
“Lord Gilden intends for you to assassinate the assassin,” Ruen said flatly. I could now see why he was so pissed off. His boss was deliberately putting himself in danger and he wasn’t happy about it.
“How do you know the fairy will be there?” I asked, hating this plan even though I hadn’t even heard it yet.
“She’s been taunting me with messages,” Drake replied.
“You mean the magical ones I found that only you can read?” I asked.
He nodded and tore his eyes away from my chest. “I had my suspicions about who she was. Her second message confirmed it.”
“Who is she?” I asked.
“Do you remember the story I told you about the rogue necromancer I was forced to kill four hundred years ago?”
“Yeah. He had an amulet similar to the ones that have been cropping up here,” I said. Realization dawned. “Did she make that amulet way back then, too?”
He nodded and my colleagues exchanged puzzled looks. “It seems the fairy was in love with the human,” he told us. “She intended to find a way to prolong his life using death magic. She crafted the amulet to enhance his power. It was too much for him to handle before he could figure out how to use it to delay the aging process. His mind snapped and he killed hundreds of humans before I intervened.”
“By roasting him to death,” I said with a smirk. Ruen frowned at me for interrupting our boss.
“The fairy’s magic was hobbled after her part in the slaughter was discovered,” Lord Gilden went on. “She was thrown out of the fae realm and has apparently been biding her time to seek revenge on me. Now she’s surfaced in Nexus and she intends to rob me of my life as I robbed her of her one true love.”
“Is that what her messages said?” I asked, disturbed at the threat that was coming from a magical creature. The fairy could change her shape at will and she could also teleport. She was going to be a dangerous foe even with her power hobbled.
“Why would she warn you about her intentions, my lord?” Theo asked. Both werelions had straightened up in anticipation of the hunt.
“In an effort to cause me fear,” Drake said with a shrug. “She warned me that she’s found a way around the spell that’s dampening her magic. I assume she’s using another amulet to boost her power.”
“Where’s the ball being held?” I asked, feeling uneasy about this mission.
“In the botanical gardens,” he replied. “I’ve booked the establishment for the night. The only people who can enter must either work for me, or have an invitation.”
“You won’t have any cover,” Otis protested. “How are the eight of us going to protect you from a deranged fairy?”
“He doesn’t really need us to protect him,” I reminded Otis. “He wants us to hunt the rogue down. He’s using himself as bait to draw her out.”
“What if she hires someone else to do her dirty work?” Felicity asked, tugging on the end of her ponytail. Even she was nervous about our employer putting himself in danger and she didn’t have feelings for him like I did.
“I’m certain the fairy will want to end my life personally,” Drake said. “She’s held a grudge against me for four centuries. Her hate has been festering inside her for a very long time. The only way she’ll be able to purge it will be to murder me with her own hands.”
A look of pain and guilt crossed his face, then vanished almost before I could register it. There was something he wasn’t telling us, but I wasn’t about to pry in front of the whole team. He was a private man and he wouldn’t spill his guts to us.
