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SORCHA WAS HIDDEN BEHIND her camouflage spell that made her blend into the wall behind her. She was patiently waiting for an opportunity to strike down her target. Her mark was another shifter, so she’d cast her noise and scent nullifying shield around herself. The assassin kept her senses alert for another kill order that could turn up at any time.
“At least I only have one mission at the moment,” Sorcha said without hearing her own voice. She could have screamed at the top of her lungs and no one would have heard her, including herself.
Her target hadn’t been at the address she’d been given, but she’d tracked him to a nearby apartment building. He was up on the second level, visiting friends or family. She’d been standing in the rain for the past hour, waiting for him to emerge. Her shield kept the rain off, so she was nice and dry. A group of shifters were crammed into the apartment. She couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but she assumed it was treason, since she’d been sent to eliminate him.
Sensing her mark descending to the first floor a few minutes later, she readied herself. The spell at the back of her head picked up in intensity when the werelion appeared with a group of other felines. He broke off from them and headed for his apartment building. Sorcha teleported ahead of him and waited for him to turn the corner. His eyes widened when he saw her, but she sent a spear of air into his brain before he could react. She teleported a few blocks away before his body could hit the ground.
As always, her scent and noise muffling shield disappeared when she teleported. It took her magical umbrella with it, so she was almost instantly drenched. Before she could raise her shield again, a nearly invisible metal door in the ground was shoved upwards. An ugly little demon scout stuck his head out. His nostrils flared and his glowing light blue eyes narrowed. “Assassin!” he hissed, then shouted for help.
“Damn it,” Sorcha muttered and took off running. She was already wearing a disguise, but she brought her shield back up again. Instead of teleporting home after killing the shifter, she’d reverted to covering her tracks out of habit. Now she was going to have to shake the pack of hell spawn that were chasing after her. The demons still didn’t know she could teleport. They’d been furious that an assassin had infiltrated their District. If they learned how easily she could get in and out without being seen, they wouldn’t stop until she was dead.
Dashing down the sidewalk, Sorcha noiselessly splashed through puddles. She turned the corner and sprinted for all she was worth. Shifters’ faces appeared in windows as the demon pack swarmed after her. They were too eager to shed her blood to be stealthy. Only one of them was a scout. The others were larger and would eagerly rend her apart if they captured her.
The assassin spied a fire escape clinging to the side of a building and headed for it. She jumped up to grab hold of the ladder and scaled it while it was still falling. She didn’t have time to pull it back up after her and raced upwards as fast as she could. The demons elbowed each other to be the first to climb after her. They called out what they were going to do to her in guttural, inhuman voices.
Sorcha reached the rooftop just as the storm picked up. Lightning speared from the clouds and hit a building somewhere in the City Square. The sorceress was blinded by the flash for a few moments before her vision cleared. She ran towards the next building and leaped up onto the ledge that separated the two complexes. Sparing a glance over her shoulder, she saw the misshapen head of a demon appear at the top of the ladder. The hell spawn spied her and let out a roar of glee.
It was raining so hard that Sorcha would have been blind without her invisible umbrella. She managed to leap to the next building without mishap, but there was no way for her to easily lose the demons up here. She cursed herself for making the mistake of heading upwards.
Sprinting hard, the assassin leaped over the low walls that separated the buildings. Then she came to a gap that was too wide for her to jump across. She looked for another fire escape, or for a means to descend and saw nothing useful. Howls of triumph sounded behind her when the demons saw she was trapped.
She was about to resort to teleportation when it began to hail. Icy shards bounced off her shield and she had a crazy idea. Putting her hands on the ledge of the wall, she dug deep and called on her small store of water magic. Raindrops and hail fused together to form a narrow, fragile bridge. It rapidly spread across the gap to the rooftop on the other side of the alley. Sorcha clambered up onto the ledge, then shuffled out onto the ice bridge.
“She’s getting away!” one of the demons shouted. They increased their pace, but the assassin was already halfway across the bridge. One of the hell spawn reached the wall and smashed the ice with her fist. She let out a screech of rage when the assassin leaped to safety a moment before the bridge shattered.
Sorcha flicked a look at her pursuers, glad none of them could fly. She took off running again and crossed a few more rooftops. The demons backtracked and descended to the ground via a fire escape. They would be circling around the block, searching for a way up, or waiting for her to come down to them. If she simply disappeared, they would figure out that she’d teleported away.
A drainpipe caught her eye and she jogged over to it. She couldn’t see any demons waiting for her below, so she climbed over the wall and slid down to the ground. The scout who had originally begun the chase scurried around the corner a moment later. He saw her and raised the alarm again. This time, Sorcha stayed on the ground rather than heading upwards. At least she had a good lead on her pursuers.
Rain hammered down and more lightning streaked from the sky. A flicker of movement caught the assassin’s eye just as a large demon lumbered out from the shadows. He barreled into her, but she set his face on fire with a burst of magic. Screaming and flailing his arms, he dropped to the ground and stuck his head in a puddle to put the flames out.
Sorcha kept running, but she could hear more hell spawn coming and knew she couldn’t keep this up for much longer. She needed to lose them so she could teleport to safety.
More lightning flared and when her vision cleared, a demon was standing right in front of her. She skidded to a stop just as one of the creature’s wings shot towards her. A long, thin, bladelike talon protruded from the end. Instead of skewering her through the throat, it swept past her neck. The sorceress turned to see a hulking demon impaled on the talon. His meaty fist had been raised to punch her in the head.
When Sorcha looked back at her unexpected rescuer, it was to see hands reaching for her. They closed over her shoulders and lifted her into the air.
