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SORCHA COMPLETED A mission in the Vampire District, then began roaming the wealthy suburbs in search of the master vampire called Sebastian. Her illusion and shield that masked her scent and sounds were in place. She remained alert for demon scouts as she wandered the streets. The small, unobtrusive hell spawn seemed to be everywhere, but they weren’t as bad as the rats and crows. The creepy birds and rodents watched her with eerie silence whenever she neared them. They showed no fear of her, but they shrank into the shadows until she’d passed them by.
She came to the edge of the latest suburb she’d been searching and the mansions became larger and spaced further apart. They were set back from the street, with long driveways and manicured lawns. Skeleton crews diligently pruned shrubs in some yards, while fledgling leeches tended to others. Things had to be dire if the bloodsuckers were mowing their own grass.
The assassin was wearing a disguise of a starving vampire so she would fit in, not that many undead were walking the streets alone. Lights shone in a few windows of the opulent stone houses she perused from a distance. The mansions belonged to the strongest vampires in the District. Lord Kreaton’s house was only a few blocks away. Sorcha had made sure to give his property a wide berth.
A mansion that was set further back from the street than usual caught her eye and she stopped to examine it. Most of the windows were shuttered, but the ones that weren’t blazed with light. The front door opened and she quickly darted out of sight as two people emerged. One was tall and had to be a male. The other was much shorter and was probably female. Hiding behind a large tree that grew on the sidewalk, the sorceress wasn’t surprised when a carriage turned into the driveway. Clearly, everyone who lived in this area was higher on the hierarchy than most. They were worthy of public transportation.
She remained behind the trunk as the man and woman climbed into the carriage. The vehicle then rolled back down the driveway towards her. It slowed down as it turned onto the street and she overheard one of the occupants say something to her companion. “I hope Sebastian and his allies can come up with a plan to overthrow our enemies soon,” she said in a European accent.
The carriage carried them away before she could get a good look at them. Sorcha turned to stare at the house speculatively. Just because she’d overheard the female mention Sebastian’s name didn’t mean he lived there. But her instincts were niggling at her to move closer and to surveil the property.
Obeying her hunch, Sorcha followed the fence and remained in the shadows until she was closer to the mansion. She circled around the house, but she couldn’t see inside. She ended up at the front of the mansion and cautiously moved closer to the door. The usual image of a vampire bat was etched onto the wood, but it was wearing a crown. The second image made her blood run cold. It was a dagger that was identical to the one on her apartment door.
The crown on the bat’s head indicated someone of importance lived here. If it was Sebastian, then Nox had decided he was a king among vampires. The dagger meant he wasn’t living alone. An assassin also dwelled in the house. It had to be a leech who was trained to kill.
A flash of white caught her attention and she was dismayed to see a letter zooming towards her. The vampires would hear it and they would no doubt come to investigate when it didn’t enter their house. She wasn’t ready to confront Sebastian yet, if he actually lived here. The assassin teleported away before the letter could get any closer. It found her a couple of minutes later in the abandoned house in the slums of the Vampire District that she’d teleported to.
Sorcha opened the letter and her next kill order became lodged in her mind. She teleported to the Shifter District to take down her target, glad to have a distraction for a while. She appeared in the forest that was taboo for anyone who wasn’t a shapeshifter. Her mark worked in the coal mine in the shifter woods, so she changed her illusion so she could fit in. Her hair became dark brown and her eyes were now amber. Her figure appeared to be curvy, yet slightly malnourished. Her clothes changed as well, so it looked like she was wearing a coarse, poorly made shirt and trousers most shifters wore.
She was mostly ignored as she entered the mine. Oil lanterns lit the mineshaft as she worked her way deeper beneath the ground. Carts full of coal were being winched up and down the rail tracks. It was dark, smelly and unpleasant. The workers barely lifted their heads as they came and went. Pickaxes chipped away at rock, exposing the materials they needed to help Nox continue to function.
Tunnels branched off on both sides of the main thoroughfare. Sorcha followed the prodding in her head to a tunnel near the bottom of the mine. Dozens of shifters were hacking away at the walls that were shored up with wooden boards. Her target was working with a group of werewolves who were probably members of his pack. He was talking in a low, urgent voice as he worked. From the frequent nods that came from the others, they were agreeing with everything he was saying.
The assassin camouflaged herself against the wall as she searched for a way to execute her target. She wanted to make it look like an accident. Murdering him in cold blood directly in front of his pack would be too cruel. They were already suffering enough. She didn’t want to add more to their misery than was necessary.
A boulder that was lodged in a wall had been shored up by a thick board, but her sharp eyes detected a crack running down the center of it. Sorcha waited until her target moved beneath the boulder, then flicked a spear of air at the board. It cracked in half and the boulder became dislodged. It landed on the werewolf, crushing him and ending his life. The spell cut off and the sorceress teleported away as howls of grief echoed throughout the tunnels.
With her task done, Sorcha teleported to the overgrown park near the City Square. A terrified shifter raced past her when she stepped onto the sidewalk. The soft gray glow of Xiara Evora’s staff preceded her as she pounded after him. She didn’t recognize the assassin with her illusion of a werewolf in place. The executioner ignored her completely when she ran past her.
Once upon a time, Lord Dallinar and his allies used to stand on a platform near the stone fountain to utter their proclamations. The fairy lord would have called the Night Cursed beings to the square and announced Xiara Evora’s executions to the uncursed population through a spell. He’d given up on broadcasting the hunts. The city no longer stopped to watch when the Guardian of Nox embarked on her missions.
Sorcha switched her glamor to an ordinary human face, pretending to be a lowly witch with little power as she headed to the fountain. She wondered who had the higher kill count between Ms. Evora and herself, then she realized she didn’t really want to know. The guilt from taking so many lives would crush her if she allowed herself to think about it.
She switched her thoughts back to the conversation she’d overheard. Sebastian planned to overthrow the Immortal Triumvirate, which was why Eden had been sent to kill him. Sorcha was torn between wanting revenge for Eden’s and Malachi’s deaths, and letting the master vampire achieve his goals. “No one is powerful enough to take our leaders down,” she whispered, then realized she still had her shield in place. She dispelled the noise nullifying spell, but kept the scent blocking one in place.
Her musings about her quandary halted when she glanced up to see Kade descending the stairs to the Magic Guildhall. He looked up and saw her and their gazes locked. A few nights had passed since they’d seen each other, but her desire for him had only grown stronger in his absence. From the hungry way he was looking at her, he felt the same way. He had a package under his arm, which meant he had a job to do, but she was sure he would be able to spare an hour to be with her. She only hoped she wouldn’t receive another assassination order when they were alone together.
