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EDEN WOKE SHORTLY BEFORE nightfall to the sensation of power throbbing in the air. It was the forty-ninth anniversary of Nox’s creation tonight. The setting sun was hidden behind dense clouds, but she stared out through the bay window as she drank a cup of coffee. Her feeling of impending doom had grown to the point where fear had settled around her like a thick cloak. The air pulsed around her as if she could feel the heartbeat of the city. It was always like this on Halloween, but it was far weaker than it had been before the Drain, or so she’d heard.
Few were expected to work tonight, except for essential staff and some of the Night Cursed workers. Most of them shirked their duties and stayed in their own District. They refused to aid the uncursed unless they absolutely had to. Even the Assassin Guild had the night off. The uncursed citizens were huddled in their homes, celebrating the holiday while they waited in dread for the Energy Tax to kick in. Everyone would all lose some of their vitality or magic and most would be sluggish and weary afterwards. It always took a few nights to acclimatize to having their energy or magic siphoned from them.
Eden and her colleagues would barely feel any change, thanks to their link to their rulers. It was the only good thing about being tied to them. It gave the trio immunity from the spell for the most part, but she wasn’t sure the evil trio realized it. It was rare for the Triumvirate to send the killers on a mission for the week after the Energy Tax had been performed.
Once the sun went down, the rulers would prepare themselves to head to the Vampire District to begin the ceremony. They would then head to the Fae District, then the Shifter District. Their last stop would be in the Demon District. The stores of magic that had been depleted would be filled again. Some of it would be sent to the containers in the City Square. The one in the square was used by the guildhalls and the businesses and residents in the area.
Eden watched the last rays of the sun vanish, then darkness slowly settled over the city. It was a full moon tonight and she heard the distant howls from rogue shifters as their instincts took over as the silver disc drew higher in the sky. They were too hungry and crazed to obey the order to remain inside. All shapeshifters would be in their bestial forms by now, but there wasn’t enough game left for them all to take to their woods and hunt.
The solid thud of heavy footsteps roused Eden from her book a little while later. She glanced out the window at the solitary streetlamp that cast feeble light on the sidewalk. Something slunk into view and was highlighted for a couple of seconds until it was shrouded in gloom again. She leaned forward and pressed her nose against the glass to watch it. It was heading for the Shifter District. “What the hell is going on?” she murmured when she realized what it was. One of the stone statues of hounds she’d seen scattered around the city had come to life and it was on the move.
Her tension mounted as her feeling of doom deepened. More hounds trotted past, also heading for the Shifter District. She drained her glass of wine, put her book in the drawer, then headed for the door. The doors below hers opened and two pairs of footsteps rushed upwards. Sorcha reached the succubus first, since her apartment was just beneath Eden’s. “Did you see them?” she asked as Malachi joined them. They were all dressed in comfortable clothes rather than their usual assassin gear. Sorcha wore white jeans and a shimmering gold sweater. Malachi’s entire wardrobe was composed of only black clothing. He wore jeans and a t-shirt that showed off his muscular body.
“Yeah,” Eden confirmed. “The hounds have come to life and they’re heading east towards the Shifter District.”
“Not all of them were,” Malachi said and ran a hand through his short black hair in agitation. “I saw some of them heading north and west as well.”
“Let’s go up to the roof and see what’s going on,” Eden suggested. They took the staircase that led to the rooftop and jogged over to the ledge to peer downwards. “We’re not high enough to get a good view of what’s going on,” she realized immediately. They couldn’t see the City Square from here. Most of the buildings that surrounded them were the same height as theirs, if not higher.
“Hold on to your undies,” Sorcha said in warning, then she teleported them elsewhere. They found themselves standing on the rooftop of one of the ten-story apartment buildings in the Shifter District. Screams rang out as the stone hounds broke down doors and began to savage the civilians to death. The buildings that had been set alight by the fire elementals a week ago were still scorched and damaged. It was doubtful they would be repaired anytime soon.
“How are they getting inside the apartments?” Malachi asked in alarm.
“Something has changed,” Sorcha said, blonde brows drawing down in concentration. She lifted a hand as if to feel the very fabric of the city. “I can feel a different type of magic permeating Nox.”
“What sort of magic is it?” Eden asked in dread.
“Olde-worlde magic,” the sorceress said grimly.
“Crowmon,” Malachi said in realization. “What’s that trickster up to this time?”
“We knew he was planning something when the hounds first started showing up,” the succubus said. “Maybe Lord Graham made a deal with him to wipe out more of the rebels.”
Sorcha was peering downwards at the carnage and shook her head. “I don’t think Lord Graham is involved in this. The hounds are targeting alphas.” All three assassins had eradicated their share of the werecreatures during the past decade, but the deaths of alphas had slowed to a trickle this past year.
“If all the alphas die, no one will be left to control the shifters,” Malachi said, eyes widening at that prospect.
“You said the hounds were heading to the Vampire and Fae Districts as well,” Eden said to him.
“We need to see what’s going on in the other Districts,” Sorcha decided. She teleported them to the Fae District first. They appeared on the rooftop of a private dwelling in the heart of the sector. The carnage was just as bad here. Stone hounds had infiltrated the homes of prominent and important fae beings and were wiping them out with brutal efficiency.
“Can you hear that?” Malachi asked, cocking his head to the side.
“All I can hear is screams,” Sorcha replied.
“Take us to the suburbs where the witches and wizards live,” Eden requested when she heard the sound of spells being cast that her half-brother had picked up on.
Sorcha did as she was asked and they appeared on the rooftop of a crumbling house. The screams were far louder now that they were in the thick of the battle that was raging. Thousands of vampires had crossed the river and had invaded the suburbs. Witches and wizards were depleting their stores of magic by blasting the leeches with spells. The vamps were tearing the magic users apart and were draining their blood to build up their energy.
“The whole city has gone mad,” Malachi said in shock.
“Crowmon has to be behind this,” Eden figured. They’d already suspected him of inciting the unrest between the vampires and the witches and wizards. Now his hounds had been brought to life and had been set loose to inflict mayhem and terror on the civilians.
“But why?” Sorcha asked in confusion. “What does he hope to gain from this slaughter?” She swept her hand at the bodies that lay strewn in the streets.
“I can hear the hounds in the Vampire District as well,” Malachi said, looking westward across the nearby river. “I wonder if they’re also attacking the demons in the catacombs?”
They all grimaced at the thought of heading to the bowels of the city to investigate. “I wouldn’t want Raum for an enemy,” Eden said with a shiver. “Crowmon would have to have a death wish to take on the demons.”
“His hounds can’t kill the Immortal Triumvirate,” Sorcha said. “None of this is making any sense. Sure, they can kill a few thousand civilians, but to what end?”
“This is Crowmon we’re talking about,” Eden mused. “He’s sly, mischievous and intelligent. He must have a reason for doing this.”
“Maybe he’s lost his mind,” Malachi suggested. “I heard he’d been in hibernation for hundreds of years before he was woken up by someone and ended up in Nox. Maybe his mind cracked from the loneliness and isolation.”
They huddled together and watched in silence as chaos raged through the City of Night, plunging it into a state of terror that hadn’t been seen since the undead apocalypse shortly before their births.
