by Fatima Fayez
The ringleader ran a hand over his face, closing his eyes. Then he opened them and looked straight at me. "We'll buy a new history," he said exasperatedly.
That was an option, too. Some people ran up bounties so that they could build a decent review profile and sold them to people who desperately needed jobs done.
I tensed. Clients refusing to pay for a completed job was easily one of the most irritating aspect of being a bounty hunter. Javier really needed to sort out the payment scheme, because too many times had I been close to killing clients over nonpayment, including now. I should remember to have a chat with him the next time I was in the bounty office.
A fourth voice came from the shadows. "Pay her. Stop playing and get it done."
I narrowed my eyes, but could only see a vague silhouette of the person speaking. How many vampires were there?
The other vampire gave me an apologetic smile, almost as if he was sad he couldn't screw me over. He took out his phone and punched a few numbers in.
Within seconds my phone beeped, and a notification appeared on screen telling me that the payment had been made.
"Nice doing business with you, gentlemen.” I slipped my phone back into my pocket. I stepped aside and pulled open the door for the two vampires.
They dragged the demon out and marched him toward the warehouse. I slammed the car door shut. The two vampires dumped Donnie in front of the third vampire. The leader gave Donnie a look of disgust, then turned his head to the shadows.
The voice spoke again, this time in an ominously commanding tone. "Finish it."
One of the vampires who had dragged the demon out of the car savagely ripped off Donnie's head, causing blood to splatter everywhere.
I grimaced. Thankfully I was far enough away that none of the blood landed on me. I wasn't squeamish, but there was no need to be inelegant about killing.
"I could've brought him to you dead." I crossed my arms over my chest. I was pretty sure I knew why they hadn't asked for me to kill the demon.
"We would have had to pay you more," their leader said, confirming my suspicion.
"Sure." I shook my head. Vampires. They were so miserly. "Consider me whenever you need another person caught."
I got in my car and drove back to El Born. I didn't wonder what the demon had done. It wasn't my business. My job was to deliver the bounty as agreed. Whatever had upset the vampires must have been big. Everyone knew that it was a death sentence to piss off a vampire.
But I was curious why they had hired me. Vampires usually kept business to themselves and rarely outsourced. Considering how relatively easy it was to find the target, I found the whole thing unusual. That they had an active profile with a long history was troubling. And who was that fourth voice? Was he another vampire? Why didn't he want me to see his face?
I put the whole thing out of my head, since the job was done. After driving back to my apartment, I parked the car a little ways down the street and looked around before I pulled an invisibility spell over myself.
The second I entered the apartment and dropped my invisibility spell, Noor pounced on me. "There you are! I've been waiting for you. We're going out." She started pushing me toward my room. "I've left the outfit you're going to wear on your bed."
"Do we have to go out tonight?" I was not in the mood to make small talk with people I wasn't interested in. All I wanted was a hot shower and my bed.
"Yes, we are. Go get dressed." She ran around the living room, picking up items left and right and finishing off her look.
"I need a shower," I told her. I knew I probably stunk.
"You don't have time."
"I smell like brimstone." I couldn't smell it myself, but I knew that with the prolonged exposure to the demon, especially having carried him, his scent clung to me. Hanging around with Noor all night wouldn't help, either.
"You don't." Noor rolled her eyes. "Stop making excuses."
"You can't smell it because you're half-demon yourself. The shifters will wrinkle their noses every time I pass by."
"What do you care about shifters? They do it to me all the time. Stop being so sensitive." She paused. "Why do you smell like brimstone?"
"I had a job."
"Bounty, or other?"
"Bounty.”
Noor was the only one in my life who knew I moonlighted as an assassin. She had found out by accident when she walked into the wrong room at a party. She’d seen me, a stranger at the time, standing over a dead body, and all she had done was wrinkle her nose and said, "I never liked her." Since then we had become the best of friends, and eventually roommates.
I studied her. "Let me guess, your ex called?"
She stopped. "Yes, he keeps calling me after he cheated on me. Surprise, surprise."
Noor might drone on about my need for a romantic relationship, but she didn't have the best luck when it came to men, either. They were drawn to her, but for some reason they couldn't handle her dual sides.
"Where are we going?" I suppressed a sigh. This night was more for Noor than myself.
Noor perked up. "Miguel's. Come on, go get dressed before it gets too late."
"Shower first," I said.
"Fine, you have five minutes. If you're not out of the shower by then, I'm coming in and dragging you out."
I quickly ran to jump in the shower before she changed her mind.
Chapter Nine
Noor was so excited for the night that she was almost bursting out of her skin. If she had wings, she'd have reached the ceiling. I humored her by nodding along as she kept running through the list of places we would go. She had a crazy idea that we would be club-hopping. It was tiring just hearing about all the different night scenes. I hoped we wouldn't wind up going to any of them.
The dress she had picked out for me was dark green and clung to my curves. The last time I had worn it was when I had infiltrated a society party for a job. The color brought out the green in my eyes. I left my dark hair loose, but twisted a few strands away from my face with a few well-placed bobby pins. I didn’t carry my daggers, but they were a simple retrieval spell away if I needed them.
As we approached Miguel's, I realized the place seemed livelier than usual. Groups of supernaturals stood outside, holding their drinks and talking.
"What's going on?" I asked Noor.
"What do you mean?"
I tilted my head toward the crowd spilling out of the restaurant and bar. "It's not the weekend. Seems like there are more people here tonight than usual."
"Maybe Carmen had an event at her store," Noor said. Carmen was a local witch who owned Magic Runes, a store located a short distance away from Miguel's. It was a specialty store for supernaturals and popular with the local covens. She frequently hosted events to drive up business and get the community together.
I made a face. Carmen was nice enough, but I hoped the place wasn't crawling with witches and wizards. Despite my nature, I didn't get along well with other magic users. I preferred other kinds of supernaturals. It probably explained why my best friend was a half-angel and half-demon. I followed Noor inside Miguel's.
"That's our table over there." Noor waved to somebody across the room.
Two men sat at our table. One of them had a wide smirk on his face, and the other smiled politely. Neither of them was her ex-boyfriend.
"You didn't," I hissed at her.
She grinned at me, proud of her deception. "I told you we're going to have fun tonight."
"We're going to talk about this later." I forced myself to clear the scowl from my face and followed her to the table. Just because I didn't want to socialize didn't mean I had to be a jerk to people. I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I’d have to fix it in place with a bobby pin later.
The two guys stood up. Both of them were my height, which meant we all towered over Noor. The guy that had been smirking widely at Noor reached forward and gave her a hug.
The other man wore a white, button-up shirt with the cuffs rol
led up to his elbows. The shirt was just tight enough that I could see the shape of his strong arms. The shirt was unbuttoned at the top, which allowed me a glimpse of the hollow of his neck. He paired the shirt with dark-washed jeans.
His bone structure was delicate, but there was a strong masculinity in his jawline. I noticed his pointed ears; he was one of the fae.
His gaze was intense, and his green eyes were darker than mine. They reminded me of the forest. He stared at me as if memorizing every feature of my face. I felt the heat rush to my cheeks under the scrutiny of his look.
Despite myself, I felt something awaken within me. It seemed like I had a thing for pointy objects. My last boyfriend had pointy teeth, and I carried daggers everywhere I went. I had the irrational desire to kiss his ears. I licked my lips instead. My breath caught as I realized his eyes followed my motion.
"Aisha, this is Leroy. Leroy’s a customer of mine,” Noor said. "Leroy, this is my best friend, Aisha."
I reluctantly tore my gaze from the stranger and aimed a polite smile at his friend. "It's nice to meet you." I recognized the introduction for what it was: Noor's way of telling me that this was the man she was interested in. Good, the pointy-eared fae was mine to flirt with.
Leroy gave me a nod. He was swarthy with a heavyset build. He reminded me of a pirate. He gestured at his attractive friend. "This is my buddy, Rafael. He nearly didn't show, but I promised him a night with two beautiful women. Aren't you glad you came?" Leroy asked Rafael.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Aisha." Rafael's voice was melodic and low. He surprised me by pronouncing my name the correct way, in Arabic. He reached over the table to shake my hand. His handshake was firm, and he maintained eye contact the whole time. The initial spark of interest grew into a raging inferno. The heat in my cheeks spread to the rest of my body.
"The pleasure's all mine.” I could get lost in those eyes. I shot a sideways look at Noor. Her eyes sparkled. She was never going to let me hear the end of this.
Rafael let go of my hand as soon as I broke eye contact and extended his hand for Noor to shake.
I slipped into the empty seat at the table, and the others followed suit. I was sitting across from Rafael, and Noor was across from Leroy. I unfolded my napkin and placed it on my lap.
Leroy looked around us. "This is the first time I've ever been here. Is it always this busy?"
"No." Noor shook her head.
"We were lucky to find a table then, huh?" Leroy continued. "Lucky for me, they knew Raf."
I saw his friend wince at the nickname.
"Really? Are you a regular? I've never seen you here." Noor's tone registered surprise. "We're here all the time, aren't we, Aisha?"
"We might be showing up at different hours," I said.
"Not a regular, no, but I'm friendly with Miguel." Rafael glanced at the owner standing behind the bar, deep in conversation with a gnome. "What do you do, Aisha?" Rafael asked me.
"No, no, no!" Noor exclaimed. "We are not going to talk about work tonight."
"Why not?" Rafael tilted his head.
"Because Aisha is a workaholic, and once she starts talking about work, she's not going to stop. Tonight is all about fun. Acceptable questions are: what do you like to do for fun, where do you want to travel next, what is the most incredible thing that's ever happened to you? Fun, fun, fun!" She slammed her hand on the table to drive her point across.
The three of us laughed at her passion.
"Yes, she's been trying to drag me out of the house for a while now. I don't think you can win this one." I ran a hand through my curls, shaking them free. "How did you two meet?" I asked Leroy. He was clearly infatuated with my roommate.
Noor shook her finger at us. Work.
"At the place that shall not be named." Leroy smirked.
"Piercing or tattoo?" I asked him.
"She helped me choose a tattoo and held my hand while I was getting it because I bawled like a baby." He turned to grab Noor's hand with his left, demonstrating the moment for us. Noor beamed.
"Have you been friends long?" Rafael asked Noor politely.
"We met at a party a few years ago and hit it off gossiping about a mutual acquaintance we both wanted to drop dead." She turned and gave me a crooked smile. She had edited the story, but it was technically still the truth.
"How about you? How do you two know each other?" I asked them.
Rafael opened his mouth, but Leroy answered first. "Raf helped me out of a jam a while back. We've been friends ever since."
The fae hid a smile behind his hand. Clearly Leroy was abbreviating their story, too.
Despite my misgivings, I found I was enjoying myself. The rest of dinner went well. The guys were interesting, and shared several funny stories. A lot of them seemed to involve Leroy getting into trouble and Rafael bailing him out. Most of them seemed to involve a club of some kind.
"Vampire clubs are the best. The energy there is always amazing." Noor had the last spoonful of her chocolate dessert and leaned back in her chair. “Mmm, heavenly.”
"That's because they feed off that energy. They make sure to keep it high." Leroy watched her, clearly infatuated. Vampires normally fed on blood, but energy gave them a different kind of buzz.
"Are we going to a vampire club tonight? Let’s go! I want to go dancing." Noor practically bounced in her seat. She turned to me, a question in her eyes. It had been over a year since I had last been to one. I’d kept my distance from vampires after Sebastian.
"Yes, let’s do it." Leroy grabbed her hand, entwining his fingers with hers.
"Yes." Rafael’s gaze burned into me.
There was something about the fae that made me want to feel his body against mine.
So we went dancing.
Chapter Ten
Noor took us to Eixample. The music was loud, and colorful characters flocked through the streets. Most of them were human since the vampires were safely enclosed within the club.
"Are you having fun?" Noor yelled over the music once we were inside.
"Yes," I shouted back.
"You've needed this for so long. You work so much, you forget to have fun and enjoy life." She reached out and engulfed me in a hug. A few glasses had made her tipsy. She always got extra emotional when she drank.
"I know. Thank you. It feels great to be out like this." I gestured at the dance floor.
Noor broke free of me and turned to Rafael. "Aisha doesn't allow herself to have fun. Are you going to show her a good time tonight?"
Leroy smirked. "Yeah Rafael, are you going to show her a good time?"
"If she'll let me." A small smile spread across Rafael's face. It was the sexiest thing I had ever seen. It promised wicked things. His green eyes sparkled as he placed a hand on the small of my back and led me to the dance floor. I allowed myself to go with him, the warmth of his touch spreading to the rest of my body.
We danced freely, allowing our bodies to gyrate in beat with the music. Songs changed, but we kept moving. I found more and more excuses to reach out and touch him. His arm. His shoulder. He grabbed me around the waist and we swayed together. I raised my arms around his neck. He looked down at me, his eyes drinking me in. I reached a hand to his face to feel his sharp jawline. I could feel his rapid heart rate as my fingers grazed his neck. He tilted it to the side, an invitation. I accepted and leaned in to lick the hollow of his throat the way I had wanted to all night.
His grip tightened around me as he brought our bodies closer together. The strength in his hands betrayed his urgency.
"Are we doing this?" I whispered as my lips grazed his ear.
"I'd like to. Is there any reason we shouldn't?" He pulled his head back and gazed into my eyes.
I raised an eyebrow and shook my head. There was no reason at all.
He leaned in and crushed his mouth to mine.
Something inside me awakened as our lips met. He held my face in his hands. I was hungry for more. He pressed his hard body against
mine and we moved to the rhythm of the music. My heart was racing. We broke apart to catch our breath. His eyes were dark, and I was sure mine were, too. His fingertips searched my body as he reached for my hips. I clutched his right hand with my left and brought it to my mouth, tracing his fingers with my lips. I kissed his fingertips as my eyes locked onto his. He let out a ragged breath.
"Do you want to get out of here?" I asked him, bringing his hand to my cheek.
"Yes, I would." His eyes burned with passion, and I knew what he wanted. His left hand drifted to the small of my back and kept moving downward. “Unless you want to give people a show?”
I leaned forward, pressing my body against his, and whispered, "Maybe next time."
A slow smile spread across his face, and a mischievous twinkle appeared in his eyes. "Bit of a risk-taker? I'll keep that in mind."
I pulled him off the dance floor. He laughed at my eagerness. When I wanted something, I didn't like to wait. We said goodbye to Noor and Leroy. Noor flashed me a triumphant look and hooted. I grinned back at her.
I don't remember how we made it to my place. By the time we stumbled through the front door, we were both crazed with desire. We barely had time to close the door.
I pulled away, breaking off our kiss and letting go of him. I turned around, facing the door, and looked over my shoulder. "Can you unzip me?"
In a painfully slow fashion, he raised his hand and lowered the zipper of my dress halfway down my back, his knuckles gently brushing against my skin. I inhaled sharply as my skin tingled wherever he touched. I slipped the straps off, and the dress fell to the ground and pooled around my feet. I stepped over it. I reached for his hand. He grasped mine, and I pulled him to my bedroom.
Chapter Eleven
My eyes fluttered open. A soft light came in through the window. It was morning. My body felt sore, but in a good way. Memories of last night drifted into my mind, leaving me feeling satisfied.
I turned my head to survey the man lying next to me. His hand was stretched as if reaching out toward me. Rafael's face was peaceful, and his dark hair was messy. Even asleep, a slight smile touched his lips. I resisted the temptation to lean forward and steal a kiss.
