by Fatima Fayez
After I was done with the changes, I handed Leon the revised contract. With a raised eyebrow, he browsed through them. He narrowed his eyes at some parts, but didn't say anything to the contrary. He left the floor. I wondered if the legal team would allow my changes to stand.
I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes and allowing myself to relax for the first time since my arrest. I heard Rafael walk away. I allowed myself to float away from everything, emptying my mind of all thought. I heard light footsteps walking back. Opening my eyes and leaning forward, I saw Rafael holding two bottles of water. He tucked one under his arm and cracked opened the bottle cap of the other. He handed it to me.
"Thanks.” I wrapped my lips around it and drank. It was cold and refreshing.
Rafael sat next to me. He was close enough that his thigh brushed mine. All the agents I had fought against had left to recover. Rafael and I were all alone in the giant room.
"Leon was right — that was certainly impressive," he said after a few moments of silence.
I shrugged. It may have seemed impressive to them, but it was what I had trained for my entire life.
"After seeing that, I can't help but wonder why you allowed yourself to get hurt the other night." He was referring to that night at the vampire lounge when Ethan got the best of me.
I lowered my head and stared at my feet. "I needed to feel pain."
"Why?" It seemed important that I answer him.
I glanced up at him. Could I tell him the truth? I decided to take the plunge. "I was a little emotional at seeing you there. I didn't like what I was feeling, so I distracted myself by feeling something else."
"You repress your emotions." A thoughtful expression crossed his face.
I shrugged again. "I can compartmentalize them most of the time, but I slipped that day. I needed another outlet."
"I'm really sorry that I caused you pain."
"You didn't." I was embarrassed. I lowered my eyes to look at the floor again. This was awkward.
He grabbed my left hand, making me look up at him. "I just need you to know that I didn't sleep with you for the job. I had an amazing time with you. But I had to report in." A rueful smile played on his lips.
"Leon said something about you not being a completely straight-shooter as an agent. What did he mean? Why can't he suspend you?"
Rafael raised his hand and ran it through his hair. "It's a little complicated."
"More complicated than this?" I took another sip of water. "Are you some sort of fae royalty? Is the Alliance stuck with you, so you go out and do what you want and they keep having to make excuses?"
He snorted. "No, thankfully. I'm not royal or even noble. I'm middle-class fae."
I raised an eyebrow. Middle-class fae still made the rest of us look like paupers.”
He shook his head. "No, really."
"How come Leon didn't make me fight you?"
"I guess he doesn't consider me one of the best." Rafael's tone was light. "Or maybe he thought it would be too personal."
"Maybe he thought I'd let you win."
"Would you have done that? I don't imagine you would." Rafael grinned.
I put away the water bottle and got to my feet. I reached my hand to Rafael. "Come on, let's go."
The expression on his face was a mixture of amusement and bewilderment. He placed his hand in mine and I pulled him up. I tugged him toward the center of the room.
We faced each other. I let go of his hand.
His eyes sparkled. "This is payback for everything, isn't it?"
"It may make me feel slightly better after beating you," I admitted.
He smiled crookedly. "I guess I deserve that. Thing is, you won't beat me."
"We'll see about that." I moved back, out of reach. "Blood, bone, or yield?"
Rafael thought for a moment. "I don't want to deal with any more blood tonight, and I'd prefer to keep your bones intact. On the ground and yield."
That meant I'd have to change my approach. I'd have to use some judo moves to get him on the floor. I loosened the muscles in my shoulders. "Do you need to warm up?"
Rafael shook his head. I watched him carefully, and he allowed a small smile to spread across his face. "Ladies first."
I rolled my eyes. “I’m number three on the Alliance’s most-wanted list. What’s your rank?”
“They don’t want me at all,” he laughed.
I decided to take advantage of his politeness and dashed toward him. He stood his ground until the last second and then ducked my punch. I pivoted and delivered an uppercut with my right hand. I connected with his body, but he didn't react. He danced on his feet, trying to tire me out. He rained down blows on me in a choreographed manner. There was something familiar about his technique. It reminded me of my own training.
"Seriously, who are you?" I ducked a blow.
"You know who I am."
The more he moved, the more I noticed that his fighting style was different than that of the other Alliance agents. From the way they had moved, I could see the training they had. It made their motions predictable. Rafael, on the other hand, was different in his combat, yet there was a familiarity to his movements. We kept fighting, and when he dodged a move of mine, I realized who he reminded me of: Basuki.
Basuki was a former instructor of mine. He was an elite warrior. My mother had begged him to take me on, and he refused initially because I was a half-witch girl. He didn't think I was worth his time, but I’d made him change his mind. It had cost my mother a lot of time, a hefty price, and many favors to get me to train with him. There was no way that even a middle-class fae would have gotten training with Basuki.
But now that I saw it, I began recognizing Rafael's patterns. I had trained with Basuki for six months. I still practiced his moves in my training rituals.
The next time Rafael executed a move that I knew was Basuki's, I instantly got him. He fell to the ground, and I straddled him. I pinned his arms above him with one hand and set a dagger against his neck. He swallowed, and his Adam's apple grazed the edge of my blade. My hair fell forward and brushed against his nose. It cocooned us from the rest of the world. His eyes burned into mine.
"You're hiding secrets about who you are," I whispered. I didn't mind. Much. He was entitled to his secrets as long as he didn't pry into mine.
Rafael opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Leon's voice sounded behind us. "Haven't you had enough?" We both turned to the shifter. He had a strange expression on his face. The contract was in his hand.
I let go of Rafael's wrists, withdrew my dagger, and swung a leg over him, getting to my feet. He pushed me, and I fell to the ground. Rafael had me face-first on the floor, an arm around my neck and his other hand holding my wrists behind me. His weight crushed my body. His voice tickled my ear. "You got me on the ground, but I didn't yield."
I allowed a small smile to spread across my face. He had surprised me.
"Yield," he said. I could feel the warmth of his body against me.
In the past, Basuki had tried a similar trick. He hadn’t reckoned with the resilience of a young half-witch. I used the same self-defense move I had years ago. I struck Rafael with the back of my head, hearing a grunt of pain as I made contact with his nose. His arms loosened, and I bucked my body. I twisted around. His hands gripped his nose. I shoved him to the ground, my knees holding him still.
“No.” I smiled at him. "You yield."
The fae laughed. “I yield, I yield.”
I shifted myself off his body. His smile was all innocence. Leon still waited; he looked bored. I got to my feet and padded over to him and read through the pages. They had agreed to all my changes. I initialed each page and signed the contract.
For the next two years, I was officially a consultant for the Alliance.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I stood outside the Alliance headquarters. Fire and brimstone. Of all the ways I thought tonight would end, this hadn’t been one of them.
I wrinkled my nose. "I can't believe you're taking that thing."
"I can't burn it in the office," he said. "Besides, you needed to see it so you could buy me a new one."
We walked toward his car. I stole a glance at him. "You had a decent good-cop, bad-cop routine in there with Leon. You guys practice it much?"
He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't work much with him. He's a good guy, though."
"Oh?" I invited him to continue. I was still trying to figure out what Rafael's role was in the whole organization. I knew he was more than he had led me to believe.
He opened the car door for me.
I raised an eyebrow at the gesture. “My hands don’t hurt that much after beating you to a pulp.”
Rafael laughed. He waited until I got in to close the door and walk around to his side of the car.
"Why did you sign with us?" Rafael asked me once he was in the car.
"Did I have any other option?" I couldn't share the real reason with him. Not yet.
He just looked at me and didn't respond. We pulled out of the Alliance headquarters' parking lot and headed down the street. I allowed myself a half-smile. At least he was aware that it had been my choice to agree to consult for the Alliance. He and I both knew that I’d had several opportunities to escape since the moment he had opened the back door of the lounge. "I have my reasons."
"Is it going to be strange for you to no longer be the Supernatural Shadow?" Rafael asked me.
"No, not really. But I'm going to miss the money," I reflected. "And the challenge."
"Is that why you did it? For the money and the challenge?"
"Sure. I got paid to set my own routine and I delivered results. I was good at my job and very much in demand." I'd have to go to Javier and have him remove me from the roster at the bounty office. He was going to be upset; he hated losing good bounty hunters. The others would love it because it meant more work for them, especially Luke and Tahani.
"We'll try to keep you busy at the Alliance," Rafael joked.
"You'd better. Noor wasn't exaggerating when she said I was a workaholic. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have something keeping me busy. I'm not a vacation kind of woman."
Rafael raised an eyebrow. "And yet only hours ago you told Leon you were ready for a vacation."
"It would drive me insane." I smirked. "But now I only have to work with you for two years."
Part of the reason I kept myself busy all the time was so that the paranoid thoughts constantly plaguing my mind would keep away. I used my job to direct the negative energy elsewhere. If I didn't have anything to do, I'd have to start the hunt for my mother again, and I wasn't sure I was ready to go back down that path.
When I was fifteen, I had returned home and there was no sign of her. I had searched, but hadn't been able to find her. I sent out a missing person’s report, even put up flyers, but nothing was successful. I seemed to be able to locate everyone except for my own mother, the only person I was truly interested in tracking down. It drove me crazy that I couldn't locate her. There was a strange kind of irony in that. I had perfected my skills in locating complete strangers, but I couldn't even locate the most important person to me: my own flesh and blood.
"Where did you go?" Rafael said, bringing me back to the present. He gave me a funny look.
"Just thinking about how different my life is going to be now."
"Hopefully it will be an easy transition. There are good people in the Alliance."
"Do you enjoy it?" I genuinely wanted to know.
He thought about his answer before he gave it. "It is interesting work. A lot of people think of us as the bad guys, which isn't too great, but I believe the work we do is important. As a community, we're fractured. We have too many forces driving us apart when we could be stronger together. Attempts to heal those rifts keep failing. I view the agency as the one place where supernaturals can coexist, and I hope that the acceptance within the Alliance will extend to our supernatural society. Supernaturals of all kinds should put aside their prejudices and work together for a better future."
I didn't say anything in response.
"What?" he asked.
“Fire and brimstone.” I shook my head. "You're a faithful."
He ducked his head, focusing on the road. I could tell he was embarrassed. "So what if I am?"
"I just hadn't expected it. I'm more of a cynic myself." It reminded me too much of Sebastian and his beliefs that humans should be exposed to supernaturals. Even Noor, with her outward positivity and an angel mother and demon father who were still together to this day, didn't have much faith in all supernaturals getting along. Her mixed heritage made her an outcast, and she didn't belong in either world. The demons didn't want her, and the angels didn't accept her, either. We were both outsiders, and so I had never seen the other side. “I don’t view it that way at all.”
"What made you lose faith in the community?" Rafael asked me.
"The way people treated me." It was true that my mother had raised me to be paranoid of supernaturals, but growing up I had faced the scorn of coven members and experienced the disdain of shifters. Other supernaturals didn't treat me much better. Apart from Ethan's treatment of me a few nights ago, the vampires adamantly denied my relationship with Sebastian. Not all of the supernaturals I came across were rude to me, but the general atmosphere of tension was enough to make me realize that supernaturals just didn't want to get along.
Rafael reached out with his right hand and wrapped it around mine.
"What does this mean?" I looked down at our entwined fingers.
"You weren't just a job to me." He squeezed my hand.
I glanced at him, and the desire in his eyes made me shift in my seat. "Are you trying to get invited to my bed again? Isn’t that against the rules now that I’m your coworker?” My tone was light, but I was practically holding my breath.
“The Alliance doesn’t care who its employees sleep with, even if they were former assassins.”
“And you’re not worried about your throat being slit in your sleep?”
He chuckled. “You can slit my throat any time. I don’t need to be asleep for you to get it done.”
I thought about it. He’d acknowledged my ability to kill him and didn’t fear it. This was new. It was tempting.
“I won't give you a chance to rifle through my things this time,” I warned him. “It would have to be your place so I can snoop through your drawers."
"How soon do you want to make it happen?" His voice was light.
I hid a smile. "I don't think I can start working at the Alliance with this uneven balance." My thumb lightly stroked the back of his hand.
He took his eyes off the road and snuck a glance at me. The heat in his gaze could have set me on fire.
Fire and brimstone, I was zapped. I shifted in my seat.
Rafael grinned. "In that case, do you mind if we change our destination and head back to my place? It should set us up on an even footing."
There was no reason not to. He knew my secret now. I might as well have fun.
I gave him a smile. This time it reached my eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I walked into my apartment to see Noor sitting at the table, eating breakfast. "Good morning."
"Good morning," she said. She took in my outfit. "Oh, still in yesterday's clothes. Is this the walk of shame? Is that loved-up hair?"
"Yes." I grinned at her.
She let out a squeal and slammed a palm against the table. In her excitement, she had hit the table too hard and some cereal jumped out of the bowl. "Come over here and tell me all about it." She used her foot to push the chair across from her away from the table, inviting me to sit.
I walked over and joined her.
"What happened? Was it Rafael? It was, wasn't it? I can't imagine you'd move on to another guy so soon. How did you g
uys hook up again?" Noor barely gave me time to answer her.
I laughed.
"Answer me," she demanded.
"Give me a chance and I will. First, I went to the vampire lounge, found my target, killed him, and then Rafael arrested me."
Noor's jaw dropped open. She squealed again. "There were cuffs used? Tell me more."
I laughed. "For the arrest. Get your mind out of the gutter."
"I enjoy the gutter. It's the demonic side of me." She pouted. "You guys are boring. Go on, what happened next?" Noor was practically clawing for me to continue.
"He took me to the Alliance headquarters, where they threatened to lock me up unless I agreed to work for them. I figured you'd miss me too much if I went to jail, so I decided to cut a deal. I added a clause that said Rafael had to pleasure me whenever I requested it, and I went over to his place to test it out. And that was my night."
Noor couldn't speak for a full minute.
I swiped her bowl of cereal and ate a spoonful. I made a face; she always put too much sugar in it.
She blinked at me, not smiling anymore. "What?"
I gave her a shrug. "Busy night."
"You work for the Alliance now?"
I pointed the spoon at her. "I told you it was a bad idea for me to see Rafael. I was trying to avoid him, and now I'm working for them."
"What does this mean?"
"It means that I'm no longer in the game. No bounties. No assassinations."
"Just like that?" She didn't sound convinced.
"Just like that," I affirmed.
As if just realizing I had swiped her breakfast, she reached for the bowl. I moved it out of her reach and continued eating the cereal.
She crossed her arms and set them on the table. She leaned forward. "I wasn't hungry anyway."
I finished the last spoonful of cereal and pushed away the bowl of sugary milk.
"Did you really put in that clause?" she asked in a hushed voice, her blue eyes wide.
