by Fatima Fayez
Now?
I glanced at the time. Be there in fifteen.
It didn't take me long to get dressed. I made sure my daggers were accessible and hidden from view as I tucked them snug into their sheaths concealed in my belt. A spell camouflaged them against my clothes to keep humans from spotting my weapons.
I locked up and left the apartment. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun shone with a few scattered clouds, which kept the air comfortably cool. The streets bustled with tourists, and the local shops and restaurants were active in catering to patrons' needs. Some people hated living in El Born due to the high tourist population, but I enjoyed seeing all walks of life descend onto the area to visit the museums, historic cathedrals, and soak in the culture. El Born had unique boutiques and some of the most interesting graffiti around. Street artists, even the punk kids with cans of spray paint, were always influenced by the inspiration of Picasso and Dalí in the air.
Miguel's was only five minutes away. Noor worked close by in a tattoo parlor. It was on the far side of El Born, away from our apartment. I waved at a few store owners and smiled as I walked by the crowded tapas restaurants. Those places were always busy.
I spotted Noor as soon as I walked in. She was sitting at a table for two, reading a menu. I didn't know why, since we had both memorized the menu because we came here so often. Her long hair was loose, falling in soft waves over her shoulders. At a glance, it was easy to tell that she was something…different. Her hair was a combination of raven-black locks and white-blonde streaks. Each strand was different. The contrast was certainly eye-catching, and devastating to men.
Due to her parentage, Noor was considered an outsider amongst other supernaturals, much like I was. Our common isolation was the paranormal society. It wasn’t considered acceptable for demons to fall in love with angels, or vice versa. The product of that love was Noor. Her parents were very much still together and attributed the longevity of their relationship to the adage that opposites attract. Unfortunately, that same logic wasn't held true in the supernatural community. Noor was considered an anomaly. It didn't help that she didn't have any siblings.
"Late morning?" Noor asked me as she took in my outfit while I slid into the empty chair. Her blue eyes held a mischievous sparkle. Noor's mind frequently resided in the gutter, a quality she attributed to her half-demon side.
"Yeah," I replied. "How's work? The streets seem busy."
"It's okay. A group of tourists came in and gave us a lot of business."
The tattoo parlor was highly rated on popular travel recommendation websites, so they were never looking for clients. They had enough local customers, but tourists kept them busier than the other places.
"Ever think you'll get bored of working there?" It amazed me that of all the things Noor could have done with her life she’d chosen to work there, especially with the opportunities she had to go into her family business. Then again, who was I kidding? My life choices left a lot to be desired.
"Never." Noor gestured at the waitress.
The waitress appeared at the table. Noor beamed at Keke. "Can I get Miguel's special burger and some patatas bravas?"
“Sure thing.” Keke jotted it down on her pad. She took the menu from Noor and glanced at me. “Your usual?”
“Yes.” My regular lunch was a mixed salad, the grilled salmon, and a large bottle of water. I didn't need a menu.
Keke gave me a nod and left to place our order.
As we waited for our food, Noor and I talked about small, pleasant topics like her parents. They lived on the outskirts of Barcelona, and Noor visited them from time to time. She had been there last weekend. I loved hearing about their life. Unlike me, Noor had grown up with parents who wanted her to have a proper childhood and, as a result, they had sheltered her from the supernatural community. Despite their attempts at shielding her from her true heritage, Noor nonetheless witnessed much from her parents' peers, and she was bitter at the behavior she witnessed from their communities. She was telling me a story about a sweet thing her father had done for her mother when our food arrived. I thanked the waitress. Keke gave me a bright smile and walked away.
Miguel's was a popular destination for supernaturals, especially in El Born, where a lot of us lived. It was hidden from human view, so they couldn't see the storefront even if they walked right up to the door. There were plenty of stores and restaurants like that in the area. They were simply spelled from human eyes.
His place was one of the rare areas where all kinds of supernaturals could coexist without friction. Nobody ever made trouble at Miguel's. There was something about the owner that made people respect his space. Miguel was a shifter and usually worked behind the bar. He was polishing a few glasses as we ate. I didn't know what he turned into, and I knew that he was strong enough to be an alpha, but he didn't seem to want the power. He didn't cause other males to be aggressive, and further, managed to gain their respect with a simple look. It was an incredible skill. Perhaps that was his alpha ability.
"I love this place. I'm glad you suggested lunch," Noor said in between bites. Her words piqued my attention, since she had been the one to ask me to lunch. She smiled. "I would have been completely ignored if I sat here by myself. I'm glad you're keeping me company." She accentuated the last few words.
Her words were clues. Someone was watching me. They hadn't been inside or observing her while she waited for me, but now that I was here, their eyes were on me. The fact that Noor didn't say exactly that out loud meant that my secret admirer was a shifter. Shifters had enhanced hearing, and Noor was cautious and smart enough to act accordingly.
Noor put her burger on her plate and stretched her hands on the tabletop. I glanced down at her hands on the table. She flexed eight fingers against the table, which meant that the person staring at me was located at my eight o'clock. She reached out to grab her fork and missed. The fork clattered on to the floor.
"I'll get that." I bent down to pick it up and used the opportunity to sneak a glance at my observer.
His head was turned away from us, so I couldn't get a good look at his face. He had dark hair and broad shoulders.
I straightened up and put the fork on the table. I gestured for Keke to get Noor another fork.
Noor nodded at me; that was him. She took a bite out of her burger. "I think we should go on a double date."
"You've got to stop with that.” I wasn't sure if she was still talking in code or actually trying to convince me to go on a blind date. She had been nagging me about going out for a few months now, but I just wasn't interested.
"Come on, you haven't dated since forever," she whined.
"We both know how that turned out." I poured some water into my glass.
"You can't stop dating because your ex was horrible." She straightened as her eyes darted to my follower, then back to me. "The guy I'm thinking of is really good looking." She raised her eyebrow. She meant the shifter observing me.
"I'm sure he is.”
"I think he's the best-looking guy I've ever seen."
"Really?" I took a sip of my water. "Remind me, how long have you been thinking about setting me up?" Our conversation had shifted entirely to my shadow, but to a casual listener we were still talking about dates. In reality, I was asking her how long the shifter had been watching me. Noor was keen enough to pick up on my meaning.
"Since you walked in," she answered.
"I'm interested in finding out more about him later."
"It might be too late by then." Noor had suggested he was about to leave.
I changed the topic and told her about visiting Mateu. Noor's eyes lit up. She loved the gargoyle. She told me a funny story about what he had done the last time he visited her at the tattoo parlor. We finished the meal, and I told her I'd see her back home. As I turned to leave, I noticed the shifter was indeed gone.
Noor shook her head, echoing my own thoughts that the shifter might still be nearby. Part of the reason we got along so well
was because we were both paranoid in our own ways. I had lucked out with her as a roommate and best friend.
"Call me in an hour?" Noor's expression was worried.
"Sure," I said.
I left Miguel's wondering why someone was following me, and if it had anything to do with yesterday's dead shifter.
Chapter Five
"Are you going to be okay?" Noor asked me one last time before we parted ways. "You'll call me in an hour?"
"I'll be fine. I don't feel like going home. I'll go for a walk to stretch my legs. I'll probably continue my workout on the beach."
Noor nodded, her eyes serious. She knew what my morning workouts involved. "Call me when you're done?"
"I will." I was almost certain that the shifter would follow me. He may have thought he would be more inconspicuous by leaving the restaurant before we did.
Noor leaned forward to give me a hug and left for the tattoo parlor. I watched her leave. She had tried a few times to convince me to give up my bounty work and stop working as an assassin. She hated the idea of me fighting and the risk of injury, or worse, but it was too ingrained in my blood. Hunting distracted me from the reminder that I was being hunted. I needed to do this kind of work.
As far as Donnie the demon, I wouldn't have any leads until Ibrahim came to me with information and Mateu got me details. I was free until then. I raised my face to the cloudless sky and closed my eyes. The sun was warm and the breeze was gently blowing.
My feet started making their way toward the marina. I avoided the busy Via Laietana, instead keeping to the inner streets between the buildings. Boutiques were open, and in the lull in business for lunch, I saw shop keepers sneaking a few minutes outside. I waved at a few familiar faces. The El Born neighborhood was a friendly community. Not for the first time, I realized how thankful I was to live there.
I passed by several small shopping centers and continued walking through the narrow streets until I emerged on the other side of El Born. On the main street, traffic flowed with cars full of people leaving work and heading home. I waited for the pedestrian lights to turn green.
I passed the museum and the string of seafood restaurants alongside it. The marina on my right was quiet, with small waves softly splashing against the wall and the boats bobbing up and down in the calm waters. A steady stream of people walked in the same direction I did. I was a good five-minute walk away from the beach. With the museum behind me, I walked along the stretch of sunny asphalt. Cars rushed by me on the main road and a dog and its walker were headed my way. The dog lowered his head as we closed the distance between us. It was the third dog to exhibit the same behavior.
I sat down on one of the empty benches lining the sidewalk. A nearby tree offered some shade. I made sure to scan the area around me as I took a seat, and saw a tall man drifting to the rail overlooking the marina.
It was the shifter from Miguel's.
Sending up a prayer for the dogs that had alerted me to the shifter's proximity with their submissive behavior, I casually bent down to tie my shoelaces. The shifter still had his back to me. With his superior hearing abilities, he'd be able to pick up when I started moving again. I sat there for some time, considering my options. I only had two: fight or flight. My reflex was always set to fight.
Instead of continuing on straight to the beach, I decided to take a left and cross the main street to enter the neighborhoods. I had a decent knowledge of the area, and I made way for a nearby place that was abandoned. It was a small square surrounded by buildings, but unlike other squares in Barcelona, this one was seldom busy.
The buildings converged. As I increased my pace, I heard the footsteps behind me increase their pace as well. I reached the square and turned around. The shifter was moving leisurely toward me.
"Who are you?" I asked quietly. I knew he'd be able to hear the question.
He ignored me as he moved closer. Noor was right — he was handsome. His piercing eyes, shadowed by strong eyebrows, stared straight at me. He had a swimmer's body that was slim yet powerful, and he wore a loose, long-sleeved, white V-neck shirt with faded denim jeans and black sneakers. His shirt didn't hide the powerful arms. Despite his size, his movements were as graceful as a dancer's. I could tell he would be deadly in a fight.
"Why are you following me?" I asked him.
He waited until he was close to answer my question. "I need some answers."
"About what?" I mentally bet my next paycheck it had to do with the dead shifter.
"You killed a shifter yesterday. Why?"
"What's it to you?" Was this the person that the shifter had instructed me to pass his last message to? I was curious how he knew what I'd done last night. There had been nobody around when I confronted the shifter — I made sure of that — and I doubted that Javier would have told him. "Who are you?"
"I need an answer first," he replied.
"So do I. Who are you?"
"You can call me Enrique."
Despite myself, I felt my eyes widen.
A smug smile appeared on his face. He crossed his arms. I saw the muscles in his arms ripple when he made the movement. "I see you've heard of me."
My throat went dry. Enrique was the name of Diego's Enforcer. He was the one who made sure that all shifters in Barcelona and the outer areas stayed in line. Anyone that drew the wrath of Diego usually had to suffer Enrique's anger first.
Without asking another question, I checked for my magic and threw a demobilizing spell at him. It bounced off. Crap. He was using a magic dispeller.
His smug smile widened, and I knew that he must have felt the buzz when my spell dissipated. He took a couple steps toward me. "Is that what happened last night?" Despite the smile on his face, there was a hard look to his eyes. "You attacked him before he had a chance to defend himself?"
"No." I thought quickly about my next move as I reached for the dagger on my belt. The cool metal felt reassuring in my grip.
"Then what happened? And why did you kill him?" Enrique took another step toward me.
"He was an open bounty." I ran a thumb over the hilt of my dagger.
"And you didn't look into it?"
"I cross-checked. He was supposed to be delivered alive, but he fought back." I wondered if the Enforcer was the reason the shifter hadn’t wanted to be taken in alive. “Are you the reason he killed himself?”
Enrique didn't respond. I waited for him to take another step forward. I had to get to his dispeller. If I could get it off him, I could use my magic. And the key to that was having him get close to me.
Typically, dispellers were worn as necklaces, bracelets, or rings. I didn't spy any chains around his neck, and he didn't have any earrings or rings on his fingers. He had three colorful woven bracelets on his left wrist. One of them must be it.
I pulled my dagger free from its sheath and tapped it against my thigh. I would have one chance at this. As soon as Enrique realized what I was doing, he would keep me from reaching his hand. Shifters' regenerative powers meant that I needed to strike to kill, otherwise I knew he would heal and then I would be the dead one.
"You want to play? Come, I'll show you how I did it last night," I taunted him.
His eyes narrowed as he observed my fighting stance. With a blur of motion, he moved toward me.
I pivoted and swiped at him. He was fast.
He kicked me in the ribs as I passed, and I flew across the square, landing hard on the ground and knocking the breath out of me. Fire and brimstone, that hurt.
I could hear his footsteps getting closer as I tried to breathe. "Come on, get up,” he taunted me. “You're fine. All you have to do is tell me who posted the bounty." He could get the same information from the bounty office, but I wasn't going to give up Javier.
I got to my feet and held my ribs, attempting to look more hurt than I was. He came closer, and I punched him in the stomach. He barely moved, but he seemed surprised that I was tougher than the average witch.
I had always hid
den my extra abilities from others. I should be less powerful because I was only half-witch, but for some reason I was faster and stronger than full-blooded witches. When I was younger I used to tell myself that my father was a powerful wizard, but my mother quickly dissuaded me from that notion and always told me that my father was a loser, and that was why he wasn't in the picture. I wondered if he even knew he had a daughter. I never asked my mother. Her anger was to be avoided at all times. I couldn't get my answers from her, but I knew that my heightened strength and fighting abilities were the result of something in my bloodline. Without my mother around to explain anything, though, I doubted I would ever figure out what it was.
"How did you find me?" I asked him. I thrust my dagger toward him. He twisted and barely dodged it. We sparred. From his moves, I couldn’t help thinking that he seemed to be testing my speed, endurance, and agility.
Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I blinked furiously. I couldn't afford to raise my hand to brush it away. I needed to get to his bracelets.
With his attention focused on the dagger that had almost sliced his side open, I took the opportunity to distract him. I pulled out my second dagger with my left hand and slashed at his hands and cut the bracelets. The magic dispeller fell to the ground as I gathered my magic and whispered a spell.
His body froze in place, his hand reaching for me. His eyes widened; he flexed and realized he couldn’t break free. His gaze turned to molten fury. "Let me go," he demanded. His muscles continued to flex as they tried to break free of the invisible bonds.
"Not until you tell me how you found me." I moved toward the bracelets and picked them up. I studied them; they were quality magic dispellers. Whoever had made them was very strong.
He couldn't have known where I lived. I had turned myself invisible every time I was close to my apartment. I knew Noor was careful about returning home as well, but not knowing how he had found me, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take.
"You'll release me from the spell if I answer your question?" He sounded bored with the whole situation, but I still didn’t trust him. His furious eyes gave him away.
