by Jack Knight
It wasn’t like he was being super obvious about it. Any human that overheard us wouldn’t know he meant he wanted to pay me to kill some supe that had fucked up.
“Not right now, I’m not in the mood,” I answered. I looked up at him and waited, knowing he wasn’t going to let me go without trying to convince me to take the contract anyway.
“Listen, a friend of mine took out the contract. It’s kind of important to me.” I could hear the pleading in his voice, this was something serious. I was getting very curious.
I turned down contracts all the time, I didn’t understand why he was pushing. Of course, the contracts didn’t usually come from William himself. He was usually just the middle man.
“Why don’t you do it yourself, then?” I demanded.
William dropped his cigarette onto the ground and then ground it out with his bare foot. Again, not something vampires usually did. Some serious shit had gone down with whoever he wanted me to kill. Fire, even from a cigarette, should have scared him shitless and caused him excruciating pain.
“I would,” William said softly, “but the guy’s a shifter.”
I understood what the problem was immediately. Vampires could slaughter a dozen humans in under a minute without breaking a sweat, if they could sweat. Shifters, on the other hand, they couldn’t fight one-on-one. Shifters, no matter what animal they turned into, had magical claws that could seriously injure vampires.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t something many people knew. Vampires didn’t run around giving out that information. Shifters didn’t take their natural camouflage for granted, they didn’t talk about supernatural stuff with anyone outside their pack, with few exceptions. So, I had no way of knowing what William meant without revealing that I knew more than the average human.
“So what?” I asked.
William let his head fall back and he finally breathed out a cloud of cigarette smoke.
“Just... I can’t, I need you to do it,” he said as he lowered his head again.
“And, why would I?”
William started chuckling to himself and looked away for several seconds. Every bit of this was making me want to know what was up even more. Only my curiosity could make me put up with a conversation with a vampire for this long when I needed to get into my apartment before any Hunters saw me.
“Look he... the guy almost killed my friend. When she tried fighting back he went hybrid and cut her up pretty bad.”
A supernatural creature used his power to take advantage of a human girl. Literally any other time, I’d take that fucking contract pro bono. The rage that rushed through me in that instant made me feel hotter than running across half of San Francisco.
It took a lot of self control for me to grit my teeth and say, “If nobody’s killed him in a week, let me know.”
I pulled my keys from my pocket and shoved the one I needed into my door with a lot more force than I needed to. I unlocked my door and turned the knob before William could speak again.
“Maddison, come on, you know shifters don’t stick around after something like that.”
I threw my door open and pulled my knife out again. I brandished it threateningly and took a couple of steps toward William, making sure I stayed in the sunlight.
“Do not ever call me that again,” I warned, putting as much anger into my voice as I could.
William was holding his hands up in surrender, but a small smile was turning up the corners of his mouth.
“Glad I got your attention. Now, I’d like to point out that I’m paying for this contract with my own money. Twenty-five big ones.”
The surprise almost made me drop my knife. Twenty-five thousand dollars. That was a year’s pay on minimum wage, I could earn it in a night. Even if there were Hunters in the city, I couldn’t pass something like that up. It would go a long way to help me save up enough money to get as far away from the Hunters as possible. Definitely enough to get my hands on some of the more rare items I needed.
“Why are you paying that much?” I asked, trying to hide my surprise and give myself some time to think at the same time.
A normal contract was usually around ten thousand, and they didn’t come by often. Someone offering so much was unheard of, outside of the Hunters.
“Told you,” William answered as he lowered his hands and put them into his pockets, “she’s a friend. I had to ghoul her to get her healed up all the way. I don’t do that for just anyone.”
This wasn’t the right time to mock him, but this was so stupid. He was paying two and a half times the normal rate because he loved this girl. I felt for him, but it was still stupid. In fact, the reason this shifter targeted her was probably because she was running around with a vampire.
I took a deep breath and sheathed my knife again.
“Fine,” I growled.
The tension disappeared from William’s entire body. “Really?”
I held out my left hand and looked out over the balcony to the courtyard of the apartment complex. “You’ve got a file, right?”
“I’ll leave it outside your door in a couple hours,” William said with a chuckle.
Right, he didn’t want to pass through the sun that many times, and he probably left it in his apartment.
“You’d better hurry if you want it done tonight,” I snapped as I turned around and walked into my apartment.
“Why do you always need a file?” William called after me before I could close the door. “That’s the kind of things Hunters d—”
The door didn’t close fast enough. I had heard it, and he had made the connection. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
I sighed and leaned against my door. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t pass up that much money. I needed it. Plus, I would be doing a lot of good. There was no guarantee the Hunters would get around to this particular shifter on their own, and he couldn’t be allowed to live after what he did.
I just had to hope that this wouldn’t draw any attention. I had stuff for dealing with shifters. If I got lucky, I could do this without anyone even knowing what had happened, except William. He was annoying, but there’s no way he’d go and rat me out, I was the only hitman he knew.
Slowly, I sank down to the floor and opened my eyes to look around my dingy, barely furnished apartment.
This would get me closer to learning magic, that was what mattered. It was worth the risk. I just had to make sure the Hunters never found out about it.
That was going to be the hard part.
Chapter 3
DOES THIS GUY EVER stop drinking?
I had been waiting outside the bar that was listed in the file William had given me for at least three hours. Luckily, it was dark, so nobody noticed me hiding in an alley. A black leather jacket, ducking behind a dumpster, I could see the bar and nobody could see me.
From where I was kneeling, I even had a pretty good view of the shifter. He was probably in his early twenties, kinda buff, his hair was shaved short, like an army douche. Basically, he looked like the average frat guy, and he was acting like one, too. He and a group of guys that looked remarkably similar to him had been drinking cheap beer by the pitcher the entire time I had been watching him.
After so long sitting and waiting for my mark to leave, my mind started to wander.
I left the Hunters, the smart thing to do was to never work like this again. If I ever took a target that the Hunters were after, they would search me out, and finding people in hiding is what they did.
Unfortunately, I needed a grimoire. The mages that kept things like that weren’t as friendly as the witch girl I had seen that morning in the apothecary. It would take a lot of money just to get one to talk to me, not to mention how expensive the grimoires were themselves.
The same reason I had for leaving the Hunters was the reason I had to keep doing the work. I wanted out, so badly, but if I didn’t get control of myself, I would never be able to live in peace. Just last week, a cat had run across my windowsill and magic
had burst out of me, shattering the window. Replacing that had set me back a week’s pay.
Finally, the door of the bar opened. I forced myself back to my surroundings, trying to keep track of every face in the crowd that walked through the door. The entire frat group had left at once, and picking my mark out of that crowd was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Fuck me for getting rusty. Before I left the Hunters, I could’ve knelt in that alley for two days without losing focus. Even with the smell of decaying food all around me. Of course, that was why I chose this alley. Shifters had amazing senses, I didn’t need him noticing me because something in the alley smelled like sweat.
The frat guys walked together for only one block, then they separated. I made sure to keep an eye on my mark this time, and when he turned a corner, I left my hiding place.
My hands in the pockets of my jacket, walking a little faster than normal, I probably wasn’t any more noticeable than anyone else walking around. One of the good things about being a girl, if I looked a little suspicious walking around at night, people would assume I was just afraid of being attacked.
I made sure to slow my pace a little when I turned the corner my target had. I didn’t need him hearing quick footsteps behind him and turning around early. Shifters were stronger and faster than I was, I needed the element of surprise, otherwise this might actually take some effort.
When I rounded the corner and started walking down an almost identical street, I spotted the shifter again. He was walking a little unsteadily. After all the beer he drank, that wasn’t a big surprise, but I needed to be careful. Supernatural creatures had much better metabolisms than humans. He could have been faking it to pass as human.
My pace picked up a little so I wouldn’t lose him, and I started patting my pockets and my belt with my hands still in my jacket pockets to make sure I had what I needed. Magical knife, check. Flash bomb, check. His heightened senses would be a detriment to him when that went off. And, just in case, a sprig of wolfsbane.
I actually felt a little guilty about that one. Wolfsbane was something every apothecary carried, and the closest one to my place would have been the one I worked at, but I didn’t want Mr. O’Grady to know what I was up to. Nobody needed to know I had anything to do with this.
And, if Mr. O’Grady saw me buy wolfsbane, a plant that caused shifters excruciating pain and stopped them from using their abilities for a few minutes, the same day a shifter was mysteriously killed, he would put the pieces together.
The shifter turned another corner, and I had to pick up my pace again. This time, I was fine with him hearing me. He was far enough away from the bar, headed toward the bad part of town. I would have to make sure to take his wallet, so it looked like a random mugging. That way, the Hunters wouldn’t look too far into it if they had marked the guy.
When I rounded the corner, I slid my hands out of my pockets. I kept the flash bomb in my left and drew my knife with my right. This should be easy and fast.
Or, it would have been, if the guy hadn’t disappeared.
I hesitated for a second. There were a bunch of alleys he could have ducked into, but this street was filled with restaurants and shops that were all already closed. He definitely hadn’t gone into any of them.
Shit, was he onto me? I felt my heart start to race, but my breathing stayed steady. This wasn’t fear that started making my blood burn and sending a tingle down my spine. This was adrenaline.
As much as I wanted to stay out of the Hunter’s radar, I couldn’t deny it: I loved this shit. I was born to be a Hunter. Even if they would kill me if they ever found me.
I hurried to the nearest alley and peered around the building, listening hard. There wasn’t so much as the scurry of a mouse in that one. Shifters weren’t patient, there was no way he could resist pouncing if he was hiding in there. Onto the next one.
My feet barely made a sound as I rushed past the building. No human would hear me, but a shifter might. I clicked the flashbomb’s trigger, I’d have about two seconds after I let go before it went off. I’d better find this bastard, I’d hate it if I wasted this thing.
I pressed my back against the building and waited a few seconds before peeking into the alley this time. As soon as my head moved past the corner of the building, I saw something big and furry rushing toward me.
Reflex took over. I threw down the flashbomb, turned away, ducked, and closed my eyes.
The growl of the wolf sounded behind me, then I heard the click and the small explosion of the bomb. The wolf started whining immediately, and that was my cue.
I straightened up, turned, and took a step forward in one fluid motion. The wolf, barely any larger than a normal wolf, but with blue-grey fur and bright yellow eyes, was blinking furiously. The flash bomb had done its job.
The space between me and the wolf disappeared quickly, and then I stabbed at the beast. I might have felt a little bad about this, if I didn’t know this guy had torn apart some random girl for the fun of it.
My knife slid into the wolf’s side as easily as sliding it into its sheath. At least, at first. Only half the blade went in, and then I hit bone.
I felt my heart skip a beat. That was not supposed to happen. I had fucked up big time.
There was about half a second after the impact of my blade hit the wolf’s bone, then the wolf exploded, and not in a good way.
The wolf pushed itself up and its front leg became a massive arm that slammed into my stomach and lifted me off my feet.
I flew into the alley and landed on what had to be a garbage bag. Something sharp pressed into my back and my head slammed into the building behind me. And, I didn’t care about any of it.
The wolf had survived the stab. My knife would make sure it couldn’t heal at super speed, but I hadn’t killed it in one shot, and I had lost the element of surprise. Now, I had to deal with its hybrid form.
Instead of a slightly larger than average wolf, I was looking up at an absolute monster. It was standing on its hind legs, which had grown bigger around and longer than mine. The thing was probably close to seven feet tall, its arms were so long its fingers could have dragged along the ground as it walked, it still had the snout of a wolf, and its entire body was still covered in blue-grey fur.
“Fuck”
The beast leaned forward and let out a tremendous roar, it kind of sounded like an angry tiger. That wasn’t the part that scared me. What scared me was the fact that a shifter’s hybrid form was pure strength. They couldn’t move fast, but they could bend steel. I was dead.
The shifter took a step forward and raised both its arms over me. I rolled off the trash bag just in time, it slammed both its fists down so hard I was sure I heard the concrete crack beneath the garbage.
I did a backwards somersault, which is when I realized that hitting my head had made me dizzy, and tried to stand up. I made it to my feet, but stumbled backward a few steps before I was steady.
The shifter took another step toward me and swung its arm at me. I slashed at it with my knife and the beast let out another roar as I sliced its entire forearm open.
I would’ve been making good headway, except the bastard grabbed the dumpster beside me and swung it into me so hard I slammed into the wall on my other side. It wouldn’t be long before I got a concussion.
A few more stumbled steps backward and I bumped into another wall. He had me trapped.
The shifter took another slow, heavy step forward. He was almost close enough to swing at me again. I needed to do something fast.
Then, the tingling that had been running down my spine spread out, flowing to the tips of my fingers and toes. I knew this feeling, the electricity that lit up every cell of my body, the power of the sun pulsing through me. I just had no idea how to use it.
I had an idea, but I had no idea if it would work or not. At this point, though, it was my only option.
I held the knife up and pointed it at the shifter as it took another step, and willed the
energy that was coursing through me toward the beast.
“Cadunt ad terram!”
It happened so fast, I couldn’t even be sure that it was because of me. All at once, the shifter slammed into the ground, almost like it had face-planted on purpose.
“Thank fucking god for google translate,” I said in surprise.
Then, I got a hold of myself and knelt down next to the shifter. I had no idea what I had done, or how long it would last, so I didn’t waste the opportunity.
This time, I wasn’t taking any chances. I grabbed one of the hybrid’s long, pointed ears and lifted its head. A quick, clean motion with my other hand, and I sliced through the shifter’s neck.
Thick, hot blood sprayed all over my hand and forearm before I could let go of the dying beast and stand up. That was gross, but I could deal with that, now that there was no way this thing was going to kill me.
I reclined against the wall behind me and waited for my breathing and heartbeat to slow down. It was difficult with my thoughts racing the way they were.
I did magic. On purpose. It had done what I wanted it to. My mother had been right, I was a mage, somehow. Which didn’t make any sense.
I hadn’t used a bunch of ground up plants and animal parts. I hadn’t inherited magic from my parents, that was for sure. And, I never studied magic.
Whatever I was, I needed to learn how to use magic, apparently it was a life or death thing.
For right now, though, I needed to run. The shifter had roared twice, it was bound to draw attention.
Stumbling, dizzy, trying to ignore the smell caused by the dying shifter’s bowels loosening, I stumbled out of the alley and tried to hurry home. The entire time, I had only one thought: What the fuck am I?
Chapter 4
WALKING INTO WORK THE next day was a lot harder than it should have been.
Sure, getting the money from William had made me feel a thousand times better than I had since I had left the Hunters, but I was still getting dizzy every couple of hours. And, I was walking with a limp, I hadn’t even noticed I had hurt my ankle until I woke up the next morning.
