Silas got to his car but didn't drive away. He didn't know what to do. He was restless and going home just wasn't what he needed right now. The energy in him was all consuming. He needed an outlet. It had been growing in him for some time now. Silas rubbed the back of his neck with a hard hand. He needed to fight or fuck.
His phone held the answer but which direction he took was the question. He scrolled through his contact until a name suited the situation well enough.
"Silas," the woman purred a moment later. "It's been a while." It had. Nine months or thereabout.
"Don't talk." He hated when they talked. "Penthouse. One hour." Before she could try out her seductive voice on him, he hung up. It wasn't a perfect solution for his energy. Later he might beat something into the ground but fucking someone into submission would do for now.
Chapter Four
“He did it again, Darby. I walked into the dining room and there he was with dinner laid out, candles, flowers, the works and he was in the center of it all smiling at me like it was his birthday. So I walk in all amazed and shit because it really was beautiful and he drops down on the knee again,” she let out a frustrated huff of breath. “I thought that this was it. This was the time but I was sorely mistaken… again.”
“What did he do?” Darby asked trying to smother the laughter in her voice.
She sighed. “He picked something off the ground and asked me if I dropped it.”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Darby snorted.
“Then we ate a lovely dinner and had a glass of wine with a fire outside. You haven’t seen the new fire pit yet. It’s mammoth. Seems a bit over kill for just the two of us but it was still nice.”
“So how pissed were you this time?”
“I wasn’t. I’m just embarrassed at myself. I keep thinking it’s going to happen but then he turns it around on me.” One thing was for sure, she wasn’t going to fall for it again. Next time he pulled that stunt, Hailey wasn’t going to get her hopes up.
“He’s just playing with you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why I get pissed because it’s a game to him.”
Darby’s cough was rough and made Hailey forget all about her minor troubles. “You ok?”
“Yeah,” she croaked. “Just need some water.”
Darby’s health had dropped considerably since first meeting her. A few weeks ago they went to visit and Hailey had to try her hardest not to stare and make a big deal out of Darby’s new appearance. She was thin and fragile. Her spiky pixie hair, that Hailey loved so much, was dull and lifeless. Every step Darby took looked like it hurt and sitting brought on a whole other set of aches and pains. Somehow she looked ninety-years-old and thirty-three all at once.
“Ahh that’s better. Look, I’m not going to tell you he isn’t playing games but have you ever thought that maybe this is a distraction?”
No, she hadn’t. So what would he be distracting her for? “That’s a thought.”
“Just, don’t lose hope just yet.”
Hailey smiled. Darby’s loyalty would always lie with Dak but she’d give her some clues along the way.
“Alright. I won’t. So when do I get to see your beautiful face again?”
There was a soft content sigh on the other end of the phone. It made Hailey smile because Darby didn’t usually seem content and truly happy. She was in too much pain all the time. “I don’t know Hailey. Hopefully soon.”
“I’ll talk to Dak and see what we can work out. Maybe this weekend.”
She laughed with hidden secrets. “Yeah, I’ll see you then.”
Hailey should have pushed but the tiredness in Darby’s voice had her saying goodbye. If she had time, Hailey might drive up there in a day or so. Her gut was telling her that she needed to see her.
She looked at her phone and cursed. The call had lasted longer than she had planned. Hailey needed to get downstairs so they could leave. Every two weeks Dak and Hailey met with members of the council and often times another Sept leader. They were reworking the way things were run. It was a long process but for the better.
Dak was waiting for her by the door. He smiled at her and pocketed his phone. “Love, are you ready?”
All those stupid games he had been playing didn’t matter when he looked at her like that, like she was his sun. His eyes would soften and his mouth would quirk up into a little smile. She had to kiss that mouth. So she did. Hailey slipped her arms around his waist and stood on her tip toes to reach his smirking mouth.
“What was that for?” he asked still wrapped in her arms and now pulling her closer.
“No reason,” she said.
“Ah well,” he kissed her again. This time taking it to where he wanted it to go. “That is the best reason of all.”
*****
Charley checked and triple checked her equipment. They had been running late, of course. The day she was ready to put the wheel in motion was the day they were not their usual prompt selves. And because they were late, the meeting was running late. If they didn’t go to lunch afterward, she was going to be pissed.
This job in particular was one of interest. Charley didn’t know her father, she didn’t know for certain what kind of thing he was, but she always assumed dragon. There was logic behind it. She went through a phase when she was younger trying to figure out who her father was. That was before those rose tinged glasses she wore were shattered to pieces.
Charley’s life started at eighteen. On her birthday she told the “home for children”--because orphanage was too passé--to go fuck themselves and walked out. She had a L.L. Bean backpack that held an extra change of clothes, $600 in cash and two of her favorite books; The Secret Garden and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Up until that day, Charley had lived in six foster homes but it only took a month or two each time to discover she was not what they wanted. Nothing that she hadn’t heard before. Humans weren’t given enough credit. They could sense when something looked like them, talked like them, but wasn’t like them.
The story of her mother, Janice Morgan, starts like many. Boy meets girl. Girl falls deeply in love in the whole thirty seconds they know each other. Girl invites boy into her bed where they have one night of average, half fulfilling sex. Boy leaves and promises to come back. For a month they continue this cycle until one day boy doesn’t show up, he misses the next week too. Girl finds out she is pregnant and decides she can use it against boy to get him to come back. He doesn’t. Girl has baby but barely tolerates it. After five years and boy never shows, girl decides she doesn’t want to be a mother anymore and never picks up her child from daycare. This story is fine and dandy but girl could have at least told her child what she was. The child had to learn the hard way.
At fourteen, Charley figure out she could be very persuasive if she wanted to be. All she had to do was lock eyes with someone and tell them what she wanted. It worked for a while but people caught on. No one looked her in the eye after that. It wasn’t until she was seventeen when she figure out that persuasion was something she got from her mother. The one angel she met while waitressing that summer basically told her she was the scum of the earth and should be wiped from existence. From what she gathered, that was the common consensus among angels when it came to her. That was the day she found out she was half angel, half unknown. After her angel encounter, Charley threw herself in to research.
Charley never knew her Father. When she left at eighteen, she decided to track him down. At that point she had already figured out what she was but didn’t understand it. Charley traveled the country. She found werewolves and fae, vampires and witches, but no father. However, Charley did learn that supernatural monstrosities hated her just has much as humans were cautious of her. Not enough of one and too much of another.
One night when she was nineteen, Charley was attacked in an alley. Her attacker was a vampire and she staked the shit out of his pale ass. It felt good. Turned out that vampire had a price on his he
ad and Charley collected. She was good at what she did and used the prejudice and hatred of those around her to fuel her drive. Killer for hire wasn’t the most glamorous of job titles but she got to kill those bastards who made her life hell and got paid to do it.
It really was a win win.
Because of her hunch on her ancestry, Charley enjoyed taking on Dragon jobs. It helped that they were also a challenge.
The couple walked out of the building where the Council resided. Charley got into position. Most jobs were pretty cut and dry but her employer this time wanted him to suffer beforehand. Killing this Hailey woman would be the first step in suffrage.
Outside of the building, they stopped, hands linked together and smiles on their faces. People milled about them on the city street but the shot was clear otherwise. Charley locked on and took a breath. In her scope she saw the woman’s face, her head angled up to the dragon, giving him her complete attention.
Charley’s finger moved to the trigger. She gave herself two beats and pulled.
Her body hit the ground at the same time a virtually silent gunshot went off. Something heavy was lying on top of her, but she was on her stomach and couldn’t see what.
“What have you done?” the familiar smooth voice asked.
“My job,” she snapped. “Get off of me, Silas.”
He moved enough so he could turn her over on to her back. She had never met Silas in person or even been this close to him. After finding him snooping around her apartment, Charley dug up some information on him. When her employer came to her with his target, she had jumped on it. Taking this scum out would be a pleasure.
“I don’t think I will Charlotte. Actually, I think you and I need to have a little talk.”
She smiled. “Before or after your sister’s funeral?”
He blanched. “She was your target?”
“Not exactly, but her death would hurt you so…”
The wheels were turning in his head. Asshole probably thought she had been after Dacea.
“Regardless, you missed so let’s have that talk now.”
Charley buckled. “What! I didn’t. I never miss.” She tried to sit up to see but he pushed her back down with a palm on her chest.
Silas smiled as he tied her hands together with a zip tie. “Afraid so, Love. You hit Dacea, but I suspect that was my fault since I pushed you. Now shut up,” he stuffed a rag in her mouth and taped over it. “And let’s head home.”
Chapter Five
They had been talking about lunch when his eyes bulged and he staggered forward as if pushed. A bright splotch of red began to spread out on his chest. The devastation in the look he gave her right before he fell was the scariest thing she had ever seen. For the first time, she had seen Dak well and truly scared. Hailey didn’t know what happened but caught him the best she could and they both fell to the ground.
She screamed when his eyes drifted closed and cried when he wouldn’t wake back up. Hailey shook him and yelled at him to open his eyes. But he didn’t. His body had gone slack and the only movement she saw was the blood gurgling from his chest.
Dane was there, instantly by her side. He checked Dak over as she begged for him to be ok. Her mind couldn’t fathom how one minute they were arguing over Mexican or Japanese for lunch and the next he was in a pool of his own blood. She held his limp hand and pushed his hair out of his face as Dane tried to stop the bleeding.
“Please don’t die,” she whispered.
“He’s not going to die,” Dane said from beside her. “I won’t let that happen. Now I need you to run inside and get someone from the Council down here.”
Hailey shook her head. She wasn’t leaving him.
“Hailey,” he turned to look at her, his hands and shirt covered in Dak’s blood. “We need help. I can’t leave him so that means you have to. We need to get him moved.” The urgency in his voice scared her enough to let go of Dak’s hand and run inside. There was a crowd of people around them already and she had to push through. Lou, the Green Council member, was in the lobby of the Council building. He was barking orders at people. When he saw her, his eyes went wide and he rushed over to her.
“What happened?”
Hailey shook her head. “I-I don’t know. He was shot.”
“Dacea?” Shock, worry, fear.
“Yeah, Dane is with him now but…”
“We are on it, Hailey. Go back outside. We will send an ambulance with our people in it.”
Lou was already on his phone and walking away from her. She turned and swallowed hard. The crowd had grown. She couldn’t see him at all anymore. The fear of him dying and her not being there choked her. Hailey stumbled forward on shaking legs and tried to push her way back through the crowd. The people wouldn’t move though, they all wanted to stare at the bleeding man. Not one of them was trying to help him instead of just watching. She wanted to smack them all. A man, her man, was bleeding after being shot, he was unconscious and all they could do was pull out their phones and video the scene.
Her tears were of frustration now.
“Hailey!” Dane yelled.
“I’m here!” she yelled back but was drowned out by the people around her. “Dane, I’m here!” She raised her arms and waved them best she could.
Someone grabbed her upper arm and pulled. Hailey pushed passed people as she was yanked inside the circle of bystanders. Dane didn’t let go of her arm as he pulled her towards the ambulance. Dak had been loaded already and all that was left was a wet spot of blood on the sidewalk. It was all whirlwind of activity. Hailey being pushed inside the back of the ambulance. Dane getting in the front. The sirens and the speed of the vehicle. The men working on keeping Dak stable. Dane telling them where they needed to go and the fastest route. The slow rise and fall of his chest.
She locked onto that movement and let it calm her.
He was alive.
*****
Silas had seen her on the way into his meeting. The swing of red hair as she turned the corner was almost enough for him to ignore his responsibilities and go follow. As mundane as they were, he needed to sit in on at least a few of these meetings. He had called in one of his men to find her and keep an eye on the little mercenary.
He had found her, simply enough, located in the high rise across the street. The floor was still undergoing construction but none of the workers were around. Silas walked the suite until he found her in one of the offices. She had a very large rifle perched in front of her and a determination that he had never seen before. Down below he could see the building he had just come from and a sick feeling dropped his stomach. As her finger moved toward the trigger, he leapt onto her knocking them both to the ground.
She sat now in the back of his SVU with him. He had put her on the floor since her hands and legs were tied in such a way that she could not sit properly. Charlotte glared at him but did not say a word otherwise, neither did he for that matter. Once they were secure he would get answers, until then she could glare all she wanted.
He got out at the front of his house and sent the driver and Charlotte around back to the service entrance where the basement was accessible. Silas took the moment to listen to the voicemail Hailey had left him. Dacea was alive, which was unfortunate but not surprising. She was ok but shaken. They were headed back to their house now. He would check in later. Now was all about seeing to the comfort of his newest inmate.
Silas took the hidden passage through the closest to the sublevel where his security was housed and prisoners were kept. The rows of clear cells lined up one after another. He may not have provided them with privacy but he did give them comforts in the way of a bed, TV in some cases and books. Charlotte was at the end of the row. She had been unbound and stood with her arms crossed over her ample chest. Silas stopped to devour her with his eyes. She was beautiful and fierce. Her red hair was secured in a ponytail high on her head, it fell down her back in large curls. Her brown eyes were so clear he could have sworn they were a gemstone. E
ven the snarl on her face couldn’t take away from her attractiveness, in fact, he kind of liked it. She wore her black leather jacket, the one he had found in her closet with all of the blood and smells on it. It pleased him to see it. He had always pictured her wearing the jacket and seeing it for himself was satisfying.
“Are you going to stare at me all day?”
“If it pleases me, I will, Charlotte.”
She gagged. “Ugh, don’t call me that. My name is Charley.”
Silas’s eye brow rose. Charley. He let his mind turn the name over a few times. He liked it. It fit her well. “Alright, Charley. I do plan on fully getting to know you later on but for the time being, just tell me one thing...” He had stepped up to the glass and slid his hands in his pockets. Her eyes ran an appreciative look down his body. He was smirking when she made her way back up.
“See something you like?” he asked casually.
She smiled sweetly. “I could ask you the same thing.”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, I don’t play games. There is no doubt that I am attracted to you. That however, is not why you are in my house. Why did you do it?” He asked getting back to the subject at hand.
“I kill things.” Charley smirked, “You’re a thing.”
“Indeed.” Such a puzzle this one. He had thought that from the first day he had begun following her. Some found puzzles tedious and mundane but he found he liked to fit the pieces together just so until the picture came into focus. Charley was a puzzle he couldn’t wait to get his hands on.
Chapter Six
Dak had woken up in the ambulance for a brief moment. His eyes searched wildly around till they found her. When he was content with what he saw, he passed out again. Hailey had begun to breathe after that. The Council had sent a doctor who was waiting for them back home. They had gotten him out of the ambulance and into the dining room where his bullet would be removed safely and as swiftly as possible.
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