Blood Before Sunrise: A Shaede Assassin Novel

by amanda bonilla

  I’d arrived thirty minutes early, too damned antsy for patience of any kind. I’m sure there were toddlers out there with better waiting skills than mine. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I checked the caller ID: Ty. Well, what did you expect? Did you really think he’d just shrug his shoulders and say, “Well, okay then. If you say so.” I stared at the phone, holding my breath until it quit ringing. A few seconds later it started up again, buzzing incessantly, and I pictured Ty’s furious expression when the buzzing stopped and my voice mail undoubtedly answered.

  Fallon approached the gate at two minutes past one, his swagger evidence of his satisfaction at the turn of events. He walked to the gate, careful to avoid the security cameras, and pressed his face against the metal bars. The wild glint in his hard gray eyes sent a shiver from my head to my toes as he looked to where I stood, as if he could see me in my shadow form. “Do you have what I want?” his cold voice pierced the night.

  “Do you have what I want?” I asked in return. I wanted Fallon to go down so bad, I could taste it. I hated opportunists.

  “You know I do,” he answered, running his forefinger down the center of the gate. A golden light glowed from his fingertip, and the gate swung open wide enough to permit my shadow form to slide through. “Careful.” He looked to the guard station behind him. “If you touch the gate, the wards will react. I’d hate to see you caught when you’re so close to getting what you want.”

  Yeah, right. Like Fallon gave two shits about what I wanted. He’d seen an opportunity to steal something he wanted without getting his hands dirty, and the bastard had taken it. Remaining cloaked by night, I slid through the opening in the gate. With another touch of his finger, he sealed up the entrance, effectively sealing me in.

  Fallon led the way back toward the complex. His black military-style garb seemed fitting for his role as PNT security high roller, but another thing I planned on doing once I had Delilah’s information was make sure he no longer carried his position here. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I tried to ignore it, though every pulse came with a mental image of Tyler’s furious face. Brakae. I kept my eye on the prize: Find Raif’s daughter and end the grief that had followed him for centuries and spurred a blood feud that had almost destroyed an entire kingdom—not to mention me.

  We entered the building, and Fallon secured the door behind us. He looked at the empty reception desk, his hands balling into fists at his sides. “Can you believe they allow a human to work here?” He ran his hands through his hair. “It makes me sick.”

  “What the hell do you care about who works here?” This guy had some serious antihuman hang-ups.

  “Humans are like insects,” he spat as we made our way to the elevator. “Or worse, rodents. They multiply like rabbits—or rats,” he laughed. “Humans are filthy rats. A pestilence contaminating the world with their presence.”

  “Give me a break.” I hated him more by the second. “They’re not much different from you, or from me, for that matter. Live and let live.”

  We stepped in the elevator, and Fallon took a step toward me, close enough to my shrouded form that he could have almost touched me. “You’re not anything like them,” he said, inhaling the air where I stood. “You are something else entirely. Special.”

  His words frightened me. The desire in his tone, laced with violent need, touched every part of me in a way that made me feel violated. There was nothing sexual about it. What I’d felt from his voice ran deeper than physical desire. I suddenly regretted wishing into uselessness the only person in this world who could offer me protection.

  “Humans are bred from the mundane,” Fallon continued to complain as the elevator took us into the bowels of the building. “Before the humans poisoned the earth with their vile presence, the Fae and creatures like them ruled. We walked in freedom without fear of revealing our true natures. It sickens me how low we’ve sunk. Hiding, pretending to be nothing more interesting than a leaf dangling from a branch.” He leaned in toward me again, tracing the air around me with his hands. “But if you look closely at the leaf, you will see its intricacies. The various patterns and weavings in its construction. You will see the extraordinary. The magic living within each cell. We are passed over as common things when we should rightfully hold dominion over this world.”

  Wow, evil dictator, anyone? I didn’t respond to his tirade. Honestly, I doubted he’d care one way or the other how I felt on the issue of supremacy. Xander believed that Shaedes and Fae, Jinn and Sylphs, even Lyhtans and the rest of the supernatural world, were just as much a part of the natural order as humans, animals, grass, and even insects. He believed that nothing was infallible or immune to the laws of nature. It didn’t mean that he didn’t recognize the supernatural community’s need for discretion, though. Humans weren’t superior to the supernatural, but the one thing humans were not good at was stepping out of their comfort zones. And discovering the neighbor could become a gust of wind whenever she might choose, well, that just wouldn’t fly with most of them. Best to leave Sylphs, Fae, and the like in legends, where they belonged.

  The elevator door slid open, and I stepped out into the darkened corridor leading to Delilah’s cell. “You’ll soon see, Darian,” Fallon said. “And you will be amazed.”

  For shit’s sake, this guy got creepier by the second. If simply turning him in wasn’t good enough, I might have been tempted to run him through with my katana if the occasion arose. All I wanted was to get the information locked in Delilah’s crazy head and get the hell out of here. I tried not to dwell on the fact that I was trapped inside the walls of the PNT facility until Fallon let me out. I fought for control of my nerves as his presence frayed them to shreds. The emerald pulsed in one pocket, my phone buzzed in the other, each reminding me of unfinished business. But I pushed those things to the back of my mind and followed the path of fear to Delilah’s cell.

  Fallon entered the security code into the electronic pad, and the door slid open in a flash. Delilah sat exactly where I’d left her days before, huddled in a ball, pathetic and useless. “You see?” Fallon said, nudging her with his booted foot. “I kept her safe and sound for you.”

  I drifted from my shadow form and raised a quizzical brow. What the fuck was his definition of “safe and sound”? From the looks of her, Delilah was neither. “Let’s get this show on the road.” I squatted down to Delilah’s level. “I’ve got places to go and people to see.”

  “The hourglass?” Fallon asked with an icy tone.

  “Will be yours once you hold up your end of our bargain.”

  “How do I even know you have it?” he asked. “I could free the Oracle’s mind only to be rewarded with a piece of trash.”

  I rolled my eyes. Apparently Fallon had been double-crossed before. Maybe then he wouldn’t be too surprised when I turned him in to Reaver. I slung a small backpack from my shoulders and dug through the largest pocket, retrieving the hourglass carefully protected in a towel. I took care in unwinding the relic from its wrappings and held it aloft for Fallon’s inspection. The sparkling grains of golden sand floated upward into nothing before pouring back into the bottom of the glass. His gray eyes flashed with quicksilver when he saw it, his hands reaching out to take it.

  “Whoa, boy,” I said, covering the hourglass and stowing it in my bag. “Not until you give me Delilah.”

  A calculating smile lit up his face. “Can’t have one without the other.” He knelt beside me at Delilah’s feet. “What do you say, my dear?” he whispered near her face. “Are you ready to come out and play?”

  Like some kind of freaky Stepford wife, Delilah stood. Her empty milky blue gaze stared straight ahead, though her head cocked from one side to the other. She inhaled the air around her and trembled. Tears pooled in her eyes but didn’t spill over her lids. Her bottom lip quivered, jutting out like a frightened child. I stood by and watched, waiting anxiously for Fallon to pay me for services rendered and lift the spells confining Delilah to silence.

&n
bsp; Fallon turned to look at me, the same hungry gleam in his eyes. He lifted his hand to Delilah’s forehead, the moment mounting to the suspenseful climax Fallon wanted it to be. And just when I thought my goals were within my reach, the shrieking blare of alarms told me I was wrong to have ever trusted Fallon to hold up his part of our bargain. “What the hell is this?” I drew my dagger and leveled it, hovering just over his heart.

  Fallon swept the blade away as if shooing a fly. “Don’t be an idiot,” he said through clenched teeth. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now. Or we’re both as good as dead.”

  “I’m not leaving without Delilah,” I said, wrapping my free hand around her scrawny arm.

  “You expect me to get all three of us out of here unscathed?” Fallon’s eyes bulged.

  “You damned well bet I do.” I ushered him toward the door with the point of my dagger. “You’re as guilty as I am, buddy. And Delilah comes with me.”

  Great, Darian. You’ve gone from trained assassin and royal guard to petty thief and kidnapper. Way to raise your standards. But my mission to find Brakae had become an obsession. No fucking way was I walking away now. I towed Delilah out behind me while I prodded Fallon in front of me. “Don’t forget,” I said, harsh, angry, the voice of a blossoming criminal, “I have the hourglass. If you want it, you’d better get us out of here.”

  The alarms continued to howl, following us down the corridor toward the elevators. Delilah wasn’t easy cargo to haul. Basically a zombie, she moved only because I pulled her into motion. She didn’t speak or make a sound. She just shuffled her feet along, her stringy hair swinging around her empty, emotionless face.

  “Can’t you get her moving faster?” Fallon asked.

  “Not unless you want to employ your fancy brain-restoration techniques right fucking now!” I snapped. “Otherwise, shut up and keep moving.”

  Fallon shook his head and froze ten feet from the elevators. Three sets of doors slid open simultaneously to admit a fully uniformed security detachment—and at their head stood Moira.

  The urge to kill her was a tangible thing, burning in my chest and threatening to override the tiny sense of reason I’d been clinging to. She’d hurt Tyler, messed with his mind and his emotions. And that bitch was going to pay.

  “Fall back,” he said, no longer needing my dagger to encourage him. “There’s a set of stairs at the end of the hallway just past Delilah’s cell.

  I took a step forward instead of retreating, and Fallon grabbed onto my arm, pulling me back. “Now isn’t the time. Unless you want to forfeit your life along with the Oracle’s secrets, we’ve got to get out of here. Now.”

  I stared at Moira good and hard, hoping that she, like her brother, could hear my thoughts. This isn’t over. “Let’s go.” I shoved Delilah at Fallon, and he scooped her up in his arms, retreating the way we’d come. I drew my katana from behind my back—quite a feat considering the backpack—and pointed it toward my biggest threat, the Sidhe with an attitude. I backed away slowly, giving Fallon the lead. Delilah had become my number one priority. If she died, the secret of Raif’s daughter would die with her. And after everything I’d done, I doubted any of the fifteen Fae standing before me would lend a concerned ear.

  “My brother isn’t here to save your pathetic hide.” Moira brandished her scary barbed swords with glee. “I don’t care who or what you are. You’re dead.”

  “Only if you catch me.” No one escaped a dangerous situation by playing meek.

  “If Reaver could see who you’ve decided to consort with,” she snorted, “I’m sure he wouldn’t champion you. He’d help me rip you limb from limb.”

  I did not want to stick around and chat with this psycho bitch. The bloodlust in her white-blue eyes had me yearning for my own revenge. She had the upper hand, however, and if she caught me, she wouldn’t just stab; she’d skin me alive and make sure the feat would take days to accomplish. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I swore under my breath. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about right now. I slowly put distance between Moira and me. She sheathed her swords and drew a bow from behind her back. I paused—curious—and watched as she produced a strange arrow from a quiver hanging at her side. My lips curled into a snarl, and I fought the urge to charge full speed and run her through with my katana. I recognized those arrows well. They could incinerate anything they managed to strike—including me.

  “Get Delilah out of here—now!” I yelled over my shoulder. I turned to run, feeling as though I traveled in slow motion, melting into nothing as I heard the first arrow fly. Moira cried in battle, a shrill and chilling sound that drowned out the sound of the alarms. She barked an order in a strange language, and I didn’t look back as I fled down the corridor, fearful of what I might see if I dared to look. I heard the whooshing of air as the arrow sailed past me, burying itself in the floor. The concrete began to sizzle and melt away, leaving a two-foot hole and no sign of the arrow that had caused the damage.

  My bones hummed in my body, my skin crawled with the sensation of powerful magic, and I felt my body leave the safety of obscurity as Moira put the kibosh on my hopes of a stealthy escape. Whatever magic she’d aimed at me earlier at her brother’s house held me now, chained to my solid form and making me an easy target to take down.

  Fallon rounded a corner just past Delilah’s cell and paused before disappearing from sight. “Hurry up, damn it!” he called.

  “Darian!” a familiar voice called out from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Adare shoulder to shoulder with Moira. Great. Just great. The whole of Xander’s kingdom would know about this clusterfuck by sunrise. “It isn’t too late to turn yourself in! Think about what you’re doing. Stop!”

  I rounded the corner just as one arrow buried itself in the wall, another barely clipping my boot. Moira’s enraged scream put a smile on my face as I took the stairs, two at a time. With no idea where I was going, I ran up the stairs, taking two flights before a hand grabbed me hard around the arm, hauling me through a doorway.

  “Be still!” Fallon seethed, giving me a shake. “I’ll get you out of here with your head still attached, but you’ve got to be quiet.”

  “How are you going to do that?” I asked. “This place is swarming with PNT security, including that Sidhe bitch. Oh, and did I mention she’s got some wicked fucking arrows to sling?”

  “Moira,” Fallon replied with disgust. “Her power is nothing. Shut your mouth and don’t move.”

  Fallon set Delilah down, and she stood like a mannequin as he went to work. Muttering words I couldn’t decipher, he passed his hands over me from toe to head, ending by combing his fingers through my hair. He repeated the procedure with Delilah who didn’t bat a lash, and then in the same sweeping gesture, passed his hands over his own body. “There. We’ll walk out right under the bastards’ noses.”

  “Are you off your nut?” I asked before I really looked at my companions and my jaw dropped. “Holy hell, how did you do that?”

  Delilah and Fallon were no longer recognizable as themselves. And as I passed my hand over my face and through my now-short hair, I realized neither was I. If Fallon scoffed at Moira’s power and managed to do this to me, he was jacked up with more magic than any preternatural creature I’d ever met—except, maybe, for Ty.

  “A glamour,” he said. “But it won’t last long, so I suggest we get the hell out of here.”

  I marveled at my hands, no longer small and thin, but rough and corded. A man’s hands. I didn’t even want to think about what other attributes Fallon had given me. Wouldn’t Anya be jealous? I probably had the balls she wished she had! “Where to from here?” I asked. “I don’t want to look like this for any longer than I have to.”

  Fallon answered with a chuckle. “The Oracle will be our only problem, as she’s a bit on the lethargic side. This corridor leads to the elevators. We should be able to hit the main floor and walk right through the gate.”

  Yeah, well, the best-laid plans and all of t
hat…If it ended up being that easy, I’d shit my pants. Frantic voices echoed throughout the complex and finally, thank God, they shut off the alarms. We walked to the elevator without incident, although I have to admit anyone with half a brain would have noticed we looked a little suspicious with the third member of our party dragging “his” feet as he followed us along.

  We rode the elevator to the main floor in tense silence. I was scared shitless to step even a toe out of line. But as the doors glided open and we stepped into the lobby, I let out a deep breath. The search had migrated to other areas of the compound, and we were nearly home free. I pushed Delilah in front of me, urging her out the front entry just behind Fallon. One hundred and fifty yards stood between us and safety. One way in, one way out. Right through the front gate.

  “Put your sword away,” Fallon said. “That’s not a standard-issue weapon.”

  I tucked the blade in its scabbard, though doing so made me feel twice as vulnerable. “Don’t speak to anyone,” he continued as we walked down the long driveway to the main gate. “I didn’t have time to glamour your voice. You’ll betray us if you open your mouth.”

  Again, no one stopped us or questioned our actions. Fallon played his part well, searching bushes as we walked as if sweeping the property for any sign of—well—us. My skin tingled as I sensed the approaching dawn, warm and scratchy, made more stifling by the effects of Fallon’s glamour. Already we’d been here longer than I’d hoped. I wanted nothing more than to be rid of both Fallon and Delilah. Now they stood at my side, partners in crime.

  The guard at the gate stood at attention, sword drawn and wary. “No one is allowed off the property,” he said, moving between us and the gate. “Adare’s orders.”