Greed (The Damning Book 1)

by Katie May

  THE DAMNING

  GREED

  KATIE MAY

  Dedicated to my daddy. Thank you for refusing to read my books so I could

  remain your angel.

  CONTENTS

  1. Z

  2. Z

  3. Z

  4. Killian

  5. Devlin

  6. Z

  7. Z

  8. Z

  9. Z

  10. Lupe

  11. Z

  12. Z

  13. Jax

  14. Dair

  15. Z

  16. Z

  17. Bash

  18. Z

  19. Z

  20. Z

  21. Jax

  22. Z

  23. Devlin

  24. Z

  25. Z

  26. Lupe

  27. Devlin

  28. Dair

  29. Z

  30. Ryland

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other books by Katie May:

  The Darkness We Crave

  Gangs and Ghosts

  Present Day

  The rights of Katie May to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him/her in

  accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form

  or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in

  any form of binding or cover other than that in which it was published and without a similar condition

  being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover Design by

  Melody Simmons

  Copyright© 2019

  All rights reserved

  Formatted by Nicole JeRee at The Swamp Goddess

  ONE

  Z

  Icrouched on the roof, a protruding air vent obscuring me from the

  bustling street. The air was uncharacteristically cold, and the trees

  seemed to be cooperating, their branches leafless. I fiddled with the

  zipper on my jacket, turning my attention towards the people below me.

  The city itself - if you could even call it a city - was small. Buildings and

  houses, once vibrant in color but now washed out by the scorching sun, filled

  up every available space. The majority of them were doorless and

  windowless, a product of both vandalism and inconsistent weather.

  Intermingled with each building, were stalls. They sold everything from

  trinkets to bread to clothes. Humans manned most of these stalls, but a few

  Nightmares were present as well. I spotted a Mermaid splashing happily in a

  diminutive, inflatable swimming pool. Her face, however, was dirt-stained

  despite the water, and her eyes flickered rapidly from one face to the next.

  Crazed. Feral. My heart ached as I stared at her. Even Nightmares were not

  immune from the societal standards of normality. If you were different - or

  human - you were forced to live in poverty, barely making enough money to

  support yourself let alone a family.

  It was a fucked-up system. Unfortunately, it was one that was gaining

  traction by the day.

  The man I was looking for was standing in front of a stall that sold silk

  scarves. His long, black hair was pulled into a braid, and his hands moved

  animatedly as he spoke. The vendor, a woman I knew to be Mali Estba, had

  her arms crossed over her chest as she listened to whatever the man was

  saying.

  The man, Luca Leon - an oh so original name for an oh so original Mage

  - took a step closer to Mali and brushed at her hair.

  My hands clenched into fists as I stared at the figure, silhouetted in the

  waning sunlight. I hated him with an intensity that surprised me.

  A thief. A rapist. A murderer.

  He didn’t deserve to live.

  B had said as much when he had delivered the file. His eyes had gone

  cold, colder than usual for B that was, and his lips had pursed into a thin line.

  I could practically feel the anger emitting from his body. I had accepted the

  case greedily, like the vindictive bitch I was.

  “I knew I could count on you, Z,” he had said, a bright smile wrinkling

  the skin around his eyes. I had smiled back instinctively, though I imagined

  mine appeared more blood-thirsty and feral than anything else.

  Now, I flipped through the pictures of Luca’s victims in my mind.

  Juliet Beat. Human. Seven-years old.

  Missy Devlon. Human. Ten-years old.

  Ali Bennet. Human. Twelve-years old.

  I hated cases that involved kids, but someone had to fight for them. That

  someone would be me.

  It was the family of the last girl, Ali Bennet, that had came to see us,

  nearly hysterical with grief and demanding that we take their case. While

  most families would have mourned the death of their daughter, these parents

  were different. Vengeance was a dangerous emotion to have, but it was one I

  was all too familiar with.

  With a heavy breath, I turned back towards the monster in question.

  Mages, Vampires, Genies, Shifters, Mermaids, Incubi, and Shadows. They

  were all monsters to me. Nightmares.

  And it was my job to eliminate them.

  I reached for my bow, the only weapon besides a dull knife us humans

  were permitted to have. Of course, the Council didn’t believe that we would

  be stupid enough to use it on one of their own. It was a tool, they had told us,

  not a weapon. Misuse of their “generosity” would lead to a nationwide ban.

  They saw us as weak and pathetic - creatures born to serve in the natural

  hierarchy they created. I knew that not all Nightmares were bad just like not

  all humans were good. There were facets of light and darkness in every

  aspect of nature.

  But this man...this Luca…

  He was bad.

  And he deserved to die.

  I grabbed an arrow out of my opened pack, hand steady despite the

  horrendous act I was about to perform. I reminded myself that he was a

  Nightmare, a scum, a fungus, and he didn’t deserve my time or affection.

  With my job, you couldn’t afford to show pity. It made you weak, and a show

  of weakness got you killed. That was a lesson B had drilled into my mind

  since I had first started training to become an assassin.

  I froze when I saw a group of people trailing towards Luca and Mali.

  They all wore matching black cloaks with different colored hoods.

  Green for the Mages.

  Red for the Vampires.

  Purple for the Genies.

  Gold for the Shifters.

  Blue for the Mermaids.

  White for the Shadows (and yes, I saw the irony in that).

  Pink for the Incubi.

  The Council.

  Shit.

  Burrowing myself further into my hiding place, I eyed the approaching

  figures cautiously. What were they doing here? Council members rarely, if

  ever, involved themselves in the mundane aspects of life, especially in a

  primarily human settlement. It was beneath them. If you weren’t royalty, you

  weren’t deserving of t
heir time and attention.

  Bracing one hand against the gilded edge of the roof, I hissed. This was

  proving to be an extra difficult mission. I just hoped that the Vampire and

  Shifter representatives had their enhanced senses turned off. It was a little

  secret that they didn’t think us humans knew. Apparently, it was like a switch

  inside of their minds that determined whether or not their senses were

  activated. It was a conscious decision, the equivalent to a human choosing to

  lift their hand. I imagined it would get tiresome to hear and smell the entire

  world day after day with no relief, thus this switch was created through

  evolution.

  Fumbling in my pack, I grabbed out my hearing chip. Powered with

  magic from a Mage ally, the chip would allow me to hear conversations from

  any distance as long as I focused. Unfortunately, it only had a lifespan of ten

  minutes before it had to be recharged.

  Just one caveat of working with magic.

  After the bud was comfortably in my ear, I focused on the figures below

  me.

  “...opportunity, yes?” Mali was saying almost tentatively. I rolled my

  eyes.

  Mali was anything but tentative. A Vampire and an ally of the Alphabet

  Resistance (a stupid name given to us by the Nightmares), she had quickly

  became the annoying sister I never had. I loved her to death, but her acting

  skills were subpar at best.

  “It should be considered an honor,” an icy voice said. Even with my

  enhanced hearing courtesy of magic, I strained to understand his words.

  Shadow. Only one species was conceited enough to speak in whispers.

  Not all of us have super hearing, asshole.

  “How long?” Luca asked.

  “Two months, though you may be eliminated earlier,” another voice said.

  This one was husky, the telltale sign of a shifter.

  I knew immediately what they were discussing.

  The Damning. It had another name, a fancier name, but us humans only

  referred to it as The Damning.

  Every five years, the baddest, meanest, and deadliest Nightmares were

  chosen to participate in this contest. The winner would become the royal

  families’ personal assassin. The losers? Well, it wasn’t pretty. There was a

  reason we called it The Damning. In a span of weeks, it went from one-

  hundred competitors to one winner. Ninety-nine deaths.

  And apparently good old psychopath Luca had been picked to participate.

  How fucking great.

  Pinching the bridge of my nose to control my erratic breathing, I

  narrowed my eyes at the slimy figure. I watched as he took the invitation

  presented to him by the Mage Representative.

  A few more words were spoken, but I zoned them out.

  B would be pissed both if I did and didn’t complete this task. On one

  hand, the families of those little girls deserved justice. On the other, it was an

  immense risk to take out someone chosen for The Damning. Like head-on-

  pike-while-body-was-burned-alive type of risk.

  Ugh. Fuck me.

  I listened to the swish of their robes as the Council retreated, each

  movement agile and graceful. All of the Nightmares were.

  Contemplating quickly what my next course of action would be, I once

  again envisioned the three faces staring back at me. Three little girls, all with

  their lives snuffed out because of this maniac. My resolve settling, I muttered

  under my breath,

  “Do it.”

  Mali nodded slightly, the only indication that she heard me with her

  advanced Vampiric hearing.

  “That’s so exciting,” she gushed, turning her attention to the scumbag

  beside her. I didn’t even have to see his face to know he was wearing a

  cocky-ass smile. The idiot was excited. Didn’t he realize that he was going to

  die? Or was he dumb enough to think he had a chance at winning?

  “Hard competition this year,” he said easily. Mali laughed, a high-pitched

  sound that made me squirm. I would most definitely tease her about it later.

  “Come on. I want to show you something.”

  I knew she would be putting a hint of persuasion into that final sentence.

  All but Shadows were helpless to a Vampire’s allure and compulsion. He

  went to her willingly, a fly caught in a spider’s web. I licked my lips as I

  watched them walk down a dark pathway, closer to where I was crouched.

  “What do you have to show me?” he asked suggestively. I gagged.

  Literally gagged.

  Before he could say anything else vomit-inducing, I allowed my arrow to

  fly. It spliced through the air with a blistering speed, accurately finding its

  target’s heart. I heard him gurgle as blood filled his mouth. His body fell,

  hitting the ground with a barely audible thump.

  Smiling with grim satisfaction, I jumped onto the nearest awning before

  landing beside Mali and the now dead Mage in the alleyway. The shadows

  from the nearby buildings provided a flimsy shield between us and the

  outside world. It obscured us from the throng of people walking the streets

  and their way-too-curious eyes. Even then, we would have to make quick

  work of disposing the body and portaling away.

  My best friend was glaring at me, eyes narrowed into thin slits.

  “What?” I asked innocently, removing the arrow from his chest. Up close,

  he was even more disgusting. White, ashen face and dark eyes. He might’ve

  been considered handsome if I didn’t know the horrors he had committed.

  “Did you really think that was the best idea?” she snapped.

  Frowning, I felt along his coat until my searching fingers came across his

  gold-trimmed invitation.

  I snorted.

  Please accept this one-way ticket to death. We make it extra pretty so you

  know that you’re special before you’re murdered.

  Damn Nightmares.

  “He was chosen for The Damning,” Mali hissed. Her foot tapped with

  increasing speed the longer I ignored her. I didn’t know what she expected

  me to say.

  Sorry for killing him?

  “He deserved to die,” I settled on at last. I placed my arrow, still bloody,

  into my backpack. I would have to clean it when we got back to

  Headquarters. The longer we stayed here, the higher our chances were of

  getting caught.

  “He would’ve died during the competition,” Mali said in exasperation.

  “Now, you just drew more attention to us. How do you think the royals and

  Council members are going to feel when their beloved sociopath doesn’t

  make an appearance?”

  “They would think he’s a wimp that ran with his tail between his legs,” I

  said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a cerulean blue tablet. It was

  made by a Mage, Diego, for this exact purpose. “Besides, this was much

  more satisfying than a competition death would’ve been.”

  I dropped the tablet onto Luca and watched as his disgusting body

  diminished before my eyes. Nobody would ever find him again.

  Perks of magic.

  I had asked Diego once what happened to the bodies, but he had merely

  smiled wickedly. I decided I didn’t want to know.

  Huffing, Mali turned her back to me and dropped her own green pill.

  These created
portals, designed to take you to the place you considered home.

  Pretty fucking cheesy if you asked me, but useful for my day job.

  The portal glimmered a combination of silver and red, encompassing

  nearly the entire alleyway.

  “B’s going to be pissed at you,” she said a second before she stepped into

  the portal. I watched her retreating back and spoke softly.

  “I did what I had to do.”

  THE COMPOUND WAS BUSTLING when we stepped through. The

  dank, drooping walls of the cave were leaking water, indicating it must’ve

  rained before we had arrived. The buffet line curved around the walls of the

  cafeteria, where we landed, and a pungent smell assaulted my senses. Some

  type of meat. Kids and adults alike were enjoying their meals at the various

  wooden tables.

  All eyes flickered towards us when we stepped through.

  If I didn’t know any better, I would say they were afraid of me.

  Ridiculous.

  Absently, I pulled out my bloody arrow and began to wipe it off on a

  napkin from the nearest table.

  I was just a lovable human-being who just happened to like pointy things.

  Satisfied with my now clean weapon, I gently placed it next to my other

  arrows.

  “Where’s B?” I asked the young man swaggering towards me. Behind

  him, looking like demented ducklings, were numerous children I had never

  seen before. They all had dirty faces and clothing that were two sizes too big.

  New recruits.

  Their wide-eyes fixated on me as if I was the Nightmare.

  It was rather rude, if you ask me.

  “His office,” T said. He stopped in front of me with a teasing smirk that

  made his dimples appear. Stepping to the side, he gestured towards the kids

  that trailed behind him.

  “Kids, meet Z. Z, meet our newest recruits.”

  One kid dared to raise her hand in a wave. I decided I liked her.

  Chuckling at their less-than-enthusiastic response, T asked me, “Is there

  any advice you would want to give the newbies?”

  “Don’t sit down when you have a knife in your waistband. It might

  accidentally go up your asscrack, and then you’ll receive a lot of

  embarrassing questions,” I responded seriously. Mali, beside me, jabbed her

  elbow into my stomach.

  “Well that’s adorable,” T said with a wink. I think one of the little kids

  pissed his pants. Oh well. At least I wasn’t on laundry duty. “Come on