15. Chapter 15

15

O nce she snuck out through the compound’s underground parking garage, with no echo of footsteps pounding after her and no security alarm sounding at her exit, everything changed.

Like some switch inside her she hadn’t known existed just…flipped on.

Time and space ceased to exist. Everything else in her awareness boiled down to her need —the palpable urge to get out, to start the hunt, to make things right within herself so she could be the elf everyone else saw.

The elf everyone else needed her to be right now, without abandoning who she truly was in service to it.

Rebecca couldn’t even have said she remembered what she did or saw or where she went between leaving the compound and stopping where she ended up.

As if all the years of pretending—of running, of hiding, of stuffing her true self down into a little black box in the corner of her existence, welded shut and sealed over again with the strongest wards just for good measure—had finally taken their toll.

Where Rebecca Bloodshadow’s reality overpowered all others, and the rest of the world moved past and through her instead of the other way around.

She slipped through shadows as if they sustained her, feeding her power without satiating her hunger on her way out.

She crossed streets as if they were empty, not stopping or slowing for anyone.

She didn’t notice the few cars zipping down the city streets even at this time of night.

One or two of them barely caught sight of her in the semi-darkness before she stepped into a puddle of lamplight or the clouds parted just enough for a brighter sliver of moonlight to illuminate the young-looking blonde woman dressed in all black walking through the streets of Chicago .

The same woman who didn’t even blink at the prospect of turning down some of the darker, more reputedly dangerous side streets and alleys.

The kind of woman who, if anyone had bothered to watch her from beginning to end throughout the night, would have instantly looked far less scared, undoubtedly less intimidated, and a whole hell of a lot more eager to move down those dangerous side streets and alleys than one normally would have expected.

To put it bluntly, Rebecca went out looking for trouble without truly knowing she was looking for trouble.

Because right now, unexpected trouble she found on her own was the only kind she could successfully handle.

It wouldn’t jeopardize her anonymity. It wouldn’t obliterate the inherent safety she’d built for herself in hiding who and what she really was—from Shade, from Corpus before them, from the Eastern Hold before that, and a long line of other magical groups, teams, and organizations over many decades.

In a city like Chicago, there was plenty of trouble to go around. More than enough for everyone to get a little piece.

The first bit came upon her unexpectedly and without warning, and it wasn’t even technically hers .

Just a simple mugging. One human woman cornered in an alley. One asshole hiding his face behind a full-coverage ski mask.

And one fully loaded handgun lifted and outstretched toward the blubbering woman’s terrified face.

“P-p-please,” she stammered, shrieking as her attacker stepped toward her. “Take whatever you want. E-everything I have on me is yours. Just…p-please don’t…”

“Shut up!” Snarling, Ski Mask thrust his weapon closer to his victim’s face, though his foot-to-foot shuffling made him momentarily back away from her instead.

Swimming in a glassy haze, his wide eyes flickered back and forth between the woman’s petrified expression and the ridiculously large handbag hanging from her shoulder by matching leather straps. “Take out your wallet.”

“S-sure. Fine. H-here…” The straps fell off her shoulder, and she practically shoved her purse into the man’s arms. “Just take all of it. Please. I don’t even care. I j-just—”

“I told you to take out your wallet, bitch! You gotta make this harder for both of us? Pull out your fucking wallet!”

With a terrified squeak, the woman jumped under his hasty shout, gasping the whole time as her trembling fingers struggled to undo the very simple clasp holding together both edges of her purse .

“Come on, come on,” he snarled. “Hurry the fuck up. Jesus Christ. It’s like you’re trying to piss me off.”

Rebecca watched the whole thing from behind a rusty, reeking dumpster coincidentally set out in the alley between an Indian restaurant and something else that dumped way too many rotten vegetables at the end of the night. Her hiding place made for an entertaining view, to say the least, though she could have done without the enlightening odors of curry and decay.

Now was as good a time as any to make a move. Get a little more involved than playing Peek-A-Boo-elf from behind a dumpster.

Have a little fun.

Rebecca stepped out from behind her hiding place, the clacking of her heels echoing down the alley like a staccato beat heralding the impending threat to this would-be mugger’s physical safety.

She’d taken at least five steps before the masked man seemed to finally notice he and his victim were no longer alone.

“Kinda seems like you’d wanna get this over with as quickly as possible.” The shadows and close confines of the alley amplified Rebecca’s already dark voice bouncing off brick and asphalt alike.

Ski Mask wobbled where he stood, as if her words had barreled into him like physical projectiles, before jerkily turning around to face her.

“If I were you,” Rebecca added, “I’d just take what I could get before this whole thing got really ugly.”

With a startled gasp, the man trained his pistol on her. For the first time since she’d started watching him tonight, his outstretched hand trembled violently, the pistol in it wobbling in his grip. “Stay back! I-I’m warning you…”

Well, at least the guy had finally found his voice again. That was something.

Not for long, though.

Rebecca stopped in the alley, glanced casually at the barrel of his pistol, and spread her arms. “Not that I’m a supporter of straight-up armed robbery, to be clear. Wouldn’t call myself a fan of holding people at gunpoint, either. If you ask me, that just makes the whole thing too easy.

“And it almost always ends up the same way. Someone eventually does something stupid. Something they can’t ever take back. Then everything just gets…messy.”

“What do you want?” he snapped, thrusting his weapon toward Rebecca this time but failing to produce the desired intimidation effect.

She sucked on her teeth and offered a contemplative grimace. “Uh-oh. You’ve been nervous about this whole thing from the beginning, haven’t you? Listen. Right now, I’m just offering a few pointers. You know, in case you really feel like continuing this line of work. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. Really doesn’t really seem like a good fit.”

“Y-you’re crazy, lady.” A tight, humorless leer showed through the bottom opening in his ski mask. “But since you’re here… Hand over your money and whatever valuables you got on you, and I’ll let you out of this.”

Rebecca snorted. “See? That’s what I’m trying to show you. You’re going about this all wrong. If you’re gonna make threats like that, you gotta be willing to see them through. So it’s a promise and a chance for the other person to do the right thing. Not just a threat. You know what people appreciate even less than a threat?”

“I don’t really give a shit,” he snapped.

“An empty threat.” She pointed at him. “Because then all that worrying and trying to find a way out ends up being all for nothing. Nobody likes to have their time wasted. Not even robbery victims, okay? Trust me. I’ve been on both sides of this door, and that rule holds true for everyone.”

Ski mask huffed out another laugh, this one sounding a little more confident and a little less stunned by his current predicament. He looked over his shoulder at the woman he’d just been trying to rob and muttered, “Can you believe this shit?”

The woman clutched her purse tightly to her chest, eyed Rebecca sideways, and murmured, “I think she’s on something… Or maybe she just needs a different kind of help. You know. Mentally.”

Cocking her head again, Rebecca peered past Ski Mask to offer the other woman a tight smile and a humorless laugh of her own. “Yeah. Good one. Says the lady who thinks walking alone down a dark Burnside alley after eleven at night is a good idea.”

The other woman’s jaw dropped before she quickly recollected herself, hugged her purse tighter against her chest, and scoffed.

“Lucky for you, I just happened to walk by,” Rebecca added. “Though I was really, really hoping for a little more of a challenge tonight. But, like our guy over here, I guess I just gotta take what I can get and quit bitching about it, right?”

“I said hand over your wallet and whatever else you got on you, lady!” Thrusting his weapon toward her again before his foot-shuffling dance returned, Ski Mask snarled at her.

It made Rebecca want to take him out right then and there, without actually getting her point across first. That would, however, be doing the guy a major disservice.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” she replied. “The empty threats. At this point, I already know you’re full of shit and won’t actually fire that weapon— ”

“Hand it all over now! Or I’ll shoot. I swear to Christ I’ll shoot you!”

“Huh. How about you drop the gun and book it right back to whatever slimy hole you crawled out of? Or I’ll make you eat the end of that pistol.”

Even mostly covered by the ski mask, the guy’s face contorted into one of the most laughably grotesque combinations of surprise and anger before his adrenaline won over. “No! I’m the one with the gun, lady. You do what I say! So I’ll give you one more chance before I—”

Rebecca moved in the blink of an eye.

Faster even than either human in this alley could follow, she took two lightning-quick steps towards Ski Mask, brought the side of her flat hand chopping down on his wrist with a sharp crack, and snatched up his pistol with her free hand before he’d even fully released it.

His shout of pain and furious surprise petered out into a warbling whimper muffled by the cold weight of steel slipping easily between his lips.

Only when Rebecca thumbed back the hammer and the tell-tale click of a pistol ready to fire echoed through the alley did the man realize the barrel of his gun was now inside his own mouth.

His eyes widened, and he let out a muffled groan of terror as he dared to meet her gaze.

“See?” she told him. “ That wasn’t a threat. It sure as shit wasn’t an empty threat. I made you a promise, and you chose to test me. Now you’re here. See how that works? No one’s gonna take you seriously if you keep telling people what you’re gonna do but never actually do it.”

The man tried to say something but stopped halfway through when his words didn’t form around the barrel between his lips.

“I only said I’d make you eat it,” she said with a shrug. “It would be pretty rude of me to change the terms at the last second, don’t you think?”

He took a deep breath, probably intending to try again with his words, but Rebecca moved faster than he could finish drawing that breath.

She brought her free hand swinging toward the side of Ski Mask’s head. It was more of an open-palm slap than a knockout punch, but it took him down all the same.

The dude’s eyes rolled back in his head as a muffled groan escaped him. Then he crumpled to the alley floor and didn’t move, leaving Rebecca standing there with one hand raised where she’d hit him and the other still holding the pistol.

“Shit. Guess it’s only a fifty-fifty chance you’ll remember the lesson now, huh? Sorry. I didn’t think that one all the way through.”

The woman clutching her handbag to her chest let out a startling shriek before adding words to it. “Get away from me! ”

“Really?” Rebecca asked the woman with a snort. “That’s what you have to say?”

She reset the pistol’s hammer and tossed the weapon onto Ski Mask’s unconscious form with a thump before the firearm clattered to the ground. She didn’t need Maxwell’s eyes on her here to feel his imagined disapproval, to know he’d see this as reckless.

Too bad for him, he wasn’t here to stop her.

“I’m about to call the police!" the woman shouted. “And they’ll stop you!”

“All right. That’s a fun fantasy.” Rebecca rolled her eyes. “But I’m thinking maybe we talk about your appalling lack of good choices, yeah? Come on. What did you think was gonna happen in an alley like this? You look like you’re from around here, but you still look totally surprised that any of this happened.”

“What? You…” The woman froze and looked Rebecca up and down, her mouth hanging open. “What about you ? Is this supposed to be some kinda fashion week at the superhero convention or something?”

“Wow.” Rebecca looked down at her own outfit—all tight black leather and silver buckles and tall heels. “I would’ve said clubbing more than cosplay, but no. I’m just having a bad day.

“And you know what? I’m kinda trying to wallow in it on purpose. By myself. So you better get outta here, or I might start offering classes on how to not piss off the person who just saved you from being mugged. How’s that sound?”

The woman’s mouth gaped open again and twitched, as if she wanted so badly to respond, but she obviously couldn’t find the words.

Then, with another huff, she jerked the straps of her handbag back up over her shoulder, spun around, and power-walked down the alley without another word.

Again.

No gratitude from this human either, huh?

Shaking her head, Rebecca watched the woman walk through the other end of the alley and disappear around the corner into the rear parking lot.

Ski Mask, lying on the damp asphalt, groaned at her feet. His mask had been tugged askew in their so-called struggle, revealing a quarter of his face that still lacked any hint of intelligence.

Being human was one thing, but there really was no excuse for this level of stupidity.

Rebecca pointed at him and sent a bolt of dark silver light cracking against the side of his head, just to keep him out a little longer .

Then she did the same with the pistol lying a few inches from his prone form, only with the danger levels kicked up a notch. The metal shrieked and groaned under the assault, and the various components snapped apart to clatter across the floor of the alley beside their owner.

Maybe when he woke up and saw his weapon, he’d think twice about pulling such a moronic stunt a second time.

To her credit, Rebecca had spent plenty of time as a glorified magical thief, back in one of her previous lives before finding Shade. But even when pulling a job with an entire team, no matter the size,, there were just certain rules of the trade you didn’t break.

This guy clearly hadn’t learned any of them.

She watched him a moment longer, then heaved a massive sigh. “Well, shit. That didn’t make me feel any better.”

Pity, really. She’d hoped she could get all this pent-up frustration out of her system before having to show her face again back at headquarters. But if she’d gone out looking for a meal tonight, this little episode in the alley barely scratched the surface of an appetizer.

Stopping a human mugging was all well and good, sure. But the woman hadn’t even said thank you.

Instead, she’d insulted Rebecca’s outfit.

Screw this.

If Rebecca knew what was good for her, she’d start running. Tonight.

Was Shade even worth the trouble of staying in one place and risking her own exposure? Just so more off-the-books vigilante wannabe magicals operating outside the law could feel like they were doing something useful with their lives?

Or was this about Rebecca wanting to be useful for real, where it counted? Did she want to stop running? To stop reinventing the non-existent person she showed the rest of the world, for everyone else’s safety and her own?

Was she just flat-out tired of fighting back from within the shadows, where no one really knew her?

The thought made her snort.

That was ridiculous. She just needed to find a different mark. A better mark. And therefore a better payoff.

A shrill, blood-curdling scream rose from beyond the opposite end of the alley, echoing fiercely in the darkness toward where Rebecca stood. Immediately following it came several dark, low chuckles.

The predatory kind.

The kind that meant, very soon, someone was going to attempt something most people probably would’ve frowned upon .

“No!” the woman screamed. "Stay back. I’m warning you!”

“Well listen to that…” More dark laughter in multiple voices bounced off the brick walls of the alley. “Little skinbag thinks she can take us all on at the same time. What do you think, Gresh?”

“I think she can try. Maybe we should let her try.”

“Come on then, lady. Show us what you got under all that screaming.”

The laughter intensified. Scuffling footsteps echoed through the night. The woman’s ear-piercing, brain-rattling scream cut through it all—the kind of scream only grown human women and very young children were capable of producing.

Staring at the dark end of the alley, Rebecca tilted her head and smirked. “Perfect.”

Her heels clicked across the asphalt as she set a slow, leisurely pace toward all the noise. She could almost hear Maxwell’s disapproving growl in her mind, which only made her smirk widen.

Whoever these new idiots were, they obviously thought they were alone.

To Rebecca’s knowledge, humans didn’t call other humans “skinbag”.

More laughter and dark cheers and taunting calls filled the night. The woman screamed again, only for the noise to cut off in a choking gurgle.

“Holy shit, man,” one of the idiots shouted. “You really brought out the big guns with that shit.”

“I just wanna see if it actually works. Hey, what d’ya know? Looks like it works.”

“No way…”

“That’s some crazy shit.”

“How’s it doing that?”

“How about you shut the hell up and quit distracting me, huh? Christ, I brought a bunch of babies with me.”

“I’ve just never seen something like that before, Boyd. You gotta let us try—”

“The hell I do. This is—hey! You don’t fucking touch this thing, got it? I’m the only one who touches it.”

“Geez, okay, okay…”

Rebecca almost laughed at the criminal cattiness spilling through the mouth of the alley as she approached the far end. These had to be some Grade-A dumbasses.

Then again, there also wasn’t much to say for the woman with the giant purse walking around this part of town like she owned the place.

The woman was having one hell of an unlucky night.

Or one hell of a good-luck streak with Rebecca around, depending on how she looked at it .

Rebecca’s steps quickened as the sounds of violence grew louder. Her blood sang in her veins.

Tonight was about to get interesting.

It never even occurred to her how many dark, powerful secrets a gang of strangers might have had hidden up their sleeves.