32. Ivy

32

IVY

Something about this entire situation is bugging me. What exactly does Tate's warning mean? If Torin ordered this hit, does he expect me to go through with it, kill his dad, and then what? Are he and Bram, and possibly Tate as well, going to abduct me? Kill me? Follow me back home to see if they can get access to The Syndicate? Tate's warning wasn't really very clear. I crouch down by a massive tree and ponder my options. Going in there as Poison is probably going to come back and bite me in the arse. But not going in as Poison will require notifying my bosses about this situation in case they think Poison failed and some other chick got to him first.

Deciding that throwing the guys off track is probably my best bet, so I pull out my phone and flick it onto the camera. I slide my thumb over to video and hold it up, pressing record.

"Video evidence that this situation calls for a disguise. Shifting from Poison to…" I think of a name off the top of my head and my gaze lands on the tree I'm crouched behind. "… Aspen, to complete the assignment." I stop speaking and allow a tertiary shift to occur. Long blue hair that curls in waves around my face and down my back, violet eyes, sharper cheekbones, cuter nose, paler skin, taller and with massive tits that burst against the top but do the job.

"Aspen out," I mutter and end the recording. I fire it off to Ramsey, who will get it to where it needs to go, and shove the phone in my back pocket again. "Okay, Aspen. You've got this." I retreat back into the forest and make my way around the back. The odds are that if Torin, Tate and Bram are already here, they'll be waiting facing the front of the house. Sure, I could be wrong, but I'm probably not. This cottage won't have a back door. It's too small and doesn't need one. But it will have windows. Hopefully ones that are easy to open from the outside.

I creep around to the back of the cottage, keeping low and moving as silently as possible. As I suspected, there's no back door, but I spot a small window about chest height. Perfect.

Crouching beneath it, I pull out one of the throwing stars from my bag and carefully work it into the gap between the window and frame. After a few tense moments, I hear a soft click as the lock disengages. Slowly, I ease the window open, wincing at every tiny creak.

Once it's open wide enough, I hoist myself up and slip through, landing softly on the wooden floor inside. I freeze, listening intently for any sound of movement, but the cottage remains eerily silent.

I'm in what appears to be a small bedroom. A rumpled bed takes up most of the space, and the air is stale with disuse. Walcott clearly hasn't been here long.

Moving silently to the door, I press my ear against it. Nothing. Carefully, I turn the handle and ease it open a crack, peering out into the main living area of the cottage.

There is a man sitting in an armchair with his back to me. It has to be him.

I assess the situation. For an ancient vamp, he doesn't seem to have noticed my entrance. That strikes me as a bit odd.

But I'm here for one reason and one reason only. I pull out the syringe of holy water, gripping it tightly in one hand and the plug-in in the other. I spot a socket nearby and crouch down to slide it in, watching as the lavender-fragranced holy water disperses into the air.

Creeping forward, expecting the unexpected and also the guys kicking the front door in, I loom over Walcott from behind and slam the needle into the side of his neck, pushing the plunger down as fast as I can.

I stifle my scream as his head rolls off his shoulders, hanging on by a thread before that thread snaps and it falls to the floor with a loud thump. Walcott goes up in a cloud of ash, making me cough as I gasp for breath in my surprised state.

"Holy shit. Holy shit!" I mutter, my heart beating erratically at the completely unexpected turn of events. There is no way in hell I was prepared for that, despite thinking of different ways this could go down.

I stare in shock at the pile of ash that was Walcott Ashford just moments ago. What the fuck just happened? Something is very wrong here. How did The Syndicate not know Walcott had already—well, practically—been taken out? How? None of this makes sense. Unless they did know, and it was my job to finish him off. Which means someone expected me, or Poison, or any fucking one to show up and finish the job.

"Fuck." My instincts scream at me to get out now. I spin around, ready to bolt back out the window, but I screech to a halt when a beautiful but cruel-looking woman steps out of the shadows.

She smiles and throws something down. It explodes into a purple cloud, making me cough and go dizzy. I stumble back, trying to clear the air as the front door bursts open, only to notice she has vanished.

Torin, Bram, and Tate burst into the cottage, magick crackling around them. Their eyes widen as they take in the scene of purple dust, vampire ash, and me .

"Who the fuck are you?" Torin snarls, fangs dropping, as he glares at me.

"Huh?" Then I remember. Oh, right. I'm not Poison. I'm Aspen. "Just doing my job," I say coolly. "Time to bounce."

I aim for the door that leads back the way I came in, but Bram is there in a flash, eyes narrow suspiciously. "You're with The Syndicate?"

I shrug, trying to appear nonchalant even as my heart races. "Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I'm out of here."

Tate's gaze is piercing as he studies me. Does he know it's me? I can't tell.

But then a subtle tilt of his head tells me all I need to know. He knows it's me.

"Not so fast," Torin growls. "You're not going anywhere until you tell us exactly what happened here."

I force a cocky smirk onto my face, channelling the confidence of my Poison disguised as Aspen persona. "Sorry, boys, but I don't kill and tell. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

I make a move towards the door, but Bram's arm shoots out, slamming me back against the wall. His eyes glitter dangerously as he leans in close. "I don't think you understand the situation you're in, little girl. We can do this the easy way, or the very, very hard way. Where is Poison?"

My heart pounds as I feel the heat of his body pressed against mine. "Who? "

"Don't play dumb with me."

"Look. I was sent to take out the vampire. Job's done. So why don't we all just go our separate ways and forget this ever happened?"

Torin laughs coldly. "Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea what you've just walked into."

Tate draws my gaze to him as I lick my lips when he flickers some magick on his fingertips, giving me a pointed glare. It takes a second, but the penny drops. The only way I'm getting out of here is if I tap into his magick. I can't use the ivy vines because then they will know it's me, and this disguise would've been for nothing.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. Tate's right - I need to use his magick if I want to get out of this without blowing my cover. But how do I tap into it? Is it the same as when I borrowed Vex's power? That was just there, ready and waiting for when the rune was activated. But Tate's name has been on my lower back for nearly a day, and I don't know how to activate it.

Bram's grip on my arms tightens painfully. "Answer the fucking question. Where is Poison?"

I meet his gaze defiantly. "I told you, I don't know who that is. Now let me go before this gets ugly."

He laughs cruelly. "Oh, sweetheart, it's already ugly, and it's about to get a whole lot worse for you."

As he speaks, I focus on the connection I can feel humming between Tate and me. His name flares up in a white-hot flash that makes me gasp. I can feel his magick flooding my veins, and I nearly retch with the forceful power infused in every last drop.

"Last chance," Torin growls. "Tell us what we want to know." He steps closer and hisses as the plug-in releases a mist of lavender holy water centimetres from him. "Bitch!" he snarls and advances on me.

I smirk at him. "Fuck you." I unleash the magick that is desperate for release. A blast of pure force explodes outward from me, sending Bram and Torin flying backwards. They crash into the walls with satisfying thuds.

Not wasting a second, I bolt for the door. Tate moves to block my path, but it's for show. I feint left, then dive right, skidding past him and into the bedroom. I dive through the window headfirst, curling myself into a ball as I hit the ground and I'm on my feet in record time. Tate is behind me, copying my moves as I take off running, my blue hair flying behind me as a smile forms on my lips. This was the most fun I've had in a while. That offensive magick is wild and something else. I could get used to having that.

Tate's footsteps beat against the ground as he follows me through the forest, branches whipping against my face as I run. Tate's footsteps pound behind me, getting closer with each passing second. My heart races, adrenaline pumping through my veins along with the remnants of his magick.

"Ivy, wait!" he hisses.

I ignore him, pushing myself to run faster. I can't let him catch me, I can't risk him taking me back to Torin and Bram.

Suddenly, my foot catches on an exposed root, and I stumble, crashing to the ground. Before I can scramble to my feet, Tate is on me, flipping me over and pinning me down.

"Get the fuck off me!" I snarl, struggling against his grip.

"Ivy, stop," he hisses. "I'm not going to hurt you or turn you in."

His cock digs into me, pressed against my jean-covered pussy, and I let out a moan of desire that is quickly squashed. "How did you know it was me?"

He smirks. "Please. You think I wouldn't recognise you, my fated bond, no matter what form you take?"

I roll my eyes but feel a flutter in my chest at his words. "Fine. What now?"

"Now, we need to get you out of here before Torin and Bram catch up. They can't know it was you."

I nod, letting him pull me to my feet. "What about you? Won't they be suspicious if you don't bring me back?"

Tate's eyes darken as he considers my question. "I'll tell them you overpowered me and got away. They don't need to know the details."

I raise an eyebrow. "And they'll believe that? The big bad warlock taken down by little old me?"

He grins wickedly. "I'll make it convincing. Maybe give myself a black eye for good measure. Besides, they have no idea who you are. We were expecting Poison."

"I know, that's why I came as Aspen."

"Aspen?" he echoes with a smirk. "Pretty, nice rack, but I prefer the real you."

"Oh, nice," I mock complain, but grin so he knows I'm not mad he's checking out Aspen's tits.

His expression turns serious again. "Ivy, what happened back there? With Walcott?"

I shake my head, still confused myself. "I don't know. He was already mostly beheaded when I got there. There was a woman, she was there, gorgeous. She vanished in a cloud of purple smoke right before you guys burst in."

Tate frowns. "That doesn't make sense. The Syndicate should have known..."

"I know," I interrupt. "Something's not right here. But we can figure it out later. Right now, I need to get the hell out of here before?—"

A twig snaps nearby, and we both freeze.

"Tate!" Bram's voice calls out. "Did you find her?"

Tate's eyes lock with mine as he gets off me. "Go," he whispers urgently. "I'll hold them off."

I hesitate for a split second, then nod. "Be careful," I murmur,

As I run, I hear Tate shout back to Bram, "She got away! Heading east!"

I smirk to myself, grateful for his misdirection as I run west. The sounds of pursuit fade as I put more distance between myself and the cottage .

When I'm sure I'm not being followed, I slow down to a jog and then a walk. I need to get back home and figure out what the hell just happened. Who was that woman in the cottage? And why was Walcott already mostly dead when I got there?

As I near the edge of the forest, I shift back to my normal appearance. No need to draw attention by strolling around as a blue-haired bombshell, nor do I want Poison out in the open.

But first things first—I need a shower and some time to process everything that just happened. I step out of the treeline and onto the overgrown pathway, heading for the safety of home as quickly as I can.