Chapter 7

7

The Assassin

I leftthe demon artifacts with Marin, ostensibly so she could tinker with them further, but I had to admit I couldn’t run away from them fast enough. Just being in the same room with them made me feel ill. I parted ways with Everett, then swung by my office just long enough to pick up my camera and a few granola bars. I munched on them in the parking lot of a shady motel in Crystal Falls, waiting for that deciding moment when I could catch my client’s cheating spouse with his pants down.

Mr. Bradley didn’t beat around the bush. Only ten minutes later, I uploaded the damning photos to our office server and quietly departed the dirty parking lot. Next on my to-do list was Mr. Millen’s dead plants and the Wolf Poodle. It was a good thing Crystal Falls wasn’t a big town. Father had the truck, so I was on foot tonight. After I was finished saving up for his birthday present, I was buying myself the cute little convertible I’d seen for sale at Mr. Shiny’s Car Heaven.

Mr. Millen lived on a quiet cul-de-sac of ten nearly identical houses. Just past his backyard, the land sloped upward and melted into the woods. I set up camp at the edge of the trees, looking down on the dark houses. No one seemed to be awake at this late hour. Even the fluffy purple Wolf Poodle next door was asleep in the grass. Under the glow of the moon, I could just make out Mr. Millen’s dead rose bushes. Completely black, they were little more than hollow husks of life, a mockery of their former glory.

I watched the house for over an hour. In that time, the Wolf Poodle rolled over twice and farted thirteen little puffs of noxious green gas, but there was no sign of poison pee.

Just as I was about to call it a night, magic rippled across my skin. Then a glowing interdimensional portal appeared over Mr. Millen’s backyard and a beast jumped down. The creature’s shape was decidedly feline. Black, sleek, and not much larger than a small house cat, it stalked across the lawn. Grass dissolved to ash beneath its paws.

A flicker of movement drew my attention to the house. A boy I recognized as Mr. Millen’s thirteen-year-old son hid in the shadows. He held a small device that resembled a game controller in his hands. As his fingers flashed across the buttons, the otherworldly cat turned in response. The kid was controlling it, I realized. He’d summoned it here, probably because he was annoyed with his parents. I’d had a few cases like this before.

I snapped a few photos of the little beast—and of the cat monster too. Mr. Millen’s son pressed a button, and the monster vanished in a puff of smoke, returning to whatever dimension it had come from.

As I walked back to the office, I heard someone following me. It didn’t sound like a monster. It had to be a person. But everyone in town knew better than to sneak up on someone who carried a sword. Maybe Aaron had come back to annoy me.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my Taser. No need to go deadly from the beginning. A quick high-voltage jolt should do the job. I spun around, thrusting out with the Taser. Quick as lightning, a hand caught mine, holding me back. I stared into the face of Jason Chanz, renown assassin and my former best friend. The Taser sparks sizzled between us.

“We need to talk,” he said, then turned and stepped into my office.

Ok, this time I was certain I’d locked the front door. I followed Jason inside. He was standing in the middle of the waiting area, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes burning with magic. They were dark copper, but he could phase them the blackest obsidian.

He had changed in the last two years, since we’d both lost our old lives. He looked bigger, tougher, crueler. His body—corded with hard, lean muscle beneath a suit of black leather—was intimidating, but his magic was the greater threat. His aura sizzled with Phantom energy, like a live wire. Mage Phantoms got their kicks drawing blood and bashing heads. The Elite Phantom—Jason—possessed an aura dripping with so much raw power that even the most belligerent Phantom would think twice before pissing him off.

“Come with me,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument.

“Where?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

“No.”

“No?” He repeated the word like he didn’t know what it meant. Then he froze, his face hardening into a granite mask. “I can smell a vampire on you. Aaron Pall.” His eyes pulsed, phasing a shade darker. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

“I am perfectly capable of choosing my own clients, thank you.”

“Stay away from that vampire,” he said, command saturating his voice, deepening it. His magic echoed through my body like a war drum.

“A month ago, you showed up to say you’d found my lost brother and you were going to reunite us. Then nothing for weeks, not even a message from you. And now you just show up out of nowhere and have the nerve to lecture me?” I planted my hands on my hips and met his stony stare. “No. First, you tell me where you want to take me, and then I’ll decide if I’m going with you.”

I could hear how mad I sounded, but I wasn’t trying to hide it. I was tired of people stopping by without notice and expecting me to drop everything just for them.

Jason stared at me in silence for a few seconds, his eyes smoldering with cold fire. Finally, he spoke. “A month ago, I had a lead on Cameron. Nineteen years ago, the witches kidnapped him, but they had an accident on the way home to the Avan Empire. The Revs found Cameron in the wreckage. He grew up with them. I was on my way to Hope when the vampires attacked and decimated the Rev territories.”

“And Cameron?” I asked in a soft whisper.

“I never saw him, but I’ve heard reports that he’s been sighted since the vampires’ attack. He’s alive.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“I looked for Cameron for weeks, but I had no leads. Until now.” His fingers drummed against the knives attached to the leather arm bands secured between his shoulders and biceps. “He was captured by a mage.”

“Which mage?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I know someone at the Night Rose Order who can help us find out. You must come with me at once.”

A stubborn part of me balked at his demand that I drop everything as soon as he came calling, but I did want to finally meet my twin brother. And I deserved to do something for myself. After all, I’d been productive tonight.

“Lead the way,” I told him.