Chapter Three

 

Shade stood cloaked in shadows, watching her target mingle with the rest of the Veilerians. She’d almost started when he moved right in front of her. For a short moment, she worried he might have seen her, but he hadn’t. Cause yeah, she was that good.

Drifting along the darkness edging the building, she found a spot to study him better. He was a handsome male. Unlike most of the beings she dealt with, he was of average height though he still towered over her. Dark hair curled over the collar of his shirt, the silky strands gleaming in the muted light. His face was masculine without being brutal in its handsomeness. He had equally dark eyes that had peered through her with such desolation she’d almost thought he shared her misery.

Impossible, he’s a traitor to the Eturian cause. Not that she believed in it, but it was her duty to rub him out.

She’d researched him thoroughly before heading to Cypress Point. Malachi Cromwell had nearly killed his own brother during his days as an Eturian general. His triumphs against his brother had led the Overlord to grant him numerous troops and resources, but he’d thrown it all away to join up with Lucian. Shade sneered at the thought of the brothers working together. How Lucian had ever forgiven Malachi for his past deeds was beyond Shade, but since taking over as Oculum, or Council spy, Lucian had lobbied for absolution for his half-brother.

“And this present is from your Uncle ʼchi,” Lineage Chieftain Ruby said loudly to her son.

The Chieftain had always been a creature of curiosity for Shade. To be able to touch any being and know their place in the hierarchy in The Veil was a power beyond belief. If she had been sent after the Chieftain, Ruby would now be working for the Eturi.

Shade watched as the fledgling vampire ripped open a brightly colored present. The boy looked at his uncle with a gasp of joy before throwing himself at him. Something hurt in her chest. She felt short of breath.

“Thank you! Thank you!” the boy shouted, squeezing his uncle’s neck with great enthusiasm. “Look, mom! It’s Rock Band!” he shouted as he ran back to the table with the present.

The other children crowded around him as well as some of the adults, everyone ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at the present. Malachi stood, his face softened by a smile.

Her breath caught in her throat at the warmth in his dark eyes. Was that love, she wondered. Did he actually love someone?

She tilted her head. He was a curious male. His exploits were legendary, yet he was at a children’s party and seemed completely at home.

The Oculum stepped away from the party to answer his cell. The smile on his face died at whatever was being said to him. Closing the phone with a snap, he gestured for Malachi to follow him.

Shade stuck close to the shadows, following them as they found a quiet corner on the patio. Stationing herself above their heads, she waited to find out what was going on.

She normally didn’t spend so much time learning about a target before completing the assignment. This time, however, she had even less to look forward to than usual. Once Malachi was dead, she’d be the Chief’s toy for the next twenty-five years.

“What’s going on?” Malachi asked sharply. Shade could almost taste the tension in his body.

Lucian looked around before answering. “That was Bree,” he said in a harsh whisper. Bree, Shade knew, was another Councilor. “She said they just got a call from Tura, Evenkia. It seems someone killed Yakov Strezinsky earlier today.”

She almost gasped in surprise. Why would they care about an Eturian traitor?

Malachi swore. “That’s the fifth one to die this month. The bastards are getting rid of them before I can find them,” he rasped. His hands clenched into fists. “They have to know what we have planned.”

Shade wanted to ask what they had planned, but couldn’t risk being revealed. It would never do to alert the Oculum or the target that the Eturians were on to them. Shade was one of the Eturian’s best operatives because she was one with the shadows clinging to the night and no one ever noticed shadows until they were surrounded by them.

She rubbed the invisible insignia on her left arm as she listened to the two males arguing. They never mentioned specifics, but she was led to believe that Malachi was working with Council willingly. He was a traitor, just as Luther and the Overlord suspected.

“At least ask Grayson for some Guardian Elites for protection,” Lucian urged, his voice throbbing with urgency.

Shade could see the Oculum was worried for his brother, but the obstinate look on Malachi’s face showed how little he cared. “I don’t want any bloody GE’s shadowing my every step and I sure as hell don’t want to deal with the bastard who holds their leash,” he said bitterly.

Their voices got lower, leaving her to hear nothing but hisses and curses. Needing more information, she leaned closer, almost losing her perch in the shadows. This close, she could smell Malachi’s scent. Spicy with a hint of citrus, like the most exotic of fruits, it wrapped around her like a blanket. Her mouth watered.

She shook her head. Damn, she’d missed the first part of their whispered conversation.

“…sending someone to you whether you like it or not,” Lucian was saying angrily. “My son loves his uncle too much for me to take a chance with your friggin’ life, so if you have too much pride to accept help, at least think of Dominic.”

Malachi swore softly, his eyes glowing red in the shadows. Shade shivered in reaction. “Fine. Send someone, but I’m not going to stop until I get all of those bastards.”

“Lucian?” the Chieftain called from the other side of the patio.

Giving Malachi a look of warning, Lucian punched him on the shoulder before going back to his mate. Her target stood below her, his head lowered in thought. She could kill him right now. He was somewhat hidden from the rest of the party, and he was in a vulnerable position with his neck exposed. With just one chop of her hand, she could snap his spinal cord before he could call out.

That would never work though since his death wouldn’t be bloody enough for Luther. Not following direct orders was enough to send her to solitary confinement after a lengthy torture session.

Shade bit her lip, staring at the male so intently his head rose as though he sensed her presence. She held her breath as he looked left and then right.

“Who’s there?” he asked in a harsh voice, eyes glowing red in warning.

Of course she didn’t answer. She wasn’t stupid enough to give herself away, but her heart gave a hard throb at his words. He was talking to her, though he didn’t know it.

He raked a hand through his hair when nothing but silence answered him. Swearing softly, he went back to the party with a false smile. Shade noted a number of Amazons watched him with hunger though none approached him. They laughed and joked, but didn’t take a step to do anything about the hunger they felt for him.

Pressing a shaking hand to her belly, she frowned down at it. What was wrong with her? She’d seen the worst the world could offer and here she was feeling something for a target. A target! Eyes flashing wide at the realization, she looked around frantically. If Luther or any of her colleagues knew she was beginning to feel…

She shook her head. No. She felt nothing. This job required finesse. That was the only reason she was studying her target.

*****

Malachi drove home from the party in a nasty temper. He barely registered how fast he was going, just roared through the night. Someone was sabotaging his efforts to redeem himself in The Veil. His hands clenched on the steering wheel. Strezinsky had been a hard vampire to trace. Malachi had spent three months alone unraveling the mess of information in the logbook Piper’s predecessor had kept. The code in the first half of the book hadn’t been difficult to break, but piecing together the information had been downright grueling.

That little logbook had yielded the names of seven Eturian generals as well as useful dates, but those people were being picked off one at a time before he could get to them. Growling in frustration, Malachi slammed the heel of his hand on the steering wheel. He couldn’t believe Strezinsky was dead!

The scenery flew by as he took his frustration out on the road. His Maserati GranTurismo S responded with a throaty roar, snarling down the empty highway. Malachi felt his face split into a wide grin in spite of his bad mood.

Cars were his one great weakness. They were a joy to drive. As long as you took care of them, they took care of you. His garage was filled with vehicles he’d owned over the years. He never got rid of a single one, treating them like members of the family he never had until recently.

Having released a little of his anger, Malachi eased up on the pedal. So he’d been denied the pleasure of turning in five of the Eturian generals. There were a lot more out there. All he needed to do was find the perfect informant.

With that issue somewhat resolved, Malachi turned his mind to the feelings of being observed he’d experienced all night. None of the others had mentioned anything so either he was the only target of the attention, or he was paranoid. Considering most of his feelings of paranoia through the years had turned out to be people out to kill him, he was willing to bet someone had watched him tonight.

He frowned at the highway. The only problem was he hadn’t been able to sense anything of the individual. That was decidedly odd. His demon senses would have picked up its scent, while his vampire abilities would have picked up the watcher’s wavelength except there had been nothing. It was as though the person hadn’t actually been there.

A push of a button on the steering wheel called his home.

“Yes, master?” Kahal said into the phone, her voice smooth as silk.

“Transfer me to Tiamat’s room,” he ordered, drumming his thumbs on the wheel.

He heard clicking as the call was transferred to the suite he’d given to Tia. He hoped the elemental knew how to use the phone.

Another click and he heard screams and gunshots ringing through the car. “Jesus! Tia! What the fuck’s going on?” he yelled as he shifted into a higher gear. The house was being attacked. Son of a bitch!

“Hm? Abba?” she answered, sounding sleepy.

“Tia, what the hell is going on? Who’s attacking? Are you hurt?” he shot the questions out just as quickly as the gunshots he heard. His heart pounded with fear.

She mumbled something in a language he recognized as being ancient, but didn’t understand.

“Tia. English. Speak English, kid. What’s going on?” he pressed for information, wishing he hadn’t driven. He would’ve been back at home much sooner if he had teleported. Fear and worry had him breaking out in a cold sweat. Before, he’d never have been this concerned for the creature known as Pet, but now she was a real being to him and he couldn’t bear for her to be injured in his fight.

“Abba? Why are you calling?” she asked him in a surprisingly sweet tone.

He was tempted to shut his eyes, but didn’t want to swerve off the road. “First tell me what’s going on.”

“Hatot told me to watch a movie called Died Hard. He said it would help me sleep.”

Malachi pulled the car over, gravel spraying as he took the shoulder faster than safe. Throwing the car in park and leaving the engine running, he got out to pace around it. Deep breathing techniques he’d learned during his years as a Guardian Elite cadet helped him calm the frantic pounding of his heart and clear the shaking from his hands.

Returning to the car, he could hear McClane say, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker. “

“Tia, turn the television down,” he prompted her.

“I am sorry, Abba, but Hatot was correct, the movie helped me to sleep. I am feeling much more refreshed,” she told him and he would’ve said she sounded cheerful except her voice was as flat as ever. “I don’t know exactly who was watching you. The visions do not come to me all the time.”

Since she’d answered the question he was calling to ask, Malachi sighed. “That’s okay,” he said as he put the car in gear again. “Why do you keep calling me ABBA? Last time I looked, I wasn’t a quartet of singing Swedes.”

She was silent for a long time. “I call you ‘father’ by my native tongue,” she whispered softly before hanging up.

Well Godsdamn, Malachi thought as he reached the outskirts of Lafayette. The little elemental managed to unman him with a single sentence.

Warmth invaded his chest, a sensation he only felt when he thought of Dominic. It appeared the elemental had snuck into his affections over the last couple of centuries. A smile twisted his lips. He supposed having been told he was going to die every other day had some effect after all.

*****

Shade lingered around the Oculum. She needed more information on her target and she felt the stirrings of a plan trying to develop.

“Luc? What’s going on?” Ruby asked softly when the children were out of earshot.

The Oculum raked a hand through his long hair, before giving his mate a rueful smile. “I have to put someone on Malachi. Another one of his targets was eliminated today.”

The female weretiger Shade learned was named Piper, leaned forward. “Are you kidding me?” she asked incredulously. “Which one?”

“Kitty-cat, don’t get yourself worked up,” her mate, Connor, advised softly. He pressed a tender kiss to her brow.

Smiling at her mate, Piper softened. “Fine. Which one did they get?”

Lucian looked around, making sure the children were occupied. The adults all leaned forward. “Strezinsky.”

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Piper shouted, jumping to her feet.

“Mommy! You’re not supposed to say bad words,” her daughter’s chiding voice said from the slide.

The Amazons snickered at Piper, whose face turned red. Shade tilted her head to the side. The weretiger was embarrassed, but not humiliated to be corrected by her daughter. It was a strange sight to behold. Piper gave a little laugh and shouted an apology to the children.

Shade watched the smile melt from her face when she turned back to the adults. “Strezinsky was one of the big names on the list. Malachi was convinced the vamp had a network of lesser generals working under him unlike the others.”

She was puzzled. These civilians acted as though it was their job to help the target. It made no sense to her and she desperately needed to understand. This job was making her second-guess herself.

Pulling herself back to the conversation happening below her, she heard Ruby ask who was going to watch Malachi’s back.

Lucian’s face darkened in thought. “I’d love to send Isra Valentine, but she’s in high demand. I’ll have to make do with one of the recruits, I suppose. It’s better than nothing.”

Shade narrowed her eyes. She had heard of Isra many times in the last few years. It was said the Guardian Elite was going to be the next VPA Chief. The female’s praises had been sung all over UnVeiled, but it mattered little to Shade if Isra had somehow saved a house full of orphaned fairies. Power bred cruelty and this Isra would be no different.

Leaving the party, Shade swept along the night air as she looked for a spot to summon her portal. She needed to get home and begin planning her infiltration of the target’s life. There was more going on than Luther had told her and for once, she wasn’t going to be a mindless tool in the hands of her superiors. She wanted to know why her target was looking for the Eturian generals, but most of all, she wanted to know why he made her heart pound.