Page 22

Nika

D ashing smile on his face, my friend strolled straight across the street like he owned this city and spoke directly to who I assumed to be the leader of the group by the way the others deferred to him, waiting for his response before they gave their own.

I wasn’t sure what he’d said, but whatever it was, it convinced the men to follow him.

After catching our gazes from across the street, Lev led the group to the spot we planned to ambush them. Without waiting, we all moved to get there before Lev was left alone too long with a group of money-hungry mercenaries.

I’d seen Lev in action before, but it never failed to impress me how good he was at what he did. Not only did he lure all six of the Shadow Pirates— lame name, I know —to the location Silas instructed, but he did it in under ten minutes.

Silver-tongued was right. Bureaucratic bullshit was definitely Lev’s area of expertise.

I’d never been very good at it. He didn’t struggle to find common ground to exploit.

I only had my seductive charms to fall back on, but Lev was the whole political package—perfect charm, words, and mannerisms. Silas was right to pick him despite my complaints.

Like demons, the two ex-Brothers swooped in on the mercenaries surrounding Lev. He and I didn’t have time to get our weapons out as we avoided the onslaught of magic, swords, and teeth.

Salvator, having taken his wolf form, and Silas, who’d donned his signature mask and cloak, were quick to navigate the dark magic violence of all six enemies. Their chosen name made more sense with the look and feel of their magic—billowy darkness that grew up from the ground like a second body.

Blue magic exploded, and the rampaging wolf moved like a swift shadow from one mercenary to the next.

Blood splashed and sprayed from all directions, Lev and I doing our best to avoid the stray sprays.

I’d forgotten how fast Salvator was as a wolf.

Faster than I could ever hope to be on two legs with magic powering them across the floor.

The beast zoomed past me, its claws eating into asphalt and pounding the floor on its way to the next unlucky asshole. I’d barely caught a flash of fur in all the chaos. One of the mercenaries lost his arms, his mouth opening in confusion, before the rest of him was gone in a blur.

Ryker and Tometi were at my side, watching the spectacle unfold.

The two phantoms had chosen to stay invisible since entering the city.

It’d give us the element of surprise. As long as I was touching them, their physical forms acted the same way ours did.

They could fight the same way as us, and Tometi suggested that if it came to it, I only needed to touch them and they’d join the fight.

At the very least, I could calculate bursts of assaults to surprise an unsuspecting enemy between the two unseen men. We might not know what all they could do, but at least I knew Tometi could throw a punch. A brutal one at that.

I’d seen it in action only a day ago when Salvator said something that evidently flipped a switch in the giant.

I’d heard the telling sound of bone cracking when Tometi’s fist landed directly on Salvator’s face after asking for my hand with a tender smile.

To say I didn’t expect the violence was an understatement.

Tometi didn’t hold back. His attack was powerful and precise and knocked his previous host to the ground without fail.

It’d given the surprised shifter pause when his face didn’t correct on its own and he was forced to take a strong potion to heal his injury.

Apparently, Salvator discovered his fast-healing abilities weren’t as fast as they once were.

We weren’t sure if it was because he and his animal souls were no longer connected the same way, but as someone who’d shattered and broken plenty of bones over the years, I knew it was a painful few hours of recovery.

Silas became an instant fan of Tometi’s, no longer agitated by the sight of the nearly eight-foot giant.

Eyes following the trail of carnage, I nearly missed the massive wolf bite down on an enemy he’d slammed to the ground. Snarling, he dragged the mercenary’s innards out with his vicious fangs. Silas cut another to pieces, his cloak spinning around him as his sword moved with deadly precision.

If not for all the blood and gore, I might’ve thought the entire scene beautiful with how elegantly the two moved.

It was quite a sight to see the two men work so seamlessly together when all they’d done for the past few days was argue.

I never thought they’d set aside their differences like this, but it was a relief all the same.

The last thing I needed was to play mediator while they cut our enemies to pieces.

“Steady on, Sally. You’re making a bloody mess,” Silas called out over another swipe of his sword, sidestepping a splash of blood from the Shadow Pirate the wolf attacked.

“Oh, and you aren’t, Sparkles? Fucking hypocrite.”

I spoke too soon.

Salvator had even shifted out of his wolf form just to clap back, he was that petty.

The two continued to snap at each other as the naked shifter slammed one enemy down, Silas having tossed him a dagger to use, and my masked assassin sent a barrage of glittering spikes at another, throwing the unsuspecting Shadow Pirate into a nearby wall.

Their bickering carried over deadly swipes and terrifying assaults.

It was lucky we were far from the hustle and bustle of the inner city, or their bickering would give us away before anything else did. The whole point of luring these men here was so we kept it out of the public eye. Any louder, and the place would be swarmed with curious bystanders in no time.

Sighing, I leaned against Lev, and he patted my head with a raspy laugh.

Neither of us intervened. It wouldn’t do us any good.

The two had some ongoing rivalry between them, and nothing we said could put an end to it.

After another few seconds, the only people left breathing were the ones in our group.

“Well, that was quick,” Lev murmured, the body parts of the six slain Shadow Pirates strewn about. “And…messy.”

Ryker clapped his hands together in giddy joy. “It’s such a mindfuck to watch my wolf from this angle. I’m so damn pretty.”

“You are no longer that wolf,” Tometi said, grief-stricken. He wasn’t just talking to Ryker. He was admitting that he was no longer the bear he’d always been, and I had to stop myself from putting a hand on him in support.

The air shifted, and I went rigid. The other two men sensed the change. Dark magic crawled across the floor before Silas’s cerulean power cut across it, easily constructing a wall of blue to stop the magic from coming any closer.

“Silver and Bear Claw? That’s a duo I never expected to see again,” a man said, appearing in the middle of the alley.

Silas had explained the night before that everyone in the dark, seedy underworld of paid killers knew him as Silver, not the Shimmering Assassin.

The infamous and uncatchable assassin identity was never connected with the name Silver or Silas.

It was only a handful of people who knew it, and most of them were dead.

The newcomer wore a mask of bones over his face with a cloak concealing the rest of him.

Red eyes, the mark of blood magic, beamed from two eyeholes.

Thick gloves covered his hands, but otherwise, there was very little about him on display.

Even his overall figure was distorted by the layers he wore.

It was meant to hide his identity the same way Silas hid his.

I’d gathered quickly that this was Salvator’s contact since neither side had attacked.

Tometi was already towering over the cloaked mercenary, bent almost half his height, sniffing him.

Ryker had that proud look of a father on his face as the bear looped the stranger several times, disgruntled but determined.

He didn’t like the smell of this asshole, but that was a given.

Even I caught a whiff of the pungent aroma of blood magic. It wasn’t a pleasant scent at all.

I didn’t relish the idea of working with someone who used blood magic, but we were fighting a demon. Compromises needed to be made, and Salvator seemed confident whoever this was could help us find Rilas.

The giant phantom left the newcomer and returned, keeping close to my side. “Your scent never fails to wash away the putrid stench of others, even blood magic, Nika.”

Smirking, I kept my eyes trained on the figure looming in shadow, regarding the two men in front of him with a frigid stare. “Thanks, Tometi. That’s high praise coming from you.”

Lev stole a glance at me, eyebrow raised. “What’d he say?”

“That I’m essentially a scent palate cleanser,” I whispered as our two stared down the cloaked figure, gesturing between them in a silent code I didn’t understand.

Lev grinned and looked the direction he thought Tometi was in. Which was hilariously off the mark, because Tometi had left my side for his and was currently leaned over and sniffing him, too. “What a sweet guy. Tometi, you’re one in a million.”

“I do not think the bear population is at a million. Evil humans have kept our numbers low,” the giant grumbled, nose still close to Lev’s blue hair.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “He says thank you.”

Salvator, naked except for the blood that covered his body, sneered at the bone-masked mercenary. “What are the Shadow Pirates doing here? Are you breaking our blood contract already, Bones?”

It wasn’t easy to discern this new asshole’s expression with the mask on, but I got the sense he wasn’t bothered by the threat. “Just a little insurance, though it seems I didn’t bring enough.”

The shifter growled low in his throat, a beastly snarl punctuating every word. “You’re on thin ice already. I can find someone else, but that means our contract terms are broken. Your choice, asshole.”

The blood magic user swayed in his cloak, finally showing a little discomfort.

He’d put on a good show, but Salvator’s last statement got to him.

“Once I fulfill my part, I ask that you put an end to this blood contract business,” he said in a low hiss.

“I think I’ve delivered more than enough over the years. ”

Salvator folded his arms across his chest, the muscles in his back rippling in agitation. “Not a fucking chance, but I can let the contract boil you from the inside out tonight if you want to put an end to it sooner rather than later.”

It took a concerted effort not to stare at the blood-covered shifter’s naked ass.

Thanks to Ryker and several comments he’d made about pert butts, my eyes naturally went there every time Salvator was naked.

Which was a lot more than I’d like. If not for Silas, he wouldn’t wear clothes at all.

He didn’t seem to like them very much, wearing as little as possible whenever he was forced to.

Lev didn’t have the same qualms I did staring at the naked shifter in front of us. His eyes were openly ogling. When I offered him a saucy glance, he shrugged and grinned. “It’s a nice backside.”

I didn’t manage to hide my smile. “I didn’t realize butts were your thing.”

Lev’s eyes glimmered with amusement. “Even if they aren’t, you can’t argue that’s a nice one. It’d make anyone a butt person.”

“I hadn’t noticed. I haven’t been openly ogling it,” I partially lied. I had noticed, but other than Silas’s, I didn’t care.

“What, a guy can’t admire another guy’s butt without it being weird?

” Lev pretended to be affronted, but his adorable smirk gave his real motive away.

He was absolutely attracted to the shifter and wouldn’t mind a hands-on approach to appreciating said butt.

Seemed like the two of us were beyond help when it came to the morally grey men in our lives.

“You said it, not me,” I teased.

Ryker snickered next to me as the two men stayed weirdly quiet in front of the one we were determined to use to find Rilas.

Thankfully, our antics were ignored by the other three.

The one they called Bones had barely noticed us.

His concern lied with the other two. As far as he knew, we were just tagalongs meant to beef up their numbers.

It was better that way.

“Have it your way,” Bones finally murmured. “Who do you want me to find?”

Salvator offered Silas a cursory glance. My mercenary gave him a curt nod, and it was all he needed to go on. “Rilas.”