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Chapter 29

A Vigilante

Silvana

“Y ou look confused, Silvana,” Bastian said, stating the obvious. He was correct, though. I was very confused. Baffled. Befuddled. You name the word of your choice for confusion and I was feeling it.

“Well,” I started. Chewing on my bottom lip, nerves starting to rise in my chest. “I’ve been here before, that’s all.”

Suddenly everyone was staring at me. “What do you mean?” Raiden asked. He’d been off ever since we woke up this evening. His shadows had been restless, but he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Exactly what I said, I’ve been here before.” I shrugged, hoping it meant nothing.

“Wait, was this where the job was in Coalfell?” Cedar asked.

I slowly nodded my head, staring ahead at the small shack of a house where I’d killed Elias. It felt like another lifetime ago, if I was being honest with myself. Bastian, Raiden, and I had met Cedar here as soon as the sun set. The location Cedar had sent wasn’t far away, and the entire time it’d taken to arrive, all I could think was ‘ Oh joy, I’m back in Coalfell .’

I peeked a glance over toward Bastian and Raiden, and I knew they were just waiting for me to explain. Bastian I could avoid, Raiden I could not.

“Start talking, darling,” I heard whispered into my mind.

Letting out a breath, I turned toward the males. Cedar came to stand next to me. I crossed my arms against my chest, as if explaining to the court ruler and his top commander that I was a vigilante in my spare time was any other day.

“So, before all of this.” I waved a hand between Raiden and me. “Some of the covens would hire me to… take care of some of their more… unfortunate cases. The vampires they didn’t want to drag in front of the court and let their transgressions be known by all. Instead, they’d send me to take care of it for them.” I shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal, while they both just stared at me.

“You’re telling me covens across the four courts would—” Bastian began.

“No. Not the Court of Ice. I don’t go there,” I interrupted.

He arched a brow at me, then continued. “Covens across three of the courts would hire you to sneak around and kill vampires that should be locked up and tortured for their crimes, just so they didn’t have to get their hands dirty? Is that what you’re telling us?”

I looked up at Cedar and he smirked before looking back to the other two males. “That’s exactly what she’s saying. Although, I wouldn’t worry about the lack of torture. Silv has a way with knives.”

Raiden smiled. “I can attest to that fact. A way with knives, she definitely has.”

Bastian sighed. “Okay, well. Moving on. Who lived here? What did he do? Give us any information you have, because according to reports, the place has been used for the Eternal Outcasts for longer than you’ve been with us.”

“Oh. Well, when I was here, it was just Elias. He was a horrid male. He was charged by the local coven for…” I stopped as I thought about what he was charged with, everything suddenly clicking into place. “He was charged with turning girls against their wills, and then when they wouldn’t have sex with him, he was killing them. Painfully. He was also on the verge of starvation. I’m not sure why, but he was pale, thinning, hair falling out. Elias was also the only one home. No one else was here. I know you said they were using it beforehand, but it wouldn’t be much of a safe house without anyone else here, right?”

“When exactly did you off him?” Bastian asked.

“It would’ve been the end of summer, I remember being annoyed that the nights weren’t as long yet. I wanted to spend more time with him.” Just thinking about it made me excited.

“Calm it down, my ice queen. Or I’ll have to find a spot to show you just how the thought of you torturing other men gets me going,” Raiden purred.

I felt the blush rise to my cheeks and I glanced up at him. “ Do we have time for that?”

“For you? I can force the time,” he growled.

“Stop with the mind-to-mind shit, please. We’re trying to make a plan here.” Cedar elbowed me. He looked over to Bastian. “You weren’t joking. For Fates’ sake.”

Bastian just shook his head. “Moving on, please?” he asked. “I’d like to get back home tonight.”

Raiden wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Tell us the plan, Bastian. I’m ready when you are.”

* * *

T he plan was beyond simple. We’d go in, kill anyone who wasn’t in need of being rescued, and burn the place to the ground. Simple. I enjoyed simple.

Our team consisted of myself, Raiden, Bastian, Cedar, one of Bastian’s men, Delano, and a local coven leader, Aeric. Both had minor shadow magic, but they were handy with a blade, according to Bastian, and I was way more interested in that than their magic. Magic could be easily overcome, being talented with a knife in your hand was another story.

Bastian, Raiden, and Delano would go in through the front door, while the rest of us would go in through the back door. As far as we knew, they didn’t have any other exits—unless they’d burrowed a hole into the ground and could take off that way.

Cedar shifted to make sure the back entry was clear for us while Aeric and I stayed in the shadows and made our way around the building.

It wasn’t very big and truly calling it a shack was being kind. The chestnut brown wood siding around the two-story home was falling into disrepair. Most of the windows along the front were cracked, if not empty of glass entirely. There were chunks of the roof completely missing, leaving massive holes for animals to enter through.

“At least the pile of wood will go up in flames nicely,” Aeric said under his breath. I just nodded my head in agreement. I couldn’t deny he was right on that topic. It would go up without a problem, but I didn’t want it to do so until we’d made sure everyone of importance to us was out and safe.

Raiden had females he trusted who were part of the Shadow Brigade on standby, ready to help any of the victims who needed it. The fact that he thought ahead enough to ensure all the soldiers helping the victims we were bound to find were female made me love him that much more.

I never thought when he’d turned those doors to dust and strolled in like he owned the place, that behind the facade of the in-control, demanding, and powerful ruler of the Court of Shadows stood a gentle and thoughtful male. He truly was incredible.

“Are you thinking about me back there?” I suddenly heard in my mind. “ I can feel your magic rising in a way that it only does when I make your thighs clench and your heart rate speed up.”

I tried with all of my willpower to taper down the blush I could feel rising up my neck.

“I was, and now with your voice in my head, I’m feeling a bit distracted. Probably not the way I should be going into this, My Lord,” I told him.

“Ah, this is true. I’m quite bored up front here. The view of Bastian from behind is not even close to the same as you, my darling,” Raiden purred.

Cedar had returned and shifted back. “Back entrance is now clear. Please don’t mind the body on the ground, he was in my way.”

Aeric chuckled. “Yes, sir.”

We walked up a few steps, and I opened the back door quietly.

“Going in, see you soon,” I said back.

“Looking forward to it, My Queen,” he replied.

Walking into Elias’s previous home, it looked nothing like how I’d left it. Gone were the old, stained couch, cobwebs, and dust. In their place was… nothing. Absolutely nothing. I listened for a moment, picking up a few heartbeats upstairs and one toward the front of the house. The one downstairs belonged to a vampire and stopped as soon as I’d noticed it. Clearly, the rest of our males had entered the home. Upstairs sounded like one vampire and two, maybe three, humans.

With the back of the house cleared, I motioned to Cedar, and we headed upstairs.

“Shadow stone blades, be careful, darling,” Raiden stated.

“Shadow stone blades,” I whispered to Cedar and Aeric. They both nodded in confirmation.

When I’d been here previously, I hadn’t come upstairs at all. There hadn’t been a reason to—my job was downstairs dying on the couch. Now, however, I wished I had looked into the upstairs. If only to have something to compare it to now.

The upstairs, like the downstairs, was clean beyond words. Still dingy and broken, but clean of dust and the like. There were three doors, one was open and led to a bathroom, and the other two were closed.

I looked back at Cedar and he nodded. He’d go left and I’d go right. Aeric would stay behind and jump in wherever he was needed. We’d talked about this beforehand, thankfully. The downside to hunting down other vampires was we all had great hearing. There was no way to know just how powerful the ones we were after could hear, though, so better to plan ahead than have them hear us before we were ready for them to.

Cedar and I lined up before our doors and kicked them in at the same time. There were two girls in my room, huddled in the back corner. Both pretty and young. I heard a thud from the other room, clearly Cedar had the vampire.

“It’s okay, we’re here to take you home. Is there anyone else here?” I asked the girls.

“He took Thora into the other room,” one of them said quietly.

“Okay, it’s okay. My friend is going to get her. How long have you two been here?” They didn’t look too bad on the outside, but I was the first to admit that not all wounds were external.

“We’ve only been here a short time. They took us on our way home from school,” the other whispered. They were clutching each other’s hands, and I realized that they looked very similar.

“Are you two sisters?” I asked.

They nodded. “Thora and I are twins, and Teph is our little sister. I’m Theda, Thora was the one taken.” Her eyes started tearing up, and my heart hurt thinking about the fact that she was stuck in there while her twin sister was taken from her arms.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to do everything I can to get Thora back to you, okay?” I said, gently placing a hand on their joined ones.

They both nodded, trying to wipe the tears away quickly.

I got back up and walked into the hallway. Cedar was just coming out of the other room when I felt a sharp stab in my right shoulder. I gasped, holding my hand to it.

“Are you okay?” Cedar asked quickly.

“Raiden?” I asked. I stood in the hallway, waiting for the pain to pass, but he didn’t answer me.

“Raiden?” I yelled down the steps. Hearing nothing back, my heart started to beat faster. “Are they okay?” I asked Cedar quickly.

“Aeric! Get the girls together and keep them in one room. We’re going to check on the others!” Cedar yelled back.

He wasn’t finished speaking before I had my blades drawn again, rushing down the steps toward the front of the house.

I entered the living room and immediately took in the scene. There was one dead on the floor, at least I assumed it was one. It was clear Raiden killed him, given the pile of debris left behind. There was another male on the floor, a dagger sticking out of his back. It took me a moment staring at him to realize what I was looking at. Cedar rushed past me, pulled the dagger from Bastian’s back, and rolled him over.

“It’s shadow stone, Silvana. Where are the others?” Cedar asked.

I just stared around the room. The room was empty aside from the three of us. Raiden was gone, and I couldn’t feel him.