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“I’m just wondering, is there a gain?”

“I think there’d be more loss to it,” Symeon replied.

“She’s in the inner circle of the Kokkino clan,” Kahlik warned. “They’d come after you.”

I sipped my drink. I could take them, but Niko would kill me.

“What did she do to you?” Kahlik snorted.

“We go to the same bloody school,” I muttered. “She pisses me off.”

“School?” Kahlik eye’s widened. “How old is she?”

“Seventeen,” I said. “Can you believe that?”

Kahlik choked on his drink.

“No way she’s seventeen!” Symeon nearly shouted, slamming his glass on the table. “I still haven’t been named and I’ve been doing this for a decade!”

Maybe you’re just not that good.

Very few people in the Underworld received names and the group of us who have were called Apex. Which should have meant that we had no predators, but that wasn't necessarily true. So far, there were only six of us .

I was the youngest to get a name at just fifteen. Vulture, because if you’re my victim, you’re already dead. Mainly using my butterfly knife as a weapon or my bow if I’m lazy, but I could turn anything into a weapon.

Reaper, or the Grim Reaper, who never fails to leave death in her wake. There are never witnesses, the only reason people knew it was her was because she always finished her victims off with a stab in the eye. Honestly, eyesore is a better name for her…

Siren, a woman in the Mov clan who knows everything about everyone, and no one would dare cross her.

Not only could she reveal secrets, but she was incredibly well liked, she could easily alienate someone.

I've seen her many times, but I haven’t properly met her, nor do I want to.

No matter how useful she could be, she could turn on me at any moment.

Mercury, a mad scientist who worked with the Etherian clans, his signature poison.

Whether it be in food, injected, or gassed.

He knew chemicals like he was reciting the alphabet.

His first victim was his daughter, who was only twenty-one at the time.

I’ve done my best to avoid him, because I’m good at pissing people off.

Silver Lining, a vigilante and Mov clan’s worst nightmare. I appreciated her morals. She only took jobs that involved misjustice, specifically on behalf of women and children. She and Niko often crossed paths, becoming good friends the last couple years.

Lastly, Jack Spades, a serial killer whose face and body was marred with scars, left his victims looking just like him.

Jerome didn’t care who he was killing, as long as it provided him with some sort of release.

I think that’s why he and I got along, put two psychos in the same room and it cancels out… Somewhat.

“Is she actually as good as they say?” Kahlik asked.

I inhaled my cigarette, shaking my head. “I haven’t really seen her do anything.”

I shifted the topic, not wanting to reveal too much of what I knew of her, not that I knew much, but clearly they knew nothing. I still didn’t know if Reaper could be of use to me, if I wanted to engrave my name into her skin or shove her ashes in an urn.

My phone vibrated with a notification from Niko that I ignored. Then skimmed a few Underworld news articles. An article from the Underworld caught my attention: Man found dead in his apartment after brutally murdering his pregnant partner.

It wasn't that it was shocking, murder, mugging, an arrest. These things happen all the time in Soulesity.

The local papers just don't report it, wanting the general public to be shielded from the nightmares that really go on. Some like to argue it’s all lies, and those some were the ones who had the money and power to do something about it.

But how do you convince people who live like kings to give up that luxury and privilege for equality?

If the local papers ever did decide to cover them, the articles usually stated that he was a kind man and how out of character it was for him to do something like that, but the fact is, everyone has an evil in them.

Some are just lucky enough to live their lives without anything pulling it out of them.

The article from the Underworld database skipped the sugared words, focusing on the little details, in what order the man committed his crime, how many times, how hard, what tools, and which injury was fatal.

I scrolled through the article quickly, wondering why it was popular.

He wasn't well known, just an average citizen.

Oh. His cause of death was a type of new, unknown drug and they blamed his actions on it.

“Have you two seen this?” I turned my phone to show Symeon and Kahlik.

Kahlik let out a snort. “Yeah, stupid. Someone in the Underworld is creating and testing their latest batch and clearly, it isn't going well.”

“Who do you think is making it?”

“The Mov clan most likely.” Symeon leaned closer to me. “From what I heard, the Etherian clans sell cheaper. This new drug is probably a way to draw clients back to them. ”

“But everyone knows the Etherian clan’s quality is shit,” I argued.

“Doesn’t matter as long as it gives them some sort of high right?” Symeon said, coldly.

***

I was waiting for my friends to finish paying for their meals while I boredly looked around the cafeteria. Reaper was surrounded by a group of girls, all attempting to gain her attention.

She just looked disinterested, contributing to the conversation with nothing but a nod or a slight smile.

Reaper tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing her many silver piercings, five on her left and six on her right.

Wondered if she had any more on her. Her eyes shifted to meet mine, and she gave me a smile, not a teasing or mocking one, a real smile.

I dropped my drink, spilled it all over the floor and tripped over nothing but the air I caught in my throat.

Bloody hell. Is this a heart attack?

“Oi, Cinth, you good?” Jamiel asked as I gripped onto his shoulder for support.

A few witnesses laughed at me.

“I think I’m having a heart attack.” I looked to Lin, the future trauma surgeon. “My heart just stopped for like, three seconds.”

Lin chuckled as he paid for his meal. “I think if that were the case, you’d be on the floor.”

The nearby janitor immediately cleaned up the mess. The janitor never really talked, probably tired of cleaning up after our mess all these years.

My heart was still racing and skipping beats, so I grabbed Lin’s hand and put it on my chest. “Does this feel normal?”

Jamiel also felt my irregular heartbeat, laughing. “Sheesh, are you okay?”

“It’s really beating.” Lin snickered .

I shoved both of them away from me, even though I asked, and spat a curse at them for not taking me seriously.

I could drop dead any second now. Won’t be laughing then.

I looked back to Reaper, but the seat was empty. Something warm pressed on my hand and I snapped my head down to see the same drink I had dropped, but new. I followed the hand up to Reaper, standing next to me.

“I can buy my own coffee,” I snapped, moving my hand away.

“You dropped it because of me, right?”

“Yeah.”

Wait, what?

“No, no, I did not drop it because of you. I just had a heart attack.”

She bit her lip, trying to keep herself from laughing. “Just take it, I don’t drink this.” She pushed the cup towards me, and I caught it just as she released it.

I eyed her suspiciously.

Why is she being nice to me? Just a few days ago, she was threatening me.

“How do I know you didn’t spit in this?”

She leaned closer to me and whispered, “Don’t you want to taste me?”

Bloody. Hell.

My entire body heated up, and I felt so weak.

What is she doing to me?

“I don’t think you know who you’re talking to,” I told her in a low voice.

She laughed. “The candy shop is my favourite story.” Still laughing, she made her way back to her table.

Two years ago, back when I was a more reckless and angry teenager, I drove a stolen truck into a candy store. Not because of a hit, not because of clan orders—because they were out of my favourite sweet treat .

No warning. No self-restraint. Just blind sugar-fueled rage.

The crash didn’t kill the owners, unfortunately. I had to crawl out of the crumpled truck and finish the job myself. Left their corpses stuffed with candy for the cops to find.

Niko was furious. He had to clean up the entire mess—bribe, threaten, erase. Prime Minister Malik personally banned me from ever getting a license, but honestly? No regrets. Totally worth it. They had it coming.

“So that’s why you had a heart attack?” Jamiel mocked.

“Just the sight of her, hey?” Lin snickered.

“Because she’s a scary little urchin,” I bit back.

“Right.” Lin and Jamiel exchanged looks.

I cursed at them and made my way to our table outside. Jamiel and Lin were quick to tell Iri what happened, and neither of them failed to tease me about it.

I don’t know why I’m friends with these people anymore.

“Hey, we’re just joking, Cinth.” Iri laughed, playfully nudging me.

“She pisses me off so much.” I put a cigarette between my teeth and lit it up.

“She bought you a new drink. Come on, she’s so nice,” Jamiel reminded me.

I rolled my eyes. “You should’ve heard the things that came out of her bloody mouth right after she gave it to me.”

“What did she say?”

My face heated at the thought. “She just knows how to piss me off.”

***

When I got home, I decided to finally do my research.

Datura Celestine Vicary.

Born in Soulesity Hospital on the nineteenth of May 54 A.D.

(After Demons). Exactly six months after me.

There was a long, long list of nannies hired to take care of her when she was an infant, up until she was four years old.

She wasn’t seen by the public until an interview on the Yarra Show, Soulesity’s beloved talk show host, when she was six years old, though Reaper didn’t speak throughout the entire segment.