Raif spent the better part of six hours teaching me a painful lesson. He used every opportunity to lay his blade against my skin. I paused to survey a new gash, realizing this was punishment. I would not be permitted to speak with a loose tongue in regard to Xander again. It didn’t matter that I thought of him only as a client and didn’t regard him as king of anything. He was Raif’s king a thousand percent, and in his eyes, my king by virtue of my very existence. Let me just say that didn’t sit well with me.
I ducked as Raif’s fist swung for my face, turned and swept my leg in front of me. I managed to knock him off his feet, but he scattered in a cloud of dark air, reappearing behind me. His dagger at my throat signaled the end of another embarrassing training session.
“You’re improving,” he said. “But don’t let your head get too big just yet. You’re far from ready.” Raif inspected the tip of his dagger before sheathing it at his waist. “He’s stronger than you, faster than you, and a thousand times more deadly.”
I opened my mouth to ask the million-dollar question: Who’s the damn mark?
But he’d vanished, leaving me alone. Again.
As I stood in the shower, allowing the water to cascade down my battered body, I regretted having no real confidant. Ty could have filled those shoes, but he was human and probably couldn’t relate to my unusual existence. But I needed advice, or, at the very least, an outside opinion. This job, if that’s what it still was, had become a little more complex than what I was used to.
I thought of Azriel. He’d been my confidant, listened to me talk for hours on end. Though he’d never answered any of my questions. I hadn’t become a proper warrior in his care, but he’d taught me stealth and how to slide a blade along a target’s throat. He’d taught me how to lie low. It’d been his idea, killing for money, though he was less discriminate as to our clientele and marks. In his opinion, we were perfectly suited for that particular line of work, and it paid well. Enough to keep us more than comfortable. He’d lined up the jobs and did most of the legwork. I’d been nothing but an apprentice, someone he brought along for amusement. Until he vanished. Then I had no one but myself to rely on. My mind wandered to one of many kills.
“Shh,” he whispered against my ear. “He’s nervous tonight. Knows someone’s following him. You need to wait and pick your moment.”
“He’s human,” I whispered back. “Shouldn’t be hard.”
His low laughter rumbled in his chest, making me tremble. It never took much for him to get a rise out of me. “True. But you won’t be worth a dime to anyone if you can’t do a job without remaining completely unseen. Humans can be insufferably curious. You never know who might be watching you—watching him.”
I nodded slowly, tucking a stray piece of hair up in my cap. I hated the fact that I couldn’t just wear the pants, button-up shirt, and vest, and leave my hair down. But Azriel said it would draw too much attention. Women just didn’t wear pants, and there was no way I could work in a dress.
“He’s coming this way,” he whispered.
Our mark for the night had been a poor slob who’d gotten in deep with the mob. He’d raped the bookie’s daughter and gambled a little more than he could pay back. Now his creditors were taking payment out on his hide. And I was the debt collector.
Obviously a little on the drunk side, our man stumbled and swerved, crashing against a trash can. Looking around, he opened the front of his pants and turned to the wall. Lovely. Just what I wanted: to kill the guy while he took a piss in the alley.
“Do it now,” Azriel whispered.
Melting into glorious shadow, I appeared, poised and ready, the dagger gripped firmly in my right hand. I leaned toward my mark and whispered the words I’d been paid to deliver with the death blow: “Jimmy the Shark says, ‘This is for Maggie.’ Now he’s paid in full.” My movement blurred from speed, a merciful action, I hoped, and the blade slid across his throat.
He didn’t even have time to be surprised.
“That’s my girl,” Azriel said, appearing beside me.
“Too easy,” I complained. “It’s not even interesting anymore. I want to learn how to fight, not how to sneak up on people and kill them like some kind of coward.”
Azriel’s cold laughter bounced off the brick walls of the alley.
“Have you ever fought another Shaede?” I ventured. “When there were others?”
He took the dagger from my hand and cleaned it on a rag before handing it back. “Of course. I was trained by the best. The fiercest warrior among us. No one could best me. Not even him, after a while.”
“Teach me!” I exclaimed. “Please, Az. I want to fight. I’ll do everything you say. I won’t whine. I won’t complain even a little bit. Train me.”
He laughed again. “Then you’d be deadly, indeed. Wouldn’t you?” He laid his lips to my temple. “Maybe someday, my love. Maybe someday.”
Of course, that someday never came. The asshole left me high and dry, and wound up dead. Or so I assumed.
The way I saw it, I helped the world with the work I did. One less drug lord meant one less supplier for the dealers. And in turn, if I managed to take out the dealer before he could entice some stupid kid into trying his product, then little Sonny might not turn out to be a junkie. Let’s face it: Criminals don’t exactly enhance society. There’s too many of the morally defunct running loose on the streets as it is. I don’t mind taking out the bad guy, but I don’t do it for free either. A girl’s gotta eat. And that’s where Azriel’s philosophy deviated from mine. He never cared who we killed. Not me. I’d never take out a housewife for her life insurance or a witness to a crime just to keep him silent. I had standards. I refused to kill an innocent. But I have no fucking problem killing a man who beats his wife and sells meth to kids. The way this crazy world works, I am far too busy. Decent people are few and far between.
Which made me wonder about Xander’s unknown target. Was he one of the bad guys? And in who’s opinion? The thought of servitude left a sour taste in my mouth. Whether I’d been paid or not, Xander considered me one of his subjects. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted him out of my life once and for all. I’d been seduced by the idea of what my training could do for me, the status it could bring me. What if Xander’s motives were altogether more devious? Momentarily blinded by the dollar signs I saw whenever I thought about working for the king, I needed to consider the possibility that he wouldn’t pay me for future services. Or, worse, use me and keep me as another one of his little pets. Just like Anya, bound in a sexy catsuit and purring for a bowl of milk. If Raif considered me simply another subject of his Lord and Master, wouldn’t it stand to reason that Xander considered me in the exact same light? Had he perhaps wooed me with payment for services rendered, only to jerk the rug out from under me? I had to think past the job. What about after it was done? It made me sick to think of how fast I had fallen under his spell.