Page 49 of Shadow Warrior
And there it was … a hint of copper on the breeze.
Blood.
Shit.
I had to stay out of the shot, out of the mainframe of the fucking show the weavers would be splicing together, or I could compromise our mission. Watch and listen only.
“Please … stop …”
The plea was male. Weak.
Shit, shit, shit. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, battling what was right with what needed to happen, and then I sprang at the wall, fingers hooking brick, boot toe tips barely grazing the wall as I climbed and arched through the half-open window.
I landed light on my feet and froze in a crouch, wrapped in the shadow beneath the window. A bed, an armoire, and a shadowy mass on the bed. Not a mass. A man with a figure straddling him. It was hunched over him, mouth latched on to the side of his neck.
Sucker.
The man’s eyes were wide, dark, and dazed, but then they latched onto me and sharpened as if in a final death glare. His mouth parted in a whispered plea.
“Please …”
He was wearing a beanie.
Fuck.
Blake.
In a few more seconds, he’d be dead. I needed to do something, but how could I help without being seen?
Shit. Fuck.
I’m sorry, Payne.
Heart pounding too fast, ready to break the rules to save an innocent life.
I stood, my skin prickling in a strange yearning. “Oi!”
The naked woman bolted upright, stringy gray hair falling down her back and saggy tits on display.
Good, her fangs were out of Blake.
I rushed her, slamming into her and sweeping her off Blake’s body. We hit the ground together, but something was wrong. Darkness was swirling around us, cocooning us, and it was coming from me. Whoa, was this part of my caster ability? Fuck it. I’d take it.
Shadows clung to my fingers as I wrapped them around the sucker’s throat and squeezed. Her eyes bugged, and her face shifted back and forth between bland human and leathery-skinned monster. The shadows poured out of my hands and wrapped around her face, obscuring her mouth and nostrils, covering every inch except for her wide, desperate eyes.
A sharp crack was followed by the sagging of her body.
Dead.
She was dead.
I stared at my hands, at the shadows sliding off the dead sucker’s face, and a chill sliced through me because I hadn’t done the bone breaking. The shadows had. They rolled around me, kissing my skin like eager puppies wanting a treat or a pat on the head. They draped over me like a cloak as I climbed off the dead sucker and stepped up to the bed.
Blake stared up at me, his throat a bloody mass. He’d bleed out if I didn’t close the wound.
“Whaa … are you?” His voice was less than a whisper.
“Hush. You’re safe now. I won’t let you die.” I leaned over him and swept my tongue over the wound.
