AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Camilla sighed. “I swear, this is just another prolonged version of flirting for you two.”
“I am not flirting.” I glared at her, a low growl emitting from my throat. “This will be a clear sign to him that the girl he is looking for is long gone.”
“A clear sign to who?”
I ignored her but stopped when she snapped her fingers, and the large screen on the wall flicked on. It was muted, but the banner at the bottom flashed the highlights of the current news. Even as far away as Camilla was, she could still wield power here. I never understood why Kaden chose Santiago over her when she was clearly more powerful. His loss, my gain.
Camilla pointed at the screen. “You kill, and he hunts you. Dianna, he shut the world down looking for you. No one is allowed out past nightfall. Every place he thinks you might be is being watched. He is looking for any sign of you, and this,” she waved to the room, “is a fucking beacon, Dianna.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared.” I scoffed.
Camilla shook her head. “No, but I can’t cover this up, look for the others, and hide a temple in the middle of Eoria.”
I waved a hand at her and headed toward the shower. “I don’t want you to clean this up.”
“Why?”
I paused, one hand on the doorframe as I turned toward her with a half-smile playing on my lips. “I told you. I want to send a message.”
“Well, this is one way to do it. I think they will get the message.” She swallowed, trying to avoid looking at the gore-filled room.
“While you’re here, can you magic me some new clothes without all the blood? Thanks.”
I didn’t wait for her to answer before stepping into the bathroom. Camilla wasn’t wrong. Samkiel shutting the world down put a damper on how quickly everyone moved. Finding even one of Kaden’s informants had been a struggle, and this shutdown only made things more challenging. Who knew kidnapping a witch, slaughtering a coven, and destroying a vampire line would put Samkiel on such high alert?
I turned on the shower, and waited until steam rose before getting in. The water slid across my skin, but I didn’t feel a flicker of the heat. It wasn’t hot enough. It never was. I couldn’t feel anything. Not the water against my skin nor the lips, teeth, or hands that had touched me last night. I felt nothing but that now familiar painful emptiness. A void had ripped open the second she died, and I didn’t know how to heal it. I thought about it as I grabbed the soft sponge and scrubbed at my flesh, unsure if I wanted to go back to feeling. My skin gleamed clean, slick, and unmarred. The only wounds I carried were within me.
I stepped out of the shower, steam curling and playing around my body. I slipped the robe off the back of the door and stepped in front of the mirror. My hand swiped across the cool glass, the haze melting beneath my touch. The reflection that stared back was me, but not quite me. My skin glowed, my eyes were brighter, and my features sharper and more enticing. An alluring, captivating creature stared back at me, a perk of being what I was always meant to be.
A predator. A monster.
I spun away, heading back into the main room. Camilla’s astral self remained. She bit at her nail, watching whatever played on the screen. I walked around the room, moving past the plush couches and chairs, looking for the briefcase I had spotted last night. A small smile curved my lips when I spotted the case tucked into the corner. I grabbed it and dumped the files and two guns onto the table.
Camilla’s form appeared next to the table. “Is that what I think it is?”
I nodded and scanned a couple of pages. “Come on, Webster. Where is the shipment?” I’d tasted it last night, a flash of memory when I had fed. I’d seen some underground places, a few ships near a dock, and a meeting room of some sort. The vision had been fuzzy, which was new for me, but I remembered him sitting around a table. Maybe Kaden suspected some of his men might be on my hit list, and he had found a way to block even my blooddreams. I wouldn’t be surprised.
A word stuck out to me on the receipts. “Iron?”
Camilla leaned closer. “Why iron?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” I said, lowering the pages to the table. My fingers slid over the numbers and the names beside them. I paused on Donvirr Edge. I knew that place. It was an old docking site in the Banisle Sea.
“You think he is shipping stuff to Novas?”
I shook my head. “No, the island is practically gone.” I leaned forward, thinking. If he were using the docks, he was shipping something, but to where? Novas was nothing but rubble and ash after I had finished with it, so not there.
“I’ll go to the meeting Malone was supposed to attend tonight and—”
“You keep killing with no leads, Dianna,” Camilla said.
“Fine, I’ll torture them until they talk, then kill them.” I pushed away from the table and reached for the clothes Camilla had created for me.
“We are well aware of the growing threat, but I promise it is not what it seems.”
I stopped mid-motion, my chest clenching at that voice. My hands curled into the fabric of the robe as I clutched at my chest, the steady beat of my heart stuttering as if trying to find a new rhythm.
Samkiel.
