Chapter 162: The Crimson Tide [3]
The hooded figure walked through empty streets. Her boots made soft sounds against cobblestone.
She turned down a narrow alley between two buildings that leaned close enough their upper floors nearly touched. At the end stood a door. Plain wood with iron banding.
She knocked. Three times, pause, then twice more.
A few moments later, footsteps approached from inside. A bolt slid back with a metallic scrape.
The door opened.
A girl stood in the doorway wearing simple nightclothes, loose shirt and pants, barefoot. Her chestnut hair was pulled back in a messy bun, a few strands falling around her face. Hazel eyes looked the hooded figure up and down, then she smirked.
"Took your time, huh?"
The hooded figure pushed past her into the small room. "Those bastards weren’t even a challenge."
She reached up and pulled back her hood as she moved toward the center of the room.
Moonlight streaming through the single window caught her features. Dark brown hair was damp with sweat, a few strands stuck to her forehead. The shallow cuts on her shoulder had bled through her shirt.
Elena closed and bolted the door behind them. "You’re bleeding."
"It’s nothing." Brown-haired woman dropped into a wooden chair near the table and leaned back, letting her head fall against the wall. Her eyes closed for a moment. "Just a lucky swipe. One of them got inside my guard."
"Lucky for him. Not so lucky after, I’m guessing."
"He’s in the cart with the others."
Elena moved to a small basin in the corner and wetted a cloth, came over and dabbed at the claw marks on the woman’s shoulder.
"Good timing, really. With the capital attack still fresh, everyone’s paranoid about security. No one’s going to panic about a few missing beastkin."
"Exactly." Elena’s voice carried satisfaction. "They’ll just assume the puppies broke curfew and got picked up by city guards. Thrown in a cell to teach them a lesson." She tilted her head, looking at the woman. "No one’s going to raise alarms. No search parties. No investigations."
"And by the time anyone realizes they’re actually missing..."
"We’ll be long gone."
The woman then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small vial. She set it on the table. "Two left. Need to fetch more from the supplier."
Elena finished cleaning the wound and stepped back. "That’ll need stitches."
"Later." The woman rolled her shoulder, testing the range of motion. It pulled but wasn’t bad. "How many does that make total?"
"With tonight? Eleven."
The woman’s eyebrows rose. "Eleven in two weeks. Not bad. Boss going to be pleased"
"Or he’s going to ask why we haven’t hit twenty yet." Elena moved to the window and peered out through the gap in the curtains. The street below was empty. "Anyone saw you?"
"No. I was careful." The woman stood up, stretching her arms till her joints popped. "The cart’s being taken to the usual holding location. They’ll be processed by morning."
"And then?"
"Then it’s not our problem anymore." The woman moved to a small chest in the corner and pulled out a clean shirt. She peeled off the bloodied one without ceremony, revealing more scars across her back and sides.
"We get paid, we move to the next target."
Elena turned from the window. "Boss wants us to hit the merchant district next. Says there’s a group of cat beastkin working the night markets."
"Cats?" The woman pulled the clean shirt over her head. "They’re faster than wolves. More paranoid too."
"That’s why he’s paying extra."
"How much extra?"
"Double."
The woman paused, considering. Then nodded. "When?"
"Two days. Gives you time to scout the area, figure out their patterns." Elena moved to the table and sat down across from where the woman had been.
"He wants at least five of them."
"Five cats in one night." The woman laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Ambitious."
"You saying you can’t do it?"
"I’m saying it’ll be interesting." The woman grabbed a water skin from the table and took a long drink. "The attack created perfect cover. Everyone’s too busy looking for terrorists and traitors to notice a few beastkin disappearing from the lower districts."
"Exactly." Elena leaned back in her chair. "Chaos is good for business."
The woman set the water skin down and moved back to her chair. Sat heavily. The adrenaline from the fight was wearing off now, leaving exhaustion in its wake.
"Get some sleep Lisa," Serena said. "I’ll keep watch."
"You sure?" Lisa asked.
"Yeah. You look like death."
Lisa didn’t argue. She closed her eyes, arms crossed over her chest, and let the fatigue pull her under.
Elena remained at the table, watching the window. Outside, the moon had begun its slow descent. Still a few hours until dawn.
Then...
{You did what I asked you to do?}
A voice echoed inside her head. Neither male nor female. Like multiple voices speaking in perfect unison.
Elena’s lips curled into a smile. "Of course I did."
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, tilting her head up as she was now looking at the ceiling now instead of the window.
"But why did you ask specifically about that boy?" She kept her voice quiet so she wouldn’t wake the sleeping woman. "I didn’t notice anything special about him. He seemed like just a normal guy."
{Normal?}
The word carried amusement.
{You observed him for weeks and saw nothing?}
"I saw a newly adopted noble playing student. He’s a decent fighter. Smart enough not to draw attention." Elena shrugged. "Nothing that screams ’special’ to me."
{Then your eyes are insufficient.}
Elena’s smile tightened. "My eyes work fine. Maybe you want to tell me what I’m supposed to be seeing?"
Silence stretched. Long enough that Elena thought the presence had left.
Then—
{He doesn’t belong.}
"Lots of people don’t belong. Half the nobles at that academy bought their way in."
{Not in that sense.}
The voice carried something like irritation now.
{He doesn’t belong in this world. This realm. This... layer of existence.}
Elena’s eyebrows rose. She sat forward slightly, attention fully focused now.
"You’re saying he’s like me, so he’s also fr—"
{Not like you.}
"Then what?"
{He’s something that should not be walking freely.}
The temperature in the room dropped. Elena’s breath came out in a faint mist. Across the room, the woman shifted in her sleep, pulling her arms tighter.
"You want me to kill him?" Elena asked flatly.
{No.}
The response was immediate.
{Do not touch him. Not yet. I need to understand what he is first. How he came here. Who sent him. I can’t dissect him directly, due to my current state. I need you to do it yourself.}
"So I just... watch?"
{Watch. Record. Report everything he does. Everyone he speaks with. Any anomalies in his behavior.}
{And most importantly—if he shows signs of awakening to what he truly is, you inform me immediately.}
"Awakening to what?"
{That is what we need to discover.}
Elena was quiet for a moment, turning this over. "And the beastkin? The kidnappings? That’s still the priority?"
{Yes. The vessel requires them. Continue as planned.}
A pause.
{But the boy... the boy may be more important than all of it. He may be the key to everything.}
"Or he might just be some lucky bastard who got adopted into a noble house."
{Unlikely.} The voice carried absolute certainty.
{There are no coincidences. Not with one like him. His presence here, now, during this specific convergence... it is deliberate.}
"Deliberate how?"
{That is what you will help me uncover. Be careful, I can’t maintain proper contact till the crimson tide.}
The presence began to fade. The pressure easing.
"Wait," Elena said quickly. "One more thing. What if he figures out I’m watching him? What if he realizes what I am?"
{Then you run. Do not engage. Do not confront. Simply disappear and contact me immediately.}
Elena blinked.
{If he is what I suspect... you would not survive a direct confrontation. Not even with my help. So. Try to stay away from direct confrontation.}
Then it was gone completely.
Elena sat alone in the quiet room, staring at the ceiling. Her mind worked through what she’d just been told.
She’d thought Alaric Glimor was just another spoiled noble playing at power. An easy mark to observe while she did the real work of capturing beastkin.
But if her patron was right...
Elena stood and moved back to the window. Looked out at the sleeping capital. Somewhere out there, in one of those academy dormitories, that boy was sleeping.
Completely unaware that he was being watched. Completely unaware of what he might actually be.
"Just who the hell are you, Alaric Glimor?" she whispered.
No answer came. Just the sound of the Lisa’s breathing from across the room and the distant barking of a dog somewhere in the night.
Elena stayed at the window, watching. Thinking.
This job had just gotten significantly more complicated.