TOC



Markeb had chosen her hiding spot carefully.

From where she was positioned, she couldn’t see the RV directly, but the sounds from the parking lot carried easily through the narrow space between the buildings. The dumpsters kept her out of sight from the parking lot, while the stack of wooden pallets beside her gave her something solid to work with if the man tried to run past.

Then she heard footsteps growing louder as someone ran quickly in her direction.

Carefully, she peered around the corner and caught sight of one of the men fleeing from the RV. He’d separated from his companion, who had taken off in the opposite direction, straight toward where Vauxite and Libethenite had been stationed.

She’d shifted her weight and glanced at the pallets beside her. A wide grin spread across her face as she prepared to knock it over and block his path to give her wraith a chance to float over and finish gathering the energy it needed.

Markeb waited until he was nearly within reach before giving the stack of wood pallets a hard shove. They toppled into the alley with a loud crash, scattering against the pavement and cutting off the man’s path.

He’d tried to stop, but momentum carried him forward. His foot caught against one of the now broken boards and he went down hard.

The Senshi of Wishes stepped out from behind the corner as her wraith began drifting toward her from the parking lot, its shadowy form weaving between the cones of light cast by the lamps overhead.

The man groaned as he pushed himself up from the pavement, brushing bits of dirt from his shirt and assessing the bloody scrape along his forearm with a sharp hiss of pain. His eyes found Markeb, only to realize her attention wasn’t on him, but rather something behind him.

He followed her gaze, turning slowly enough that Markeb could see the exact moment his eyes landed on the wraith. Color drained from his face, and he froze where he stood, staring at the creature as though he couldn’t quite comprehend what he was seeing.

“What’s wrong? Never seen a wraith before?” The teasing note in her voice startled the lanky-looking man from his stupor.

“What the ******** is that?” His voice cracked as he stumbled backwards, never taking his eyes off the wraith.

“Relax,” Markeb replied, almost amused by his reaction. “It doesn’t bite.” Her wraith wasn’t going to hurt him. It was simply going to drain the energy from his body until there was nothing left to keep him standing.

“Bullshit.” He spat, taking another step backward as his breathing grew heavier before his hand disappeared beneath his loose-fitting shirt.

For one terrible second, Markeb simply stared.

She’d expected him to be afraid, piss himself as others had before him, or possibly faint and make this encounter easy. Not pull a gun from his hidden holster.

The man drew the Glock and turned it toward the parking lot, his eyes still fixed on the approaching wraith. “Get the ******** away from me!” He shouted, hands trembling as he pulled the trigger.

The first shot rang out, the sound deafening in the narrow alley, followed by the sharp sound of glass shattering across the street.

Before Markeb could even react, he fired again. This time, the bullet struck her wraith with devastating consequences. Its more corporeal form shattered around the impact, breaking apart into fragments before dissipating into the night. The energy it had gathered from the man’s companion faded along with it, leaving nothing behind.

Markeb froze.

Her stomach dropped as the reality of the situation finally sank in as she took an involuntary step backward. The wraith was gone, and there was no mirror nearby large enough for her to escape through.

“You’re one of those terrorists, aren’t you?” He snarled, then turned his head and spat on the pavement beside her. “The ones they walk about on TV.”

Emboldened by having destroyed the creature, the lanky man in black turned the gun toward Markeb. “I'll go from zero to hero if I put a bullet through your head and let them come to collect your dead body.”

“Please don’t.” Her voice trembled as she took several steps backward, until her back pressed against the stucco wall where dozens of sharp points jabbed into her skin.

“Oh, please don’t,” he mocked. “Stupid b***h. You’re the one who got in my way. You almost got my friend and me killed back there, scarring off our driver, and now you’ve got the ******** nerve to beg for your life?”

He closed the remaining distance between them until he stood barely an arm’s length away, then pressed the barrel of the gun against her forehead.

Markeb squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face away.

Heart pounding against her chest, tears continued to stream down her face as she raised both hands, trying to show him she had no weapons and had no intention of fighting him.

Then she heard it.

The sound of someone running toward them barely made it to her over the man’s yelling and her own uncontrolled sob. Markeb’s eyes opened, and through blurred vision she could just barely make out a familiar silhouette approaching. Framed by the street lamps behind him, she recognized her brother by the shape of his coat and the hood that managed to stay up despite how fast he was moving.

She wanted to scream at him to run. But the words caught in her throat, knowing that if she were to warn Vauxite, the man might realize her wraith would have been the least of his concerns and point his gun at her brother instead.

I’m so sorry… She whimpered helplessly. This wasn’t how this evening was supposed to go.

Not wanting to see the expression on his face when he watched her die, Markeb closed her eyes again. There was barely enough time for her to draw another breath before he reached them, and she felt herself being forcefully shoved aside just as the gun went off.

The shot erupted beside her head, impossibly loud in the narrow alley. A high-pitched ringing immediately swallowed every other sound around her, leaving her unable to hear anything from her left ear.

Her uniform snagged against the rough stucco as she was shoved along it, the jagged surface ripping at the transparent overlay and biting into her exposed skin like cat claws being dragged along her back. Thrown off balance, she stumbled to the side over a broken pallet and crumpled onto the pavement, dazed and disoriented.

For a moment, she could only lie there, her vision swimming as a blur of motion happened in front of her. But darkness crept up slowly and swallowed everything before she could see what had happened to her brother.