CHAPTER ONE
Her body slammed into the wall, cracking brick and ribs. Brick dust covered her jet black hair and filled her eyes, temporarily blinding her. The impact forced the breath from her body in a violent gasp.
Shit, that hurts.
Spots danced on the edge of her vision and the dust coated her lips as she inhaled. Heat flushed her body the next moment as she felt her ink flare, muting the pain, knitting bone and tissue. The meaty hand around her neck began to squeeze. Part of her brain realized that this was a very bad situation, but she ignored it. Always stating the obvious, she thought as her vision began to tunnel in. Taking a moment to orient herself, she looked up the arm of the mountain that just threatened to crush her into a wall. He bared his teeth in what she could only imagine was a smile. Brutes were not known for their intelligence. They were big, strong, fast, and almost impossible to kill. She was glad there was only one.
“I have a clear shot,” said the voice over her comlink.
She shook her head side to side hoping her gunman would understand the signal not to shoot. With her remaining breath she planted her feet against the wall and pushed, forcing the brute to step back and loosen his grip for a second. A second was all she needed as she reached up, pulled back on his hand and broke the thumb, compromising the stranglehold around her neck. It was so sudden the brute was confused by her escape and looked at his hand, bewildered. Cade cursed under his breath in her ear.
“Sepia, let me end him. He didn’t even feel that, the bastard.” She crouched under the haymaker that would have removed her head from her body had it connected.
“I need information, Cade. I can’t get it if it’s dead.
“Better it than you.”
“No killing.” She rolled behind the brute as it delivered a stomp that shattered the wall behind her. This was turning into a bad night. She needed to take this thing down without killing it, and she wasn’t seeing a way to do it. She turned to the brute as it advanced.
“If you tell me why you are so far from home, I promise not to kill you,” she said. She didn’t expect a response; brutes didn’t have a formal language or the power of speech, just destruction.
“Hunter dies tonight.” The brute’s voice was a rasp. The words, the grinding of two boulders, all jagged edges and pain.
“What the fu-” Cade was mid-sentence when a head shot took down the brute. There was a look of shock mixed with surprise on the brute’s face. It took one more step before crashing to the ground.
“Goddammit, Cade, I told you no killing!” She rolled the brute over to check the body, finding nothing of importance. What is it doing so far downtown? Who sent it? Did it really just speak to me? Could the Unholy be intelligent? Too many unanswered questions.
“That wasn’t me, and since when did they learn to speak? I’ve never heard one of them speak, ever,” said Cade.
She turned, scanning the rooftops as she answered.
“Me either, I didn’t even think brutes were capable of language. He is clear on the message though. Someone wants me dead,” said Sepia. “It means we have a shadow.”
She knew Cade well enough to know he would never kill unless she was in real danger. No, this was someone else. Someone was trying to make a point.
“Let’s see how good they are, Cade”
“I’m already moving.”
“Meet you there.”
She had a rough idea of where the shooter would have set up judging from the trajectory of the shot. She ran toward the building she thought the sniper has used. The streets in lower New York were a labyrinth, thanks to the English, which made finding the right building a challenge. She reached the rooftop at the same time as Cade scaled over the opposite edge.
“Whoever they are, they’re good. That’s easily a four hundred-yard shot,” said Cade as he paced around the roof taking in vantage points. Sepia shook the brick dust out of her hair revealing the white shock that had been with her since her late twenties.
“Good, but good as you? How many gunners can make that shot, you think?” Sepia looked over the edge of the roof trying to gauge how high up they were.
“We’re about forty feet up. How many? All of them. At least all the ones I know.”
Cade was crouched over the edge, where he saw a small impression in the slate. He rubbed his fingers in it.
“He took the shot from here. Not bad. Far enough to be difficult but close enough to hide,” said Cade
“This smells all kinds of wrong,” she said.
“If you had let me take my shot--” he started. Sepia glared at him.
“Sepia, you can’t keep doing this. These principles or ideals or whatever you want to call them are going to get us killed. You have to eliminate the Unholy. It’s the only way you get to go home at the end of your tour. You know I’m right.”
He towered over her as he spoke, looking every part the ex-military man he was. His close-cropped black hair shot through with gray only added to the image.
“No, all life is sacred--even unholy life,” she said.
“Then you are in the wrong line of work, Blue. I am sure they don’t feel the same way you do.”
“Don’t go all drill sergeant on me, you know it doesn’t work, never has,” she said as she stood on the edge of the building.
“I’m just saying this position of yours,--” he started
“We do this my way. No killing,” she said and jumped off the side of the building, executing a flip midair before the deserted street swallowed her footsteps as she walked away.
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