“Oh yes, I’m sure you’re just full of help.” I lazily followed around behind her, crossing the street at a much slower pace to help secure the ‘uncaring’ front that I was presenting to the dragon shifter.
I turned around to look back over my shoulder at the industrial buildings behind us. Cloister backup had undoubtedly made it to the industrial part of Magiford. The sound of car engines was impossible to miss, and I was fairly certain it wasn’t more mercenaries as I could—at the very edge of my hearing range—hear the familiar crackle of the radios Jade’s team used.
“Hmm. Company,” I said, contemplatively. “Better act quickly or you’re going to get caught.”
That’s my signal to move along. It’s one thing to tease Jade’s little team, it’s another to prance around in front of so many Cloister employees. That would be foolishness—
Gisila paused in front of me. Instinctively, I twisted back around to see what had stopped her.
Jade stood at the back of the alleyway, her mask off and her hood down. She was bleeding from a wound on her shoulder—was that one of the shots I’d heard?
Her face was dangerously white, her mesmerizing green eyes wide with panic as her gaze flickered from me to Gisila. She backed into the shadows, blending in, and disappeared from the alleyway.
Does she know backup arrived?
“So that’s what she looks like,” Gisila muttered in a dark tone that immediately got my attention due to how much I instantly hated it.
The radio crackles were starting to get closer. I needed to leave but I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving Gisila to poke around, especially as she entered the alleyway picking her way through it.
“What, did you think slayers weren’t human?” I asked as I reluctantly followed her.
“I’m well aware slayers are humans,” Gisila said. “It’s just so rare to see one’s face.”
“It’s a face,” I said. “Not anything special.”
“Perhaps.” Gisila wore a smile that I disliked even more than the dark tone she’d used earlier. “But having seen her face, it will certainly be easier to track her down again.”
Gisila placed her hand on the brick apartment building to steady herself as she stepped over one of the wounded werewolves, emerging from the alleyway just in time for us to catch sight of Jade’s red hair as she sprinted up a road heading north.
A car pulled up in the street behind us, and I recognized the silver haired naiad who emerged from inside the car as Jade’s boss.
“You stay here and keep chortling like a villain. I’m leaving before the Cloisters sweep this rathole,” I announced.
Gisila didn’t even turn around to acknowledge me. She instead picked up Jade’s slayer mask that the werewolf had tossed aside, then took a step towards the road Jade—wounded and bleeding—had disappeared down.
She’s going to follow Jade.
If Jade had gone north instead of cutting back south, she must not have heard her backup. I didn’t see the wizard, vampire, and werewolf she’d fought with anywhere—it seemed like she’d acted solo. She was headed off alone, and it looked like Gisila was going to give chase.
Jade was going to be an easy target, injured as she was.
I narrowed my eyes as I glanced back at the car and tried to wait for a good moment.
This would be so much more satisfying if Jade weren’t out there, half-dead. Then again, she might judge me for my harsh tactics. But, hey, at least it’s not murder!
I reached out and grabbed Gisila’s head, slamming it against the wall. I then stepped back and turned into a bat, flitting backwards, and hiding myself in the shadow of a boarded-up window frame as the dragon shifter fell. Safely hidden, Gisila didn’t see me when she twisted around and splatted on the ground. Instead, she spotted the Curia Cloister’s car—just as I’d meant her to.
“Cloisters.” Gisila growled something—probably a curse in draconian or something—then shakily boosted herself to her feet.
She headed east, away from Jade, and away from the scene of the crime.
I waited until I didn’t hear her footsteps before I launched myself off the window frame and assumed my humanoid shape.
Striding out of the alleyway—I didn’t want to get caught here anymore than Gisila wanted to—I headed after Jade.
If my luck is holding, perhaps Gisila doesn’t suspect it was me who attacked her. I hoped she’d assume the attack somehow came from the Cloisters if she saw them and not me.
I finally let an annoyed exhale escape me as I rounded the corner and headed north up the same street Jade had taken. A very memorable scent brushed my nose and I jolted to a stop, looking down.
Droplets of blood marked Jade’s progress up the street. I couldn’t see her, but the blood trail was clear—troublingly so given the frequency of the drops.
I should have slammed Gisila’s head into the wall twice. At least.
I gritted my teeth—my vampire fangs prickled the inside of my lips—and kicked my pace up from a lazy walk to an actual jog before giving into a run.
I followed the trail—which thankfully became less clear after a few blocks; she must have tended to her wounds or something—all the way back to her apartment.
Her blood led to the fire escape stairs, so I turned into my bat form to zoom up to her apartment and plant myself against the window.
It was dark inside—not a single light was on. But I had no problems seeing her. She was wavering on her feet, tilting back and forth as she staggered towards her bedroom. She’d dressed her arm wound so it wasn’t bleeding nearly as much, but blood still dripped from her clothes to the carpet.
She’s in there. She probably has fae potions.
The assurance didn’t do much to abate the sick feeling in my gut. She looked so weak—would a potion even work when she was in this state? I didn’t know—I hadn’t bothered to learn about the effects of fae potions on magic humans as I never intended to need the information.
Her already snail-slow steps were getting slower by the moment, and I still hadn’t gotten a look at her face, but she had to be in a lot of pain.
An old familiar feeling that felt horrifically like caring throbbed in my chest. It was overwhelming and drove me to do something, anything!
Swallowing a curse, I stopped peering into Jade’s apartment like a creeper bat and glided down to an entrance of the building. I found a patch of shadows where I could safely make the instantaneous shift from bat to humanoid, then rushed inside.
I yanked my hood down as I took the stairs two at a time, trying to come up with a plan but unable to. I needed to change out of my night clothes—because there’d be no charming my way out of appearing as Connor and wearing Ruin’s clothes—but the burning sensation in my chest said I didn’t have time for that.
I can dazzle her with pheromones later—wait, no I can’t, she’s a slayer, she’s immune. She’s so out of it, maybe she won’t notice? But the second she’s stabilized she will…