by Fatima Fayez
Supernatural Shadow
Aisha Bone Book 1
Fatima Fayez
Kitabi Press
Copyright © 2021 by Fatima Fayez
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Art designed by Covers by Juan
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter One
I looked down at my broken dagger, then back up to the asshole who had destroyed its blade. This was the third time this week a shifter had pissed me off. "Did you seriously just break my dagger?"
I glared at the wolf. His yellow eyes glimmered back at me. The assignment had been to retrieve the shifter alive, but right now I was very tempted to kill him.
"Just turn yourself in and no one will get hurt," I said, trying to be calm. I ran my thumb along my damaged weapon and idly wondered if it could be salvaged. It had an engraved ‘A’ for my name, Aisha, although at the moment it could easily stand for Annoyed. This wolf was seriously ticking me off. I had a job to do, and he wasn’t making it easy. "The bounty’s for you to be delivered alive. Keep fighting me, and I can't guarantee you'll walk away from this."
The shifter lowered his head and growled at me. He had transformed into a wolf as soon as I’d exposed my dagger, using his most powerful fighting body. I had to make do with the one I had. As a half-witch, I was supposed to be weaker than the shifter, but my unknown father's blood had given me speed and strength that regular witches couldn't claim.
I reached deep inside me for my magic and let go of the line. It was reassuring to know that my power was there, but I was determined to win this fight without it.
The surrounding buildings were dark at this time of night. I circled the shifter in the dim courtyard. The wolf followed my motions, his hackles raised. It had been a while since I’d fought a shifter in wolf-form, but I was sure I could best him. He may have strength and power on his side, but I had training and skills on mine.
"You want to play? Let's play." I tossed the remains of the broken dagger to his feet and his head swung toward it. With my left hand, I swiftly removed another dagger from the sheath strapped to my back and ran toward him.
The distraction of the clattering metal served to keep his jaws away from me long enough to get close. He spun around and growled, rushing at me. I slid to the floor and swiped at him. I managed to cut his side, and he yelped, jumping away. I rolled to my feet, my dagger thrust in front of me. The wolf jumped at me, his teeth snapping at me. He was angry and in pain — a dangerous combination, but one I wanted nonetheless. Pain and anger made people and supernaturals more volatile. His emotions would cause him to make mistakes, and mistakes would serve me well.
I dodged him, aiming a kick at his midsection. My foot connected with his body, and he yelped once more. He reached his paw out and managed to slice through my jeans. I bit back a yell — I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. I whispered a chant under my breath to knit my wound.
It wasn't really cheating. Shifters regenerate quickly, and his wound was already closing. With their ability to heal so quickly, shifters could only be bested by knocking them out. And if the shifter was wearing a magic dispeller, then even magic wouldn't be able to do that. The next best option was to use something heavy to whack them in the head, but then you risked giving them brain damage or outright death. Shifters weren't immune to that. It was one of the great mysteries: their flesh and internal wounds could heal quickly, but their brains were just as vulnerable to injury as a normal human’s.
"You're messing with the wrong supernatural," the shifter growled at me.
"Actually, you're messing with the wrong bounty hunter. I'm giving you a solid out. Stop fighting me and allow me to turn you in. My client will be happy, you live, and I get paid. Why are you being so stubborn about it?" I balanced the dagger in my hand. "It's almost like you want to be killed."
"They'll never get me alive," he snarled, and lunged.
I turned to the side and slashed at him. I hacked at the air as he executed a move I had never seen before. His body twisted away from me, and I used my shoulder to knock into him. His teeth were awfully close to my neck. I lowered my head to protect it and used my left hand to drive the sharp edge of my blade into his stomach. A howl escaped from his throat. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, but I didn't let go. His paws clawed at me, trying to get me off him, but I persisted in dragging my weapon through him. I tore him open, pulling out his intestines. I had to slow him down enough to apprehend him.
He looked down at his gaping midsection, then up at me. Fury and defiance burned in his eyes. Before I could stop him, he tore out his intestines completely, severing his innards from his body. I let go of him and pulled away my blade, stunned. He slumped to the floor and started laughing. I stared at him in bewilderment. "Fire and brimstone! Why did you do that?"
His breath was labored, but there was a glint of satisfaction in his tone. "I told you they'll never get me alive. Tell him I won."
There had been no reason to his madness. Whatever the client had wanted this shifter for couldn't be worth the price of his life. I watched the blood pool around his body. His breathing grew more and more strained until it rattled, and he didn't breathe again. His eyes rolled back into his head as the life left his slumped form.
It was unfortunate. I had hoped to get him back alive, but he didn't make it easy to keep him that way. I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and took a photo of the body, which I then sent to my client. I waited until I heard the telltale beep, letting me know the funds had reached my account.
I retrieved both pieces of my shattered dagger and looked down at them. Maybe I could fix it. I twisted my lips ruefully, or I could simply use one of the other daggers I owned. I had an army's worth of weapons stashed at home. It was time to choose a new favorite blade.
A howl sounded from the distance. I shoved the pieces in my pocket and made my way out of the courtyard before the other shifters found me.
Chapter Two
"Hello, Aisha." The nymph behind the counter brightened when she saw me.
"Hi, Sandra." It was midnight, and I was at the bounty office. Technically the bounty office never closed, but I
never made it a habit of coming by so late. I was restless after the incident with the shifter and couldn’t head back home. Sandra was the bounty office's front desk assistant. She sat at her desk in the lobby and greeted everyone who stepped through the door. Much like Javier, the owner of this bounty office, Sandra always seemed to be there.
"What brings you here at this hour?" she asked me.
I shrugged. "I was feeling restless. I thought I would come in and see if you had any new jobs for me."
She pointed a thumb toward Javier's office. "He'll be glad to see his favorite bounty hunter."
“I bet you say that to all the others,” I teased her. Sandra always joked that I was Javier's favorite bounty hunter. She said it was because I took up as little of his time as possible. I did my job and didn't harass him for premium bounties the way that the other bounty hunters did.
The nymph shook her head. “Not at all.” She paused, violet eyes sparkling. “Well, maybe I tell a couple of the others.”
I grinned. “I don’t think I have to guess which ones.”
“Oh shoo, go bother the old man.” Sandra couldn’t hide the smile on her face.
There were a limited number of licensed bounty offices in Barcelona. Some bounty offices were simply places for troublemakers, but Javier ran a respectable business. That was the reason I had registered to work for him. His office had serious bounty hunters on the roster — professionals who loved the thrill of the hunt. Then there were people like me, who had taken on this job simply because they were skilled at it.
Well, that was the reason I’d given Javier. The real reason was because bounty hunting provided a legitimate front for my side business and interest in weaponry.
I strolled down the long hallway leading to Javier's office. The walls on both sides were covered with bulletin boards. On them were notices for open bounties. I glanced at each one as I walked past. I rarely took a bounty posted on the bulletin boards, but I always hoped for the day when something interesting would be up there.
Javier usually kept a select list of bounties for me that he considered high-skill catches, or ones with higher payouts. Every bounty office’s reputation was impacted by the number of hunters who managed to catch their targets.
I slowed down. On the walls near Javier's door were several large posters of ASP's top twenty most-wanted fugitives. I stopped and stared at one in particular.
The Alliance of Supernatural Protectors, commonly known as ASP or the Alliance, was the one of the few formal agencies in the supernatural world with the power to hold magical beings accountable for breaking the law. The Alliance’s mandate was also to keep our existence concealed from humans.
The supernatural world was pretty much self-regulated. There were mechanisms in place for all subgroups. Witches and wizards were usually members of covens. Each coven had different rules, but their overall mandates were the same: harm no humans.
Other than magic users like witches, wizards, and warlocks, the largest groups of supernaturals were made up of vampires and shifters.
Vampires were held accountable by their Vampire Council. Vampires didn't allow other supernaturals to interfere in their issues. They had a strict hierarchy based on bloodlines, and each vampire knew their place.
Unlike the vampires, the shifters were more fluid with their hierarchy. Power ruled the packs. Each shifter pack had a different alpha, and other positions were determined by pure strength. The leader of all the shifter packs in Barcelona and the outer areas was Diego, a dragon shifter. I'd never met him, but his reputation was a fierce one. It had to be to ensure he remained at the top of the shifter power pyramid.
As a half-witch, I didn't belong to a coven, but I was held to the same rule as all paranormal beings: don't reveal supernaturals to the human world. Exposing our presence was a risk to us all.
The Alliance worked to ensure that the hidden world wasn't revealed, but they were also interested in pursuing dark magic users and investigating murders. They looked into anything unexplained that was magical in nature.
I browsed the Alliance’s top twenty most-wanted fugitives. They varied from criminals who had escaped prison to those who hadn’t been arrested yet.
Number three on their list hadn't moved in some time. In place of a photograph of the suspect, only a dark outline greeted me. And written in bold lettering at the top of the poster:
WANTED: SUPERNATURAL SHADOW.
Beneath the silhouette, a lengthy list of alleged crimes was attributed to this Supernatural Shadow. Almost all were high-profile assassinations — thirty-three in total. The only non-assassination was one charge of thievery, but it didn't state what had been stolen. It amused me to read the poster whenever I was in the office and see if there were any additions to the list of misdemeanors and felonies. The Alliance was desperate to catch the Supernatural Shadow; they had bounties at all the regional offices.
Personally, I had my money on the Supernatural Shadow. I shook my head and allowed myself a small smile.
I left the poster and walked into Javier's office.
The dwarf was hunched over his desk, surrounded by a dozen files and a mountain of papers. His bald head reflected the overhead light. The lack of hair on his head made his long beard more prominent. It fell to his chest in thick waves, tied at the end with a red string. Had his facial hair not been enough to give away his dwarven blood, his heavyset features, sturdy frame, and height — or lack thereof — would have identified his heritage at once. He was jotting down something on a yellow legal pad. As I walked closer, I saw that he was writing down numbers in columns.
Javier looked up at my entrance and frowned, his deep-set eyes narrowing. "Back so soon?"
He had given me the shifter job a week ago. The requested date of completion had been three weeks.
"Bad news." I slipped into the seat across from his desk.
He put his pen down. "What is it?"
"The shifter's dead." I didn't bother giving Javier a long story or lame excuses. One of the things I liked best about him was how practical he was.
"That's unfortunate." Javier leaned back in his chair. "It would have paid better if you had brought him in alive. There was no way around it?"
I shook my head. "I tried to knock him out with a few spells when I first spotted him, but he was wearing a magic dispeller." Magic dispellers did as advertised: they deflected magic. Supernaturals wore them to ward off unwanted spells and incantations. The really paranoid types wore dozens of them on their wrists and around their necks. If you thought humans were suspicious of magic, you hadn't seen a supernatural conspiracy theorist.
Supernaturals who were on the run frequently wore dispellers to make it more difficult for magic users to capture them. That was one of the reasons I didn't depend on my magic for work. Dispellers made the job more challenging, but I enhanced my other fighting skills to balance my odds. Of course, it also meant there was a higher likelihood that the supernaturals I was fighting would wind up dead.
"Sometimes I wonder if you remember you're a bounty hunter and not an assassin," Javier said, a wry smile softening his rugged features. "I crunched the numbers the other day, and your statistics show a slightly higher body count than the other bounty hunters."
"He pulled out his own intestines,” I pointed out. “And anyway, some of the bounties ask for them to be returned dead.”
"True, but it's usually it's dead or alive." Javier ran a hand over his face and let out a heavy sigh. "It's not ideal, but I know you would have done your best to keep him alive. I'll deal with the client." Sometimes the clients caused trouble afterward. It wasn't like Javier could bring the bodies back to life, and the bounty was dealt with, so I wasn't sure why clients complained at all.
"Got anything else for me?" I asked.
"Eager to go back out hunting? If there's one thing I love about you, Aisha, it's your insatiable work ethic. I wish more of my good-for-nothing bounty hunters were like you," Javier grumbled. He was flattering me;
all of his staff were excellent. He turned to his left and pulled open a drawer. He extracted a file from within, closed the drawer, and faced me again. "Let's see what I have for you."
He flipped through the sheets, perusing each one.
I tapped my foot on the floor. "What have you got?" I asked after he had gone through half the stack.
He frowned. "I hadn't expected you back so soon. I was thinking of handing these to Luke or Tahani."
Luke and Tahani were the other top bounty hunters working for Javier. We weren't friends, merely coworkers. We barely got along. The impression I received from them was that they considered me a rival, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get the job done, get my money, and go home.
"Here," Javier said, giving up. He pushed the stack toward me. "Go through them and choose."
I leaned forward and browsed through the open bounties. Each sheet listed the job, the client, and the pay. It included criteria for the bounty, such as returned alive or dead, in addition to preferred method of killing should the client want the latter, as well as specific drop-off locations if the client didn't want us to put the bounty in a holding cell until the client showed up to collect them. Each job was different — that's what kept the work interesting.
I quickly scanned the sheets. There was an outstanding reward for a succubus who was making trouble. I recognized her because I had caught her a few months ago, and she was more trouble than the pay was worth. I continued flipping the papers. Several demons needed capture. There were always plenty of those, since demons were no one's favorite. They were tricky bastards, but easy money. I hunted them so often that most of my clothes smelled like brimstone. A rogue gnome was wanted for outstanding child support payments. An unlicensed necromancer was wanted by the Alliance with the last-known address provided. The Alliance regularly outsourced jobs to bounty offices; it didn't have the manpower to track down every supernatural. I tried to avoid their jobs since the pay wasn't that great, and I didn't want them to get to know me.