by Jane Cousins
“Marcus.” Riya scowled, her voice had come out a lot breathier than she intended. “You need to…” She fought the urge to squirm as he pushed the edges of the shirt away, exposing her bare upper thighs, kissing her higher and higher still. “Um… I should-” Suddenly all hell broke loose as high pitched electronic alarms pierced the air.
Marcus jack-knifed off the bed, pulling on a pair of black tactical pants, and a matching long sleeved top in the blink of an eye. His boots were on while Riya was still scrambling around on the floor looking for her denim skirt, knickers and boots. Her T-shirt was a long lost cause, lying in a shredded sodden mess in the shower stall of Marcus’s large ensuite bathroom.
Racing into the living room Riya found Marcus already seated before two large monitors, a comms device inserted into his left ear.
“Report. Talk to me. Positions?”
Riya could only follow Marcus’s side of the conversation, though watching what he pulled up on the screens helped give her some perspective.
“Any sign of the threat?”
Riya frowned as Marcus cycled through the security feeds, searching for any anomalies.
“Yes… killing the alarms… now.” His fingers flying across the keyboard.
Riya breathed a sigh of relief as the electronic wail was silenced but the threat had yet to be found or negated.
“Locking down the elevators… say again, Drum? You’re in the lobby? Confirmed, I’m sending an elevator down for you. What’s the status on the Fire Marshal?”
Riya didn’t have to wait long to have her silent question answered as Marcus pulled up a camera feed and rewound it. They both watched as Drum and the Fire Marshall toured the thirty-fifth floor stairwell, checking out the fire door, and abruptly, with no warning, the Fire Marshal just collapsed.
Riya frowned, leaning closer, just for a moment… the screen abruptly changed views and she found herself looking at Rafe’s back as he stared into the wide open vault in the weapons storage facility. All the slots were occupied and Rafe was looking rather perplexed that nothing was missing.
“Shit, okay… they didn’t want weapons.” Marcus suddenly tensed. “Fuck.” With a quick flurry he pulled up a new security stream. Riya recognised Marcus’s office. Both the fractal artworks were off the wall and the two safes behind them wide open. “They hit my office as well. They’re after the rubies. They might still be on the floor. Flynn, Nate, take the East stairwell. Drum, I’m sending your elevator to the production exec floor. Dash, you hold the west stairwell. Rafe, start sweeping the floor. Drum will provide back up.”
Riya didn’t want to interrupt Marcus’s rhythm but she had to ask. “What about Dimity? Is she okay?”
“Guest quarters and all production offices go into lock down the moment the alarms sound. She’ll be fine.”
Riya began to pace, feeling useless. All she could do was watch on as Marcus monitored the feeds and directed his fellow Warriors in their search for the intruder. Her mind was spinning, what were the chances of a break-in occurring only a few minutes after the Fire Marshal mysteriously collapsed? It was a good distraction. Drum ringing for an ambulance, escorting the paramedics back down to the lobby.
But all things considered, it hadn’t gotten a very big response, other than Drum, none of the other Elite Warriors had been distracted.
They’d been joking about Drum being one scary looking hulk, maybe the Marshal had a bad heart? No, there’d been something else… something she’d seen or thought she’d seen on the monitor just before the Marshal had collapsed.
Damn, what had it been? Riya stopped her pacing at the kitchen island and drummed her fingers, thinking, trying to visualise what she’d seen. Something… something had caught her eye.
Frowning, Riya glanced out the large sliding doors to the good-sized patio beyond. Along the railing was a massive white bougainvillea flowering wildly. The leaves were being whipped around by the approaching storm front, flower petals skittering across the polished concrete to settle on the outdoor furniture.
Hmm, the clouds outside were growing darker by the moment. The winds had picked up and were buffeting the outdoor greenery sending it into a frenzy. Something about that. Riya found herself staring at the polished concrete, at the wildly flailing shadows. Shadows! That was it. That’s what she’d seen just before the Fire Marshal collapsed, a shadow. The Marshal had brought in a Shadow Stalker hitchhiker.
“Mar-” Riya bit back a startled gasp as a dark form reared up along the living room wall, in a blink of an eye it was across the ceiling, a thin dark line emerged from it, cracking down like a whip to wrap around Marcus’s throat.
Marcus found himself being hauled backwards, his chair flying as he stumbled, trying to keep his feet under him as he was yanked towards the centre of the living room. His comms earpiece flew across the room to shatter against the door. His neck stretching, the tips of his boots just managing to press against the floor for support. He wrenched futilely at whatever was around his throat but couldn’t seem to make contact with it.
Shit, Marcus saw terror in Riya’s eyes as they locked with his. She took two steps forward, intending to help him and then froze as a grating harsh voice commanded her to stop.
Marcus did his best to search for the intruder, glancing left, then right. The pressure on his neck increased, crap, his boots were barely able to touch now.
“Don’t move.” It was Riya who held up her hand, commanding him to be still.
Marcus grit his teeth and followed her instructions, noting that she was casting a baleful look at the… ceiling? He rolled his eyes upwards and caught sight of a dark long thin humanoid shape above him. At first he thought it was just a shadow, cast by the fast approaching early evening storm. But then he watched it move, slowly detaching itself.
Riya felt a chill race down her spine, as the Shadow Stalker oozed away from the ceiling, easing downwards until it stood a few feet away from Marcus, a darkly opaque, all but featureless humanoid shape, it’s left… it wasn’t an arm, more like appendage, was still raised, thin, rope like from the wrist on, it connected to the ceiling and then down to Marcus, wrapping around his throat.
“Everyone just be cool.”
Everyone be cool? This guy, and it was a guy, Riya could tell by the voice and the dark shape he held, had to be kidding.
She’d heard stories about Shadow Stalkers over the years from the family Enforcers. They were a small, close knit community. Hiring their special skill set out to the highest bidder. Using their ability to hitch a ride with anyone, go anywhere in order to spy for profit. Normally hiring their talents out to governments, intelligence agencies and billion dollar conglomerates looking to get the edge on their competitors.
Their reputation was everything, they did not take dodgy black web contracts, working for notoriously back stabbing demi-gods. Except, Riya was guessing, if they were very young and trying to make a name for themselves as a freelancer. “I know what you are.”
“If you know what I am.” Despite the grating harsh quality of the voice the more Riya listened to it the more she was certain this Shadow Stalker was young, maybe twenty, or thereabouts. “Then you know what I’m capable of.” To prove his point, the Stalker yanked on the shadow cord wrapped around Marcus’s neck.
Riya gasped, horrified as Marcus’s boots left the ground, legs thrashing in the air, his face going red, his fingers scrabbling and failing to get any purchase, his boots kicking out frantically.
“Stop it, you’re killing him.”
The Stalker let Marcus dangle for another three pointed seconds before easing him back down so the tips of his boots could touch the floor. “I think we can all agree who is in charge, yes?”
Riya’s eyes narrowed at the black shifting shape. He might be young but this guy clearly meant business, and didn’t appear to care who he hurt along the way. Damn, Stalkers had few weaknesses. From what she could recall, only ultra-bright light could scar them. Or, if you could lock them into
a solid shape you could hurt them. But that would involve surprising him with a shower of flour or similar, and she got the distinct feeling this asshole wouldn’t stay still long enough for her to creep up on him with a bucket of sand.
“Even if you do manage to discover where the chaos rubies are, that knowledge will only get you killed as soon as you pass it along to your bosses.”
The Shadow Stalker laughed low and hard. “Do I look stupid to you?”
Riya frowned as she stared at the dark indistinct shape. “That was a rhetorical question, right? Sorry. Sorry.” She apologised quickly as Marcus’s boots once more left the ground briefly. Listening to him choke and watching his legs kick out had Riya sick to her stomach.
“Maybe my competition is after the location, but I’m not that foolish. And it looks like I’ve beaten everyone else to the punch. There are plenty of people out there willing to pay a lot more than a measly ten million for just one of those rubies. So, tell me where they are.”
“No.” Marcus managed to grit the word out, even as he fought for halting, shallow breaths.
“A hard ass, huh? Doesn’t matter to me, I have all the time in the world to play yo-yo with you GI-Joe.” Making good on his word, Marcus’s boots left the ground as he was bounced up and down, sputtering, choking, trying to catch his breath.
“Never…” Bounce. “… tell…” Bounce. “…you…” Bounce. “Shit…head.”
“Stop. Stop!” Riya couldn’t watch Marcus be tortured like this.
“Why, when me and Joe here are having so much fun? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone turn that shade of blue before, it’s-”
“Stop.” Riya yelled. No more, Marcus was dying and he was too damn stubborn, he’d never give into the Shadow Stalker’s demands. He’d taken an oath. To protect the world from chaos, at all costs, including his own life. But she hadn’t taken any such oath. “I know where one of the rubies is.” In fact, she had a pretty good idea where all the rubies were, but she was hoping that the idea of recovering even one would be enough to grab the Stalker’s full attention.
“…N…No.” Marcus tried to protest. Sending Riya a hard blue eyed glare in warning.
“If you hurt him, you’ll get nothing.” Riya breathed slightly easier as Marcus was eased just a fraction lower.
“Riya.” Colour flooded back into Marcus’s face. “No. Don’t!”
“I want your word that if I give you a ruby, you’ll let Marcus go, unharmed.”
“You’d take my word?”
“If you fail to keep it, I’ll sick every Southern Sanctuary Enforcer on your ass. There won’t be anywhere in this world you can hide that they won’t find you.”
If it was possible for a shadow to pale slightly then Riya was guessing that their intruder had heard of the Southern Sanctuary Enforcers. “You have my word. Get it.”
“N…” Marcus attempted to protest. Desperately trying to rip off the shadow cord wrapped around his throat. He’d never felt so fucking helpless in his life. Unable to do anything but watch as Riya turned and headed for the kitchen. Shit, she hadn’t been kidding, she did know where at least one of the rubies was hidden, in plain sight.
Riya rounded the kitchen island, glancing back to make sure Marcus was still okay and that the Shadow Stalker was keeping up his end of the deal. Okay, she could do this. Leaning down she opened the oven door, humming under her breath in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. Keeping her tone soothing and just barely above a whisper. “Not going to hurt you… not going to hurt you.” Slowly she reached in, the oven was slightly warm as if it had been in use earlier. It hadn’t been.
Riya steeled herself and picked up the ugly bulky roll of material. It bulged in weird places, a bow here, a strange lump there. And the colour was completely the wrong side of ugly, greenish, but the type of green you found in a fouled bog or swamp. Surprisingly, the material though nasty looking, was soft to the touch. Oof, the thing was heavy. There was a lot of material here.
Hefting the large ball to her chest, Riya made soft soothing sounds unconsciously to it under her breath. Returning to the living area she stopped some six feet away from Marcus and the Shadow Stalker. She kept her focus on the Stalker, not wanting to see blame or disappointment in Marcus’s eyes. She had a plan, why couldn’t Marcus trust her?
“What the hell is that thing? Where’s the ruby?”
“It’s just a… rag, keeping the ruby safe.”
“Undo it, I want to see it.”
“You sure?”
“What? Of course I’m fucking sure.”
Riya unwrapped the bundle of material, lowering it to the ground by her feet before holding aloft the ruby so the dim light streaming in through the large glass doors could make the gem sparkle and send red tinted rainbows of light dancing across the hardwood floor.
“Throw it to me.” The Stalker demanded as Marcus made a series of indistinguishable protest noises.
“If that’s what you want.” Riya threw the ruby gently.
The Stalker grabbed for it, dropping it immediately, swearing and cursing loudly. “What the fuck was that? It burnt me!” The hardwood around the ruby began to blacken and smoulder.
“Sorry, I should have said careful it’s hot, shouldn’t I? My bad.”
“How the fuck could you hold it?”
“Just special I guess.” Riya shrugged, watching as the floor began to smoulder in earnest now, a small rim of blue orange flame appearing.
“Get over here and pick it up.”
Marcus made louder indistinguishable protest sounds, Riya shot him a – calm down, I have this covered – look. Honestly, when would the man learn to trust her? Picking up the ruby easily, Riya snuffed out the flames with her boot. “I gave you the ruby, and you gave me your word. Let the Warrior go.”
“I can’t even touch the bloody thing.”
Riya held out the ruby and the Stalker backed up a little.
“Not my problem. A deal is a deal.”
“You’re a crazy bitch. No way am I letting this asshole go, not without the ruby. Find something to put it in.”
Riya sighed, glancing down at the blacken two-foot circle of destruction left by the ruby on the hardwood floor. “And just what do you suggest?”
“Fine.” The Stalker hissed gutturally. Suddenly Marcus was released, collapsing to the floor and Riya found that whip thin line of shadow wrapped around her own throat as she was yanked forward and spun so that her back was up against the Stalker, facing off with Marcus who was now on his feet, ready for revenge. His face a remote, assessing mask.
The Stalker backed up a little and Riya had no choice but to follow suit. “Stay where you are, or the bitch gets hurt.”
“Hey.” Riya protested. “I’ve been pretty darn helpful, all things considered, and you’re calling me names? You totally have issues… besides being a skeevy, back stabbing asshole, that is.” She hissed in pain as the whip cord line around her neck tightened ever so briefly.
“Do. Not. Hurt. Her.” Marcus’s blue eyes blazed with cold anger.
The Stalker backed up a little more. Riya had no choice but to shuffle along with him. She’d assumed they had been moving because the Stalker was intimidated but as a hot humid gust of wind muscled its way into the room she realised the Stalker had just opened the sliding glass doors and was intending to exit via the patio some how.
From the eighty-fourth floor? He hadn’t thought this through very well, he had a hostage to deal with and a ruby he couldn’t actually touch. But she doubted the Stalker was thinking all that clearly right now, given the clear look of retribution that had settled across Marcus’s face. The one that said – you’re dead, you just haven’t realised it yet.
Marcus was beyond mad, beyond angry. This fuckwit thought he could break into Maat Tower and hurt Riya! The Stalker would be dead already if it wasn’t for the shadow cord wrapped around her throat.
Marcus continued to pace forward ever so slowly, backing his prey
into a corner. Waiting, he just needed a split second opportunity to grab Riya and get her to safety, then he could snap this Shadow fucker into tiny toothpick sized pieces.
Riya spat out some hair as a hot gusty breeze swirled around them. Damn, if only she had one of her chopsticks right now, she could have stabbed the Stalker and made a run for it. Of course, that would only work if he turned solid. Damn, neither she nor Marcus would make even the slightest dent until that happened. Of course, where there were hot gusty winds and dark grey clouds overhead there was often rain. She looked hopefully skywards, come on, rain, damn you.
Riya winced as they neared the railing and came to a halt. The bougainvillea scraping at the back of her bare legs. Now what? And it didn’t seem like the Stalker knew the answer to that question either.
“Stay back.”
Marcus halted at the glass doors, watching as Riya stood suddenly on tip-toe, her neck stretching upwards as the Stalker pulled on the cord. “What. Did. I. Say. About. Hurting. Her?” Marcus ground out the words in a low growl. Behind him he could hear his fellow Warriors knocking at his apartment door. His comms abruptly disconnecting would have alerted them to the problem up here. Shit, he only had moments to get this situation resolved, who knows how this amateur asshole would react when faced off against six Elite Warriors of Maat. “Let the woman go. And I’ll give you a head start.”
The Stalker laughed. “You have to be joking.”
“He… doesn’t joke often…” Riya observed. “So what do you intend to do now, Einstein? You’re trapped.”
Suddenly the Stalker’s hold shifted, a wide band wrapping around her chest, as he pulled her in close. “You’re going to be the distraction while I make my fast getaway.” He whispered the words directly into Riya’s ear.
“What do you mean?” Her gaze going to the sky for a brief second as a large raindrop smacked her on the top of the head.