Villain (Starlight Book 2)

by D. N. Hoxa

  We walked ahead in the empty hallway in silence for more than five minutes before we reached a set of stairs. We climbed up and got out after Aaron opened a square door in the ceiling.

  Outside, the sky was pitch black—no moon or stars that we could see. The cool air took over my lungs, filling me from head to toe, making me realize just how much I’d missed open space. We were in some sort of a yard and behind me stood a tall metal building, wide enough that I couldn’t see where it began or ended. On the other side, there were only trees.

  “What is this?” I’d imagined this Base would be under a forest, too.

  “It used to be a wood factory. It’s been abandoned for fifty years now. The Elders bought it around a decade ago, and it’s perfect because it was already reinforced, and the lower level is practically impossible to breach,” Aaron explained, looking at the massive, dark building in front of us. Now that I focused on it, I could see it was full of broken roofs and burned walls.

  Aaron seemed to know every step he took into the woods across, so I followed him because it was too hard to see. Soon, we stepped into a wide area that was also surrounded by trees on all sides. There were cars, at least three that I could see, covered in camouflage covers. They blended perfectly with the natural setting, and no chopper or plane flying above the area would be able to spot them.

  We pulled the cover off the closest car—another Porsche—and we wasted no time at all.

  “So, where are we going?” I asked while he drove.

  “It’s a bar,” Aaron said. “A shifter owns it, and they only let shifters in. It’s like every other bar, really, but Edison…” he shook his head and pressed his lips for a second. “He really is something.”

  “Yeah, I read about him. I think I’ll be all right.” I could definitely handle a guy like Edison.

  “Just be careful with him.” The words brought a smile to my face.

  “Don't worry, Aaron. I’m not going to kill the head shifter,” I said, only half joking. He laughed dryly.

  “You can try.” I no longer smiled.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that you might kill him, but you’d never get out of that place alive.”

  He was probably right, but my bitch-mode was already on so I raised my brow. “Wanna bet?” I thought he already knew how much I loved a challenge.

  “Sure!” he said, but he didn’t really mean it.

  Fifteen minutes later, we finally saw the lights. It was an old wooden house with two lanterns on both sides of the entrance. The place looked like it could crumble any second now. The noise told us just how crowded the place was as soon as we got out of the car. Music was playing loudly and people—shifters—were screaming and singing and probably even dancing inside.

  Bears, said the half broken sign on top of the door. How original. It was barely hanging on one string on a rusty nail pinned to the wooden door. Aaron knocked on the door once before opening it.

  A million energies hit me on the chest all at once. So many shifters! I immediately turned off my senses, imagining a great iron door closing around me, before I started to feel all warm and fuzzy like a freaking shifter. Aaron looked back at me for a second—almost a warning to keep it cool—and then walked inside.

  A giant man with one long brow was waiting for us two feet away, but once he saw Aaron, he nodded and stepped aside. The smell of beer and sweat and smoke was suffocating. I didn't know how people managed to stay in there. There was definitely no air conditioning.

  I made my way through them after Aaron, before the shifters saw me and made way for me instead. I flinched in discomfort. I wasn’t used to so many sups knowing me at first sight. What had the Red Rebels done—taken a picture of me and distributed it around?

  Slowly, the voices died down and only the music played. Aaron slowed his pace and grabbed my hand. My heart skipped a beat at the feel of him, but I concentrated on the faces around me. He intertwined his fingers with mine but never turned to look behind. I tried to keep my head low and watch where I was stepping because it seemed like the shifters were playing let’s-break-all-the-beer-bottles-to-the-floor that evening. The ground was filled with pieces of glass. The bartender, who was a very big man, too, was looking at me suspiciously. I held his gaze but didn't move a muscle. I didn't want to provoke him.

  “Hey, Joe,” Aaron greeted him, but he just nodded, never taking his eyes off me. His crooked teeth were yellow and his brown eyes deeply set. He was bald, but his head was big enough to make up for the lack of hair. “Edison’s waiting for us.”

  Joe nodded. He mumbled something that sounded terribly close to: “This her?”

  “Yeah.” Aaron nodded. The man looked at him for a few more seconds before nodding his head for us to follow him. The music never stopped, but no one was speaking anymore. They were all watching me. I kept my eyes on mine and Aaron’s hands and hoped that nobody would say anything. I was never good at controlling my temper.

  The stink made it impossible to breathe through my nose as we followed Joe. Most of supernaturals were men, but I could spot a few women in their midst. Most were sitting on laps, drinking and smoking God knew what. Luckily, we made it to the end of the bar without incident, and Joe held a door open for us.

  Without so much as a look his way, I followed Aaron through it. The door closed behind me and the music stopped abruptly, like the place was soundproof. Aaron let go of my hand. I ignored the disappointment in my stomach and focused on the door in front of us.

  “Ready?” Aaron asked, and I nodded, staring straight ahead. When he knocked, not half a second passed before the door opened.

  A man stood before us, as big as most of the others in the bar. He wore a black shirt and black cargo pants, his face as expressionless as a statue. He gave us both the once-over and then stepped back, making way for us to enter. Aaron walked in first. I held my breath and followed.

  When I saw the man sitting behind the desk, it felt like I was looking at Vladimir at first, which sent chills down my spine. The shifter’s chest looked like he had put balloons under his shirt. His arms were wide and his hips narrow. His face was as big as the other parts of his body. His amber eyes seemed to be glowing. He was wearing khaki pants and a deep brown long-sleeved shirt. He definitely didn’t look like a were-lion. His blond hair fell on his forehead and reached the crook on his nose in waves.

  Behind him stood two more bodyguards. They were all dressed in black, too, their arms folded in front of them, and they didn’t move even a tiny muscle on their bodies.

  I slowly let my senses back on since there was only Aaron, me and the head shifter with his bodyguards inside what looked like an office. The place was dark and smelled of beer and cigarettes. The desk Edison sat behind was positioned in one corner and a couple of recliners in the other. The mud-colored carpet was stained all over, and there were no windows.

  Edison searched my face for a couple of seconds before he leaned slightly back and raised his thick brows high on his forehead, a dumbfounded smile on his face.

  Here we go.

  “You are the Raven?” His voice was high-pitched—terribly annoying, worse so than I’d feared.

  I kept my eyes from rolling and bit my tongue before I spit something stupid that I would probably regret later. I just nodded and smiled a cold smile, not daring to open my mouth just yet.

  “Huh. Thought you’d be taller.” He made his way towards us, his hand already raised.

  “Glad to meet you, Edison,” I said with a curt nod. I was going to be as polite as I possibly could.

  But when the man raised a brow, I realized he didn’t like that I’d called him by his name. What did he expect, that I’d call him sir? “Good to meet you, too, Raven.”

  “Please, call me Star.” My voice dripped politeness. He smiled a plastic smile and motioned for me to take a seat on the empty chair across from his desk. I did. I could feel Aaron behind me as he moved very slowly and stopped to lean agains
t the wooden wall on my left.

  “I’d like for you to stay and chat, but unfortunately, I don’t have the time. I’m going to cut right to the point,” Edison said, his eyes never leaving mine. Great! Maybe this would go smoothly, after all. “I want to make it clear that I am here, discussing the death of my shifter with you, only because the Elders asked me to. They seem to trust you for some reason.”

  Blood rushed to my ears and I dug my nails in my palms, trying to keep an expressionless face while he slightly tilted his head to one side and watched me.

  This is not personal. This is not personal.

  “But that doesn’t mean that I trust you,” Edison continued, looking at me as if he were expecting me to explode any second. Yeah, right, like I was going to make his day. Nope. Instead, I played the part I played best: I smiled my evil smile at him and stared him right in the eye.

  “You do look smart,” I said, never blinking. For a second, his face registered surprise. Soon enough, a smile played on his lips, too.

  “Such a beautiful face…” he said, folding his hand under his chin. “Is that how you lure your prey in before you take lives?”

  I knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to see how much I could handle. I cursed him with a million different words in my head because there was no way around this. He was going to push because he was one of those guys. And the worst part was that, if I kept silent and took all his bullshit, he’d never respect me, never trust me and never take me seriously. He’d never think twice about stabbing me in the back.

  I knew that what I planned to do could backfire. I could lose a strong ally. But I’d rather he didn’t show his face at all, than not trust him. So I played.

  “I’m not sure if you can refer to my victims as prey. I’m not an animal, after all,” I said, looking at my fingers, pretending something was caught under my nails, and I mentally sent an apology Aaron’s way. I ignored the widening eyes of Edison. “But, yeah. As I’m sure you well know, looks can be quite helpful,” I finished and watched his eyes grow wider and wider as he analyzed my words, trying to figure out if I’d just insulted him or not. I played the innocent all along.

  Finally, he smiled an ice-cold smile. “I am not the Elders, little girl,” he spit. “I will not play this game and pretend otherwise when we all know that you are a monster and not to be trusted.”

  I jumped to my feet, and Aaron was already behind me. Edison’s guards showed signs of life for the first time, but he waved them off and they took their positions again. I kept my eyes on him as adrenaline kicked in and blood rushed to my ears. I was ready to rip him apart with my eyes alone, only because he was right. I was a monster, but I also could be trusted! At least, I hoped I could.

  But Edison didn’t have to know what my mind was holding.

  “Aren’t we all?” I asked, playing my evil smile again because it was reassuring.

  “You didn’t just call me a monster, did you?” he asked, his smile even wider now.

  I could tell from his eyes that adrenaline was flowing through his body. His eyes started to take on that telltale gleam the same time as the sick feeling in my stomach started to pull at my insides. He was already ready for a fight. I wanted to sigh in relief because I was never good at talking. I was good at fighting.

  “And you would do what exactly, if I did?” I asked, feigning curiosity with my brows already raised, still smiling.

  His muscles twitched and the pulling in my stomach grew stronger a second before he made his move. Aaron took a step back and Edison waved his guards away for the last time, just as I jumped on the desk in front of us. The head shifter was waiting for me.

  His big hand grabbed my left ankle, and I aimed for his jaw with the tip of my right foot. He dodged and I jumped, circling in air before I landed in front of him. His hand was already an inch away from my throat, and I caught his inner arm with the side of my palm, turning his muscles passive for a second. I got a hard hit on my side and pushed my feet in his stomach. Wrong move. He didn’t even budge.

  He grabbed my ankle with both his hands, trapping me and pulling me toward him. Before he had the chance to knock me down, I rested my weight on his strong hands and jumped with my other foot, barely catching his cheek because he tilted back at the last second. The motherfucker was fast. But he did let go of my ankle, and I jumped to my feet in front of him again.

  We were both smiling, circling one another. I aimed with my fist for the left side of his throat, but he stopped my arm and delivered a blow on my shoulder, sending blood red pain through my left side. I went down on my knees to kick his feet from under him, but he jumped. I took the opportunity to get close enough and deliver a kick on the side of his waist, momentarily knocking the breath out of him. He aimed his fist at my jaw, but I grabbed his wrist, squeezed and twisted, stopping the blood from rushing to his already white hand. My other hand was around his thick throat the same second that his grabbed mine. We stopped and we looked at each other, but didn’t squeeze hard enough to drop the other unconscious. We both liked the game too much.

  I might actually like the man, after all, I thought. Our faces were an inch away, his eyes a head above mine, and we smiled. I couldn’t cover even half of his throat with my fingers while his touched each other on the back of mine, but the base of my thumb was right on his windpipe and with the right amount of pressure, he’d be needing mouth-to-mouth in less than five seconds.

  But he didn’t tighten his grip, so I didn’t either. Instead, he opened up, dropping his shield. His energy hit me like a freaking train on my chest, and for a second, I thought that my knees were going to give in. I forced myself to hold his eyes and hold my strength, though I was already sweating. His energy was so strong. I got lost in it for a few seconds, before I remembered that my mouth was dry and I needed water. Water led to another thought.

  I was the Elemental. My power was unlike any other the head shifter had ever felt. My smile widened, and I showed him exactly that.

  Calling on all the air around us, I gathered it on my skin, layer after layer. It calmed the heat of Edison’s energy immediately and soothed my mind in a matter of seconds, before I let it go, ordering it to blow on Edison’s face—not too much, just enough. I didn’t want him to give in. I just wanted him to feel me when I dropped my shields.

  And he did.

  The next second, strong wind pushed his wavy blond hair backwards and forced his eyes shut. His mouth hung a little open and his smile grew. He watched me smile back at him for a couple more seconds before he very slowly started to loosen his grip around my throat and mask his energy. I did the same. A second later, we both had our hands on our sides and were breathing heavily, but we acknowledged each other.

  “Let’s talk business,” he finally said and took his seat again. Before I made my way to mine, I saw Aaron’s face filled with panic and what I thought was a little pride. Of course he’d feel proud of Edison. I wondered what it’d be like if that pride was meant for me.

  I pushed the thought away immediately, not bothering to look at Edison’s guards, knowing that they’d still be looking like freaking statues. I sat right across from the head shifter. I took a moment to breathe before I spoke. I intended to tell him the truth. The unspoken pact that was formed between us at our show of powers was much more meaningful than something said in words. He now knew my power and I knew his. I could trust him and he could trust me. At least until the mess was over.

  “I believe that the first six killings and the last three were done by someone from the Council,” I started.

  “Of course they were. One of my shifters was a victim,” Edison said.

  “No. What I mean is, the killer is someone from the Council. Someone the Council doesn’t know about,” I explained. His brows raised in confusion for a split second before his eyes grew wide with surprise.

  “A traitor?” he asked almost incredulous.

  I nodded. “It has to be one of them. He is killing the Council’s sups and
blaming the RR. Until he made a mistake. He killed a Rebel.” The shifter Edison claimed was his. “When I was in Lyndor right after the six killings, I was told that the Council doubted the RR’s involvement in the first place, and I believe the warlock I killed there knew about it.”

  “The RR didn’t kill those supernaturals,” Edison said, confirming the Elder’s words.

  “And no Rebel would kill one of their own, along with two others of the Council. At least not that I know of,” I concluded. There was still a chance that someone from our side was playing dirty, but it was too clean a job to have been done by anyone but those with the precocity of the Council. I didn’t know every Red Rebel, but I highly doubted they had the means, strength or mental capacity to commit ten murders without getting any help from the Elders themselves.

  “No. I believe so, too.” Edison nodded, looking down at the brown desk filled with ashtrays, thinking about my words. I waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. The tension in the air around him made me shiver from the energy. He didn’t move a muscle or even blink for minutes.

  “Yes,” Edison finally said. “It makes perfect sense.” He looked surprised by his own words. “And whoever it was, he was not operating alone. Another shifter was with Emmet right before he got killed. Said Emmet swore he saw shadows all around the place before he left, like someone was guarding something.”

  “Whoever it is, it’s leaving a mark.”

  “Mark? No one reported anything to me about a mark.” He looked at his bodyguards, but none of them offered him an answer.

  “All the victims—well, non-vampire victims, had the same mark cut onto their arms. It’s really small and barely noticeable from the blood, but Jack O’Brian said he saw it on your shifter’s arm, too.”