Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel

by Becca Blake

  Marked For Death © 2021 Becca Blake

  www.beccablakebooks.com

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Cover: Bewitching Book Covers by Rebecca Frank

  Editing: Charity Vandehey

  Author Image Illustrator: Maria Dimova

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Other Books by Becca Blake

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Also By Becca Blake

  About the Author

  Other Books by Becca Blake

  REIGN OF BLOOD TRILOGY

  Blood Bound

  Blood Debt

  Blood Queen

  Blood King

  ARBITERS OF SHADOW

  Marked for Death

  Marked for Pain

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  Chapter One

  The police weren’t after us, but they were likely hunting the same thing we were—the thing that had set off multiple fires throughout downtown Omaha, Nebraska in the last hour.

  Of course, they didn’t know what that thing actually was, so they had no hope of stopping it.

  That was our job.

  The wailing of police sirens grew louder as a patrol car turned onto the street, projecting its flashing red and blue lights along the rows of buildings.

  I slipped into a narrow alleyway and waved for my partner, Ayla Silver, to follow. As she pushed in beside me, she took care not to let the slimy layer of filth on the brick wall rub off onto her black tank top.

  The police car sped past our alleyway and continued further into the city. I waited for the siren to fade before stepping back out onto the sidewalk.

  Even though we weren’t their target, being stopped would complicate our evening. The weapons we carried would be difficult to explain away, and the cops weren’t likely to accept “hunting demons” as an answer when they asked what two young women were doing out on the streets at one-thirty in the morning.

  We’d been tracking this particular demon for far too long to allow him to slip away again, so I wasn’t about to take any risks.

  “I don’t know, Riley. I think we lost him… again.” Ayla ran her fingers through the blue highlights in her short, blonde hair, pushing stray strands away from her eyes. “It might be time to go back home to Haygrove.”

  “We’re not going back empty-handed again. Let’s keep moving.” I pushed past her and continued down the street.

  If I were being honest, I agreed with her. This demon had been toying with us, leading us around for months, in circles across the country.

  Intel reports from the Arbiters of Shadow headquarters in Haygrove, Iowa were the only reason we could track him each time he resurfaced. Even I had to admit that the hunt was getting old, but the thought of returning home with nothing to show for our months in the field…

  That failure would be too much to bear.

  A pair of glowing red eyes flashed across the street, then disappeared into the doorway below a neon sign that read Club Storm.

  I exchanged a look with my partner. “You see that, too?”

  “Sure did.”

  “Let’s move, then.” I jogged to the other side of the road, and Ayla followed close behind me.

  The deep pounding of bass greeted us as I pulled open the door to the club.

  “The comic convention is on the other side of town.” A young man sitting on a stool in the entryway snickered as he looked us over. “Who are you two supposed to be, anyway?”

  My fingers twitched over the hilt of my sword. Even with my gear, I knew I didn’t look like much of a threat—a twenty-four year old slender redhead, freckles and all, and no more than five-foot-five. My appearance often worked in my favor with the demons we hunted. They underestimated me every time, which made defeating them all the more satisfying.

  Still, I hated being talked down to by some civilian kid whose ass I could kick in my sleep.

  “Did someone just walk in here? Right before us?” I asked, forcing a smile in my best attempt to stick to business.

  The kid shrugged. “People have been walking in and out all night. I don’t take names. Entry fee is five bucks if you want to go in and have a look.”

  “I’m not here for the dancing or drinks,” I said. “We don’t plan to be here long.”

  “I don’t care what you plan to do in there. The entry fee is still five bucks.”

  Ayla pulled a few crumpled bills out of her wallet and handed them over.

  The kid stuffed the money into his pocket and gave each of us a glowing bracelet. “Try not to stab anyone with those fake swords while you’re in there.”

  We followed the hallway into a spacious room with a high ceiling and a balcony overlooking the dance floor. The space was packed with bodies and the stench of sweat, a sea of glowing bracelets and neon articles of clothing that were illuminated by black lights. It was a half-hour until last call, and the party wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

  We’d been stupid to come in here. I hadn’t seen anything other than a kid wearing dumb glowing rave gear to a nightclub.

  Ayla took my hand, and we fought our way through the wall of bodies toward the bathrooms in the back corner. The graffiti-covered walls of the restroom dulled the heavy music, giving us a welcome relief from the onslaught of bass and electronic beats.

  It was a relief for me, anyway. Ayla loved this stuff.

  “I told you, he’s in the wind,” she said. “We should stay here and have a drink or two, then go home in the morning.”

  “We can’t.” I leaned back against the stall door and crossed my arms. “We have to find him before he skips town again.”

  “What are you trying to prove? This guy is running circles around us. They need to send a bigger team for this hunt.”

  “Why are you so eager to get back? You hate Haygrove.”

  “Not as much as I hate running around the country accomplishing absolutely nothing.” Ayla slammed her fist on the counter. “Come on, Riley. I’m tired of this.”

  The steady stream of music cut off abruptly, and we both froze.

  “Last call came early?” I asked.

  Loud shrieking filled the silence left by the lack of music. We
hurried out of the bathroom to find the dance floor swarming with panicking people. On stage, a fallen light had crashed into the DJ and his setup. Blood poured from a gash on his head and dripped down his ruined laptop. A few dancers who’d been at the front of the pack also lay motionless on the ground, surrounded by more of the lighting equipment that had collapsed from above. The rest of the crowd poured out of the nightclub through the tiny hallway, desperate to get away from the freak accident.

  “There’s something up there,” Ayla said, nudging my arm.

  I squinted up at the rafters above the stage. A dark figure, hunched behind a row of lights, stared back at me with red eyes.

  Not a mundane, freak accident after all.

  “You got our attention,” I yelled up at the creature, once I was sure all of the civilians were gone. “Are you ready to stop running?”

  His mouth quirked up in a grin. “As much as I love being chased all over the country by a pretty pair of Arbiters, I’m ready to end this game of cat and mouse. The cat can only allow the mouse to believe itself the hunter for so long before the game becomes… tiresome.”

  The demon jumped down, splintering the wood on the stage as he landed near the DJ’s body. The illusion of humanity rippled away to show his true form. His skin was yellowed and sickly, pulled tight around gaunt cheekbones and crimson eyes. It was cracked, almost decaying, yet it shimmered under the flashing lights above us. His grin revealed two rows of pointed teeth that were just as sharp as the tips of his ears.

  “Tell you what, ladies,” the demon drawled in his raspy voice, “if you two walk away right now, I won’t pursue. Go back to the Arbiters. Tell them you killed me, if it gets you whatever glory you’re craving. I’m not interested. I have too much work to do.”

  “What kind of work?” I asked, inching toward him.

  The demon chuckled. “Nothing that concerns you. You’ll either leave me alone and never find out, or you won’t, and you’ll be dead. I don’t care which.”

  We didn’t have time for this. The police would respond to the call soon, and we needed to be gone, with the demon dead before that happened. Headquarters hated to clean up civilian police involvement, and I didn’t feel like dealing with the paperwork.

  I dropped my bag and drew my sword. Beside me, Ayla did the same with her twin daggers.

  The demon grinned, as though our choice to fight was the one he’d been hoping for. He whistled, and a dog-like creature jumped down from the rafters. It prowled toward us, eyeing us with ravenous hunger.

  “A hellhound,” Ayla said with a slight gasp. “Where in the infernal hells did you get one of those as a pet?”

  The muscular beast was every bit as terrifying as I had been told they were. It stood taller than a Rottweiler, with a broad chest and thick legs. Its eyes glowed red, and embers dripped from its mouth. Chunks of uneven, matted black fur were spattered across its skin, and flames glowed deep within its chest through the outline of its ribs. Though it trembled with the desire to attack us, it stood obediently beside its master, waiting for the command.

  “I’m moving up in the ranks,” the demon said, waving his arms with an extravagant flourish. “I did a favor for the big guy and got myself a suitable reward.”

  “Big guy?” I asked. “What big guy?”

  The demon held up a hand to form a fireball in his palm, then flung it at the hallway that led to the club’s entrance. “I really do need to be going now.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” I said.

  The demon waved as he started toward a door next to the stage. The hellhound jumped in front of him, blocking us from pursuing as he escaped.

  “Go after him!” Ayla yelled. “I’ll take care of this.”

  “You can’t take on a hellhound alone!” I’d never seen one, but I’d heard plenty about what nasty beasts they were. Hellhounds were a two hunter job.

  “I’ll be fine—we can’t let him get away again. Go!” Ayla charged the hellhound.

  Embers flew everywhere as it rushed toward her, mouth open in a fiery snarl.

  With only a quick glance behind me, I rushed outside after the demon.

  The exit led into an alley behind the club, so dark I could hardly see my hand in front of my face. I summoned a small light. Just as it appeared in my palm, the heavy door slammed into me and knocked me over. I rolled into the momentum and jumped to my feet just in time to see the demon standing over me. He bared a smile full of sharp teeth.

  I lunged up with my sword, not giving him a chance to speak. He side-stepped the attack and slammed his elbow into my chest, sending me flying back into the wall.

  The demon kicked me back down. My sword flew out of my hand and landed at the demon’s feet. He bent to pick it up, then stepped on my chest.

  “I don’t care enough about you to bother killing you,” he said. “Seems more fun to let you live, knowing you hunted me for months, only to lose.”

  The demon pushed my leather jacket aside with the tip of my sword, then cut a deep gash into my shoulder. My cry rose as he dipped a clawed finger into the wound, coating his finger in my blood.

  I pulled his ankle in an effort to drag him down with me, but he didn’t budge. I struggled until he pressed his foot harder on my shoulder, and the strength in my arm gave out.

  With my blood on his finger, he drew a circle on the wall. When he placed his palm in the center, hot energy escaped from the portal, and invisible flames licked my cheeks. He tossed my sword across the alleyway, then stepped into the opening.

  Despite the searing pain in my shoulder, I crawled over to my sword, knees dragging through dirt and puddles of rainwater.

  Behind me, the demon whistled, calling his creature to his side. The hellhound bounded out of the club and, after a short growl in my direction, jumped through the portal with its master.

  “Do not come for me again.”

  As the demon stepped through the portal on the wall, I made it to my sword and dove for him in a final desperate attack. The portal closed behind him, and I collided with the hard wall.

  More police sirens sounded in the distance. It wouldn’t be long before they responded to calls about the accident. Ayla and I had to disappear before they arrived. I opened the door, coughing as smoke billowed out of the club.

  “Ayla?” I called out.

  No answer.

  Panic rose in my chest. “Ayla?”

  A beam crashed from the ceiling, and the fire spread further through the room.

  I pulled my arm up to cover my face and coughed again. Where was my partner?

  In the middle of the room, light from the flames glinted off two pieces of metal on the floor. A body lay beside them, broken and charred to a crisp black color, unidentifiable except for the two daggers next to it.

  Though the fire raged around me, the world stopped.

  I should never have left Ayla alone. I should have listened to protocol and fought the hellhound with her rather than running off to fight a demon who was too strong for me alone. We’d hunted him as he fled from one city to the next—we could have found him again.

  Now, we never would.

  Or at least, Ayla wouldn’t.

  Tears stung in my eyes from both the heavy smoke in the air and the grief from discovering my partner dead.

  I picked up Ayla’s daggers and ran, leaving what was left of my friend to burn along with the building.

  Chapter Two

  I unbuckled the leather belt holding the sword to my hip and tossed it on Ayla’s coffee table. It had been a month since I last needed my weapons, but I hated how I felt naked without them.

  The guilt and grief since Ayla’s death had been unbearable. At some point, I knew I would have to move on. I just didn’t know how. I would have loved to throw myself into work and do some hunting to get my mind off her death, but I hadn’t b
een cleared for duty yet.

  Instead of spending the day in bed, nursing away my hangover from another night of drinking at the Rusted Blade, I’d decided to confront my grief directly.

  No one had been in to clear out Ayla’s apartment, so it was just as I remembered it: a maze of books piled throughout her living room, a stack of empty energy drink cans on the counter, and the ever-present smell of an old library. The only difference was the thin layer of dust that now covered everything.

  I flopped down on the worn blue couch, kicked my feet up on the coffee table, and leaned back. I’d hoped that going to her apartment would help me say goodbye, but so far, it was only making me feel more alone.

  The door creaked open behind me. I spun around, instinctively reaching for my gun, but I relaxed when I saw Alexander Orion standing in the doorway. To someone else, he might have been handsome with his chiseled jaw, tan skin, and sandy brown hair, but I could never think of him that way. Orion—absolutely not Alexander or Alex or Al—had helped my father raise me after my mother died on a hunt. I loved him as I would any other family member.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” He shut the door behind him and looked around the small apartment.

  “There’s nothing else to do on forced leave.” Turning back around, I let myself fall into the soft cushions.

  Instead of joining me, Orion walked into the kitchen. Cabinets thudded as he dug through them.

  Part of me wanted to yell at him for being disrespectful, but what was the point? Ayla was gone. Someone from headquarters would come by to throw everything out eventually.

  When he returned, he held a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, which he set down on the coffee table.

  “Bit early, don’t you think?” I asked, raising a brow.

  “Maybe.” He poured our drinks and slid one my way.

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  “If I wanted company, I would have called.” I picked up the glass and took a sip. “Besides, don’t you have work to do?”

  “Looking after the wellbeing of a hunter in my unit is work.” He sat down on the couch beside me and gave me a pointed look.