by Kim Faulks
I slid the journal into my pocket and turned my head. The police report sat there, taking up space on my seat and in my mind.
He calls himself the unseelie…
I closed my eyes to the wounds of those words. And all I could see was Redemption, standing over my mom’s body, with her blood all over his hands.
They were pieces of a puzzle. Pieces that made no sense…
Lucifer waited on one side…Redemption was on the other.
And somewhere in between was the truth.
Lies, secrets, and blood.
And the more I thought about it…the angrier I felt. All those years.
Years of me loving him. Years of me fucking him.
Years of me falling in love with my mother’s murderer.
He calls himself the unseelie…
My fingers trembled against the steering wheel. Energy raced, blistering and burning, and the bitter stench of charred plastic filled my nose
I wrenched my hand from the wheel and stared at the sigil. Tiny black flames licked the air.
He calls himself the unseelie…
The unseelie who killed my mom. Find him. Find him and demand to know the truth….
And if he tells me the truth? If he admits his guilt, what then?
The faint flicker of flames burned brighter, hungry.
Then I do what I’m trained to do…
I lifted my gaze and found the rear-view mirror as the stony words filled my head—I’ll kill him.
Dark pupils widened in the reflection, glinting with need. I glanced at the report and then dropped my hand to the ignition.
One turn of the key and the engine caught. I was moving before I knew, shoving the car into drive and pulling out onto the street.
I knew him better than I knew myself.
Knew where he lived, knew which bars he haunted…
And which women he fucked.
The city streets seemed to blur. In my head, I was already hunting, already scaling the places I knew he visited on a scale from one…to fuck yeah.
The more I drove, the more I was sure. I glanced at the police report. There was no coming back from this…Redemption had to pay.
The supernatural line divided the city, but there was more to our side than apartment blocks and seedy, graffitied streets. There were the clubs and the bars…and a place called Midnight’s Magic, where the darkest and vilest of our kind hung out.
Murderers, magic stealers, and psychic vampires were the nicest beings I’d encountered in those dingy alleys. I’d hunted there more times than I could count, catching rogue wolves, strung-out witches, and soul stealers who couldn’t hide or fight well enough to escape.
But this was different. This wasn’t a job.
This was personal.
I swung the wheel, turning down Slipknot Lane and into the darker…more rustic part of the city. Blacked out windows were in most houses…warning signs littered the lawns. This was not your family-friendly neighborhood.
I slowed the car and scanned the streets before turning left this time and into Midnight…
This wasn’t a place for the worried or the weak. Residential houses gave way to towering steel and glass buildings. Humans expected gothic mansions and drug-filled lairs, but these beasts were smart, and cunning.
These monsters were the ones you never saw coming.
The midday sun seemed to dull as I turned again. I punched the button and rolled down the window. The air wasn’t quite as clean or warm over this side, and the further I drove from the Supernatural Line, the colder the air became.
Houses gave way to grocery stores of the paranormal kind. Spells and magic were the things you came here for. But this was no silver in my palm kind of witchcraft—this was raw, hungry, and dangerous.
I lifted my head to whispers and ozone on the wind. Power hummed along my bones. These were storm people, the ones who lived amongst the elements, carrying black journals in their hands and wearing tempest storms in tiny bottles around their necks. They were the loners, the ones hiding behind chain-link fences made of ice. The ones who you went to when the power you sought didn’t ask for blood in return.
But if you thought this kind of power was anything less than dangerous, you were very much mistaken.
The glass door of a tiny shop called the Unholy Grail swung open and a young woman stumbled out. Her blonde hair fanned out behind her as she hurried and stumbled on perfect pink high heels.
Her eyes were wide, hand fluttering at the pearl choker around her throat as she scanned the street left and right and then took off running.
A whirlwind hunted her, bits of dirt and dust whipped into a frenzy swirled around her heels, nipping her ankles like a hound on the hunt.
I looked at the champagne-colored Range Rover parked outside with the license plates Missy and shook my head. In her terror, she’d run right past it.
Humans…
Everyone wants a beast, until it came to do what real beasts do.
I could smell the sickening sweet spell of desire haunting her…she’d run, but she’d never hide—not for long, at least. No matter how many times they were warned…the power of three was real—what you put out there, comes back three-fold, with frightening consequences.
She’d now learn what it feels like to be manipulated. She’d know now how it felt to be a puppet on someone else's string.
The corner of my lips twitched with the ghost of a smile before it was gone, and the cold hunger of retribution filled the void.
Elemental power wasn’t where Redemption dwelled…oh no…the unseelie wasn’t so pure and clean. I nosed the car right and then left, working my way into The Pit.
Houses and rustic shops turned into concrete and steel. The sun disappeared behind towering buildings. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I didn’t have to see the caller ID to know who it was.
Titus was worried…and in some ways, he should be.
They all should.
I glanced at the report on the passenger’s seat. My ground was shaky at best. I felt unhinged, and out on a limb, and deep down I knew I was leaving them behind…but I didn’t…I couldn’t let them see me—not like this.
I drove past the bar, Wicked, and headed further along the darkening streets of The Pit before turning right and nosing my car into an alley.
All-day nightclubs filled the street. But to look at the nondescript concrete buildings, you’d never know…never know that underneath there was a whole other world.
I switched off the engine and stared into the rear-view mirror. There was no movement on the street, nothing obvious, at least. I yanked the handle and shoved. But they were out there, the creatures of The Pit, hiding in the shadows, watching from behind their ‘other’ senses.
I pushed the door closed and hit the button, listening to the clunk of the locks. Not that a simple metal mechanism would stop anyone with a lick of ability anyway.
But to touch a hunter’s car was akin to touching their spells or their minds, both came with disastrous consequences.
Except for me, right? After all…I let two damn humans electrocute and beat the shit outta me…I left myself wide open to an attack, and I had no idea why. A shudder swept through my body. Any other day, I’d be fierce. Any other day, I’d be unforgiving. And any other day, I would’ve made them re-think the next time they let their prejudices take the reins.
I swallowed hard and stepped out of the alley onto the street. I wasn’t myself, that was plain to see. But I could still get it together. I could still get myself on track.
Find Redemption, and finally know the truth.
Right before I extinguish his immortal flame.
I couldn’t protect myself, but I could do this.
I could claw myself back from this brink.
I have to…I had no other choice but to keep going.
I had no choice but to survive, and finally bring those who killed my mom to justice.
I walked along the glass front of the tow
ering building and slipped into a tiny side alley. A small wedge of blue sky shone above before the roofline of the building reached across, ending the view.
There was no door at the end, no roller door, no code pad to enter a PIN. There was nothing…and nothing was what those who came here wanted.
I stopped at a slab of concrete on the left-hand side of the wall and lifted my left hand. Power called to power, burning and humming through flesh and bone before I pressed it to the cold surface. There was a flare through the concrete, amber and red shot across to the corner, like a vein of lava lingered underneath.
Fire.
Earth.
Air.
Spirit.
Magic.
The wall shuddered and flaked. Dust and debris crumbled under my touch. I pressed harder, feeling the wall crack and fissure under the weight.
And those crevices ran, spearing out along the wall. I pressed harder, pushing my hand all the way through the now brittle surface. I stepped closer, closed my eyes, and turned my head.
There was no room for trust in this world.
There was only room for knowing…only room for believing, and, as my hand sank through the brittle barrier, the rest of my body followed.
The crunch of the wall filled my ears as I moved through and stepped inside. I glanced over my shoulder to see the wall melding together, becoming the cold, hard wall it always had been.
“Hunter,” snarled a male from the darkened corner.
I glanced toward the voice. “I’m not here for trouble.”
Black eyes glinted from the murky corner as shadows rose, giving birth to the massive minotaur. The darkness clung to his body as he leaned out and stared at me. His shining black snout glistened under the overhead lights, flaring wide as he spoke. “And yet here you are.”
I opened my hands, palm out and muttered, “Here I fucking am.”
His obsidian eyes glanced at my palm as the sigil flared. There was a twitch of his midnight lips before he lifted his head.
Thick horns branched out from each side of his skull and curled around. Runes were carved deep into the ridged keratin. If I was closer, I’d read them, but minotaurs were unpredictable, and violent at best.
He could kill me…if he wanted to.
I lifted my hand, palm out, drawing his gaze to the sigil on my palm. But he didn’t want to drop his gaze to my palm, and I needed no more promise of that than the marks on my body.
Deep lines that cut across my palm, carving across the base of my fingers and then down to a point before they curled around the bottom. Deep gashes gouged into the middle and ended with a V at the soft meat, leaving the power to sink deep and bleed into my veins.
Everyone knew what the mark meant.
Everyone except for me…until a month ago.
It was the mark of Lucifer. A mark to announce I belong to him…and he belonged to me—and all the consequences which came with that bond.
Blood or no blood, I was his daughter. I glanced down at the mark. He told the rest of the world with the mark on my body…the only one who hadn’t been convinced was me.
He tore his gaze from my hand. “Why are you here?”
“Redemption.”
The sneer made my damn skin crawl. “Rekindling a lost love, are we? How sweet. You want champagne? You want a booth? I can have a dancer.” He lifted his hand, waved fingers in the air. I could already hear them behind me scurrying to accommodate as I stepped forward.
My gaze rose with the moment, until my neck kinked holding his damn gaze. “I’m not here for love. I’m here for blood, so you can either tell me where I can find him,” I lifted my hand as black flames grew, “or I can look for him myself.”
He lowered his massive head as the flames grew brighter. The burn licked my wrist and travelled along my arm.
The gust of his breath scattered my hair, still he held my gaze, searching for the truth that shone like a neon fucking sign. “I want him…and I want him now.”
There was a twitch to his black lips, but he never broke his gaze as he answered. “I’ve never seen him. Don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Bullshit. And it wasn’t just that the bastard needed to bathe. “Don’t mind if I have a look for myself, do you?”
There was a flare of concern, a moment where the fight to stop me seemed to outweigh the damage I could cause. But, in the end, the guardian gave a nod. “Be my guest…just don’t…”
I took a step away, already giving the male my back. “Burn anything…yeah, I got it.”
The guardian gave a huff. Courtesy was everything in the supernatural world. I scratch your back, you don’t hex mine—that kind of thing. But as I took a step, leaving the musty dust-filled corridor behind, I knew there’d be no hexing in this place.
There’d be nothing but darkness and desires.
The painfully slow beat reverberated through the floors. My pulse tried to catch the sound, racing and falling as the soft white lights dulled to black.
Midnight was more than a part of the city here. It was an essence…a place, a moment, a feeling…that many here wanted to capture forever.
And in this bar, they had. Everything about the place was darkness, from the black-painted walls and ceiling to the soft black plush carpet under my boots.
Dark blue lights blended to almost black against the back of the bar, blending with the small white spotlights that pierced the walls all the way around the room. It left just enough light…just enough until your eyes adjusted.
Someone brushed their fingers along my arm…and a sigh of seduction echoed at my right. I stared into nothing…until nothing became everything.
Outlines hardened, morphing into chairs and tables…and creatures.
I took a step, hit something hard, and spun. “Sorry.”
Silver eyes glinted in the dark, and the heady smell of wolf invaded my nose.
“Don’t be,” he murmured, and took a step closer.
I flinched under his gaze, as those steely eyes skimmed my body and then stilled at my hand.
The sigil glowed red like a neon sign…one that said back the fuck off…
And this time he was the one who flinched as I stepped closer. I could see now, catch movement and outlines where there’d been none before. “The unseelie, where is he?”
The shifted jerked his head high. There was a shake, and then a step backwards. “Don’t know who you’re talking about. Haven’t seen him.”
The way he moved set my senses alight. He scanned the room, the frantic movement nothing but a sharp bitter stink in my nose.
Fear.
Movement filled the room as heads turned my way. The heavy thud of my pulse echoed, filling my ears with the pounding sound. Silver eyes shone from the seats.
Red eyes glowed from the corners. Scents invaded, the sickening metallic tang of old blood, the deep musty scent of the earth. I scanned the room and took a step. “The unseelie…I want to know who’s seen him.”
There was no answer, not even a whisper of a lie.
I took a step and kicked against something hard. A chair scraped against the floor before I righted my balance. There was a whoosh of movement behind me, something dull white caught my eye.
I spun toward the sight and took a step, finding my way now amongst the dark. White fangs shone as red lips curled. I lifted my hand, fire glowed in the dark. “I want the unseelie. Tell me where he is and I’ll be gone.”
“We don’t know where he is,” came a chilling male voice from the seat. “We’re not in the habit of keeping tabs on our patrons, hunter.”
He rose before I could catch the movement, taking a long stride to block my path. Hate radiated from every pore of his soulless being. Vampire whispered through my mind. He was old…two hundred, maybe three hundred. Nothing I hadn’t taken down before. I wasn’t here to fight. I wasn’t here for blood. But I could be.
“The unseelie is all I want,” I answered. “Give me something and I’ll go.”
“Montgomery’s…he’s at Montgomery’s…” the soft lilt of a woman’s voice filled the void.
“Harper!” The old vamp snarled. “We don’t break the code.”
“Fuck the code,” she murmured and rose.
I could feel the barbs of seduction scratch my skin. She moved without a sound, slipping around the vampire to flank my side. I swallowed hard as the heat of seduction flared between my thighs.
“I’ve got more information if you want it,” she murmured.
Her voice was like honey, smooth, silky, making me want to turn toward her…making me want to taste… Jesus.
Her fingers skimmed my arm, leaving a trail of heat behind. “Just a second is all we’d need.”
There was no move to stop her, no calling off the fucking hounds. I closed my eyes as the barbs of seduction curled a little tighter. “Just a name is all I want.”
“I can give you more than just a name,” she breathed. “I can give you a list of his whole entourage. His warriors, his hunters…everything.”
His hunters?
The thought was the punch to the stomach I needed. I wrenched my head toward the voice and stared the succubus in the eyes. “Redemption doesn’t have a hunter…he is the hunter.”
“I’m talking about the Prince, Lorn. I’m talking about the big, bad Unseelie Prince.”
I didn’t care about the Prince. I cared about Redemption. “Redemption is the one I’m looking for…he’s the one I hunt.”
She stopped walking, dark eyes sparkling with anger as the honeyed voice turned to ice. “Then I guess you’re out of luck. I haven’t seen Redemption in forever.”
I glanced around the room. The truth echoed in every hostile stare.
They hadn’t seen him…and didn’t care to see him. There was no love lost between the hunters and the hunted of our kind—no love lost at all.
“Best be on your way now, Lorn,” the succubus urged as I took a step backwards and then turned.
Their stares haunted me as I left them behind, making my way along the route out of Midnight.
No minotaur waited for me this time as I stepped up to the wall and lifted my hand. I glanced over my shoulder to the empty hall and pressed my palm to the surface.
Power raced, but this time it yanked hard, dragging me back through the concrete barrier too fast. I closed my eyes and tried to turn my head, but the jagged teeth on the edges of the crevices scratched my face. The sting travelled, tearing along my cheek and temple before I was thrown free.