by Nia Night
Dark Huntress
Sisterhood of Assassins: Iliana’s Story
Nia Night
Copyright © 2019 Nia Night
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
Contents
Story Summary
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
The End… for now
Silver Huntress Sneak Peek
Chapter 1
A Note from the Author
About the Author
Story Summary
Some people just need to die.
Sometimes those people are human. Sometimes they are not.
I don’t ask questions. Questions are against The Code.
I get the job done. I take out the Mark. Then I get paid.
After that, I usually get laid.
Not a bad life for a half Demon, if you ask me.
For a Sister, killing comes easy. It’s what we’re trained to do.
Until it doesn’t come easy. Until we start to question everything we’ve been taught, everything we’ve been forced to learn.
The Code. Just cling to The Code. Say the words as many times as you must.
Your life depends on it.
I am the night and the shadows. I am the ghost on the wind. I am a maiden of mayhem. I am a Sister of sin.
For the Sisters
1
“You’re still here?”
The human male in my bed rolled over, eyes peeling open slowly. The covers shifted, revealing golden skin and a muscled torso. Confusion clouded his handsome face as he blinked up at me.
“Good morning to you, too,” he said.
I scooped his clothes up from the floor and tossed them at him. “I’ve got shit to do,” I replied, and waved a hand toward the door.
Mike, or Matt, or Brad, or whatever the ten hells his name was, stood and began dressing. I watched mild anger take the place of confusion as I stood waiting with my arms crossed.
“Is this what you do?” he asked. “Find random men in bars, fuck them, and send them packing?”
I didn’t answer. Didn’t care to.
He continued mumbling things under his breath that I didn’t bother listening to, casting me disgusted glances as he donned his shoes at last and fished for his keys in his pocket. I checked the clock on my phone before sliding the device back into my jeans, waving a hand again when he just stood there staring.
“Crazy bitch,” he mumbled.
Those words I did catch. Luckily for him, I was feeling uncharacteristically amiable this morning. I let the insult slide.
We exited the bedroom and crossed the large expanse of the loft, the city gleaming behind the wall of windows to the west. I opened the door for him and offered a polite smile.
Amiable indeed.
When he paused in the doorway and turned back to me, lips still twisted in distaste, I bit down on a growl, kept the polite smile in place, and raised my brows in question.
“You know,” Mike/Matt/Brad said, “Women like you are the reason good men like me treat you like whores. When it comes down to it, that’s exactly what you all are.”
Now, I could’ve taken the high road, but sometimes, my internal GPS just couldn’t locate it.
Good men like him. Right. As a half Demon, I could sense the darkness that hung around mortals, the stains of the ill deeds they’d enacted over the courses of their lives. Everyone had this darkness, but some had it much more than others. This shithead was no hero.
Even still, I might have let it go had he left it there.
But Mike/Matt/Brad added, “Someday, someone might teach you a lesson on why you don’t play with a man’s emotions like this.”
He turned on his heels to leave at last, pleased with his final words to me. His barely veiled threat.
I nodded slowly, letting him take a step and a half before planting the heel of my boot hard in the back of his knees, making him crash forward. I caught him by the hair before he could hit the ground and banged his head into the doorframe hard enough to give him a headache the rest of the day, but not enough to do any real damage.
I shoved him forward. He sprawled onto his hands into the hallway.
Mike/Matt/Brad rose and whirled, hands balling into fists, red rising to his cheeks.
Then he paused in his tracks, eyes going slightly wide as I let the fire in my blood flash into my gaze. As I unleashed a bit of the Demon magic within me, let him see the true form beneath the pretty mask. Humans may not be aware of the supernatural world around them, but most knew how to spot true danger when they encountered it.
Mike/Matt/Brad scurried down the hallway, taking his toxic masculinity with him. I checked my phone again and scowled. The dumbass had jacked up my mood, disturbed my zen.
I much preferred being in a lighter state of mind on the nights I had to kill someone.
The child complicated matters.
I’d never failed in a mission, had never missed a Mark or deadline, and didn’t intend to start now, but this would require some finesse. If I have a weak spot, it has always been children. I didn’t care what race they were, human or supernatural, children were innocent. And the things they witnessed during their formative years had a way of sticking with them.
I should know.
I didn’t know what the man had done, why his name had been handed over to me. But I did know that before the night was over, he’d be dead, and I’d be ten thousand dollars richer. My Superiors would be pleased, I would be pleased, and so would our client. That was all I needed to concern myself with.
I balanced on the edge of a rooftop as the child and the Mark left the adjacent building, the warm summer breeze kissing my face. Carson City spread out before me, lights twinkling and the usual commotion ensuing. I slipped off the roof as the two headed down 5th street and toward Westbridge Park for an evening stroll.
Rolling my neck, I tried to relieve some of the tightness from my shoulders and nearly succeeded. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I chalked up to the child’s presence. This would be easy, I told myself. The park was the perfect place to do the deed, plenty of spots to lurk and even more to stash the body until the Collectors came to get it. The only hard part would be luring the male away from the child for long enough to accomplish my task.
I did not want the child to witness his death. I may be a monster in several senses of the word, but I didn’t need to be the monster that haunted her dreams. I was the main feature in enough nightmares as it was, to be sure.
The scent of cherry blossoms filled the exhaust-choked air as I trailed the two into the park. It was a nice reprieve from the concrete and
brick landscape of the city, with winding trails that went for miles, stretches of green grass and blooming gardens, cherry blossom trees lining the path at short intervals.
The sun had set only moments ago, but the park was still buzzing with activity, as the long summer days afforded such luxury. I knew the Veil was tight around me. It did not make me completely invisible to humans, but it went a long way in ensuring that no one looked at me twice.
With long golden hair, black leather, and my Calidi chain hanging around my hips, I was well aware of the effect my appearance had on humans. I could pass as one of them physically, but the Demon half of me ensured that I would never really fit into their world. Which was just fine. I had absolutely no desire to.
I am the night and the shadows. I am the ghost on the wind…
The mantra came back to me, as it always did, along with all the other training I’d spent the better portion of my lifetime learning.
I continued to tail the Mark and child as they moved deeper and deeper into the park, getting close enough not to lose them, staying far enough back to escape notice. Looking back now, something about the man’s behavior should have tipped me off, but at the time, I was anxious to be done with the mission so that I could drink myself into a stupor and sleep until the dream world would no longer have me.
As I followed, I picked up pieces of their conversation, and tried to check the curiosity that arose along with it.
“I understand,” the child said, her soft shoulders slumping despite her words. From my estimation, she could be no more than ten years old.
The Mark let out a sigh, pulling her against his side, running his hand over her dark, curly hair. “I know, V,” he said gently. “But it’s not fair to you. None of it is fair.”
The girl looked up at him with innocent brown eyes. “Life isn’t fair, Elias,” she countered.
Another sigh from the Mark. “You’re too smart for your own good, you know that?”
The child snorted. “No such thing,” she replied.
The Mark said nothing to this for a few moments, and I nearly tripped over my own feet for being so absorbed in the conversation.
Get it together, Iliana, warned a voice in my head. A distracted mind was the quickest way to mistakes.
The Mark spotted an ice cream vendor on the path ahead, just closing up for the night, and jogged over to him. “How about some ice cream?” he asked the child, already pulling out his wallet before she could answer.
The girl offered a smile, but from the slump of her shoulders I knew that this was a weak substitute for what she really wanted, and from what I’d gathered, what she wanted was stability.
I refused to further question what the details of this story were. Getting involved in the life of a Mark was against the rules. A breaking of The Code. Hell, it was one of the first things they’d taught us at the Academy. Do not get involved. Do the job. Get in, get out. By all means, do not linger long enough to engage the possibility of giving a shit.
I slipped behind a cherry blossom tree as the Mark made his purchase, handing a chocolate ice cream to the child before continuing on in their stroll. I knew the park well enough to know that if I was going to strike, my opportunity was coming up.
The next section of the park was more secluded than most, the lights dimmer, the shadows of the trees thicker. Perhaps I could knock the child out—I’d have to be careful not to do any real damage—and then kill the Mark and be done with it.
Sure, I told myself. That sounded like a damn plan.
I moved closer as they rounded a bend and slipped into the section where I’d do the deed. As if to confirm my intuitions, this part of the park was empty of others, the shadows hugging the night and creating an ideal setting for murder.
Carefully, so as not to make a sound, I unwound the Calidi chain from around my waist and summoned my fire magic. Knock out the child. Kill the Mark. Be home in time for late night reruns of I Love Lucy. Nothing I hadn’t done dozens of times before.
I was just about to strike when the Vampires arrived.
The milky skinned bitches appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. I knew they were Accursed from the moment they stepped out of the shadows, with their all-black eyes and rows of razor sharp teeth. Two of them slipped onto the path directly ahead of the Mark and child. A third flanked them from behind.
The Mark came to a stop, his arms going protectively around the girl. I tilted my head in confusion, pausing in my still concealed position as I observed this.
I was pretty sure the Mark was a human, and so was the child, and humans, as a general rule, did not know about the supernatural creatures and elements lurking right below the surface of their world. The Veil between the worlds ensured that this was so, and yet, the man did not look particularly surprised to see the Accursed. He did not react in the way most humans would when confronted with real life Vampires.
Perhaps he thought they were just in costume? No. That couldn’t be. His body language revealed that he was well aware of the danger.
“Hello, Eliasssssss,” hissed one of the Accursed, her lips pulling back to reveal her sharp teeth, tongue snaking out to test the air. Her ebony gaze went to the child, and back to the Mark. “We’ll take her from here.”
I blinked in surprise when the Mark removed a silver rod from his pocket and held it out before him. When he whispered an incantation that made the rod grow into a full-on silver sword, my breath caught in my throat.
Where in the fuck did this human come across a Gladius?
The Mark pushed the girl behind him, but there was an Accursed on that side of him, too. I could see in his eyes that he knew he was terribly outmatched.
Still, the fight he put up impressed even me, and there were few in all the realms whose skills in combat matched that of mine and my fellow Sisters.
The Accursed moved with inhuman speed, advancing on the Mark in a pack, as was their way.
“Cover your eyes, Vida, and do not open them until I say,” the Mark told the child. But her little hands did not come up and shield her face.
The Mark spun with a grace I would not have expected, clean removing the head of the first Accursed that attacked. It tumbled from her shoulders, black blood spraying into the air in a fine mist, soaking his face and hands.
Then he was on to the next. He swung, missing his mark as the Vamp bounced back. The other Accursed attacked from the rear in the same instant. The Mark was not able to turn fast enough. He went down as the Vampire fell on him with her superior strength.
He twisted himself so that the Gladius went through the throat of the Accursed, another spray of black blood ensuing. He shoved her off of him as she grabbed at her neck, fingers working in futility to staunch the bleeding. As he scrambled to get to his feet, the remaining vampire stalked over to him and stomped down hard on his shin. The bone there snapped audibly, and the Mark let out a cry of pain that made the child flinch, though her hands still did not cover her face.
I knew well enough that that kind of injury was the end of the fight. Could I have jumped in and saved Elias at that point? Yes, of course. But he was not “Elias” to me then. He was only the Mark, a picture and an address and an order. If the Accursed was going to kill him, it only meant that I would not have to.
So I remained in my position, my Calidi chain coiled around my hands, fire magic brimming hot just under the surface, and watched without horror as the Accursed fell on the Mark, as she struck like a snake, mouth widening and revealing those shark teeth, and drank his blood until there was no more left.
All the while, the child stood off to the side, silent and still as the dead.
Once the Vampire had drained him, she tipped her head back, his blood dripping down her pale chin and neck. Her soulless eyes turned toward the child.
“Hello, sssweetnessssss,” hissed the Accursed. “You’re going to come with me.”
I don’t know what the fuck came over me. Honest to Gods, I should have just walked the he
ll away. The people who’d hired me didn’t care how the job got done, only that it did get done, and with the death of the Mark, my mission was complete. My work here was done. I had no business getting involved.
But as the child stared, her eyes growing wide as duel moons, terror seeping into them at the sight of the bloody Accursed and the slain Mark, I found myself stepping out of the shadows, Calidi chain wrapped tightly around my hands, fire blazing in my eyes.
“Hello, sweetness,” I said to the Accursed, throwing her words back at her.
I let the chain fly.
2
The chain coiled around the Vampire’s throat.
There was only time for her to bare her teeth, for her onyx eyes to widen in surprise, before I yanked on the end of the chain I was still holding, sending fire magic down through the links, removing her head from her body.
Decapitation was the only way to kill an Accursed, and while the head was still rolling, I moved over to the one that was still alive, the one the Mark had stabbed through the neck, and finished the job. Scooping up the Mark’s Gladius, I severed her head as well, and then retracted the weapon and tucked it into the back of my waistband.
Recoiling the Calidi chain around my waist as well, I turned toward the child, who was staring at me like…. Well, like she’d just seen me kill two Vampires in ten seconds.
For a long moment, I didn’t know what to do. Talk about awkward. This was not at all how I’d planned this evening going. Then, my right mind returned to me, and I got to work dragging the bodies to a place where they wouldn’t be stumbled across. I moved the Accursed first, stashing them behind a few bushes and kicking their removed heads like soccer balls to the same position.