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What are the chances? ‟No. My target just slipped my grasp, and I was about to call you because things are getting very weird. I just found the target’s home destroyed by cultists, with corpses everywhere. Seems they tried to capture him. And I think they used me to find him in the first place.”

Colton sighs roughly, then I hear keyboard clicks, and my phone makes a pling.

I pick it up and stare at the image—images, there are seventeen—with increasing confusion. ‟Why are you sending me pictures of the crime scene again? I saw the mission brief when Asha drove me around the city in circles.”

‟Look closer, play a little Where’s Waldo,” Colton grunts cryptically. ‟As soon as you see it, you’ll know why.”

‟I hate riddles,” I mutter but do as I am told.

It’s actually a lie, and Colton knows it. I love riddles, and mysteries, and cyphers. My heart is just busy with other, much more painful things at the moment. Flipping through the images, I try to see what Colton wants me to see, but it’s not easy. The pictures are full of gore, a disembodied person in a side street, looking like it almost exploded across the walls. Some bits and pieces are missing, most of the blood for example, but the organs make up for it. They are everywhere, shredded and mixed in with broken bones and ripped pieces of clothing. ‟I don’t see—‟

‟Yes. Look for what you don’t see.”

I take a deep breath instead of yelling at him like I would love to do, and diligently flip through the images again. ‟Can’t you just tell me what is is… oh.”

I go through all the pictures again just to be sure, but yes; none of the pictures show yellow police tape anymore, or any bystanders, or even any proximity to any bigger street. It’s just a small, empty, dirty, side street with a corpse in it. And of course, someone who took pictures, for whatever reason. No indication that anyone saw.

My throat tightens. ‟She faked the breach?”

‟Big time.”

‟But, her Hunter’s Mark,” I start, unsure how to complete the sentence. I have never heard Colton so shocked or quiet before.

‟Wouldn’t react as long as she doesn’t commit a breach or attack a hunter directly herself. And as long as she herself doesn’t go after the target, knowing it’s innocent—,” he says, sounding unwillingly impressed with her cunning.

‟… then her Mark won’t flare up. And by tricking me into believing the opposite, mine will force me to go after C—, the target I mean.” Luckily I’m already sitting down in the car, otherwise I would probably flop down to the ground. My mind is spinning with the implications.

Colton’s voice is very quiet when he says, ‟I’m sorry I didn’t believe you earlier.”

‟You believed me enough to check our assignment, Colton. That is already more than other people would have done.” And it is more than I expected in this short of a time frame. It can’t have been more than an hour or so since we talked. He must have checked into our case the moment we hung up. Something hard inside my chest crumbles and floats away on a wave of relief.

‟Well, I wish I had done more. I’m sending out reinforcements to collect Asha. And you. They will be there in six hours, maybe a little faster if they break the speed limit. Is your hotel address still up to date?”

‟Yes, we’re still at that hotel. Or at least I will be there. I have lost sight of Asha right after our call. She left the hotel in a rush, so she might be on to us.”

Colton is starting to sound like a bulldog, sighing and huffing through the entire conversation. ‟No matter. We’ll pick up her tracks from there. Please don’t go after her on your own. You’re a very good tracker, but you’re no match for her. I don’t want to lose two people in one go.”

As if I ever would. ‟Oh, I definitely won’t. I’ll wait for our people in room 104. Armed is alright, I assume?”

‟Wouldn’t want you to be a sitting duck in case Asha gets ideas. I’ll let our people know not to startle you,” Colton agrees. ‟Be careful.”And with that, he hangs up.

I close my eyes, breathing in deeply. I don’t have to kill Cor, and I won’t have to face Asha alone. Fucking ace. I don’t know if Cor will ever forgive me for attempting to shoot him in the face, but that doesn’t matter. He can stay angry at me for the rest of his life, if that means he still has a life. I’ll deal with the heartbreak somehow, as long as we both get to live on. Seems like I haven’t run out of good fortune after all. At least I think so, until I feel the glacial ring of a muzzle press behind my right ear, right at the base of my skull.

‟Well, that sure isn’t going to end well for me, is it,” Asha says from the back seat, sounding slightly sad. ‟You, my friend, are one unlucky duck.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ASHA GUIDES ME through the city streets with calm, terse instructions. The muzzle never leaves the back of my head, a steadfast threat. I’d love to be that kind of hero who uses the right moment to distract the kidnapper and get free, but I am not. And Asha is too in control of herself and the situation to give me any openings to overwhelm her. I don’t even dare to look back, not with the gun still pointing at me.

Not that she can make me shut up. ‟Where are we going?”

She snorts. ‟No ‘why are you doing this?’ or ‘Asha, think of your oath’? Just ‘where are we going’? You disappoint me a little, grasshopper.”

My eyes flick over to the rearview mirror. She looks pale, exhausted, but calm. A beautiful, brass collar pokes out of her half-open dress shirt, giving me the impression of both brand-new and ancient. It reminds me a little of Cor’s amulet. Hm.

When she notices me looking at her instead of the street, she pokes my head hard with the gun and snarls, ‟Eyes on the road, pumpkin! I’m not dying today.”

‟Sorry.” I obey her, not because I think she’d shoot me if I didn’t, but because she is absolutely right in that regard. If she hasn’t murdered me yet, she doesn’t plan on killing me anytime soon. And also, car crash victims can’t save certain vampires from getting caught by unnamed cultists. I fix my eyes back on the road and lick my lips as I ponder my answer. ‟I am interested in the why and the how could you, but right now, I don’t think the gruesome details will change much for me. Am I wrong?”