“Feisty for someone about to die,” Holden crossed his arms, coming up next to me.
“Where did you last see him?” I asked.
“In the woods somewhere, I was taken there blindfolded. I don’t know.”
“There was a-a,” He stopped when I moved the brand to his face, the heat scorching his neck, “A man.”
“Spit it out,”
“I was working with a man. Creepy, dark clothes, didn’t talk.” He shuddered, “He called himself a summoner, I don’t know what he was, some kind of fucked up hybrid. I only met him for the job.”
“What the fuck is a summoner?” Holden asked the same thing I was thinking. I never even heard of that.
“I- I don’t know. He told me he could find things, locate them and people.”
“How?” I asked.
“The guy barely said two words to me. Do you think he told me how his fucking magic worked?”
“How did you get in?”
“He opened a portal.”
“B.ullshit,” Griffen said.
“I don’t know how it happened. That’s how he went to get the other things, apparently. We were contracted by The Blade, but we aren’t working together. I have never seen him before, and I have no idea where he went after he pushed me through the portal to where the boy was.” “After you grabbed the kid, then what?” Holden grabbed the guy by the back of the head and pulled his face up to look at him, “What would have happened to the people he was with?”
“I didn’t-“
Holden punched him in the face, and blood spurted from his nose.
“You thought a fucking four-year-old-“
“He’s five now,” I corrected.
“Apologies,” He shrugged at me before turning back to his victim, “You thought a fucking five-year-old would be left alone?”
“My job was to extract the boy, nothing else.”
“What would have happened to them-” His voice broke, and he coughed, trying to reign in his anger.
“I would have left with him.”
“Through another portal?” I asked.
“He was gone by then.”
“Who?” Holden got close to him again.
“The summoner,” he almost shouted.
“Where were you supposed to deliver him?” I asked.
“When I reached outside the city limits, I would get a text with the coordinates.”
Go now – I commanded Griffen, and he was out in a second.
I didn’t have to tell him what to do. I knew he would bring a team and this guy’s phone. We were probably too late. Even the extra hour would have tipped them off; something went wrong, but we could get lucky. “Then what?”
“Then I drop the kid, get a paycheck and f**k off. This really wasn’t personal. It’s a job.” He pleaded with me.
“I don’t care what the f**k you do for a living, but you made it personal.” I got in his face. Atlas pushed through and growled loudly, shaking the room.
The only thing I could think of was Emmett terrified and alone, given to Goddess knew who. What if we couldn’t find him? The fear of that overcame me. I tried to push it away, but the thought lingered.
“What else do we need to know?” I grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him toward me.
Atlas wanted blood almost as much as I did.
“Nothing, I swear,” He was whimpering now, trying to get as far away from me as possible, “I just got the job yesterday. It was all coordinated by him. I didn’t know my target-“
“You knew it was a child.”
“I didn’t know who the child was.” He pleaded.
“He’s yours,” I said to Holden.
I turned on my heel, the guard let me out before I could knock. I was pissed, but I would give Holden this one. I needed to see Willa and Emmett. That would be the only thing to calm me down. His death at my hands wouldn’t help these nervous feelings, only seeing them would.
I called Griffen on the way up, “I need to know when The Silent Assasin came back around here and for how long, any jobs we think he might have done and who he has been working with.”
The Silent Assasin was a wanderer. He had posts, but Goddess only knows how many. It was a stupid name, but the one we knew him by, at least. He was the head of his assassins, as far as I knew him, or of him, he didn’t get his hands dirty. I haven’t seen him since we took the pact. We kept our eye on him even though the pact stopped him from.. holy s.hit. Willa and Emmett aren’t technically a part of this pack.
“He’s been back for a month now,” Griffen pulled me from my thoughts, “Nothing new, adding to his silent pack,” he said with disdain.
His pack of orphans he so lovingly took in and trained. There were only a few when I took over, but it seemed to grow, and they were all maturing now, or past that point where they got their wolfs. We weren’t exactly sure the reason for them, but trained assassins in exchange for a roof seemed like a pretty good bet.
“We need to find him. I need to know who took the hit out.”
“We know that,” Griffen said.
“We need proof that it was Alpha Jasper. We don’t know who he told.” I was trying to convince myself more than him.
Alpha Jasper wasn’t in our territory, I didn’t know what would happen if I challenged him. I could get out of it eventually, but I didn’t want to be that Alpha, that person, that thought without consequences. It wasn’t just about me anymore. I wanted to be a good leader for Emmett. No matter how hard it was not to spill the blood of him and his entire pack, I had to think this through and get answers as much as it pained me.
“We need a meeting with the Silent Assassin,”
“He doesn’t take meetings; you know that, Cas.”
You don’t go to him; he comes to you. I was well aware of that, but I was done playing on his terms.
“Take a hit out on him and all his known aliases.”
“Alpha, are you sure?” They only called me Alpha when they needed to know I was speaking from a leader perspective and not from my own emotions, or if we were fighting others. “Yes, any price.”
I needed to find out where the Silent Assassin was hiding, and I wouldn’t let him leave this time.
I would bring him to us.
(Caspien)
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.