I surged to my feet and flashed around him, going for the metal penlight on the floor. The beam of light spun about the room as I raised my arm and drove it into his back with all the force I could muster. One might believe a penlight could never penetrate skin, but that would be a misconception.
Darius roared in pain.
He flung his sword backward and let go. I turned to watch the tip of it stab the floor right between Wyatt’s legs, just inches from his…
Wyatt shrieked, holding his crotch as the sword bowed back and forth. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit. You hear that, Viktor?” he shouted. “I want a raise!”
Darius fell to his knees, desperately trying to grasp for the light, which was centered out of his reach.
I sauntered over to Wyatt and pulled the sword out from the wood. As I approached Darius, I smirked when a thought crossed my mind. “I guess the pen really is mightier than the sword.” With my fingers around the grip of my blade, I circled him, aiming for his neck. “Can’t win ’em all.”
He was still reeling from the pain in his back—the light beaming onto Wyatt’s face and climbing up the wall as Darius hunched over, trying to reach for it. “I’ll give you money.”
“If I wanted your money, I wouldn’t have brought backup. Don’t you think?”
I’d never done this before—beheaded a man. I knew immortals saw it as a necessary means to an end, but the image was strikingly gruesome. I leveled the blade across his neck and drew back like a batter about to hit a home run.
“Wait! Raven, wait,” Wyatt sputtered, still struggling from his injuries. “We have evidence.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “So?”
Shepherd filled the doorway, a file in one hand and a slim cord in the other. “You don’t have to kill him. We’ve got everything we need to take this son of a bitch down.”
Seeing the relief on Darius’s face filled me with inexplicable rage.
Shepherd stepped forward and shouted, “Don’t do it!”
I’d positioned the blade against Darius’s neck, power surging through me.
Wyatt tried to stand but fell over. He gripped Shepherd’s ankle. “Get me out of here. I can’t be around to watch this.”
I stared at Darius long and hard, contemplating in those seconds which choice was the right one. When I thought about sending him to Breed jail so they could execute him for his offenses, an unexpected feeling of satisfaction swept over me. A quick death seemed far too merciful compared to the humiliation of jail, court, and then facing his peers as a broken man.
“I never thought I’d say this, but cuff him.”
Shepherd didn’t just cuff him, he hog-tied the man so he wouldn’t be able to use his Mage energy. When Shepherd finished, he assessed Wyatt’s injuries and discovered a few broken ribs from when Darius had slammed the door on him.
“Sit down,” Shepherd ordered me, setting the leather chair upright. He tore the bottom off Wyatt’s shirt and held it between his teeth. “Looks like a clean shot. Didn’t hit a major artery. That gash is a problem.” He skillfully wrapped the cloth around my arm and tied it tight.
“You’re good at this,” I said, noticing how he doctored my wounds as if he’d done it a million times before.
Viktor entered the room with a flashlight. “Shepherd, take the vermin out of here. I’ve made a call to the higher authority; they’re sending in Regulators for an official investigation.”
Shepherd stood up, clearly exhausted, but he didn’t rest for a moment before dragging Darius out of the room by his feet.
I looked myself over for other injuries but only noticed a few bumps and bruises. I’d never taken on anyone who was armed with a sword, so I was lucky to have made it out alive and with all my limbs intact.
Viktor knelt in front of Wyatt and patted his leg. “You did a good job finding those documents. Selfish men always make stupid mistakes, like keeping records of the money transactions from the people they’re extorting. It makes them feel accomplished to look at the numbers and add to them.”
Wyatt clutched his chest and grimaced. “And making a list of their victims so they can cross out the ones they disposed of. Why is it that most of the guys we catch get caught because they did the most inane things?”
“You found them,” Claude said, making his way into the room.
Wyatt lazily looked up. “The trick doors automatically close. I just happened to walk by when I heard someone yell. It took me a minute to figure out how to open that blasted thing.”
Viktor rose to his feet. “Where’s Christian?”
A loud scream came from upstairs, and we all simultaneously looked at the ceiling.
