These weren’t the ones with the treads, and in this weather, they had me sliding all over the place.
A worker by the registers briefly glanced my way before burying his nose in his book. I struggled to catch my breath as “Part-Time Lover” played loudly on the speakers. Another worker mopping the floor in the flower shop danced with his broom.
I stalked through the produce section of the empty store, struggling to catch my breath. I cautiously looked behind each fruit display I passed to see if he might be crouched on the floor.
“Think,” I whispered, blood still pumping too quickly through my body.
Unmelted chunks of snow on the floor created a wet trail that continued past the cracker display. Then I felt it—a small prickle of leaked energy he must have desperately been trying to conceal. It wasn’t easy to do when exhausted and pumped up with adrenaline.
The swinging doors in the far corner led to the back where stockers brought out food. I stopped by the avocados and grabbed a green one. He could have gone in the back, but that’s not what I would have done. I would be hiding in a spot where I could see the doors so when my enemy walked into the back, I could run out the front. I headed toward the wall of vegetables and froze when the misting sprinklers came on and startled me. That’s when I caught movement in the reflection of the metal trim along the bottom.
I flashed past the corn and quickly turned, pitching the avocado at him so fast that I could have set a world record. It struck him in the head where he was crouched on the floor. I flashed over and gripped his collar before hurling him into a display of rice crackers and dried fruit. The plastic containers went flying everywhere, the noise drowned out by the loud music.
“Is this how you saw your ending? In the produce section?”
He lifted his eyes to mine, blood dripping from his busted lip. “You won’t do anything here. Too many cameras watching. Too many humans.”
I kicked him in the face. “You don’t know me very well. I’m Raven Black, also known as the Shadow. I don’t give a fuck about rules.” I reached for his hand to remove his glove.
My eye exploded in pain when he punched me with his other hand. I cupped my face, the pain temporarily blinding.
He scrambled to his feet and jogged off, but I could tell he was starting to spiral. He staggered into one of those refrigerated display coolers in the middle of the aisle. After reaching inside, he wielded a ham. I marched toward him, dodging each piece of meat he threw at me. The Mage ran into the aisle on the left, dragging his hand along the shelf and spilling boxes of tampons and pads all over the floor. The music drowned out all the noise. Either that or the workers this late felt they didn’t get paid enough to interfere with rowdy customers.
I stepped over the boxes, following him as he turned right into the next aisle. Since he wasn’t flashing, it was clear his energy was all tapped out. When I rounded the corner, a jar of pickles struck me in the face, breaking my nose. I threw a right hook and then kicked in his kneecap. He bellowed in pain before falling against the condiments.
As I bent over him, he bared his teeth and sliced my face with broken glass. I staggered back and held my cheek, the blood dripping between my fingers and onto the floor.
Ignore the pain. Ignore the pain.
The Mage crawled to his feet and began limping away. My stomach churned from the dark Mage light mingling with my own, and seeing that much blood pour out of my face was nauseating. I pressed my sweater sleeve against my cheek and went after him, watching as he dragged his lame leg behind him. At this point, there was no need to hurry. The store was empty, and no doubt these guys saw strange things all the time in this city. I grabbed a wine bottle on a rack, tucked it close to my side, and headed through the automatic doors. If security hadn’t jumped out by this point, chances were that no one was monitoring the cameras. The guy at the register didn’t even look up from his book, purple earbuds plugging up his ears.
Once outside, I followed the sound of his ragged footsteps. “Why are you making this so hard?” Conserving my energy, I kept a normal pace as he struggled to keep going. When I caught up, I set the wine next to the wall and drove a stunner into his neck.
“You’re a pain in the ass,” I muttered while dragging him between the store and another building. “I was going to smash you over the head with that bottle, but why waste good wine? I might as well have something to celebrate taking out one of theZmei Gorynich. I bet you’re wondering how I’m gonna do that with all these little knives.” I grinned, letting my fangs punch out. “I used to drain my victims to weaken them. Stunners make life so much easier.”
I pinched the fingertips on his glove and yanked it off. When I didn’t see a mark, I yanked off the other. Then sat back. “Son of a bitch.”
This guy had led me all around the city on a tour for a reason—he wasn’t Li Han. He didn’t have the Valknut tattoo on his hand. Having two of us in that courtyard made it more dangerous for them and difficult to escape, so he had lured me as far away as possible, knowing I was the only one who could keep up with a Mage on a brightly lit street.
I straddled him and gripped his hands in mine. “Lights out, you little goon.” As his energy flooded into my body, I felt instant relief from the exhaustion of having expended all my energy flashing. I siphoned out his healing light, and the blood stopped dripping from my cheek. His dark light snaked around mine like poison, but I didn’t have time to curl up somewhere and sleep it off. Energy pulsed, and his core light finally broke free. When it did, so did the magic of the stunner keeping him paralyzed. He moved his arm to strike me, so I kept a firm hold on his hands, muscling him down. Then I blasted him with enough energy to stop his heart.
He finally stilled, eyes wide open.
I quickly pulled out my phone and called Wyatt. “Hey. I’ve got a problem. I need you to get someone down to the Market Grocer on Avenue B. I have a cleanup issue.”
“Can’t. I’m a little busy, but I’ll pass along the message.”
I stood up and looked warily at the street. “PlayingGrand Theft Autodoesn’t count as busy.”
“I’ll see if Viktor can send someone over, but I seriously doubt it. Do what you can in the meantime.”
“What’s going on?”
“We can’t find Christian’s body.”
My heart almost stopped, and I turned toward the street. “I just left him in a courtyard. Blue knows the location.”
“Blue went back to help Niko clean up. We sent her to the scene. She said they’re gone.”
