Headlights flashed, a door slamming before Nathan stood over her with an expression of fury. “What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled, leaning down to grab her arm in a bruising grip. He hauled her to her feet, hand not releasing as he pulled her towards his chest. He was almost a foot taller, having to curve his body down to look her in the eyes.
“Let. Go. Of. Me,” she said calmly. “Now, Nathan.”
His nostrils flared, his tongue flicking out to taste the surrounding air. It always grossed her out, reminding her that he wasn’t just a man, but a reptile too.
“Three.”
His grip tightened, pupils shifting into slits. “Why were your fingers down his top?”
Rae released a steady breath. “Two.”
“What? You’re such a slut that you’ll fuck a –”
Her fist knocked against his nose, the resulting crack satisfying as he howled in pain. His hand fell from her arm, and stepping out of his way she waited for him to realign his already relatively flat nose.
“You finished?” she asked, steel in her icy tone.
His pupils remained elliptical, his smile threatening. “Careful, Rae.”
“Don’t touch me without permission, and it won’t happen again.” Rae reached her car, popping the boot. “Now, help me get him in here.”
Rae grabbed her target’s left leg, attempting to pull him towards her car. He weighed a ton, and she’d barely been able to move him an inch by the time Nathan finally helped, and between them they were able to haul him into the tight space.
“That’s a problem,” Nathan said with a chuckle, their earlier spat forgotten. It wasn’t uncommon to fight with her colleagues, especially when everyone seemed to suffer from arse-hole-itus.
Rae bit her bottom lip, trying not to laugh at the sight of her target barely fitting. His long legs stuck out the end, his torso alone taking up the entire boot. “Good thing he’s dead, otherwise this would suck for him.” Lifting his legs she folded them over his chest, and Nathan quickly shut the boot. “I’ll meet you back at the Guild.” She didn’t wait for Nathan to reply, grabbing the keys from his hand before slipping into the driver’s side and hitting the accelerator.
The lights blurred around her, the roads starting to welcome other cars despite the moon still dominating the sky. Turning on the radio, Rae sang along to a popular pop song, thankful to see the city disappear behind her, and with it the tension of being caught.
Hiding a body was a situation even she couldn’t talk herself out of, and she knew as soon as they ran her name through the system she’d be in even more shit. Because technically, just like the guy in her boot, she was dead. Not dead, dead. Or even vampire dead. Just registered as deceased, the exact day she’d signed her contract with the Guild in blood.
Slowing down for the speed cameras, Rae drove carefully until she was on the outskirts of London, knowing the likelihood of being pulled over was low, but never zero. The music shifted into a heavier beat, and she sang along pretending she was a teenager again, belting out the lyrics in the tight confines of the cabin. It helped her relax, losing herself in the song rather than thinking about what would happen next.
Because it wasn’t just any souvenir the assignment demanded, they wanted her to deliver his head.
* * *
Why did people turn their music down to see better? It wasn’t as if the music obscured her sight, but she still found herself turning the radio until it was a whisper, her eyes scanning the pitch-black country road.
The only illumination was from her headlights, and even they didn’t make a dent in the vacuum of darkness, the moon hidden behind the rain clouds that sprinkled her windscreen. It made driving the road dangerous, her car jerking over every bump, and hole in the dirt with a heavy thump. The route to the Mirror, a lake named for its perfect reflection on the calm water just north of the city, was hard enough to find in the daylight, with all signs removed to prevent those curious enough to visit.
At night, where she couldn’t see more than a few inches in front, and nothing behind at all, it was almost impossible. Nothing surrounded her for miles, the area a dead zone. Rae had read of planning permission to build luxurious flats at the edge of the water, and construction had even been going on until a year or so ago, when workers started going missing.
The company building the flats went bust, and with the negative press surrounding the project everything was abandoned. The missing men were never found, the hollow shell of the partially built structure an eyesore compared to the beauty of the untouched lake. Or it would have been, if she could fucking see anything.
Slamming on her brakes, Rae saw the metal chain link fence seconds before she hit it, her wheels skidding until the front of her car kissed the gate. Handwritten cautions had been attached to the metal, pictures of monsters and anti-Breed slander that would make even a sailor blush. Locals warning about the lake. It was for those same reasons she’d driven for over an hour at almost three in the morning.
Sliding out the car, Rae quickly pulled the gate open, the lock long gone. It was still dark, the clouds finally opening up to let some moonlight reveal the way down towards the water’s edge.
Pale skin appeared, heads breaking the wet surface as Rae grabbed the torch she’d hidden in the glove compartment, her new pistol from the seat, as well as the earbuds. The sirens didn’t bother with glamour as they pulled themselves from the water, their lithe bodies naked to the night as they easily adapted to two legs. Their faces were beautiful, their hair, although wet, was thick and curled around their shoulders in gentle waves. Three walked over, the moonlight highlighting the jewel tones along their skin, scales reflecting that of their tails that dipped between their bare legs. Nails, long, and sharp as talons draped from their hands.
Rae made sure her ears were secure before she stepped out the car, placing the gun in the thigh holster beneath her short skirt and putting on what she hoped was a friendly face. She’d worked with the sirens before, but unlike their selkie cousins, sirens were a much meaner type of faerie, ones who lived on flesh. Convenient when she needed to get rid of a body.
“We haven’t seen you in a while,” the leader – Mira, if Rae remembered correctly – said, her voice musical as all three stopped at the edge of her headlights reach. “Thought you may have forgotten about us.”
“You bring us a present?” the left one asked, her hair a bubble-gum pink a few shades brighter than her scales. Her cheeks were rosy, lips a similar colour with eyes large enough to belong to a doll.
Rae kept the car between them, not wanting to get too close. “I need the head, but you can have the rest.”
