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Mara, are you okay?

I am. I have an appointment with Andrew Poole at the main bank building at three.

Marcus will pick you up at a quarter to three. He will drive you and wait for you to leave. I’ll meet you inside.

They won’t let you in.

They won’t be able to stop me. Be ready to get to a safe spot if anything happens.

I love you, Daddy.

I love you, Zoí mou.

Darius switched contacts and reached out to his clan member.

Bram, I need you to hack into the bank’s email and create two emails. One from the president calling the vice president back from vacation for an urgent meeting. The other from the vice president to the president notifying of a worrying development. Have them go to the penthouse.

I’ll take care of getting them there.

When Bram disappeared from his mind, Darius headed for his office. He pulled up the floorplan Bram had uncovered for the bank headquarters. Locating the area Bram had starred, Darius memorized the setup. He guessed that the programmers would prefer to sit in a darkened room to see the monitors better. Just in case, he targeted a supply closet in a nearby hall.

After a couple of steps through the shadow world, Darius stood as still as a statue in the gloom of shadows peering into the bank’s network operations center beyond the portal he had opened. Getting into the highly secure area was relatively simple, thanks to the dimmed lights. The room was nearly as dark as the realm he occupied. He didn’t twitch a muscle to avoid detection in either location.

Silhouetted by the pale blue glow of computer monitors, two men sat at their desks with their backs to him. Only the quiet whir of the computer’s cooling fans and the tapping of their fingers across their keyboards reached Darius’s ears. Both wore headphones and bobbed their heads. Darius guessed their playlists drowned out the sound, making them easy targets for elimination. Andrew Poole had even displayed a fancy nameplate attached to the top of his computer screen. Was that to remind him of his fake name?

Darius didn’t have to wait long before the man he had come for stood up from his desk, stretched, and made his way to the small refrigerator in the rear of the room. Opening the door, the man squinted through the blinding burst of light from the tiny bulb within and grabbed an energy drink. He slammed the fridge closed quickly. Darius chuckled mentally at his desire to get back to the comfort of the darkness. This would be the last time he enjoyed the shadows.

As Andrew turned around to return to his workstation, he popped open the can and took a drink. His gaze flickered to the corner of the room and widened with fear as he spotted Darius in front of him. Before he could shout, Darius clamped a viselike grip around the man’s throat, blocking sound from emerging. Pushing away the temptation to crush his larynx and finish him, Darius stepped back into the shadow realm, hauling Andrew with him.

As the portal sealed behind them, Andrew tossed his can toward the other man. The metal container clattered to the floor, spilling the contents before rolling to a stop at his workmate’s feet. Darius paused for a moment to allow Andrew to hear the other programmer yell, “Dude! What the hell? Where’d you go?”

Darius stripped Andrew’s phone from his pocket as he threw his captive to the icy ground of the shadow realm and promptly stomped on the man’s knees. The resounding crack and the man’s screams of agony assured Darius he’d succeeded in breaking them. Andrew clutched at his useless legs as he writhed on the hard dirt. His loud cries echoed into the distance.

“I’d suggest you quit yelling. Noise only draws them.”

“Who the hell are you, asshole?” The man suddenly glanced around to realize this wasn’t the network operations center. His head snapped in all directions, trying to comprehend the macabre setting. Darius enjoyed watching him struggle to concentrate through the pain. Anyone who threatened his Little girl deserved to suffer. Sprinkle on that he’d fleeced the clan of money and Andrew had earned every bit of terror he felt now.

“Where the hell am I?” his victim finally asked.

Darius crouched and rested his arms on his thighs before the man so he could look him in the eyes. “My name is Darius, Andrew, or should I call you Mr. August?”

The man’s jaw dropped upon hearing Darius use his real name. Darius didn’t give him time to recover, he continued. “Yes, I know exactly who and what you are. More importantly I am the mate to Mara, a young woman you’ve been trying to kill since she discovered your money-grabbing scheme at the bank.”

Andrew’s eyes widened in recognition of that information. “Mara? You’re her what?”

“Her mate.” Darius inclined his head slightly and gave the man a cold smile. “Your game has concluded. My friends and I will end your moneymaking arrangement from this point forward. As for your attacks on Mara, those are over as well.” Darius rose back to his feet. “You will never escape this place to threaten her again.”

Andrew glanced down at his shattered legs and tried to rise, only to collapse in a heap. A look of despair fell over the crippled man’s face.

An unearthly screech sounded not too far away. Shadows and mist began to swirl around the periphery of the clearing the two men were in. The temperature plummeted as a chilling breeze gusted around them, carrying the scent of moist dirt and decay. The ground trembled under the approaching footsteps of something enormous.

“Wait!” The man cried. His breath came now in noticeable puffs of clouds in the gathering gloom. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with! They brought me in for this job. I’m just a hacker doing a gig! Please! I can pay. Whatever you want, just don’t leave me here!” He grabbed at Darius’s pant leg, trying desperately to escape whatever was approaching.

Darius’s face contorted with rage. In a flash, he reached down to rip the man’s grasping hand away from him. He hauled the man up to dangle before him by the wrist. “A JOB?! My mate is no job, human!” He threw the man to the ground to roll a few inches from the growing mist with a thud. “Who gave you this role? How did you come by this position?”

Andrew cowered on the ground, shivering from the cold that crept ever closer to him. Darius guessed the numbness was spreading into the programmer’s bones as frost formed around his face and body. He shivered uncontrollably.

“P-p-p-please. I found the description listed on the dark web. The bank’s vice president hired me to create the program. I figured this was an easy way to make some fast money. The idiots couldn’t run the tech, so they brought me in to manage the system. I’ve siphoned money from the top. I’ll give you everything—ch… change where the p… program sends money. You can make m… millions.” His voice sounded harsh as he struggled to get the words out.