I need your help.
He replied straight away.
BYRON
Anything for you, baby.
And that had me fired up for a completely different reason.
Chapter Nine
Byron
Wilder had asked me for help. I was unsure at how I was supposed to take that. Was he going to ask me to kill someone? If he asked me to, I would. I wouldn’t even get hung up on it. I’d do it merely because he’d asked it of me, but I didn’t want it to be that. I wanted him to see me for more than just my skills with murder which was… interesting.
It wasn’t long until Benji’s party, but Damyr was having trouble with some low life vampires who thought they couldmuscle in on his territory. Nobody operated in this city without the approval of one of the three ruling families and even then, they’d have to pay a percentage for the privilege.
“It’s fucking cold tonight,” Bishop said as he pulled his beanie lower over his ears.
“It’s not that bad.” It wasn’t tropical, but I could still feel my balls. I didn’t feel the cold like Bishop did. I was wearing my normal tactical gear, but my twin looked like he was about to visit the penguins in Antarctica.
I peered through the binoculars and focussed on the target. The guy’s name was John Brown—which was a stupid and completely unoriginal name for a vampire—and he was the leader of this rag-tag crew of misfit vampires that had come up with the idea that they could sell drugs in the Morozov territory and get away with not paying the percentage. We’d reached out a few times with some warnings, but John had yet to concede. So, Damyr had sent me in to take care of the problem.
I was just going to have a little fun first.
There were five vampires from what I could see in the condemned building over the road. Bishop and I were perched on top of a decrepit warehouse in the old shipping district. Not much went on down here, but it was a cheap place to find a home if you could find one that wasn’t about to crumble into a pile of rubble. Damyr was looking to rebuild a lot of this area, but we had to clear out the shit first. He had a plan to relocate the residents temporarily so he could rip everything down, build it all again and move them back in.
“What’s the plan?” Bishop asked. “The usual?”
The ‘usual’ consisted of Bishop being my eyes and ears whilst I went into the building and killed everyone. “Yes. Although, I’ll be doing this one with my eyes closed.”
“The fuck? Why?”
“They’re vampires. Can’t trust my eyes because they move too quick.” I’d be relying on sound and touch for this one. There was something thrilling about hunting something that was more powerful than me but still coming out on top. I might only be human, but I was more of a killer than these creatures. Every time I killed a target that was higher up the predator chain than me, my ego got a little bigger.
“You’re crazy,” Bishop said, but there was a warmth in his tone.
I dropped to my knee and rummaged through the duffel bag at my feet. I pulled out one of my favourite weapons, the crossbow.
Nothing like shooting some vampires with stakes to get the blood pumping. I also had some silver throwing knives and some handy little sunburst potions that fried their skin. “I’m going in. Just shout out where you can see the vampires. I’ll kill the others and snatch John so we can have a little chat about who is supplying him and whether there is anything else at play here.”
Excitement and adrenaline started to bubble up inside me and my fingers flexed and curled around the handle of the crossbow.
Bishop wrapped his hand around my arm as I brushed past him. “Be safe, Byron.”
I winked at him and grinned. “Always am.”
He snorted. “From what I hear, you always end up with a new stab wound or bullet hole. Please don’t make me carry your heavy ass back home.”
“No promises. I like the pain,” I replied with a shrug as I hitched the crossbow onto my shoulder.
“Weirdo,” Bishop shot back and his laugh followed me down the fire escape.
I dragged my phone out of my back pocket and fired off a quick text to Wilder. I hadn’t heard anything since he’d asked for help and I wanted to make sure he was okay.
And thinking about me.
ME