Dark Promise by Annika West

 

1

Today was a Thursday, which meant I was very much due for a catastrophic event.

I sighed and assessed the damage.

The night sky of Los Angeles was brilliant with electric blue as a portal attempted to rip itself into fruition.

I unsheathed my fancy, ass-kicking baton and yanked out the stolen kitchen knife from my boot. I still hadn’t been awarded a more badass weapon, so I had to get one for myself.

I mean, honestly.

Who had survived a bond with a dangerous magical dagger?

This girl.

Who had smashed through the walls of physical reality and gained her own invisibility power?

Me.

And who had just successfully baked sugar cookies for the first time without burning the entire block?

You guessed it — Aster King II.

Yours truly.

A spiteful voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “This is not the time for internal monologuing, Cut.”

I snapped back into focus and shook my glorified antennae at Willow, the sullen, gorgeous goth vampire who secretly loved me.

Deep, deep, deep down inside.

She wrinkled her nose at my baton, and then she caught sight of my knife. “Cut, what the fuck did you bring that for? You’re more likely to kill yourself with that.”

“Dagger,” I reminded her. “Blood circle where you almost died. Undead hordes where we all almost died. Me saving your ass from a sewer dungeon where you almost died. I am very capable, thank you very much. Plus, this asshole doesn’t look too scary.”

The shifter in front of us was caught somewhere between a goose and a crocodile. Don’t ask me to explain. Her feet kept scratching at the ground like she was searching for worms or ready to show the world how much she was a track star.

That nearly distracted me because this was clearly the wrong time for a midnight snack or any willy-nilly baton passing.

Couldn’t she see we were about to fight?

She should seriously get her priorities in order.

But then, the shifter sprouted huge feathered wings from her back and spread them wide. Her mouth morphed into a curved, wicked beak.

Vulture.

Thank my lucky stars. Now the crocodile-ness made sense.

Of the bird shifter lottery, that one had to be the worst luck. Who the heck wanted to be a whole-ass children’s book scavenger?

Her scaled hands ended in extra-stabby black talons that curved into hooks.

And then her talons crackled with electricity.

I snorted. “Aren’t you a basket of goodies?”

She frowned. “You will regret entering my domain. Now, you will pay with your lives.”

“What’s with the electricity? That feels like cheating. I want extra powers.”

Willow shot back, “You do, idiot.”

“I know that.”

Now, both women were utterly befuddled by me.

Excellent.

Because, yes.

I was stalling.

Mostly because we needed to capture the weird glowing crystal in this lady’s pocket.

The catch?

We had to avoid dying.

The fine print was always irritating.

Huxley Cayne, my Overlord employer and faery mate, was out destroying the hideout, which contained truckloads of weird substances that reminded all of us of Gavin Hawk and his creepy science experiments.

Now, we were supposed to fight with this crazy shifter and get the crystal.

Word on the street was that she was the ringleader of a black market operation. And according to the rumors, people have been claiming that she was the craziest bitch anyone’s ever seen in Venice Beach.

And that was fucking saying something.

I doubted any of these glorified rumor-spreaders ever stepped foot in Venice. Like, have they taken a casual stroll down a piss-soaked art walk while on shrooms?

I didn’t think so.

And they’d be eating their words if they tried it.

Hux also wanted to capture and interrogate this woman. We got extra points if we did it ourselves, but that would probably just come down to one of us putting this vulture to sleep.

It would involve a lot of blood.

The wind picked up, whipping my hair into my mouth.

I spluttered and spat. I was about to start talking and spilling out more nonsense, undoubtedly, when something caught my attention.

There was a weird shape to the vulture’s head. She was in shadow, but something about the oddly symmetrical points sticking outward —

That’s when I understood.

Her hair had been blocking them. But with the breeze moving her hair too, her ears were on full display.

Instead of the curved, normal ears, hers took on a strange pointed shape.

She was fae.

I wasn’t quick enough to hide my shock.

And now, she knew that I knew that she knew.

The electric vulture fae charged, lightning crackling in her talons.

Willow was faster, though. She usually was, being our resident vampire on the team.

My soul room filled with energy. All it took was one intention, one command.

And then, I slipped into the energetic realm.

Just a few weeks ago, I’d been contained to just going Unnoticeable. It was weird, quirky power that made me difficult to see.

As it turned out, a powerful witch had been placing blocks around my magic under my biological father’s instruction.

Mainly because he was fae.

And as a half-witch, half-fae, I wasn’t supposed to exist. The fae didn’t even allow their people to visit Earth except for very specific political reasons.

They probably didn’t like half-blood babies flying around, so it was likely that my absentee DNA donor of a parent suppressed my magic so he could pretend I didn’t exist.

As I pushed past my Unnoticeable state and into the energetic realm, I disappeared from view. The vulture wouldn’t be able to see me or touch me.

All sound and smell disappeared. No more crashing waves or traffic flying down the highway. It was just me and the brilliant, colorful glow of all the magic in this city. Every ward, spell, rune, residue, and surge of magical energy left a colorful mark for me to see.

That was the cool shit about this realm. Not only could I see the traces of magic and energy in full-color, but I could also hear people’s thoughts.

Wait. Wow. This is exactly like being on shrooms. Minus the melting walls. Full circle for me, isn’t it?

A flare of light caught my attention.

Right.

Willow was fighting for her life.

I should probably assist. You know, for the sake of team spirit.

The crystal was bright with a white-blue aura that shone through the fabric of the fae woman’s pocket.

The problem was the wrestling, though.

I had to shift into physical reality in a position that would allow me to snatch the crystal and shift away again.

Getting that crystal was crucial.

Now if they would simply stop moving so I could do my job, that would be great.

Willow’s knee connected with the fae’s ribs. The enemy’s mouth opened in a scream I couldn’t hear.

Electricity crackled in her hands, running down the vampire’s body.

Willow was strong and deadly fast, but not even she could stop a lightning strike.

Just as Willow’s body seized, the world exploded. A shopping center about a mile inland collapsed as flames consumed the entire half block.

Typical. Just typical. Does Hux have any other signature move besides dragooning out and melting the world with flames? Find some diversity, bro.

The vulture’s electricity stuttered and died. She twisted to see her worst nightmare come to life. Everything, from her open-mouthed expression and the terror in her eyes told me everyting I needed to know.

Hux had just dragon-exploded her operation to hell.

I tiptoed forward. Not sure why, considering no one could actually see me. But it helped me feel sneaky.

Willow was out cold.

The vulture was in temporary shock.

I positioned my fingers right at the seam of her pocket.

And shifted realms.

The roar in my ears was deafening. Sirens were already blaring. It was blisteringly hot.

All of that registered as my hand closed around the crystal.

Gotcha.

Just as I triggered my magic and began to slip into the energetic realm again, something strange happened.

The faery woman made eye contact with me. She was fucking mad too. I mean, I got that we were enemies, but there was no reason to glare that hard at a complete stranger.

When her hand closed around my wrist, I felt a tug. Not just on my arm, but on my magic.

I pushed into the energetic realm, and the faery’s eyes grew wild with fear. She almost became transparent. Hazy.

Her body glowed a little, and then she let go.

The tug disappeared, and I successfully traveled into my invisible realm. Crystal in hand.

Hell yes, bitches!

Whatever happened didn’t matter, though, because Willow was finally awake.

She viciously slammed her forehead into the faery’s temple, and the vulture was out like a light.

I snapped back into physical reality. “Took you long enough. Sheesh.”

I’d already spoken too soon, though. Another attacker dropped from the sky, landing beside me in a sudden rush of wind. Leave it to me to assume victory just as the final boss arrived to kick my ass.