Page 13 of High Stakes

His eyes flicked to Victor. A mistake he’d just vowed not to make.

I didn’t plan to ask permission to end him. He was dangerous. In one fluid movement, I grabbed my stake and curled an arm around his neck, craning his spine back and stabbing him with the hand gripping my favorite stake. His last breath came out in a wheeze. I dropped him to the ground and pulled my stake out of his heart, wiping his blood on my suit at the thigh.

As the room erupted into cheers and a standing ovation, Victor stood in the middle of them, waving and inclining his head, accepting all the praise for making us what we were.

Maru whistled again, catching my attention, and motioned for me to exit the arena.

I marched across the floor and waited until someone in the control room unlocked the door. Maru fell into step beside me as we walked through the tunnel and back into the compound’s core toward my room. He was quiet for most of the walk, fists clenched, but as we got closer to our destination, he exploded.

“He should’ve told me he was sending in a fresh one. He said they’d been held for weeks. That vampire was brand new—as in, changed in the last forty-eight hours new.”

“Last twenty-four,” I corrected. “His cheeks were still pink.”

Maru growled. “You could’ve been killed. You should’ve had someone backing you up, at the very least. If I’d known—”

I waved him off. “Maru, you can’t travel with me. This was good practice. Enoch is much more dangerous than that vampire in there.”

Maru ignored my attempt at logic and fumed for a full minute, pacing the floor. I flashed him an Are you through with your hissy fit? look and he took a deep breath and leaned against the hallway wall just outside my room, taking a minute to compose himself.

The closer we got to the travel date, the more antsy he became.

He cleared his throat. “You handled both vampires well. The woman never saw you coming, and the man... well, you distracted him just the way I told you to.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory of Maru trying to show me how a woman walked when she was trying to seduce a man. He looked ridiculous. He’d stuck his chest and bottom out and tried to sashay across the floor, but the effect resembled more of a maimed hen pecking across the barnyard.

“Don’t even go there,” he warned, unable to keep the grin off his face. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“What?” I scoffed, feigning an innocent pout. “I don’t know why you’re so surprised I have womanly wiles. I was taught by the best.”

Maru’s shoulders relaxed, the tension broken. “Abram and Titus did well.”

“As expected.”

“Not as well as you, but like you say, you do have the best trainer in the world.” Maru was only a few years older than me. At first, Victor was concerned about me having a male trainer, especially one so close in age, but it was fate. Maru and I worked well together. He was strong and expected me to be, too. He never let me get by with anything. If I wanted to be the best, I had to earn it. And he made me want to be better every day. It was why I was chosen for such a difficult and important mission. We weren’t the only three Assets; we were just the best.

His communicator buzzed and he held up the silver rectangle. Victor’s face appeared and a message scrolled across the bright background: Final tech test tomorrow at 0800. Flight is scheduled for Friday at 0600. Make sure she’s ready.

I read it before Maru even knew I’d looked at his screen.

“Tomorrow is the tech test,” Maru clipped. “If all’s clear, the three of you leave Friday just before dawn.”

“Let’s hope Kael is as brilliant as everyone says.” Tension filled the space between my shoulder blades. “Because I’m about to take a giant leap of faith off the side of this building, and I hope I’m not making a mistake.”

Maru blew out a long breath. “Nothing’s going to go wrong now. You know what to do and how to do it. Despite your mistake yesterday, it’s time we trust you. It’s time we end your training and send you after your target. If anyone can kill Enoch, it’s you.” He nodded toward my room. “You need to rest up. I’ll make sure you don’t sleep through your alarm again.”

“I didn’t sleep through it. I ignored it on purpose,” I said truthfully.

I pressed my palm against the panel. My door slid open and I stepped inside, watching as it closed. I could see Maru’s lips form the word goodnight, and then I waved to him as the door changed from transparent to opaque white.

“Illuminate,” I instructed. The lights in the room flickered on.

Maru could sense my apprehension, but I didn’t want him to know how scared I really was. I had to be strong. I earned this mission and jitters weren’t going to keep me from flying.

I closed my eyes.

Traveling sounded so simple when Kael first explained it. Despite his incredible intellect, he could bring the concept down to our level. Breaking through the time-space barrier required a certain velocity, one only obtained through speed. To obtain that speed, we would have to be wearing our suits, which amplified our movements, and we’d have to jump from a height sufficient for our suits to accelerate us fast enough to punch through space and time before we hit the ground.

I pinched my eyes closed and tried to erase the terrifying visions of plummeting toward the ground from my head.

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