Page 1 of Lady Death

Prologue

Moonlight illuminated the alley.

Questionable puddles hugged the buildings, with the stench of urine turning the air sour.

The woman laying broken and bruised on the ground shivered. Blood pooled around her body from the numerous stab wounds decorating her chest and abdomen. Grime, piss, and other bodily fluids lay on her skin like an obscene road map.

The pain was excruciating. Even the air rattling through her lungs hurt. As she lay there, with both eyes swollen from being punched in her face, she wondered if she should just give up. Death had to be preferable to this agony.

Then she remembered Abigail. Beautiful. Delicate. Her best friend was lovely and petite. They’d been walking home from the movie theater, giggling over the comedy, completely unaware of the men stalking them. Hunting them, predators ready to pounce. When they passed a section of darkness, the huntsmen attacked.

Slowly, she turned her head and saw Abigail. Her eyes open but unseeing. The men had ravaged her body, like they had hers, and stabbed them. Hoping to shut them up forever. Abigailhad obliged, but she remained.

She turned back to stare at the moon. Why couldn’t she leave this world behind? Away from death and despair. Pain and suffering. Why couldn’t she just … drift away?

“Dear God!”

She didn’t have the strength to look, but then a face stared down at her. Horror creasing every line on his face.

“You’re going to be okay,” the man said. “The police and an ambulance are on the way.”

She moved her lips. The man leaned down.

“What? I can’t hear you.”

“Ab … i … gail.”

Sorrow creased his brow. “I’m afraid she’s gone. But you’re not, and I swear you’ll get better. I will make sure you have everything you need.”

The woman didn’t know why he was so concerned. Why would he care? She was a nobody. Just another person in the city. Another statistic.

Yet, he did exactly as promised. Stayed with her until she was out of ICU. Nursed her through rehabilitation. Paid for all her therapy.

Then he offered revenge.

And she took it.

Chapter One

“Son of a bitch,” Ronin muttered, staring at the fucked-up body pinned to the green slatted chain-link fence. The entire lower half of the man was covered in blood, where his pants had been yanked down and his dick hacked off. At least, he thought that’s what happened. Wasn’t like he was going to check it out.

He didn’t want to linger but he had to verify that this man was the one he’d been contracted to eliminate. Stepping closer, he pulled on nitrile gloves to lift the asshole’s arm. A broken skull tattoo rested on the inside forearm, with a scythe sticking out of the top. The mark of a Deathman, and this one had been named Jerome Compton. In all honesty, he wasn’t surprised someone had killed this bastard. All the Deathmen had long lists of depravity attached to their names, but Jerome’s special brand of cruelty had been sodomizing his victims, and it didn’t matter if they were male or female, the very young or the very old.

Something in Compton’s mouth caught Ronin’s attention, and he pulled down on the man’s jaw. A piece of fleshy blob fell onto the street with a sick plop, and he would hazard a guess this was the missing dick.

“Ouch,” he muttered. “You really pissed someone off, didn’t you?”

Backing up, he took a photo and then turned and walked away, pulling off the gloves and sticking them into his pocket. He wanted to put as much distance between him and Mr. Emasculation as quickly as possible. Keeping to the darkness, he made his way swiftly to where he had parked.

The downtown area of the city was full of deviants, the hopeless, and those who took advantage of it all. Not many decent people ventured these streets, especially at night when all sorts of monsters walked with the shadows, and that included himself.

When he arrived at his private loft, he sat down in his office chair and uploaded the picture to his encrypted server. He sent it through an overlay network where it scattered across thousands of relays, making it impossible to be traced back to him. Ronin took all sorts of precautions so that his identity would remain unknown. For obvious reasons.

He opened a file and read the two other names on his list: Dishon Peterson and Adder Seker, two more Deathmen. Controlled by a man named Davorin, who ran this part of the city with an iron fist. Ronin had half a million riding on eliminating three men. Three scummy, contemptible men who no doubt deserved to go to hell with their dicks in their mouth.

And someone had beat him to the punchline.

Goddamnit.

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