Page 64 of Elven Shadow

Then she did the same with the pistol lying a few inches from his prone form, only with the danger levels kicked up a notch. The metal shrieked and groaned under the assault, and the various components snapped apart to clatter across the floor of the alley beside their owner.

Maybe when he woke up and saw his weapon, he’d think twice about pulling such a moronic stunt a second time.

To her credit, Rebecca had spent plenty of time as a glorified magical thief, back in one of her previous lives before finding Shade. But even when pulling a job with an entire team, no matter the size,, there were just certain rules of the trade you didn’t break.

This guy clearly hadn’t learned any of them.

She watched him a moment longer, then heaved a massive sigh. “Well, shit. That didn’t make me feel any better.”

Pity, really. She’d hoped she could get all this pent-up frustration out of her system before having to show her face again back at headquarters. But if she’d gone out looking for a meal tonight, this little episode in the alley barely scratched the surface of an appetizer.

Stopping a human mugging was all well and good, sure. But the woman hadn’t even said thank you.

Instead, she’d insulted Rebecca’s outfit.

Screw this.

If Rebecca knew what was good for her, she’d start running. Tonight.

Was Shade even worth the trouble of staying in one place and risking her own exposure? Just so more off-the-books vigilante wannabe magicals operating outside the law could feel like they were doing something useful with their lives?

Or was this about Rebecca wanting to be useful for real, where it counted? Did shewantto stop running? To stop reinventing the non-existent person she showed the rest of the world, for everyone else’s safety and her own?

Was she just flat-out tired of fighting back from within the shadows, where no one really knew her?

The thought made her snort.

That was ridiculous. She just needed to find a different mark. A better mark. And therefore a better payoff.

A shrill, blood-curdling scream rose from beyond the opposite end of the alley, echoing fiercely in the darkness toward where Rebecca stood. Immediately following it came several dark, low chuckles.

The predatory kind.

The kind that meant, very soon, someone was going to attempt something most people probably would’ve frowned upon.

“No!” the woman screamed. "Stay back. I’m warning you!”

“Well listen to that…” More dark laughter in multiple voices bounced off the brick walls of the alley. “Little skinbag thinks she can take us all on at the same time. What do you think, Gresh?”

“I think she can try. Maybe we should let her try.”

“Come on then, lady. Show us what you got under all that screaming.”

The laughter intensified. Scuffling footsteps echoed through the night. The woman’s ear-piercing, brain-rattling scream cut through it all—the kind of scream only grown human women and very young children were capable of producing.

Staring at the dark end of the alley, Rebecca tilted her head and smirked. “Perfect.”

Her heels clicked across the asphalt as she set a slow, leisurely pace toward all the noise. She could almost hear Maxwell’s disapproving growl in her mind, which only made her smirk widen.

Whoever these new idiots were, they obviously thought they were alone.

To Rebecca’s knowledge, humans didn’t call other humans “skinbag”.

More laughter and dark cheers and taunting calls filled the night. The woman screamed again, only for the noise to cut off in a choking gurgle.

“Holy shit, man,” one of the idiots shouted. “You really brought out the big guns with that shit.”

“I just wanna see if it actually works. Hey, what d’ya know? Looks like it works.”

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