Page 9 of Hunted By Darkness

“You’ve become ghosts the last half year. You were always impossible to track when you didn’t want anyone to find you. No one has even mentioned the name Silver until you showed up to give Black hell in No Man’s Land.”

My other identity, the one tied with this face. Silver. I’d built a name for myself with it. As far as the contract killer world was concerned, the Shimmering Assassin and Silver were two different blokes cut from the same cloth. And until this moment, Trevion only knew the one. But if this was Bane’s elusive lover, I suspected he’d always known I was both.

“Not too smart, that,” he chastised. “You know what an insufferable ass Black is when you publicly humiliate him.”

Smarmy bastard. As if he’s in any position to scold me.

I scoffed, not worried. Black would run his mouth, but unless revenge paid for his next drink, that was all he’d do. I brushed a hand through my messy locks and lifted my face to the moon’s light. “I think you’re bloody dreaming if you think it’ll be business as usual between us, mate. Or that I’d tell you anything related to her now.”

Another sigh. “That’s fair. I’d rather not do it over the phone, anyway, and I’d like to see her before…well, it’d just be nice to see her. I’ve missed that girl terribly.”

“The fuck you will.”

“It’s important, Silas. I have something her father gave me, something she needs, and I don’t expect to have long left to give it to her. You have every right to be cautious, but her father made me promise that once she recovered her Soul Collector powers and gained her grandmother’s help, I’d give it to her.”

I paused, staggered by the perfect accounting of what occurred. “When did Bane tell you this?”

“Before he attacked the Council.”

“Before? Not after?”

“I never saw him after,” Trevion admitted. “It was important that no one come looking for me. He said timing was everything, and you’d call. You’d find me as Dugan.”

Fucking hell.

“He did, did he? And this thing you need to give Nika, what is it?”

There was a long pause before Trevion spoke again. “It’s not safe to speak about it over the phone. You better than anyone know this.” The bugger was unfortunately right about that. “I’ll send you the coordinates of a meeting place and time in the usual manner. Be there. Take precautions, if you must. I don’t expect you to trust me, but you know I’m no match for you. And certainly not with her by your side. We’ll talk then,” he said before the line went dead.

It might go against my instincts, but I couldn’t risk Nika not getting something her father left for her. At the very least, I’d give her the option. But first, I’d let her sleep. Trevion—or was it Dugan?—could wait.

The lad hadn’t returned by the time I retrieved the coordinates for the meeting, so we made sure he knew we wouldn’t be at the usual spot should he come back before we did. Nika, no surprise, believed her father’s lover despite learning that he was connected with the contract killer world.

“There has to be a reason,” she argued before spiriting away to grab the usual arsenal of weaponry. At least she wasn’t treating it like a happy little family reunion. “My father didn’t trust easily, Silas. That means something. And it’s not a coincidence that you two met after you and him crossed paths.”

“Oh, aye. But even powerful Fae like your father, and say a certain handsome rogue you know, can be a little shortsighted when it comes to the people they worship.”

She shot me a proper glare. Too bad I found it impossibly adorable on her. “Are you suggesting that you’ve become shortsighted with me?”

“Nonsense, love. I’m as clear-headed as they come with you,” I rebuked with a smirk.

Her eyes went into a full cyclone roll. “You’re an idiot.”

She sheathed a couple daggers on her belt and put on the usual leather jacket she wore. It had nifty little pockets where she kept an assortment of throwing blades dipped in poison. Lethal little thing had built an immunity to them all. Bane was a ruthless teacher, I was quickly learning. He’d vigorously trained her from a young age, anticipating a future where she’d be forced to fight without him.

Nika collected her vibrant locks into a ponytail, and I, the lovesick troll, watched her do it with hearts in my eyes. Didn’t matter how often I saw her, my little rebel was a snack waiting to be eaten. And had I not already been punished earlier for attempting a side quest in the hallway, I’d be all over this sweet little treat.

Her dazzling blue eyes dashed up to mine, reading my mind, no doubt, because her eyebrows pinched together in another scowl. I smirked, but she only sighed and ignored me. “I believe him. I refuse to believe Dugan is out to hurt me. There are very few people in this world I trust, Silas, and he’s one of them. Come or don’t, but I’m going to see him, and that’s that.”

I crowded her against the bed post, locking her to it with an arm wrapped around the engraved wood. “That soft heart of yours is what I love most about you, princess, but you could benefit from a little caution.”

Her eyes seared mine, strong and unbending. “And you could do with a little less, so I guess we balance each other out.”

I dipped my head and claimed her mouth in a fierce kiss. “Finally something we agree on, aye, little rebel?”

She smiled against my lips before her little hand grabbed a handful of my shirt and dragged my mouth harder into hers. The little minx sucked my tongue and nibbled my bottom lip like a goddamn seductress of the night before fleeing my arms and leaving me to trail after her shadow.

I’m a bloke on a leash, and bloody chuffed about it.

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