Page 16 of Marked By the Dark Lord
“Please put my majordomo down,” Abhed repeated, then frowned when I simply opened my hand and did as requested. “What has gotten into you, Rokk? You were so professional upon first meeting. Now you come, nearly break my door in, and almost kill one of my best servants?”
“I brought your daughter back,” I said, dragging the girl into the house to present her. “Alive and unharmed.”
My lips curled upward at that. I always negotiated a large bonus for “unharmed” when it came to ghouls. It was unlikely, but in the event I got to them fast enough, I deserved to get paid. It was one of those times.
“Yes, I can see that, thank you,” Abhed said, smiling at his daughter.
She leaned slightly away, putting part of my bulk between him and her. I didn’t shift away, nor did I move to intervene. Theirs was not my business to be involved in. But I did note itveryodd that Abhed did not make any move toward her, nor did he seem overly happy. Simply satisfied, like a businessman making a deal.
“Darla!”
I stiffened as a shape rushed out of a side passage, past the unconscious majordomo—who, I’d noticed, had green eyes. Not blue.
Why am I seeing this woman everywhere? Who is she to me? Have I met her before?
Someone with eyes that bright seemed like an easy face to remember, but I had lived for a long time, so it was hard to be sure.
The mother embraced the daughter, then, with a nervous glance up at me, scurried them both off to the side, out of my way. I noted that they also specifically did not go toward Abhed.
I pushed that thought away. It wasn’t my business.
“There is the matter of payment,” I said, extending a hand.
Abhed seemed flustered, and for a moment, I thought he would try to renege. I almost wanted him to. That would give me an excuse to … cut loose. But he reached into the folds of his robe and removed a little sack. I snatched it from his sausage-like fingers, so short and stumpy, and examined the contents.
The gold coins jingled pleasantly to my ear as I weighed them in my hand. It felt appropriate, though I would count it once I got home.
“Tell me,” I said, pocketing the payment. “How did the ghouls get her?”
“What?” Abhed looked past me at the door, his point obvious.
“The girl. Your daughter,” I said. “How did they get her? They didn’t harm her, which is uncommon. She should have been little more than body parts by the time I arrived.”
“She was out of the home,” Abhed said slowly.
“School?”
The two women were looking nervously back and forth between Abhed and me now. I could tell I was treading close to an uncomfortable subject.
“Yes,” Abhed said. “She was on her way home from school.”
“Interesting,” I mused. “You sent her to school in a nightgown? A nightgown that was ripped before she got there?”
“It is time you should leave,” Abhed said angrily, pointing at the door. “Our deal is concluded. You are no longer welcome here.”
I felt his magic wash over me as he said that. I snorted, reaching out to catch the spell in a palm, toying with it. Abhed’s eyes went wide at the casual display of power.
“I am not some vampire to obey your welcome into your home,” I snarled, stepping closer to him. “Nor am I some underling who you are free to use your pathetic magic on without consequence.”
Abhed gulped.
“You are a bad man, Abhed,” I said in a calm conversational voice as I advanced on him. “Little girls? That’s despicable.”
“I don’t have to suffer this,” the seedy man snapped, reaching into his robe, the red cloth rumpling. “Not in my own house.”
In the blink of an eye, I was in front of him, my hand closing over his wrist, keeping it pinned inside his robe.
“I don’t think you’re the one suffering,” I said, glancing at the wife and daughter.
