Page 106 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
Is he doing that for her? Is he jealous?
“Calm down, green girl.” Cufio held his hand then nodded at the orange one. “Just because these two don't want you anymore doesn't mean I do.”
“Oh, shut up.” She crossed her arms over her chest, embarrassed. “That's the last time I give you a compliment.”
“Focus,” Metice said simply. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Metice is right,” Noville spoke again. “According to my calculations, this entire thing should take no more than twenty-five minutes. If we're in there any longer than that, it's going to be bad for everyone involved.”
“Make sure your people stay away from that shadow core,” Raymond warned.
“They already know.” Noville nodded.
“Is it a good idea to have that thing here?” I pointed at Piko, who remained by Metice’s feet. His tail wagged the moment I acknowledged him.
“Uh, trust me, we're going to want him around.” Metice nodded. “He’s not as helpless as he appears.”
“Alright, sun’s coming up. Let's go.” Cufio pointed at the sky where the dark blanket began to pull back.
In seconds, Olian headed off with her orange man, Metice popped out of view, and Cufio stepped into the shadows with Noville behind him.
Raymond grabbed my hand, pulled me over to him, and kissed my forehead before we crossed the shadows. When we exited, we stood in front of seven demons. Two looked like Noville, made of stone. There was a small furry one with large eyes and an innocent smile, and the others lookedalmost boring in comparison, two women and one man. They looked human, only slightly mutated with strangely textured skin.
Raymond addressed the team briefly, reiterating what Noville and Cufio had already told them. Then, we headed into the building. Raymond led us. He opened a shadow path tighter than any other he’d ever done before, and we all tiptoed through the weak point of the building.
On the inside, we stood against the wall of an angled hall. I expected an ambush, but the space was empty. In the distance, there was a strange whooshing noise, like someone had a powerful fan turned on. It was bright inside; the wide windows at the top of the walls let the sunlight spill in, and bright strips of light were fixed down the center of the ceiling.
“They really don’t want any shadow walkers in here,” the furry one commented in a soft, feminine voice.
“At least not ones who are against them.” Raymond nodded. “Stay close. I can use shadows without darkness, but if you get too far from me, you’ll be on your own.”
“Understood,” she responded.
They were effective. Having worked together for so long, they needed little communication to perform. I watched them closely, learning, and I couldn’t stop myself from considering how I could get my own team to perform the same way—if I made it back home.
Um, no, girl. This is not the time to think that way. We’re going to make it back, and we’re going to buy Jackie so much damn sushi because I know those clients are driving her crazy by now.
Once inside, we had no direct way of communicating with the other teams, but we had our directives. Raymond and I were to find Talkeen, who happened to have his office stationed just below the most dangerous point of the buildingthat could only be accessed through a shadow port—a door only shadow walkers could use—right beneath where the shadow cores sat.
The shadow cores we weren’t supposed to get too close to. Yeah, those.
The others were there for one real purpose: distraction. While Talkeen’s men attacked the other teams, we would slip in, face off with Talkeen, and hopefully drag his ass back to Klougus so the big guy could finish him off himself.
We made steady progress through the hall, moving closer together as the space narrowed around us. But then a blaring sound like storm alarms rang out around us, the lights above us turning red and flashing in furious alerts.
“Fuck. It didn't take them long to mess that up,” Raymond said with annoyance.
“What happened?” I scanned the hall, bracing for an onslaught of shadow walkers, but nothing happened outside of that loud ass alarm. “Where are they?”
“I'm guessing someone tripped an alarm, or they got too close to the core,” Raymond stated. “But it should have taken them at least a few more minutes before getting anywhere near the core.”
“I’ll check in.” Furry’s head vibrated, and then, when it stilled, she spoke. “Talkeen’s guys spotted Olian’s team. Couldn’t catch the guy before he sounded the alarm.”
“What do we do now?” I looked at Raymond, the official leader of our group.
“We head for the core. Our goal is the same here. Now, we just have to move a lot faster.”
Moving faster meant more opportunities for mistakes, but we didn’t have time to reevaluate things. Raymond ran, and I followed his lead. The sounds of battle quickly reached us. We weren’t the only ones who decided to speed things up. As we exited the hallway, entering the open center of the building, we spotted Metice and his team.
