Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel Read Online Free Page B

grip tightening on my throat.
    “I’m hired,” I rasped in a flat, icy tone.
    “Then who hired you?”
    He almost sounded amused, but he wasn’t going to be when he got his answer.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I never meet the clients.”
    “Well, then, you’re not much use, are you? Maybe I should kill you .”
    “You could try.” I didn’t have to pretend to sound defiant or confident. Even a born Shaede would need a special blade to kill me.
    He laughed, and the sound of it caused a spasm of pleasure to ripple from the top of my head right down to my toes. His grip on my throat disappeared with his body, and in a waft of dark air, he reappeared on a small sofa, very much at home.
    “What’s your name?” he asked.
    “Darian,” I said, throwing it out there like I had nothing to lose.
    “Darian,” he repeated. “So, Darian . . . who do you think would want me dead?”
    “How the hell should I know?” I asked, maybe a little more indignant than I ought to have been considering the circumstances. “I guess you must’ve really pissed someone off.”
    “You think?” I couldn’t blame him for mocking me. Hell, I was there to kill him. “Now, why would anyone send you to kill someone that you couldn’t kill?”
    I hadn’t thought about that. Didn’t care. Thinking wasn’t part of my job. The client had to have recognized something inhuman about Xander Peck. Born Shaedes did have the ability to dazzle, glamour—whatever—a lot better than I could. They could convince humans that they’re made of something more solid. Still, the “otherness” that exists in us has a tendency to set a person on edge.
    “My guess,” he said, resting an arm over the back of the couch, “is that you were set up.”
    That thought knocked the breath right out of me. Adrenaline pulsed in my veins. My heart hammered against my rib cage. Who would set me up? And why? Who, besides Tyler, knew—truly knew—about me? And, more importantly, who knew I wasn’t the only one of my kind? I choked up on the dagger, the guard digging uncomfortably into my hand for a brief moment before I slid it into the sheath at my thigh. I’d been alone. The only one. Only. One . God, it didn’t sound convincing even as I thought the words. Had Azriel known? He couldn’t have. He never would have kept it from me. Or would he? His words, spoken long ago, haunted me. We are alone in this world, and you have nothing to fear. My head swam, feeling as though all the blood had rushed from my brain to my pounding heart. Not alone. I am not alone . The situation demanded a little more thought and a lot more caution. If anything, I needed answers from someone, and there happened to be only one someone on my list.
    For the first time in my long existence, I left a job unfinished.
    I sought the shroud of my shadow self for a stealthy escape and fled the town house. But when I gazed up at the window, Xander Peck stood at its center. He bowed his head deeply and vanished.

Chapter 3
     
    “ M eet me at The Pit in thirty minutes,” I growled into my cell, “and if you’re even fifteen seconds late, I’m going to slice you open like a Thanksgiving turkey.”
    Tyler was five minutes early.
    The Pit isn’t a prize to behold, but it’s my favorite haunt. The stale smell of beer never went away and mingled with hundreds of different perfume and cologne samples into an olfactory nightmare. But the dim lighting and the warm air made me feel safe, no matter how bad it smelled or how many times I had to send an overeager guy on his way.
    Lucky for me, I like the heat. And the club happened to be seven different kinds of hot that night. But I couldn’t take the duster off; it hid my saber and covered the dagger. I’m sure I looked like a Goth kid’s wet dream, sitting in my black sex-kitten outfit, sipping a rum and Coke, exuding little to no emotion on the outside while my insides writhed like angry vipers.
    Despite the fact that I’d all but