The fighter grabbed her by the hair and tilted her head back. She spasmed. A strangled cough tore out of her and a trickle of dark grey slid from her mouth. A shapeshifter with a lung full of silver dust. They must’ve thrown powdered silver at her and she breathed it in. Silver killed Lyc-V, turning the blood grey.

She had to be one of Raphael’s boudas. She’d followed me and now she was half dead. Without medical attention from a Pack mage, she wouldn’t last long. I’d planned to take my time, but my revenge didn’t matter anymore.

Rudolph had an ugly look on his face. You fucking shithead. You want to kill another child? One wasn’t enough for you?

“I went to Billiot’s funeral,” Rudolph said. “I left that part out.”

The moment I got up off the chair, they would slit the girl’s throat. I pulled my magic to me. This would require specific targeting and I needed to concentrate.

“His widow and his kid were standing next to his casket, both dressed real nice. I walked up real close, looked straight into Junior’s eyes, and said, ‘Your daddy owes me a box. But don’t you worry. I always get what’s mine.’”

My magic splayed out, washing against the three relic hunters behind me and the gasping shapeshifter on the floor. I discarded her, focusing on the three upright humans, forcing them to glow brighter in my mind’s eye.

“Brave man,” I said. “Threatening a widow and an orphan at a funeral.”

Rage flared up in Rudolph’s eyes again, and this time it stayed there. “I’ve been in this business longer than you’ve been alive. Junior has gone into hiding. Three weeks ago, he was running around the city looking to raise money, then he fell off the face of the Earth. My guys can find a virgin in a whorehouse, but they can’t find Junior or his family. That tells me he is about to put that box on the market.”

The shapeshifter wheezed behind me.

“In a week or two, that box will be sitting right on that shelf. Where it belongs.” Rudolph pointed to the shelf behind him. “Eventually Junior will crawl out from under whatever rock he’s hiding under and I’ll send him on a short trip to say hi to his daddy. Maybe I’ll keep a piece of him on the same shelf.”

“You’re a real charmer.”

“Don’t you get it yet? Nothing comes between me and what’s mine...”

The three relic hunters congealed into clearly defined silhouettes, while the girl faded to a transparent shadow. Targets acquired.

“…not Billiot, not his punk kid, not some blond bitch with a badge.”

“Drop the shapeshifter and walk away, and you’ll live,” I said. “Stay and you’ll die.”

“Dumb bitch.” Rudolph nodded to his thugs. “Kill the shapeshifter first.”

The red-haired man raised his machete.

“Arrat dar non karsaran.” The power words burst from me like a magic cannonball. I was so angry, the pain was a mere sting. Those behind me, break.

A sickening wet crunch announced multiple bones snapping. Three people howled in agony.

The Viking unsheathed his gladius and lunged at me. I jumped to my feet, leaned out of the way, gripped his wrist, and twisted hard. His fingers opened. I caught the short sword and slashed his throat with it. He stumbled back, his hands on his neck, blood leaking out between his fingers.

On the edge of my vision, Rudolph aimed a crossbow at me.

“Artum.” Shield.

The bolt sliced through the air with a twang and froze three feet from me, vibrating slightly as it tried to burrow into the invisible wall of magic. Pain of the magic feedback punched the bundle of nerves in my solar plexus and faded.

Rudolph scrambled to reload.

I plucked the bolt from the air with my left hand and jumped onto his desk.

Rudolph swung the crossbow like a club.

I kicked him in the face. His head snapped back. The crossbow clattered to the floor. The chair kept Rudolph from falling, and he righted himself. Blood poured from his nose. I’d broken it.

I crouched on the desk, put the gladius down, and toyed with the crossbow bolt.

“Reggie! Hunter!” Rudolph screeched.

“Reggie and Hunter are indisposed,” I told him.

“You fucking…”

I snapped a quick punch to his ruined nose. He pitched back again, wheezing.

The howls of pain behind me were too loud, and my time was short.

I raised my voice. “Be quiet and still, and I might forget you’re there.”

The moans died.

I kept my gaze on Rudolph. “How is it going, bouda?”

“I’ll…live.” She sounded like her throat was full of sand and jagged glass. I needed to wrap this up.

Rudolph managed to sit back up. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Who would Billiot hire as the broker?”

“How the fuck would I know?”

“Is it hurting time again?” I asked.

“Fuck you.”

I stabbed the bolt into his eye. If you were careful, you could stab a human in the eye without injuring the brain. And I was very careful.

Rudolph screamed and clamped his hand over his eye.

“You’re one ‘fuck you’ away from being blind. Billiot isn’t stupid. He must have a plan. He’d hire a broker you can’t touch. Who is it?”