22. Wraith
Chapter 22
Wraith
T he night coughs smoke and spits freezing rain.
It slicks the concrete in a thin, oily sheen.
Turns the alley into a black artery, pumping filth through a city that doesn’t give a fuck who bleeds out in it.
All I see is her.
Neri.
Running.
Her braid snaps behind her like a black flag, boots hammering against pavement glazed with ice and rot.
She doesn’t look back.
Doesn’t hesitate.
Just vanishes into the maze of broken alleyways and fractured streetlights.
For a second?—
only a second?—
I think about calling out .
About dragging her back by the wrist, snarling something cruel and reckless like I always do.
But my voice is broken.
Everything’s broken.
Blood slicks my fingers.
Rain needles through my jacket, cold enough to make the pain bloom sharper along my ribs.
One step forward.
It almost sends me crashing down.
I slam my shoulder into the wall instead, smearing red and rain across the bricks.
Neri’s already gone.
The city swallows her whole.
And all that’s left?—
is the sound of her boots.
Echoing down?—
Sound warps.
Still loud?—
Faraway.
Can’t see.
Rain blurs window?—
Blink.
Not window?—
Brick breathes. Twist.
Footsteps echo?—
Darkness eats the light?—
Eats the echoes.
Gone.
Shadows creep.
Blink.
Her.
Shadows. Move.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
Neri crouches beside me in the shadows, eyes gleaming under the black smear of face paint.
Her grin is crooked. Confident. Unbothered.
Across the street?—
an abandoned power station squats in the dark, hemmed in by chain-link fences and rusted-out delivery trucks.
They move like shadows.
Silent. Fluid.
Mission’s simple enough on paper: breach the meeting, find out who Leviathan is, and most importantly—kill Voss.
Easy.
Quick.
Even better if no one’s left breathing.
I lean in closer.
Barely a whisper.
“You ready?”
Neri pops a piece of gum, flashing teeth in the dark.
“Born ready, Lover Boy.”
Neri taps a gloved finger against my arm. Grinning like the little demon she is in combat boots.
She bumps my shoulder.
“Relax. What could go wrong?”
I give her a sharp look.
Flat. Dead serious.
“Don’t say that.”
Neri just laughs .
Light. Free.
Blink.
Light.
Gone.
A flash–
Bright.
Lily.
Blink.
Curled next to him.
Sunlight setting her hair aflame in golds and coppers.
A soft, tentative smile as her emerald painted eyes gaze at him in wonder.
Like she couldn’t believe he was real.
Like she was lucky that he was.
Blink.
Lily.
Get up.
For Lily.
Move.
Broken snarl.
Hand slams against the concrete.
Push.
Blink.
Body screams.
Fire swallows me.
Pain spikes like glass behind my eyes.
Doesn’t matter.
Again.
Shove.
Fuck.
I stagger upright.
Blink.
Sway.
Breath rattling in the freezing air.
Palm against the wall.
Slippery.
Freezing.
Grit.
Fury.
Movement.
Boots scrape.
Stagger.
Forward.
One foot.
Another.
My ribs grind.
The world tilts.
Blink.
Move.
She’s waiting.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
Dark walls. Low lighting.
The reek of old money and colder intentions.
I shift deeper into the corner, hidden by shadow.
Neri presses in close beside me, radiating barely leashed violence.
The room swells with soft laughter, the clink of glasses.
Buyers filtering in—one by one.
Monsters wrapped in luxury and expensive suits.
I scan the perimeter.
Security rotation: every three minutes.
Blind spots: narrow, but there.
Exit routes: two viable, one barely worth the risk.
Just like we planned.
Neri hums under her breath.
A broken, happy little sound.
I flick my gaze over the crowd.
Scanning.
Blink.
There.
The biggest monster of them all.
Blink.
Rough.
Hands rip.
Blood.
My blood.
Too fast.
Breath ragged.
Shallow.
Sharp.
Painful.
Fingers brace against wall.
Digging into cracks.
Need to ground myself.
Breathe.
Blink.
Chest aches.
Rain—icy sharp.
A second.
Just one.
Catch breath.
Street blurs .
World tilts.
Blink.
One step.
One breath.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
Gunfire splits the night.
One second everything’s clockwork?—
the next it’s chaos.
A flash of movement?—
out of place?—
It’s all wrong.
I see it before she does.
No time to think.
No time to yell.
Just instinct.
I shove her back.
Hard.
Fire tears through me?—
like getting punched by a god.
Rips through me, white-hot and vicious.
My body folds.
Drops.
Hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of me.
Stone and blood.
Screams muffled by the pounding in my head.
The world staggers sideways.
Neri’s voice cuts through it?—
Not laughter this time.
Not chaos.
Something raw.
Shattered.
Real.
Fear.
Blink.
Empty.
Endless.
Lights flash yellow?—
caution, caution, caution?—
Blink.
Broken breath.
Cross road.
Force legs to move.
Step.
Fire.
Step.
Burning.
Step.
Sharp. Pain.
Loud. Horn. Car.
Step. Drag?—
Step. Drag. Blink.
Step. Fire?—
Step. Burning.
Blood. Rain?—
Broken.
Crossed. Street. Move.
Blink—
Blink—
Blink—
The crowd hushes—predator-slick in their tailored suits and thin smiles.
Center stage, a masked presenter steps forward, standing next to something slumped under a heavy tarp.
His voice cuts smooth as silk.
“Our demonstration,” he says, “won’t take long.”
He rips the curtain, revealing a large glass box.
Two figures stumble within it.
Clothes ragged.
Barefoot.
Hollow-eyed.
Hands shaking.
Confused.
Clutching each other like they already know there’s no getting out of this alive.
Neri stiffens beside me.
Not much?—
but enough.
I feel it in the way her breathing catches.
The presenter clicks a remote.
A sharp hiss.
A greenish gas fills the box.
No warning.
No mercy.
The two people begin to scream.
The presenter gives the sales pitch as if people aren’t dying right behind him.
Skin begins to bubble.
The buyers murmur approval.
They collapse to the ground still screaming.
The presenter offers the buyers a chance to get a closer look.
I glance sideways?—
and see her face crack.
The chaos under her skin slipping through the cracks in the paint.
Blink.
Just a flash.
Just a heartbeat.
But it’s enough.
Blink.
Curb catches foot.
Pain—white-hot. Blinding.
Stumble.
Fall.
Hard. Dazed.
Ground freezing. Warm blood.
Leaking. Spreading. Fast.
Soaks into cracks.
Doesn’t matter.
For a second?—
Blink—
just a second?—
I’ll just stay down.
Let it go.
Blink—
Drift away. Forever.
Blink—
Blink—
Blink—
Neri stands frozen near the stage.
For once, she doesn’t move first.
She doesn’t smile.
She doesn’t fucking breathe.
The bodies hit the ground.
One after another.
Ragged. Sloppy. Real. Wet.
Her eyes glass over.
Like she’s not here anymore.
Like she’s seeing something else.
She blinks—slow, mechanical—like her brain’s too stunned to process.
Then the mask slams down.
Hard.
Too late to hide it from me.
She lunges sideways, grabs a guard’s weapon, and buries it in his throat.
Sloppy. Desperate. Messy.
The kind of violence that doesn’t come from rage.
It comes from fear.
I’ve never seen her be afraid of anything.
Another guard grabs for her.
She guts him fast—but clumsy.
Her foot slips in blood.
She doesn’t even fucking notice.
It’s not her usual chaos.
It’s not play.
It’s survival.
It’s panic.
And for a breathless, brutal second?—
I realize she’s not fighting because she enjoys it.
Not like she usually does.
She’s fighting because she has to. She’s fighting something that’s already happened.
Blink.
Because if she stops moving?—
She’ll shatter completely.
Blink.
Lily.
Curled up small on her couch.
Phone clutched in both hands like it might anchor her to the world.
The screen lights her face?—
soft, expectant.
Hope bleeding from every line of her body.
She taps the screen.
Refreshes.
Waits.
No message.
Her fingers curl tighter.
She hides her face in Oley’s fur, like she can stuff the hurt down if no one sees it.
She keeps waiting.
And waiting.
Until the light in her eyes dims.
Until she tucks the phone under the pillow like it never mattered.
Like she doesn’t matter.
But she does.
She’s everything.
Blink.
No.
Not. Like. This.
Teeth grit .
Fingers claw.
Boots scrape.
Muscles scream.
Raw—tearing agony.
Get up.
She’s waiting.
Soft. Lonely. Green eyes.
Sees me.
Not monster
Blink.
Lily.
Waiting.
Won’t leave her.
Not alone.
Blink—
Blink—
Blink—
Hands.
Grabbing, shoving, yanking me out of the dark.
They’re hers.
Neri.
Her fingers claw at the front of my jacket, slick with rain and blood, trying to lift me. Drag me. Force my body to remember how to move.
I feel the heat of it?—
my blood
—slipping steady between her hands.
“Don’t you fucking die on me, Lover Boy!” she snarls, and her voice?—
fuck, her voice?—
It’s not teasing.
Not cackling.
It’s cracking.
Shattered.
I gaze up at her.
Her face is pale beneath the smeared paint and grit and sweat and fear.
Actual fucking fear.
She slaps me.
Hard enough to jolt, not enough to hurt.
“Hey! You hear me? You fucking owe me, you bastard. I get to kill you. Not some limp-dick rent-a-cop with bad aim!”
She yanks me again.
Desperate.
Hands shaking.
Then both palms go to the wound?—
pressing down, trying to stop the flood.
Doesn’t work.
Can’t stop it.
Her fingers are drowning.
Her breath hitches.
Just once.
Blink.
Small.
Tight.
Terrified.
Blink.
Lights blur.
Rain drips in eyes.
I see it.
Her building.
Light in some windows .
Cracked bricks.
Crooked gutter.
Stupid flower box out front.
Home.
Warmth.
Relief.
Knees buckle.
Vision swims. Dark. Getting Darker.
Clutch lamppost. Fingers scrape metal. Nails split.
Need a second—one second.
Boots shuffle forward.
Step. Drag. Step. Drag.
Close.
Blink.
So close.
Can’t fall now.
Not now.
She’s waiting.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
A red strobe slashes across concrete walls.
Sirens tear through the warehouse.
The exit door—their exit—is flooded with guards.
Too many.
Way too fucking many.
This is not what we planned for.
I drag myself up against the crates, every inch of me on fire.
Blood soaks through my shirt, hot and slick at my ribs.
My teeth grind so hard my jaw screams back at me.
Neri’s next to me.
Blades in both hands.
Paint smeared across her face.
Snarling like a cornered fucking demon.
“We’re spotted,” she spits, eyes wild.
No shit.
Boots thunder on metal walkways.
Guards flooding in—guns up—yelling over each other.
Trap.
It’s a fucking trap.
They knew we were coming.
There’s no clean exit.
No cover.
Just noise and blood and too many moving pieces.
Neri grabs my arm and yanks—hard.
“Move, Lover Boy,” she hisses, shouldering half my weight like it’s nothing.
I stumble forward, ribs screaming.
Each step is molten glass in my lungs.
Behind us—shouts. Gunfire.
Ahead—chaos. Fire.
No plans.
No backup.
Just blood on our boots.
Fury in our throats.
Blink.
And the instinct to run?—
Before this whole place comes down.
Blink.
The keypad. Flashing. Blurry.
Focus—
Focus. Fucker. Focus.
Bloody fingers. Slip on keys. Red smears.
Wrong. Once.
Twice.
Breathing loud. Too loud.
Wheezing. Ragged.
Punch code again. Slowly.
3
9
7
1
Green flash.
Mechanical click.
Door cracks open.
Blink.
Boots squeak on floor.
Rest. Forehead against frame. Just a second.
Where? Lily. Door. Open.
Move. Stumble in.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
She disappears into the dark like she was never there.
One second, she’s beside me—tense, quiet, too still for comfort—and the next, she’s gone.
I spot her a beat later, gliding through the shadows behind one of the buyers. He’s oblivious. Probably too high on his own ego to notice the chaos tiptoeing up behind him.
She leans in close, lips by his ear, voice sugar-sweet and laced with venom.
“Some of you may die… but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”
The blade flashes.
His throat opens like a slit envelope.
That’s the moment? —
Blink.
Everything goes to shit.
Blink.
Stairs move. Tilt. Sway.
Grip the rail. Bloody fingers slip.
Stagger into it. Metal digs. Fire explodes.
Good.
Pain—still alive.
Step. Climb. Step. Climb.
Building hums. Lights buzz. Pulsing in and out.
Keep moving up. Body screams every step.
Trail of blood. Smeared on rail.
Her floor. Almost there. Keep moving.
Too far.
Blink.
No.
Keep climbing.
She’s up there.
Almost there.
Must make it.
Blink.
No option.
Because Lily.
Blink. Blink.Blink.
Cold air.
I try—and fail—to push myself up.
Boots skid across the pavement.
Neri.
A flash of black braid.
A snarl carved across her face.
She drags my dead weight through the blood and grime .
Each pull leaves a smear of my blood across the broken concrete.
She mutters under her breath.
Half-curses. Half-prayers.
“Stupid… stubborn… fucker… can’t leave me…”
Her teeth are bared, wild with effort.
The world narrows to the sound of her breathing.
Slow.
Heavy.
And then?—
Nothing.
Blink.
Lily.
Her door.
Key. No need. Unlocked.
Rest. One second.
Swaying.
Vision swims. But there.
Lily.
Soft hoodie. Bare feet. Sleep-creased face.
Mug halfway to her mouth.
She freezes.
Eyes wide.
Breath caught.
It slips from her fingers.
Falling slowly.
Shatters on the floor.
Boots track blood.
Scent hits me?—
Lavender.
Chamomile tea. Sweet.
Step. Stagger. Step. Stagger. Step.
Lily.
Soft.
Warm.
Don’t deserve her.
Don’t care.
Mine.
Can’t see.
Tunnel. Narrow.
Blotchy. Edges.
Reach for wall. Steady myself?—
Miss.
Crash.
And then?—
A sound.
Soft.
Shaken.
Sweet.
A gasp.
Small.
Frightened.
The fear I’ve craved from her since the moment we met?—
Fear she never showed.
Not for herself.
But now?—
Blink.
The sweetest little sound of fear?—
and it’s not for her.
It’s for me.
Blink.