Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Vesper
They hadn’t said a word to each other the entire way to the building and up the stairs. Vesper was getting more pissed with every passing second as Bellamy refused to admit she didn’t have a fucking plan.
Meanwhile, she was warming up to her own shoddy disposal idea for when Bellamy inevitably fucked it up. Again. This was a big job, she was not going to let anything go wrong.
Vesper tried to calm herself. She needed her kills to be calculated, precise—the less blood spatter they’d need to clean up the better. She tried to picture what the room layout would look like. Of the copious blueprints the client had given them, the room layout was not one.
Presumably there would be a table with everyone gathered around, so it shouldn’t be too challenging.
She could easily hold her magic long enough to form two or three corporeal twisting dagger-like shards at once, and her aim was fucking good.
One of the best in the Embunuh Organization, something she prided herself on.
But once she took out the first three, there could be a mad scramble for the door. How quickly would she need to act after that? Would they run or freeze? They’re Designers, so she didn’t think they’d fight, but she’d been wrong about that before. Couldn’t eliminate that possibility entirely.
There was too much uncertainty surrounding this operation. It made Vesper uneasy. She only hoped they were all Designers like she assumed. If even one of them held a different magic, or if one of them knew how to fight, she’d definitely need Bellamy’s back up.
Especially if the targets had solid weapons on them. If it did come to a physical fight, Vesper was fairly confident she could overpower most of them. If not, well, the hardest part of this would be trusting Bel to do her damn job. Maybe she should make Bel lock the door behind them.
Vesper shook her head, now was not the time to overthink her entire plan.
When they exited the stairwell to the empty tenth floor, her senses prickled like they were being watched. The hallway was silent aside from their heavy breathing, though. No conversation, no music, no footsteps.
“Keep alert,” Vesper muttered. Bel’s eyes darted back and forth along the hallway and her hands balled into fists, magic sparking every step. It didn’t take long to find their door.
Vesper took a steadying breath, rolling her neck and shoulders and sparked up her magic, lighting a fire in her veins and falling out of her hands, twisting like vines until it held solid.
With her training, it only took a few seconds to form the corporeal blade-like shape she preferred, but a few seconds could be the difference between life and death.
She wasn’t about to take any risks today.
With a final breath, and her weapons sparking in her hand, she opened the door. Six faces turned in unison as she stepped into the dim room. Most of the light came from the full floor-to-ceiling windows on one side of the room; the rising sun reflected off the table in the room's center.
The board members were gathered around, staring at her. Freeze response, then. Much easier.
Before Vesper could act, movement in her peripheral alerted her to the two missing people. A guard on each side rushed toward her. The door slammed, locking automatically.
Kind of perfect—no escape now. But she’d have preferred Bellamy make it inside first, just in case.
Oh well. Not like she was going to help with this part anyway.
Vesper flung her magic out, slicing through the guards necks with ease.
A slow trickle of blood dripped from the cuts, and they fell to the ground.
Vesper crinkled her brows, but she didn’t have time to waste.
Two down, six to go.
They were easy, all frozen. Not a single one tried to flee.
Best to act quickly before they moved, but honestly, it was almost too easy.
Her skin pricked and sparked as she gathered more magic, flinging the sparking shards like glass and striking the first two.
She fully expected that to jerk everyone else from their shock.
The door handle rattled behind her, but she paid it no mind.
Bellamy would either pick the lock right as she was finishing up, or Vesper would just let her in after.
No one ran, no one moved. It was like the whole room collectively held their breath.
Vesper had never had to kill this many people at once before, but still…
One of them should have run, at the very least. But she was not one to question an easy job, and she was rather grateful to not have to rely on Bel for back up.
When the last of her magic dissolved from the final body, the door handle rattled again and Bellamy’s muffled cry came from the other side. Vesper rolled her eyes. Bel really did have a flair for the dramatic. If she kept making so much damn noise they’d get caught.
Honestly, Bel would be thanking her when she saw how little clean up there was.
Vesper surveyed the room one last time—there was hardly any blood.
She hadn’t even needed to get close to them with how they’d frozen.
Each stab of her magic was quick and clean.
Really clean. She didn’t even have any spray on herself.
Bellamy would hardly have to put forth any effort for cleanup. Probably. As long as she had clean up figured out. Fuck, she didn’t, did she?
Vesper barely suppressed a groan as she turned to let Bellamy in. It wouldn’t feel like gloating if Bel hadn’t bothered doing any part of her job. Movement snagged her attention. She whipped around, magic crackling in her palms, ready to strike.
“Cedar?” Vesper’s jaw dropped, the sparks dissipating back into her body. She quickly snapped her mouth shut and took a step back “What…”
The bodies around her vaporized and disappeared in a bright, smoky haze.
“Illusion magic,” Vesper whispered. Her gaze snapped to Cedar with more caution. “But you’re an herbalist.”
She reached for the door behind her. Cedar remained motionless, letting Vesper piece everything together. Watching.
Vesper’s hand found a solid body instead of the door. Her arm was twisted behind her back before she registered what the fuck had just happened.
The guard who had grabbed her was one of the first people she’d killed. At least, she thought she’d killed him. The evidence of his dead body had vanished, no blood was left. Her gaze darted around the room. Everything was untouched, reset, like she’d never been there.
“What is this?” Vesper asked, addressing Cedar. She wasn’t worried about the capture, she was confident about her odds. Besides, Bel was still waiting outside. If they tried to take Vesper, they wouldn’t get far. But also… why hadn’t Bel broken in yet? She was usually so quick with a lock….
“I have a proposition for you,” Cedar’s low voice reverberated through the room. “A work contract, if you will.”
“I already have a contract…” Come to think of it, Vesper hadn’t heard a thing from Bellamy since she’d yelled for her.
“I’ll buy you out of that one.”
Vesper’s face scrunched. “Why?”
She couldn’t hear anything outside the room. Bellamy was never this quiet.
Cedar huffed, crossing her arms. “Because you can be of use to my employers. They’ve been watching you. They’re a competitor of your little organization, and you’re one of the best.”
“Why go through all this, then? Why not just talk to me about it literally any other time?”
“We’re talking now.” Cedar shrugged. She smiled brightly and tilted her head to the side. This was not the person Vesper thought she knew. She resisted another glance behind her to the door. “I needed to make sure you had enough incentive to accept my offer.”
Vesper did not stop herself from looking to the door now, from straining to hear, listening for any clue as to what might be happening on the other side. Why the fuck hadn’t Bellamy picked the lock yet?
“What does that mean?” She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Cedar as she let her magic pulse forward, keeping it just under skin, burning her blood but ready at a moment's notice.
Cedar sighed like Vesper was being intentionally obtuse.
“It means,” she huffed, “that I couldn’t just talk to you.
I mentioned my employer is a competitor—it’s too risky.
I couldn’t have you saying no and fucking me over.
Then you would have become a liability, and that would have been so… disappointing.”
“And Bel?”
Cedar laughed. “She’s already a liability. This offer is for you and you alone.”
“Where the fuck is she?” Vesper lunged away from the guard, but his grip held steady. She elbowed him in the gut and reached for the doorknob when he winced.
“I wouldn’t do that.” Cedar’s voice cut through her like a steel, the warning clear. “Look, V.” Cedar softened when Vesper froze. Her tone was sympathetic, and it made Vesper sick. “Just come with me.Forget about her.”
Vesper scoffed. “You think just because we fuck sometimes you can come in and pull me away from my job?”
“No.” Cedar frowned. “I did hope that would make it easier though. I think that given the right incentive, you’ll choose the best path for survival.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means you're running out of time before your precious employers learn that you’ve failed the assignment.”
Oh fuck. Vesper’s eyes widened, and Cedar watched her with a twisted smile.
“How?” Vesper breathed. She’d assumed that Cedar’s people had somehow faked it, but if what Cedar said was true, and the job was real… Vesper and Bellamy were dead.
“Do you see the incentive now?” Cedar smirked, not answering the question.
Every single red flag about the assignment ran back through Vesper’s mind in a flash.
The fire that had delayed them, the client not showing up, the stillness of the building, the ease of the kills…
She’d been too wrapped up in her twisted emotions to take them for the warnings they were.
“So you’re offering to, what? Hide me now that you’ve put a target on my head?”
“Pretty much.”
“And Bel?”
Cedar shrugged. “I told you. She’s already a liability. Someone has to take the fall for this fuck up. Who better than her? The person who fucks everything up anyway.”
Vesper faltered. She definitely had never told Cedar that Bellamy ruined all their assignments. Their contract would be terminated. Their employers would have the kill order as soon as they learned of the failure Nowhere was safe for them. And Bel…
“I can’t leave her,” Vesper whispered. It was so quiet, she barely heard herself.
She didn’t hate Bel enough for that—didn’t want her to die, not really.
Sure, she’d idly thought about it before—what life would be like if she’d killed her.
But she didn’t actually want that. As much as she hated to admit it, there was still a part of Vesper that cared for Bellamy.
A muscle ticked in Cedar’s jaw. She circled around the table until she was right in front of Vesper.
“You hate her,” Cedar said. No doubt, in her mind that was true. She watched Vesper intently. “You don’t need her for anything. You have me.”
Cedar saw the hesitation in Vesper’s face, the minuscule tell that gave her away, and she laughed. “Seriously? She’d leave you, you know. If I made her this offer, she’d take it in a heartbeat. There’s no world in which Bellamy would save you, and you know it.”
Vesper opened her mouth to respond, but she didn’t know what to say. Truthfully, she didn’t know if Bellamy would save her. When she closed her mouth again, Cedar’s smirk spread.
“You know what, let’s see if she would, since you’re so concerned about her. Come, let’s get you away from the door first.”
Cedar grabbed Vesper’s hand and pulled away from the door.
The guard, who’d been cautiously holding her since she elbowed him, released his grip easily.
Apparently Cedar thought herself immune to Vesper’s wrath.
Though, with Bellamy out of sight and this whole situation unknown, it wasn’t the worst gamble.
Perhaps Cedar just knew Vesper wouldn’t do anything until she knew Bel was safe… until she heard Bel’s answer for herself.
“V, be a dear and keep your mouth shut while I talk to her, okay? Trust that I won’t let anything happen until her decision is made.”
Oh, Vesper didn’t trust shit anymore. The only thing she trusted was that Bellamy could protect herself if Cedar tried anything.
Cedar grasped Vesper’s arm in a protective hold and nodded to the guard to open the door.