Page 9 of Bloody Bones
The pingof an incoming call took us both by surprise, even though we had been expecting it. Throwing a glance at Raze, I saw him shudder slightly. His face set like a stone, and he gave me a thumbs up.
He was ready.
So was I. I had been ready for hours. I wanted this particular meeting over with. Not because I had anything better to do, but purely because waiting was slowly killing me. I hated being on edge.
Straightening my shoulders, I pressed the accept button. And Leviathan’s face came up on my screen instantly. He didn’t scare me, but I had to admit he was a scary son of a bitch. It was more than the utter massiveness of the guy, or his strange silver eyes that never fully reverted back to human, it was the very air of him. His whole demeanour screamed power. Power, violence and anger, all of which were barely contained.
“You got my message.” It wasn’t a question. There were no polite greetings with Leviathan. He was all business, all the time. At least with me. How he acted with his harem of women, I didn’t know. Hell, I didn’t want to know. “The woman…”
I threw an almost panicked glance at my vice president and Raze raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Leviathan was talking like we should know what he was talking about. When in reality I had no idea.
It hit me in a rush. The goat. It had been so long since one had been dropped on our doorstep, I had totally forgotten that it was always accompanied by a file. Our mission and all the information we would ever need.
These calls were just a follow-up.
Jutting my chin towards Raze, he scrambled to his feet, rushing out of the room without a word. Tearing my eyes away from the door he had just disappeared out of, I turned my attention back to the giant of a man on the screen,
He looked pissed, and his mercury-coloured eyes narrowed. Scales were forming on his temple. He knew that I had forgotten, but like always he didn’t let me explain. Leviathan never let anyone explain.
“You're to find the omega and take her home. Just her. She is your mission. She must not be a bride and she sure as hell cannot be allowed to fall into the monster Acco’s bed. Not even unwillingly.”
I opened my mouth to speak, to ask the hundreds of questions that had sprung up in my mind, but I closed it again when he glared at me.
“She is your priority, Tommy. Her and her alone. Is that understood?” He didn’t wait for me to agree. “The moon is almost full, you have maybe a week to find her. After that, she is lost to us. Make sure it is done.”
The screen went blank. The conversation ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving nothing but the echo of his gravelly voice in the room.
Leaning back on my chair, I blew out the breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding.
A rescue mission. All this fanfare to rescue one woman? It didn’t make any sense. Leviathan had called her an omega.
I knew he had a group of those special females for himself. So, maybe that’s what it was. Leviathan had taken a fancy to a woman and wanted us to collect her for him. It made sense...kind of.
“Prez?” Raze appeared, a bunch of tightly rolled papers in his hand. The edges were stained with blood.
“We have to rescue a girl,” I sighed wearily. “From a guy called Acco.”
The name felt familiar to me, but I didn’t know why I knew it.
Raze's face fell. “Acco?” he repeated.
I nodded, confused by the sudden look of anger on his face. “You’ve heard of him?”
“Yeah, everyone has. He’s the same as you. Unseelie, hobgoblin, whatever you classify yourself as. He was pretty well known back in the day.”
“Known for what?” I raised an eyebrow.
“He arranges marriages. Well, maybe arrange is a bit of a loose word. He finds humans for the Unseelie to breed with. Almost always against their will. I honestly thought he was out of business or dead. If that’s who we are going up against to get this woman back, then we will have a fucking fight on our hands. He doesn’t let go once he has his claws into them. Not ever. No one escapes.”
I took his words in, mulling them over as I chewed on my lip. Failure wasn’t an option. Not if I wanted to keep my head. “Pass me the file.” I reached out my hand. The blood that soaked the corners was cold and tacky. It felt strange against my skin. Unfurling them, I stared down at the first page and the grainy picture that was half-covered in blood.
A smiling face stared back at me, totally unaware that she had been having her picture taken.
This was the girl I was meant to rescue.
This unassuming, normal-looking human woman who had nothing special about her from what I could see. What was it about her that made Leviathan take an interest? Because she was an omega or something different?
“This one is going to escape. With our help.” I smoothed out the picture on the desk, my thumb idly wiping away a fleck of blood that had started to cover her cheek. I might not have known what was so special about her, but I would do my job.
I would help her get away and back to her normal, boring, mundane life and then forget all about the kindness that shined out of her eyes.
