Page 2 of Villains Never Die

He should take a vacation.

Needs to take better care of himself.

“I might rest more if you were quiet,” I said.

Behind you!

I whirled around and scanned the dimly lit street. A man stood a few paces behind me, the hood of his black sweatshirt pulled up and a few strands of blonde hair loose over his forehead. He grinned at me, assessing me with eyes that were distinctly blue in the streetlights, even from a distance.

“I hear you’ve been looking for me,” he said as he raised a gun. “I’m Rook.”

A shot rang out.

My heart stopped.

***

Blackness.

I always floated in darkness for a few minutes before I came back, like drifting on a calm sea.

I opened my eyes and gasped, but I’d done this before, and the shock of it wore off quickly as I pushed myself up and looked around for Rook. When I found him…

He was still there, and he didn’t look happy to see me standing after a bullet to the chest. He backed away a few steps and stammered, “How did you—”

“You unbelievable piece of shit!” I screamed at him. I pressed my hand to my chest and used magic to pull the bullet frominside. It scraped my insides and fell on the street with a metallic clink. “You have no idea what you’ve done!”

Rook was still backing away, and despite his shock, he dodged the flames I threw at him. Twice. Fast, but scared too.

He ran, disappearing into the shadows. Bloody coward. I considered going after him, but I was too tired for it. I checked to make sure no other surprises lurked in the dark, and then I went home.

***

I sat behind my desk, scrolling through human news on my computer. It paid to keep up with what they reported in their news; they didn’t know how often the supernatural was involved. It was all the usual: politics, a couple of murders, local slice-of-life stories. None of it was enough to keep me distracted from thoughts of Rook.

This wouldn’t stand. I couldn’t let it. If I’d planned to drive him out of town before, that had quickly turned over to a more gruesome plan. He was a dead man.

I would have needed that life he took, just as surely as I needed the first three I’d sacrificed.

The side door to my office opened and Gray strode in, his head nearly brushing the doorframe. The black military fatigues he wore looked almost too small for his muscular frame.

“Hey, boss,” he said, tossing the mail onto my desk. I glared up at him, but he only smirked about the haphazard pile of junk he’d just put in front of me.

I swept a hand over the pile. “Isn’t this what I have an assistant for?”

“And I do the important things,” he said. “If you want someone to sort your mail, hire a secretary.”

I rubbed my eyes and sighed. I’d been up all night stewing about being shot and had barely caught two hours of sleep before I had to be here to meet the buyer for the bones. The transaction had been quick, but once I was awake, there was always an endless tide of work.

“What else have you got for me?” I asked Gray.

“That Calvin creep broke your deal.”

I separated junk mail from anything interesting, listening to him as I thumbed through envelopes. “The one I got out of the solicitation charge?”

“He was arrested again last night.”

“Idiot.” I considered my options and decided I was too tired to deal with people’s petty bullshit too. “Police or The Council?”