Chasing His Assassin

5. The Red Angel

Leah’s eyes wandered around the dining hall in attempt to distract herself from the conversation going on outside.

The dining hall like a lot of other rooms in the castle really didn’t reflect Caspian’s tastes in the slightest. From the sophisticated chandeliers that were hung over the table to the walls that had beautiful patterns carved into them. Leah always wondered who had been responsible for decorating the castle because it certainly wasn’t Caspian. With how simple Caspian was, she couldn’t imagine him picking out the tapestry that was hung above the sparsely used fireplace. Even the thick curtains that covered the windows looked fancy.

On the wall directly facing Caspian’s seat at the head of the table, a picture of a gorgeous woman was hung. She had long wavy auburn hair and unique violet eyes. Leah hadn’t met many people that beautiful, the lady in the picture looked like a goddess. It had become an unspoken rule in the castle to never ask or even mention the picture. Why? Because it would upset Caspian. Leah had no idea who the woman was but she had certainly been important to Caspian.

Leah turned away from the picture when she heard the door open. Thankfully, it was the cook holding a tray of food.

“Good morning, Loretta.” Leah greeted as the cook placed her food in front of her.

“What in heaven’s name is good about the morning at 4 am?” Loretta grumbled as she removed the plates from the tray.

***

Even after their minor dispute earlier, Leah and Noah still had to face each other as they still had an important mission ahead of them. Apparently Noah hadn’t been able to find out what time the witch visited the holiday home so they had to stalk out the place the entire day.

By the time most people awoke from their slumbers, they were already on the witch’s property.

Perched in one of the densely packed trees around the property, they waited for the witch and Lycans to show up. Only heaven knew how long they would be waiting.

During stealth missions like these, they switched to the mind link that Noah made with her magic. Leah despised the fake link as it often left a ringing sensation in her ears but nothing could be done.

‘Remind me why we’re hiding out and not inside the house?’ Leah asked as it basically made no sense to her. It wasn’t like the witch was just going to walk through the front door.

‘You’re terrible at sensing magic so you probably can’t tell but there’s a barrier around the house. It’ll alert the witch the moment we cross it, meaning she might choose not to show up at all because of that.’

Leah squinted at the house, trying to catch the outline of the barrier but failing. Noah was right. Leah’s only weakness was her denseness or inability to sense magic. She didn’t know why but it had always been that way.

‘Lets go over the plan again. The moment i sense Freya’s presence you provide cover for me to enter the house. Keep the mutts out while I deal with the witch.’

‘Yeah, I got it.’ Don’t let her slip out of your grasp this time. When Noah glared at her, she realized the witch had heard her thought.

‘Right, I’m the screw up who couldn’t catch a damn witch but don’t forget you’re the screw up who couldn’t kill some damn mutts.’

‘How could I forget when you keep reminding me? I’m not in the mood for an argument, lets just focus on the task at hand. Alright?’

Noah made no sound and simply turned away from Leah. What a b***h. Leah didn’t remember her being this irksome to be around. She couldn’t wait for this whole thing to be over. Maybe fighting some mutts would put her in a better mood.

Just as planned, the following evening Asher and his men were on the location Vanna had given them. It was a large modern vacation home in the middle of some forest. It was the kind of home that had a lot of window walls making it extremely easy to see into it. It was pretty to look at but the lack of privacy seemed unappealing to him. But then again, it was in the middle of nowhere in a forest for that matter, the only onlookers the witch would be having would be the little forest critters. She definitely didn’t plan to be stalked by some Lycans and Caspian’s lackeys.

The surroundings trees were densely packed making it almost impossible to see through them.

Before Asher left Doran had stopped him to give him another lecture on not underestimating the vemon.

“I did some investigating on the vemon.” Doran said to Asher in a very serious tone as he leaned on Asher’s door frame. By then the majority of Doran’s injuries were mostly healed so he no longer wore the casts and bandages. At the moment he just looked like he’d gotten into a small brawl and sported a few bruises as result.

“Hmmm, and what did you find?” Asher asked, not all that interested in what his friend had to say. He already knew how this conversation was going to go. ‘Don’t underestimate her’. He had no intention of doing that so the endless nagging from Vanna and Doran was beginning to get on his nerves.

“She’s an assassin. Only kills when ordered,” Doran started only to be interrupted by Asher.

“So she’s Caspian’s lackey, big deal.”

“There are a couple of folks who’ve seen her in action, they weren’t Caspian’s targets so they were able to escape unscathed.” Asher arched a brow wondering where this was going. “She has a name among them. ‘The Red Angel’. Want to know why? Because of how pretty she looks even when soaked in the blood of her enemies.”

“Now you have to admit that that’s cool.”

“Do you know what it means for an immortal to have a name?” Doran said in a deadpan tone.

Asher knew well, it meant they were deadly. For an immortal to be known by such a title then they were definitely a force not to be reckoned with. Take Vanna for example, ‘The Demon Wolf’ there were very few people who dared antagonize their queen. It was for that reason that Lustrum remained as peaceful as it was.

Zane was another case, ‘The Mad Wolf’. He was so problematic that even Vanna chose to leave him alone. Peace was way more important than trying to put him in place. Though his madness was understandable after all the things he went through. He was another unfortunate soul ruined by Caspian.

Asher laced up his boots and stood to his feet. He walked over to Doran, placing a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.

“I understand your worry but I’ll be fine.”

Doran heaved out a defeated sigh and stepped to the side allowing Asher to leave the room.

“Just don’t die, Asher.”

“Awwwn, you’re worried about me.” Asher cooed.

“I am, I really am.”

“Don’t worry mommy, I’ll be just fine.”

After that, Asher and the nineteen other men Vanna assigned to this task rolled out of Lustrum in a couple of jeeps. The cars were hidden somewhere in the forest, out of sight.

They stuck to the edge of the forest, with the sun almost down, it was unlikely the witch would be able to sight them as witches had less developed senses than a lot of other immortals.

As they hid, Asher tried to sense for presences other than their own but failed to catch anything. Did Caspian not know the witch lived here? Very unlikely. Almost impossible. Then where was the vemon?

He recalled Doran stating she was an assassin, in that case she must’ve hid her presence already. If she was this good at hiding her presence then this was going to be a difficult night from the looks of it. He then tried to sense for the witch’s presence within the house but was blocked out by the annoying barrier surrounding it.

As the sun steadily disappeared from the sky, automatic lights flicked on, illuminating the free area around the house but not up to the thickly packed forest trees. Soon afterwards Asher watched one of the lights flick on in one of the see through rooms. He caught sight of a mop of red hair and a bell dinged loudly in his head. Show time.

Just on cue, he heard two consecutive thump sounds and his head snapped to the direction it came from. He found two small hooded figures some ways away from him. Females. One of them was the vemon he thought, he noted the one with a blade at her hip. So they were hiding in the trees. One of the figures darted towards the house while the other stood staring in Asher’s direction, the one with the blade. He couldn’t even see her eyes but his body erupted in chills from her fixed gaze on him.

He couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing.

Of course she wasn’t staring at him, there were a lot of wolves around him still he felt like he was the one she was fixed on.

“After her!” Asher’s voice boomed. Keep the witch out of their grasp and capture the vemon if possible. That was the mission.

The one who ran into the house seemed to have a lot of confidence in her partner as she didn’t even glance back to check if she was alright. Her pace as she ran told Asher immediately that she wasn’t a threat. At least not in physical terms. She should be easy enough to catch.

Five men raced out of their hiding place towards the running lady. They would deal with that one while the remaining handled the vemon. It was almost ridiculous to imagine that they would need this many wolves to handle two girls.

“I don’t think so.” The one he assumed was the vemon said as she pulled out her sword. Asher’s body went rigid against his will at the sound of her voice. So smooth and rhythmic, hardly what he’d expect a vemon to sound like. He found himself wanting to hear her speak again. She easily intercepted the wolves heading towards her partner, moving with incredible speed. Her hand was a blur when she struck all five of the men down, slashing each one across the chest. “You’ll have to deal with me first to get to her.”

Again that voice. He couldn’t quite place it. It was somewhat deep but oh so seductive to him. Asher forced himself to concentrate.

‘We’ll distract her while three men slip away and go after the witch.’ Asher ordered through their mind link. It was their best option at the moment as it didn’t seem like the vemon would be making things easy for them.

The men she’d cut down earlier slowly stood to their feet, getting ready to fight again.

“Oh? You want more?”

The remaining men moved out from their hiding spot and all moved to attack her. Hopefully while she was distracted with everyone, at least one person would be able to slip away. Seeing the number suddenly coming after her, she took a step back and pushed her hood backwards revealing the face that was hidden beneath it.

Asher sucked in a breath when her face was revealed. Hair that was dyed silver at the front and left black at the back fell out of the hood. She ran her free hand through it, pushing it away from her face and revealing the most beautiful pair of green eyes he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Now the angel part of her name made complete sense. No, it didn’t do her justice. She was a goddess.