Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) - By Fionn Jameson Page 0,86

ah, tabs on you, Miss Hwang?"

My mouth was almost painfully dry. "What do you want?"

Kill him.

Kill him now.

He was quiet for a moment, taking the time to look at the structure of our headquarters. "Your...order. They try so hard to keep us at bay. But in the end, they will only die, one after another, until there is no one except for those...Elders you seem to follow with such blind hearts."

Did he know? "You have a lot of nerve. To come here. Knowing what they hunt."

I almost said "we" but barely managed to keep the word from spilling off my tongue. For all intents and purposes, I was Jason's Ailward.

"A nice attempt at distancing yourself, but I think we both know you're playing both sides of the field, or so to speak," he said and then opened the passenger door. The dark interior made my palms sweat. "Let's go for a ride, shall we?"

"I'd rather not," I said and risked a glance at the twin doors. Could the guards get the doors open before I became a splatter on the walls? I doubted it.

He took off his glasses and his light blue eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry. I know it sounded like a request, but it really wasn't. Get in. We need to talk about your so-called...Master."

"And if I don't?"

An eyebrow rose. "Don't what? Don't get in? Jason is, for the lack of a better phrase, at my mercy, didn't you know? If you say no, it will be reflected in his treatment. Surely you wouldn't want that...would you? Or did you mean you simply didn't want to talk? Which in that case, I'm afraid the results will be the same."

A more blatant threat could not have been possible. "So I have no choice."

The smile faded away. "No."

My hands itched. "I could kill you right now."

"No," he said again, shaking his head. "I don't think you can. You are, without a doubt, quite the little warrior, but you cannot kill me. Haven't I showed you that with, what's his name, ah yes. Rammstein. An interesting diversion to say the least, but then again, also just a diversion."

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. "They think I'm working for you." Even now, my right cheekbone stung. There would be an ugly bruise within the next half hour or so.

“I’m sure standing here doesn’t help,” he replied and gestured to that dark, cavernous depths. “If you will? By nature, I am a patient man, but even I have limits. Get in.”

I didn’t have a choice.

The inside of the car smelled like leather and something else, something almost earthy, and when Noir closed the door, I felt the familiar sense of choking as the darkness closed in around me, like a vise.

Perhaps I made a sound because Noir said, “Ah, yes. Forgive me. I did forget about your strange little quirk. Although, I do think it’s strange, a vampire hunter afraid of the dark. There’s a button next to the armrest. Feel free to open the window. Unfortunately, I cannot turn on the lights. I rather like the darkness, truth be told. Besides, it’d be like traveling with a bullseye emblazoned on the hood. There are people hunting me and moving in the dark is my best defense.”

Opening the window did help. “You waited outside for me. Weren’t you out in the open, then?”

“That is true,” he said. “However, I have an unusually good sense of the areas near me. Before someone drew a bead on me, I would know. But in a car?” He shook his head. “There are…interruptions. Also, you can dodge a bullet out in the open. In a car? Tell me, have you ever tried to dodge an explosive?”

“You mean, there’s someone else hunting you besides…the order?”

I almost said us and judging from his raised brow, he must have known it as well. “Yes. You see, for some strange reason, enemies of our…partnership seems to think I am the weakest link. Hence, all challengers to our reign here in Centennial City seem to come straight to me.”

“Imagine that.”

He looked at me. “Was that a note of sarcasm I hear?”

Sarcasm? Hardly. I had a hard time understanding jokes as it was. Sarcasm was on a whole new different level. “Not at all. I heard from Vincent. He says you are the true monster of the four.”

“Hah!”

“It’s not true?”

He let one shoulder rise and then fall. “I suppose it depends on how you define a monster. How do you