Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,3

this war. The Company had beat her up to send a warning my way—and turned the rest of the Fund members against me in the process.

“What are our next steps?” Vivi said, breaking into my uncomfortable reverie. “How are we taking down these assholes?”

The “we” made me wince. What had happened to Ellen—and nearly happened to Vivi—was exactly why I had to give her an answer I knew she wouldn’t like.

“I’m already on the road with my shadowkind friends to see about that. You just focus on staying safe. If there’s anything you can do to pitch in from there, I’ll let you know.”

“What, you took off on me? Sorsha…” Vivi couldn’t disguise the disappointment in her voice.

“I couldn’t ask you to uproot your whole life when this feud has already sent you into hiding twice,” I said quickly. “You’ve got a job; you’ve got family—and we don’t know what else these psychos are going to throw at us.”

“Hey, if you can stand up to them, there’s no reason why my mortal self can’t too.”

Other than that I wasn’t sure exactly how mortal—or not—I was. But I hadn’t told Vivi about my newly unearthed powers. Either she’d get all excited like they were a cool new app I’d downloaded into my personal operating system, or… or something would shift in her tone the way it did when she talked about the shadowkind. Because she’d see me as something not-quite-human too.

I kept my tone breezy. “No reason except for the ones I just gave you. Trust me, the best thing you can do for the cause right now is keep out of trouble and be ready for when a good opportunity for you to step in does come up.”

“All right, all right. But I expect regular updates. No holding out on me, Sorsh.”

“Of course,” I said with a pinch of guilt.

When we’d said our good-byes, I tucked my knees against my chest and gazed gloomily out the window at the darkening sky. I didn’t like this weight of worry pressing down on me. I was the Robin Hood of monster emancipation—I laughed in the face of danger.

It was just a heck of a lot easier to do that when the danger was only coming at you and not everyone else you cared about too.

I pushed my posture straighter and gathered my resolve. Auntie Luna, the fae woman who’d raised me—and who’d died evading the Company’s hunters—had given me a lot of things, not least of which was a thorough indoctrination in the joy of all things ‘80s. There was nothing for honoring her contributions to my life and pumping up my spirits like mangling an excellent song lyric or two.

“Never gonna give it up, never gonna fret and frown,” I sang into the quiet of the RV, ignoring the face Omen pulled in my direction. “Now we’re gonna run you down and see hurt through!”

I pictured Snap standing beside me while another building burned down in front of us. One more Company facility destroyed; one more set of baddies slaughtered. The villains had it coming to them.

Without even trying, a surge of heat seared through me. My fingers curled around the edge of the seat. I closed my eyes, the swell of sensation inside me so intense that I lost my breath.

Burn it. Burn it all down like they deserve.

In that moment, I felt as if I could have leveled the entire city of Chicago with one blast of the rage inside me. My pulse hiccupped. The flames were rising higher, slipping between my ribs and out through my skin, faster and more furious than I could control—

A sharp sting shot across my fingers. I jerked my arms toward me, biting back a yelp. My gaze dropped to my hands, and a chill settled over me that doused that inner fire.

Holy mother of magma. My fingertips shone red, still stinging with the brush of the air. As if I’d set myself on fire.

2

Sorsha

Walking up to the clubhouse of Chicago’s premier shadowkind criminal syndicate, I had trouble telling whether the gang had been going for unsettling or brutal with their décor. Either way, it was safe to say they’d shot well past the mark on both.

With the narrow two-story building tucked in between a tattoo parlor and a motorcycle dealership, they definitely had their clichés in order. But the front of the place was painted entirely black—including the first-floor window, because apparently curtains weren’t enough for these dudes—other than stark white skull