Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,14

joined a group of mortal-side higher shadowkind who shut down a hunter ring, and this is what they encountered.”

At the press of a button, a video started to play on the screen. It’d clearly been taken with a handheld camera, probably a phone, and the hand that held it was shaking.

The recording swiveled to take in a small, dim room. A couple dozen cages stood stacked against one wall. At the other, several furred or scaled forms sprawled on the steel table, bones protruding from their flesh like ghostly knobs.

“Oh my God,” the video-taker mumbled with obvious horror.

My own stomach churned queasily at the sight. Some collectors were too nervous or fastidious to want to deal with living shadowkind. For them, the hunters carved up their haul to provide polished skeletons or taxidermy shells. Two sales for one catch. Some hunters even preferred those dealings.

There wasn’t much we mortals could do to take down these hunter rings—or independent hunters and their clients—directly, especially a larger scale operation like in the video. They’d have at least one sorcerer on staff: one of the rare human beings who’d mastered the art of summoning shadowkind from their own realm and bending their powers to the sorcerer’s will. Their magic would deflect any typical law enforcement we tried to sic on them.

Those of us in the Fund had all come to know about shadowkind in various, personal ways we couldn’t have convinced the general public to believe. Maybe if the higher shadowkind had wanted to show off their powers and prove they existed, we could have made more headway… but understandably, they had much more of an advantage in keeping their true nature secret.

The best we could offer was to interfere with the hunting and collecting as well as we could in roundabout ways, gather money to buy and release caught creatures when we had the chance, and inform the higher shadowkind who’d taken up residence in our world of activities we’d uncovered so they could step in if they felt it worth the risk. At least this bunch had taken action before the people who ran the facility could torment any more unwitting beings.

A solemn mood had descended over the room when the video finished. Then a chart popped up on the screen showing our latest fundraising efforts—not a bad week, considering we had to keep secret what we were actually raising those funds for.

“One of the big old homes in Walnut Hill halfway burned down last night,” someone piped up as the screen went dark. “We’ve seen signs that the owner was a collector. That’s the third fire this year—do we still have no idea who to thank?”

I bit my tongue. I definitely had nothing at all to say about that.

If I wanted to continue my more vigilante-style interventions, it was best if no one else had any idea I was responsible. The other Fund members might joke about approving, but if they knew one of their own was committing the crimes, I’d be kicked out for “crossing too many lines” in two seconds flat. I’d seen it happen to a guy who’d leaned too far into vigilante territory not long after I’d first joined.

“If it’s a higher shadowkind taking matters into their own hands, as we’ve discussed before, it’s understandable that they’re not advertising the fact,” Huyen said.

A guy farther back clapped his hands. “I say we leave them to it. They can police what happens to their own in their own way.”

Being raised by a higher shadowkind for thirteen or so years made me pretty much an honorary one, right? That was my story, and I was sticking to it. Auntie Luna hadn’t deserved what the bastards had done to her, and I’d be damned if I let any other shadowkind suffer while I could prevent it by any means necessary.

Vivi glanced at me and must have caught something in my expression. “Still fretting?”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. If no one’s heard anything, then there’s nothing to hear.”

“We could always spread the net a little farther. I was thinking of stopping by Jade’s on Friday night. Wanna come with? It’s been a while since we let loose anyway.”

Yes, Jade’s would be the perfect spot to dig a little further—and hopefully solve my uninvited monster roommate difficulties. I smiled. “You’re right—let’s do it.”

6

Sorsha

Popcorn was hardly enough to fill a gal up, scorch-your-tongue-off spicy or not. As I tramped up the stairs past the fabric shop to my apartment, my stomach grumbled about