“I knew it,” a deep voice chuckled. “I fucking knew it.”
I locked gazes with Jordan Holmes, the asshole who had wanted to figure out what I was so he could drug and rape me. Instead, he had tricked a vampire to glamour herself to look like me, drugged her, and he’d gang raped and brutalized her, along with a bunch of his friends. He hadn’t returned to Artemis like some of his friends had.
His family hadn’t been able to afford it after what I’d done to their finances.
“You can open portals. That’s how you’re going and stealing hobgoblins.”
I didn’t answer, glancing at each of the men and checking they were all there… And the traps they had waiting for me. Not magical ones, the vampires couldn’t swing that. No, they had their phones recording and more cameras hidden.
But none of them was livestreaming or doing anything that would save them right then.
Especially when I found the woman who they’d sent me the picture of lying on the ground in the middle of them.
Dead.
I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer for her to the gods as I listened to their thoughts and heard what had happened, what they’d done. I swallowed vomit as I listened to how they told me—knowing I was listening—that they’d bought a fox shifter from her family. They bought a virgin from them, and they knew full well they were going to kill her, and still they’d sold her.
I saw it all as they bragged what their money could buy. I saw her begging them to let her go. They showed me how they hadn’t and what they’d done to her. They let me see how they’d raped her, fed from her, and done everything unspeakable to her before ending her life.
And just to be extra, extra evil, they’d made sure she knew she was sold by her own family to die and none of it was needed to lure me out. They’d simply just wanted to.
I sniffled loudly and wiped my eyes before staring at each of them, locking gazes with Jordan.
“Go ahead, Vale. Make your move and out yourself. Do it. You know they won’t punish us. Call in that—”
“Shut up,” I whispered, shooting electricity at all of them and bringing them to their knees with the shock. It also fried all the electronics, so nothing would have anything to recover. Then I took care of all their charms, my power more than anything they were wearing to protect them. “Just shut the fuck up already.”
“How are you doing that? You—you’re not even writing runes,” one of the guys demanded, holding his stomach in pain. “That’s not possible.”
I chuckled darkly as I moved closer, squatting down so he was looking me in the eyes. “Because you’re fucking stupid and played with the wrong godsdamn opponent. Because you’re all so smart and so sure you know what I am.” I leaned in. “But guess what? I’m not a witch.”
“You have to be,” Jordan panted.
I stood, shrugging. “I’m not. That’s the big secret, guys. That’s why I have to stay undeclared. I’m not a vampire. I’m not a shifter. I’m not a dragon. And I’m not a witch. I’m none of you.”
“You have to be,” he repeated, not sounding as sure.
“I’m not. The secret is, I’m a fairy.”
“No, no, you’re not and if you were, you wouldn’t ever tell us that,” one of the other guys argued.
“Oh, it’s okay to tell you guys,” I chuckled darkly as I opened a temp portal, calling Chief and the pack to me. “Because you guys aren’t going to be alive to tell anyone. I let you get away once, but not this time. I’m not letting you commit murder and walk away.” I smiled when Chief and the fae dogs came bounding through the portal. “Believe me now?”
“Oh fuck. Fuck, she’s really a fairy,” the first guy shouted. “Run!”
“Burn them,” I ordered the pack. “Give her, and all they’ve abused, justice and burn them to ash so they never hurt another woman. Take their lives as they have taken others. Leave no trace of them on this planet so they may do no more damage to it. Protect me as you swore to, as they tried to trap me again.”
They didn’t hesitate, firing up their hellish flames and each picking one of the vampires that I had injured to attack. It was over in less than a minute. The dogs turned the vampires and everything on them into nothing but ash that blew away in the cold night breeze.
Not a shred of evidence was left that they had even been there or I’d just ordered them to kill several men.
I walked over by the woman and swallowed loudly. “Give her peace. Her family sold her. Take her scent and find them. Find which were the ones and make it an accident, as I can’t be linked to this, but get her justice there too.”
Their thoughts told they would be more than glad to. They gathered around the brutalized and broken woman, moving a flaming paw to her as if trying to be respectful as they set her ablaze. I let out a shaky breath when it was done, hoping she was treated better in the afterlife than she was when alive.
I went around and collected the hidden electronics, tossing them in a pile and letting the dogs burn all of that as well. Then I sent them back, thanking them. Finally, I used the rune for ice and laid down a fresh sheet of snow over the area that had melted from the dogs and covered everything disturbed.
As if no one had ever been there.
Good, because that would
