PROLOGUE
Prologue
Ray
The light reflects from the surface of the coin in the air as it spins and falls into my palm. The roaring lion with large fangs is the side that the coin shows me. I hold it between my thumb and index finger to toss it up again.
“Moon was supposed to be here,” says Leon, sitting by my side in the car, holding the steering wheel with both hands even though he is not driving. The car is parked in a quiet alley. Leon keeps staring at the coffee shop, not taking his eyes off the door or its surroundings. The coin lands in my palm, showing the lion face again.
“It’s getting kinda late, boss,” says Leon, not realizing this is the second time he is mentioning that. His quickened heartbeat is getting louder. I toss the coin upward again. Leon fixes his posture and gets his ear closer to the window. “I don’t hear much.” He pulls the window down and focuses. “There’s a loud music coming from inside, but I can’t detect any voices.” His eyes search for me, and he frowns. “You hear what I’m saying?”
I close my fist with the coin in it and look at the coffee shop. “Married?”
His brows pinch closer. He pulls the window up again. “What?”
“You want to get married randomly?”
“It ain’t randomly.”
“How much do you know her?”
“Is this the time, boss?”
“It is,” I say, turning my head to finally look into his eyes.
He sighs, unable to ignore my question but not hiding his annoyance. “I’ve known her long enough. She’s the woman I love.”
I try to read through his thick skull, but nothing radiates from him except his silly feelings. Love, he says. I actually work with a vampire that believes in love. Sweet hell…
My eyes wander to the coffee shop again. “Fight or flight?”
He’s surprised by the change of subject but manages to grasp soon. “I don’t really know. Wait a second. You wanna go inside?”
I put the coin in my coat’s pocket and look at the watch on my wrist. “Ten minutes tops. I have a meeting at two.”
“At two am? I like this outfit! I don’t wanna mess it up!”
I open the door and exit the car. Leon huffs and follows me reluctantly. The noises get clearer as my distance reduces. They’re not as loud as I expected. Leon blocks my way. “Boss, wait.” His hands don’t contact me because he knows better. I wait for him to explain, but his eyes are red now, and his mouth has turned purple. “Something’s not adding up. I can smell blood,” he says, a vein on his neck bulging out.
I can smell it too, but I’m not as sensitive as a young vampire with no control over his urges. I nod briefly. “We’re going NIP.”
His reaction is nothing but the regular annoyance with my commands. “NIP? This could be a trap!”
“What is the first rule, Leon?”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t do this.”
“We always do things NIP.”
“I know. ‘No Inhuman Powers’. But we could solve this so easily if we just used our powers—”
“Your eyes are getting out of your skull, and your veins are about to pop in my face.”
He takes a deep breath and touches his neck to check the vein as if he doesn’t know how thirsty he looks right now. “I’m fine.”
I tilt my head slightly, raising a brow. “Are you?”
“We don’t know how many people are inside,” he says, dismissing my distrust. “We can take them if we use our powers.”
“I don’t want no attention.”
“Fine,” he says in a lower defeated voice.
I walk past him and approach the door with a hand in my pocket. Leon is right. It’s hard to detect voices with the loud music blasting through the place. As our informant has warned us, there must be only two rogues inside. Nothing I haven’t been able to handle before.
I raise my hand and knock on the door three times. Leon’s eyes widen. “What are you doing?” he asks. “Knocking on the damn front door? They’re gonna know we’re here.”
“I rather solve this with no violence.”
The door cracks open, and Leon takes a defensive gesture to protect us if needed. It’s not necessary as no one is behind it. Leon doesn’t ease up because he knows there’s someone in who has opened the door. He wants to persuade me to rethink my strategy, but I step inside to inspect the place. A flickering lamp in the hallways tries hard to lighten the atmosphere but fails. I reach the big space where the tables are pushed against the walls, creating a shield around the room. That’s not how a coffee shop should look like.
A shadow appears in front of me, and I look at the figure that carries it. He’s a slim man with a receding hairline and a sullen expression. A stray Sunner perhaps? He seems like he could be trouble even if I gave him no reason to be. Soon after, two other figures appear by him, looking just as unwelcoming if not more. I reach my pocket and take a cigarette out, putting it between my lips. Three against two is not as bad.
Like a jinx that could easily turn things upside down, my words summon a dozen men, all with different types of weapons in their hands. Well, I surely did not anticipate this. I lose count of them as they grow in number. How could I not understand how many of them were here? Have my ears lost their ability? This is a humbling experience, indeed.
“Fuck,” says Leon, standing behind me. “I knew this was a trick. They set us up!”
“Does anyone have a lighter?” I ask with the cigarette between my lips.
“Boss?” says Leon in a concerned tone. “This is not the time for a damn cigarette.”
I take my own lighter out of my other pocket, and Leon stresses even more. “D’you think it’s time to reconsider NIP?”
I don’t answer him, which unnerves him more.
“Fuck it, Boss. We’re gonna die here!”
“How much heat can you tolerate?” I ask, holding the lighter in my hand.
Leon frowns at me. “What?! Why?!” His attention gets drawn to the metal lighter in my hold.
I flip the lid open and put my thumb on the sparkle wheel. Leon’s eyes widen in shock. “Boss?!” he calls me in despair. I swipe my thumb on the wheel. It takes three times and finally a small sparkle flickers. In what feels like a fraction of a second, the entire coffee shop blows up in flames and red consumes all of us.
