Chapter 47

With trembling fingers, Livia retrieved the cell phone from where it lay at her feet and slipped it into her pocket. The slaying had drained her, the combined physical and psychic exertion almost too much to bear. Each time seemed to weigh more heavily on her, taking longer for her to recover. She wondered if the day would come that she might slide so deep into the abyss that she’d not rebound at all. Probably, she guessed, but not today. And she would keep fighting so long as she had breath in her body and the pain of loss in her heart.

‘For Francisco,’ she whispered, staring down at the dead Fae as she clicked on the MP3 player in preparation of her return home. Music blared from the tiny earbuds, muting the gift that gave her the power to hear the darkest secrets of a human’s soul.

She’d heard enough for now.

Her day’s sober mission complete, Livia pivoted around and fled the carnage she’d wrought.

*****

The scent of blood carried on the thin, wintry breeze