Tracking them down, staying on the forefront of the hunt, lead him within reach of the oldest money. And though the green wasn't his target, it shrouded around those who were.
Vampires, here in Seattle, held connections to underground fighting rings all over the world. Those of their clan were the youngest here in America, but their ties stretched across continents spilled with the blood of Adonis' kind.
Adonis' job? To stop it.
Though the pack here in the northwest, especially here in Seattle, gave their support for Adonis, his investigations left him alone.
Now, flipped on his head, Adonis was being tracked rather than being the tracker. The vampires searched for him in full force. Their police unit especially, that didn't belong to the human stations in Seattle. They were a force on their own. Spies, for the Vasile clan and for the wealthy vampires that the Vasile's hosted around the time of the full moon.
If he'd just let those disgusting humans do what they wanted with Lila, he wouldn't be in danger. Though, even at the thought, the memory, the smell of her fear that burned the sourest scent remained. Adonis didn't have it in him to let that happen.
He'd been close, so very close, to finding a son of the Vasile blood. His hunt, had lead him there. By choice of fate and the choices of his own, Lila had come between the beginnings of his retribution.
Adonis returned to where he committed his greatest sin and treachery to his kind.
There, across the street, is where he brutally murdered four human men. Men, who deserved it, undoubtedly.
The vampires might be watching, scouting the area for the werewolf that did this. They'd want another for their collection, for their circus of parading werewolves.
Adonis winced. He'd been here a year. An entire year of gathering intelligence, tracking, finding weak links, and nothing could be done. He'd been so close...
Money, they can thank for it. Numbers, in general. The dollars, the vampires, and even the humans belonged to this club of torment for his kind. They had the power, where the wolves suppressed and dwindled over the centuries of their enslavement.
As an assassin, Adonis failed in his truest calling. His job: kill vampires.
He belonged to no pack, exiled from his own at eighteen years old to fulfill his calling. A concept, wolves like Morganna couldn't begin to grasp. After all, belonging to a family and furthering the line laid truest to their core. A fact, not even Adonis could shake but he'd do well not to admit it. Not even to himself, when it drudged up the painful memories of his upbringing to take his father's place as the King of the northeast pack. A title pulled out from under him when he'd been called to be the myth that his kind feared. A life, that they couldn't fathom living.
Alone, rogue, till death pardons him.
Cutting ties with his pack, he took on the role that didn't leave him a choice. He'd been exiled by his family, his friends, everyone, as part of his calling.
Hardened with the memories that flooded him, Adonis continued on in his original point in being here. He followed Lila's scent until it leads to the dingy hotel across the way.
The reek of it muddled down the scent of Lila, as he made his way inside. Even here, he smelled the men he killed. All four of them. They must've watched her, waited for her to come out into the open. Predators, that proved more dangerous than he was. The thought brought him to grimace.
"Can I help you?" The woman at the desk asked when he approached.
Getting rid of his frown and putting on his best game face, he says, "Hi, yes, my cousin is Lila Marcetti. I'm staying with her here and my cousin only got one key..."
Flirtatious, leaning forward, and making unwavering eye contact, Adonis doesn't lighten up the charm.
He continues, "She's out touring the city and I was wondering if there's any way I can get in? I've been waiting all morning, but she's not answering her phone. I really need to get in there and get my things..."
Before she can answer he knows he has her. She's sliding the glasses off her nose, batting her eyelashes, and brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Not a problem. We were just going to collect payment for another day. Will you be paying for it or will your cousin take care of it when she gets back?" She asks with a smile and Adonis is smiling back even wider.
"Thank you. I really appreciate it...and Lila said she'll be back within an hour. If she doesn't take care of it by then, I will. Thanks again," he reads her name tag, "Elizabeth."
Perhaps that was too easy.
A thought, that had Adonis concerned for Lila when she got out of the hospital. Would she really come back to this place? He couldn't help but think of her, returning here, just across the street from her brutal attack. She's alone, new, vulnerable, in this city filled with supernaturals holding insidious agendas. Not to mention, the human criminals in these parts that she learned about first hand.
He had to stop thinking about her. Yet, every time he tried, he couldn't get the imprint of her face and her smell out of his mind. Her scream, the look in her eyes, the scent of desperation when she'd crawled in the alley for her life, haunted him. Most of all, he thought of her weary manner when she woke in his hospital. It daunted on him in an odd way.
In his line of work in the human world, he got to know them on some level. He envied them, wanted to be them. However, he didn't envy how weak they were. Not only in body and mind, but in the frailty of their integrity. Too often had he seen the mistresses of husbands, beaten, stabbed, suicidal. Too many times had he tended to abused children, abused wives. Rape cases, murder victims, starved and overdosed homeless—the tragedy never ended.
The moral compass of humans didn't make sense to Adonis, but he'd seen the few cases that solidified his envy enough to want to be one of them. Their ignorance of his world, for example, appealed to him. Their persistence and matching need to be wanted, to be loved. He wanted, desperately, to be a part of it. All of it, what he couldn't have, what he could never have.
Elizabeth smiled one more time before leaving Adonis to Lila's abandoned room.
"I'll be up front if you need me for anything," she offered and lingers uncomfortably.
Adonis nods without missing a beat, "See you on my way out."
With that, she leaves, but she certainly would not be seeing Adonis again.
As he locks the door behind him, he's unaware, that while he's distracted on Miss Marcetti's trail, his enemy is hot on his own.
YOU ARE READING
Fang War
Mystery / Thriller[2x Wattpad featured author!] Werewolves are enslaved by elite vampire clans in Seattle and one teenage runaway is caught in their ancient bloodbath. Only the strongest will survive in an underworld that profits millions from wolf fights in the ring...
