I watched as the Zarian Vice-Admiral finished his called to one, Marcus Haze. My active camo concealing my presence amongst the clothes within his wardrobe, my sight peering through the gap of the ajar door. My awareness of the target separated itself from all external signatures. As my life perception magic allowed me to know the vital signs and see the internal structure of the person I focused on.

His diminishing life essence shone dimly to me, and I blinked as I saw the large cancerous tumour on his brain. I felt as if I should query my guild leader on this. What was the point of killing a dying man, I would’ve asked. And she would’ve replied to me with, dying doesn’t mean he’s dead Iridessa.

But Soshan’s mission for me was information extraction. The Vice-Admiral was a friend of Marcus Haze indeed. And now I knew where the unstable colonel was going. I didn’t know why Soshan wanted the mark captured, but supposedly he had wronged a client of the guild. Therefore Marcus Haze’s life was mute, and entirely in my hands to do with as I pleased.

“Find him, and bring him to me no matter the cost. The soulless await this one,” had been Soshan’s command of me. And as a fire sprite assassin. I was well tempered to chasing anyone across the galaxy. The Vice-Admiral ducked down to retrieve something from a draw in his desk and I froze. My right hand instinctively lowering to the slim blade on my left hip.

A shot resounded a second after the section just above my head exploded in a shower of varnish wood. My camo broke as I moved, diving out from the wardrobe my sword skidding out of its sheath and igniting the super-heated edge in a blaze of orange fire. A second shot boomed and I whipped my blade diagonally up from my left and parted the berinium round in two.

They whizzed past me and I felt the air sizzle by my face.

Vice-Admiral William Hopkins hopped out of his chair and sprinted for the exit, his pistol barking fire at me, and I easily deflected or dodged the bullets. I ran and slid over to his desk and flip it to use as cover. A loud alarming and continuous beep went off as I did so.

The crafty Vice-Admiral had rigged his desk with a trip explosive, connected to the floor. The thin corded wire, flailed a split second before I jumped backwards and was hit by the forceful concussive wave emanating from the explosive. I saw William Hopkins dive out of his quarters a second before I hit the glass window and shot out into the night sky.

I lashed out and planted my blade into the stone structure and halted my momentum. Planting both feet, I sprung backwards and ignited my wings. They roared out of my back and I glided out to bank a circle around the building. My blade loosing it’s heated edge as I diverted my fire to my wings.

Scanning the building I saw through a plume of smoke, William Hopkins just down the corridor from his quarters. I reached behind my lower back with my left hand and gripped my shorter blade. He turned and glanced in my direction an instant before I soared over and smashed through the glass, both of my blades extended to take his head clean off.

The man snapped off three shots and I jolted as we connected with each other.

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]