Vicious Villains (Ruthless Villains Book 4)

Steam rose in lazy arcs as I casually stirred the tea. A woman lay passed out in my cloud of poison across the table from me. Her cheek rested against the worn wooden tabletop, and her arms were sprawled out in front of her while her hair lay draped over them, as if she had just toppled forward in the middle of her breakfast. Which was of course exactly what had happened.

I glanced towards the force mage leaning against the windowsill on my other side. Amusement played over his handsome face as he watched me. I kept that corner of the room free of poison so that Callan wouldn’t be affected by it, but the rest of the spacious kitchen was filled with glittering green mist.

The spoon clinked as I stirred the unconscious woman’s tea again. Our target still hadn’t appeared, so it really wasn’t my fault that the tea was growing colder by the second.

“Honey?” a man’s voice came from upstairs. “I think I’ll be home a bit later than usual today. They’re doing some kind of eat in the dark event at the restaurant, so they need me to stay the whole night.”

Only my clinking spoon answered him.

“Honey?” he called again.

Callan raised his eyebrows at me, as if he expected me to imitate the wife’s voice. I just rolled my eyes at him.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs.

“Did you hear me?” the man’s voice came again, closer as he descended the steps. “They’ll need me to use my shadows to keep the restaurant completely dark tonight so I’ll be home a bit late. But if you need to…”

He trailed off as he no doubt spotted the green mist swirling in his kitchen.

“Honey?” he said, and this time there was a very worried note in his voice.

A few seconds passed, then a face appeared in the doorway. The man, who was tall and slender, with dark brown hair and blue eyes, jerked back in shock as he took in the scene.

Raising a hand, I wiggled my fingers at him in a mocking wave.

He slapped his palms together, and dark shadows began forming around his wrists.

“I really wouldn’t, if I were you,” Callan said, and gave him a nonchalant shrug.

The green mist shifted and swirled as I set the spoon back in the teacup and then fully met the man’s gaze. “Your wife is fine right now. But one careless thought from me, and she goes from being blissfully unconscious to being irrevocably dead in less than one second.”

His face drained completely of color. Blue eyes flicked between me, his wife, and Callan, as if he was trying to figure out how serious I was. Whatever he saw in our faces must have convinced him because he swallowed and let his magic fade out.

“Good boy,” I said.

He dragged wary eyes back to me. “Who are you?”

“What in the world gave you the impression that you would be the one asking the questions in this particular situation?”

A hint of panic shot across his features as he flicked another glance towards his wife. Then he swallowed again and returned his attention to me. “Sorry.”

“You’re Dennis, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re a shadow mage?”

“Yes.”

For a while, I said nothing else. Only continued watching him in silence from across the swirling green cloud. His gaze darted down to his wife several times, but he didn’t dare say anything.

When I had let the silence stretch long enough for him to start nervously shifting his weight, I cocked my head and flashed him a sharp smile. “Imagine how easy it would be for me to just fill your whole house with poison at any time I want. I would pick a time when both of you were asleep, so you would be dead before you even knew what had happened.”

Panic shot across his face yet again, and he cast a quick look towards what was probably their bedroom upstairs.

“Unless you slept in shifts so that one of you was always up, of course. But that sounds like a very lonely and exhausting life.”

He swallowed as he met my gaze again. “What do you want?”

“What did I just say about asking questions?”

He dropped his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Uh-huh.” I let the silence stretch for another few seconds again before continuing. “We want you to cover some fireworks for us.”

His eyes shot back up to mine, and confusion blew across his face. “What?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Problem?”

“N-no. Of course not. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Good.”

My borrowed chair rasped against the pale floorboards as I stood up. Dennis seemed caught between wanting to edge away from us and wanting to approach his wife. It led to him taking a step back only to shuffle forward again and then freeze there at the edge of the green mist.

I let the cloud of poison dissipate.

Dennis lurched into motion and ran over to his wife, who was still lying slumped over the tabletop. Brushing back the hair from her face, he shook her gently as if that would wake her up when her entire body was still full of my magic.

“We’ll be in touch about the when and where,” I said into the thick silence.

“Okay.” He shook the woman’s body again, but she didn’t stir. Worried eyes met mine. “And my wife?”

“Will be fine as long as you do as you’re told.”

“I will. Please, I will.”

“I sure hope so.”

Touching my palms together, I pulled the magic back out of the woman’s body. She sucked in a ragged breath and then coughed against the tabletop. I glanced down at the cup of tea. Barely any steam rose above the dark water now.

I lifted one shoulder in a nonchalant shrug and then sauntered towards the front door. “Sorry about the tea.”

Callan chuckled behind me.

While the shadow mage and his unfortunate wife reassured each other that they were fine in the now clear kitchen, Callan and I strode back out into the morning sunlight.

That had been easier than expected.

And now, we had everyone we needed for our little assassination.