Rage of Vendetta (The Vendetta Series #2)

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The First Branch Nephilum Valencia had called arrived in groups—all five hundred and sixty-four of them. That was only about a third of the total Branch. They did their best to conceal their weapons, but the outrageous amount of people gathered on the sidewalk wearing white clothing must have made the New Yorkers think a cosplay convention of some sort was going on. The drivers moving by at a snail’s pace in the rush hour traffic jam all pause to squint at us.

Valencia is currently addressing the Nephilum as a whole: how, I have no idea. Super-super-hearing is probably necessary. She’s definitely getting dirty looks from those walking and trying to get home before the crush of people on the subway. The sun is about to set.

“You can’t be serious,” Jesse is saying. He’s slouched next to me, the six of us using the sidewalk step as a seat, which can't be very hygenic, while we wait for Valencia to do her thing. I’d just told him of what happened while he was knocked out. “I’m possessed?”

“From head to toe,” I answer. 

“And that’s why I can do these things?” he says, eye twitching. “Because a dead little girl is lending me her abilities from inside?” Jesse drops his head into his hands. “That is wrong on so many levels.”

“Hey, cheer up,” Sasha says, knocking his knee. “At least she’s not evil.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jesse says blandly. “Thank god.”

I look up, squinting at the glare of a fading sun beam in my eye, and realize there’s less Nephilum milling around than we started with. Valencia is moving among the masses, shuffling people around.

"Oh," I say to myself.

She’s teleporting them one by one. In public. 

“Where are they going?” Eric asks, having noticed as well. “Aren’t we leading them there?”

“We can’t lead a group of six hundred people across the globe,” Vee says. “Valencia has to get everyone as close as possible first. Besides, didn’t you hear her earlier? Night is falling. We’re staying at the Fifth Branch base until morning.”

My eyes widen. None of us had heard Valencia say what Vee claims, since we had been in deep conversation within ourselves. Vee, sitting at the very end, must have been eavesdropping very hard on the Nephilum instead. I did notice her strained face.

“What? The Nephilum can’t work at night?” Courtney asks, inspecting the slowly shrinking crowd.

Almost coincidentally, my eye catches on a suspicious figure at the mouth of an alleyway on the other side of the street.

“I think it’s more to do with the fact there are too many enemies lurking at night,” I say quietly, tilting my chin at the silhouette.

They all turn in unison.

“Humans who want a black market reward?” Sasha scoffs. “Hardly enemies. They’re just pests.”

“Maybe not,” Jesse says, straightening. “But look behind him.”

I peer with my head to an angle, and see a woman behind him, sporting a baseball cap covering half her face. She didn’t do a very good job of tucking the pixie cut in though, because curling behind her ear is a neon blue stripe.

“She’s a rogue Cambion, isn’t she?” I mutter. “Fuck. I totally forgot about their existence.”

“Maybe she won’t be that much of a problem,” Eric says weakly. “Is she a rogue like Jesse’s family or a rogue like Courtney’s uncle?”