A/N: Again, thank you all for reviews. Reviews make a writer happy, and a happy writer means more chapters. =P Anyway, this one is short, but worry not. More is coming soon. ;)
One by one, the targets fell.
The pirate captain was the first to die, with an arrow in his heart and a cry in his throat. His crew never knew she was there.
The old man sitting in his chair, surrounded by his silver and his wine, was dead before he heard the stuffed Minotaur head fall. A badly tied knot, the townspeople lamented. A horrible accident.
The Dunmer in the Imperial Palace was next. She picked her way through the sewers as if she had been there before, and on the day Valen Dreth was to be released, he died in his cell.
Then there was the Breton who wanted to fake his death. She stayed her hand, and the mercenary was fooled. Even as she fought through the undead to break him out of the crypt, no one ever realized anything was amiss until the undertaker came for the body.
They all fell, every one of them, a series of tragedies and mysterious disappearances, with nothing in common but the girl who always walked away.
If Lucien thought she was incredible before, she was magnificent now. She performed every contract exactly as she was bid, without flaw, without detection, and she rose through the ranks until finally Vicente had nothing else to offer her.
Well, almost nothing.
Lucien often asked after Celeste's progress, often enough that now Vicente gave him formal reports every week. The vampire spoke fondly of her, and in passing, he remarked how she had expressed an interest in his…circumstances. His "Dark Gift", as he called it. What a glorious creature she would become, Vicente said, with immortality. Lucien's skin crawled at the thought of her becoming like Valtieri… cold, dead, monstrous. He tried to comfort himself with the certainty that she would reject the offer if Vicente ever made it.
She didn't.