Shadow Assassins (The Second Realm Trilogy) (3 page)

Kaleb, the man with the eyes that seemed to shift color, nodded briefly. “Nice to meet you.”

Marco gave a half-smile. “Does he have a job for us?”

“Well, he’s about to tell us,” the doctor said.

“Thank you, Doctor. I think I should start then?” when he was encouraged with a nod, Dirk continued, “Alright. Well, my name is Dirk Calden. I come from...
well, you might say it’s a land of myth and legend.”

“So you live in town?” Marco laughed.

Dirk echoed his laugh. “No, not quite. Have you ever heard of the Second Realm?”

Kaydee spoke up, clearing her throat quietly beforehand. “I’ve read about it a little.”

“Do you want to describe it then? I don’t know if I would be able to describe it in a way that would be...easily understandable.”

She nodded and turned to the others. “You know how vampires are present here right? Well, it used to be like this hundreds of years ago. Vampires and other creatures of myth and legend were common and lived with humans everywhere, until people started getting persecuted for magical powers. That’s when the supernatural creatures created a totally different world to live in. They left this world behind to live in their own.”

“So...you come from a different world?” Marco asked the vampire. He still looked confused.

Dirk shook his head. “Not really. Her description was dead on, though. Magic used to be everywhere. The kind of magic you guys face on a daily basis. Where I live is...maybe, you can say, another
dimension?
Still on Earth, but not quite on the same plane of existence.”

“Okay, I think I get it...”

“I can see that.” Dirk said with a small laugh. “Point is, close to where I am is the Emeralde Kingdom. The king has been getting difficult to work with. He’s become extremely paranoid and developed a hatred for anyone who isn’t pure human. Now his army is arresting those with magical powers, even outside of his own land. I work for a school that develops supernatural abilities and we have heard of what the Shadow Assassins do. Several of our vampires came from this city, after they were exiled. They told us about you and...frankly, well, we need your help. We humbly ask you to help us, in any way you can.”

The four glanced at the doctor, then each other.

“What do you want us to do?” Kaleb asked.

“Nothing fancy.
Cross into the Second Realm with me and meet the people I work with. Be our eyes and ears for news on the Emeralde Kingdom...and bodyguards perhaps.”

“For how long?”
Evangeline asked as she took a seat on the couch.

“However long it takes.” Dirk gave a shrug. “I’m afraid I don’t have an exact answer on that. There is no organization like yours where I come from. Too many people are divided and refuse to work together and we need anyone we can get to help us right now. Our land is too close to where the Emeralde Kingdom has been raiding and arresting those with magical abilities and since our school
is
for the supernaturally gifted, there would be a problem. The entire school population would be apprehended. Chaos, rioting...maybe even death would follow. And it wouldn’t stop there. Neighboring cities and villages are also under the same threat.”

The four sat in silence, contemplating. This would have been the biggest assignment that they would have taken on. This wasn’t
so simple as removing a vampire who wouldn’t leave the Order’s mansion or making sure humans didn’t find out about the vampire population. Those were normal jobs for the group known as the Shadow Assassins. That was what they usually did; help the Order of the Moonlight clean up their vampire problems. What Dirk talked about sounded like the beginning of a war. A war in a secret realm full of supernatural creatures. It was bigger than anything else they had been approached with. Definitely more dangerous.

“Well, what do you guys think?” Dr. Fyrn asked.

Kaleb was the first to speak up, even if his speech was hesitant. “I think this is...huge. If you want us to be bodyguards for an entire student body, that may be difficult but we could take preventative action to protect your students. See if there’s an army nearby. Yeah, I think we can do that, right?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Marco spoke up.

“How are they going to be...compensated?” Dr. Fyrn asked, cautiously.

“Everything they could possibly need will be provided at our school. Food, lodging, you name it. As for your payment, name your price and I will pay it. I have substantial funds in a human bank here. I travel to this realm quite a bit, or at least enough for me to have need for your currency.”

“We can work exact figures out in a moment,” Dr. Fyrn said with a small smile. Turning back to his team, he asked, “Well, do you think you’ll do it?”

They glanced at each other,
then nodded, one by one.

“We’ll do it,” Kaleb spoke up.

“It would be interesting to finally see the Second Realm after reading about it,” Kaydee added.

“Excellent!” Dirk said with a triumphant smile. “You can start in two days. You don’t need to pack any clothes or anything. The first day, we’ll just walk you around the school grounds, introduce you and let you get familiar with the area. After that, I’ll bring you back here and you can pack whatever you feel is appropriate and you can move right in with us for a time. Sounds easy enough, right?”

They nodded. After Dr. Fyrn gave his team a quick thanks and dismissed them, they went back upstairs where they had been before, Evangeline following.

Dr. Fyrn stood up for a moment and disappeared for a moment into another room. When he came back, he held a coffee pot and a small silver basket that held creamer, sugar and two cups. He offered a cup to Dirk and the vampire accepted, mixing his coffee the way he liked it.

Dirk settled back in his chair and took a sip. “Extraordinary team you have, Doctor.”

“Thank you. I was lucky to find them.”

“We have heard a lot about them where I'm from, about how they're almost like a police force for the supernatural.”

The doctor chuckled at that. “Police force may be a bit much, but yes, they do a bit of enforcing. The Order of the Moonlight established this town mostly for new hunting ground and freedom from persecution. As more and more supernatural creatures inhabit this town, a bit of order is needed to keep ordinary people like myself from finding out about their existence. Can you imagine if the everyday people here found out that there were vampires everywhere?
Chaos.”

“So how did you find out about us, if you're ordinary?”

Dr. Fyrn glanced up at Dirk over his cup of coffee. “Evangeline. She found me and introduced me to this strange world when she was just a little girl. The Shadow Assassins came out of her finding others like her.”

Dirk echoed the doctor's smile with one of his own. “Is it true about their talents? I mean,
do each of them have one.”

“Yes.” The doctor went into describing each of his team's powers and unique talents. His voice was ripe with pride over the people he spoke about, but he hesitated when he came to Evangeline.

Dirk looked up, his eyes wide. “Is she who I think she is? Daughter of Audra?”

“Yes.”

“Angel-demon hybrids are extremely rare, Doctor. I’ve only seen one other like her.” Dirk took another sip. “It actually concerns me a bit. Did you know Evangeline has a twin?”

At this, Dr. Fyrn raised his eyebrows.
“Twin?”

“Twin sister, as it were.
Dante. Dante and Evangeline are both daughters of Audra the White Angel and Devoń, King of Demons.” He took another pause to drink again. “I assume she doesn’t know?”

Dr. Fyrn shook his head. “No. She’s never been to the Second Realm.”

“I thought as much. They were intentionally separated at birth.”

“They may just meet again,” the doctor said absently, as if he didn't believe in the odds. “Now, about payment, what exactly are you comfortable with?”

The Second Realm,

A small farming village inside the Emeralde Kingdom

“In the name of King Emeralde, you
will
surrender!”

Atop a white horse, a man in gleaming metal armor shouted at the frenzied crowd below him. In the dead of night, people who were usually resting peacefully were instead running in all directions, panicked. Some carried lanterns, others ran blindly. They spilled out of stone houses into the night, but no one listened to him or the men on horseback beside him.

“Stop!” another armored man yelled. “By the orders of King Emeralde, you will
stop!
”

“Keep running,” a woman whispered to the old woman she held onto.

The older woman looked just as scared as the rest of the people in the village. Despite her age, she nodded and hitched up the worn cloth dress she wore. She made a hobbling run for the back wall, where dozens of people where trying to climb over. Freedom beckoned beyond the city walls.

“You!”
The man on the white stallion drew his sword and pointed it at the younger woman. “Stop where you are!”

She held her hands up as she faced the man. She looked calm, but her voice was pure poison. “Doing the dirty work for your little king,
are we? Can the great king not get his own hands dirty in this genocide project of his?”

“Surrender!” the man shouted, as if he hadn’t have heard her.

Of course,
the woman thought.
No one takes responsibility for this. It’s the fault of the people being killed.

“I don’t think so,” she said, finally. She pushed the curly black hair from her face. Exposed, her dark eyes glowed red. The left side of her face was scarred, the thin line of the scar pushing its way from her hairline, down her left eye and to her cheek. The scar only made her face more demonic.

“Dante,” the man gasped.

“That’s right, you miserable bastard.”

The man shouted with uncontrollable, unbridled fear. His stallion reared back in response, dumping the man to the ground in a clash of armor. That was all it took for the horse to bolt. Left alone, the man scrambled up, pitifully grasping at his sword as if it would save him. In his fear, he couldn’t hold the sword correctly, but he tried wielding it in a show of bravado anyway.

“B-by the order of King Emeralde, I order you to
surr–”

“Give this message to the King for me,” she interrupted.

With that, she gave a hellish yell that echoed through the night. The people around her froze in their tracks, watching as her form glowed bright red, lighting the night up. From her back sprouted two wings, one black and feathery, like a bird’s. The other was spiny and leathery, like a bat’s. Her eyes continued to glow a bright red and her face distorted, becoming less human and something more...demonic. With hands that had turned to claws, she reached out for the soldier who was unfortunate enough to get in her way.

“This genocide of his will end,”
she growled, her voice guttural and distorted.
“You tell your cowardly king to stop attacking innocent people.”

Before he could reply, she slashed at his chest. The metal buckled and tore open as if it was made of cloth. Her deadly claws raked bare skin. Feeling that her message had been successfully delivered, she dropped the man to the ground as though he was garbage. The
arrogant soldier had been instantly reduced to a weeping, pleading coward scrambling in the dirt as he tried to get away from her. Blood marked his trail but he didn’t seem to notice the fact that the wound on his chest was open and weeping with him.

She raised an arm up and pointed at the other men on horseback.
“The same goes for you cowards. King Emeralde’s genocide
will
end. You men are not men at all, but cowards for attacking the innocent people who live here. No more. Your reign of terror is no more. Now leave this village.”

The man she had attacked found another horse to ride, a plowing horse that had escaped a villager’s barn. Struggling on the untrained horse, he led his men out of the village, still reduced to weeping in fear.

The woman called Dante watched them leave. As they exited the village’s city walls, she felt the strength leave her. In the same red glow as before, her wings folded up and disappeared seemingly into nowhere, as if they had never been. Her face settled back into a normal human face, albeit one with a scar running through the left side. She collapsed onto the dirt ground, dirtying her torn, bloodstained white dress further.

One man came up to her, a black wolf at his side. Glancing down at her with bright blue eyes, he shook his head. “Dante, you push yourself too far.”

“She has a point,”
said the wolf beside him, in a deep, rumbling voice that wasn’t spoken physically so much as mentally.
“This genocide has to end somehow.”

“I know. I just don’t know how.”



In the aftermath of the village raid by King Emeralde's men, the village was now ruined. Stone houses were in ruin and there had been a fire in the morning, the flames creating a hellish light as the sun rose. The remnants of the house that had been ablaze were now charred wood, stone and ash. The smell of burning wood still
permeated the air, thick and acrid, joining with the unpleasant, cloying scent of the fallen who lay dead on the dirt.

It was within the dirt that Dante found herself waking up from. Her head felt as though a horse had kicked it. She knew better than to assume that, though. There had been no horse injury, but a transformation. The massive headache and general feeling of nausea
were always a companion after she woke up in her normal human form once more.

She hadn’t planned on transforming but the situation had awakened her demon form. It always itched for a fight, no matter how hard she tried to control it. Little had been mentioned about her heritage, but even she knew angel-demon hybrids such as
herself were rare. Her angelic side was even rarer, if she truly did have one. It was always that demon form itching to fight, itching to kill, wanting the violence she tried so hard to avoid.

As she stood up, she saw her friend Dimitri next to her, watching her with his ever patient gaze. He had been the one to tell her about the raid they had traveled to. He had wanted to help people escape.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a gentle voice as she sat up fully.

“I’m okay...just a headache.” her announcement was of no shocking news to her companion.

He helped her stand. “People are trying to gather the dead.”

She looked around. The villagers who had stayed behind had tried to gather those who had fallen, but there were already too many people who had fled and not enough to help clean up. The agony on their faces was unbearable. Dimitri made it clear that he wanted to stay but she insisted that they leave. It was only after he reluctantly acknowledged her that they moved from their spot.

The village entrance had been destroyed in the chaos of the raid, with overturned carriages and crumbling stone wall remnants blocking the way. Dante, Dimitri and their wolf companion headed to the side of the village wall that wasn’t crumbled, the one that people were using to climb over and escape. Once they had made their way to the top, Dante paused. Perched on the stone wall that surrounded the village, she watched people make their exit, some crying over those who had been killed. There was no time for death rituals or even to mourn for their loved ones. Those knights wouldn't be kept away for long.

She watched absently as her male companion and his wolf helped people get to the wall. Dimitri was always helpful, even when they were short on time. They weren't supposed to be here, now. They should have left already but Dimitri would insist on helping all of those who needed help.

The wolf glanced at her, as if sensing her impatience.
“We need to move.”

“I can't leave until they're all safe, Moonshadow,” Dimitri said, stubbornly.

“You are kind, but you do not have the luxury of time. Those knights will be back. We should have been back at Moonriver Academy already.”

Dimitri heaved a heavy sigh. It was clear that he didn't want to leave, but he glanced back towards the wall, where Dante waited.
“Alright.”

The three made their escape. Dimitri showed his distaste in leaving, but he followed as Dante and his black wolf ran ahead of them. There was a field where they had left their horses. In all the chaos that had followed, the horses could have been stolen, for all they knew. Luckily, the horses were still where they had been left, in an abandoned barn. The property had not been inhabited for a lengthy amount of time and nature had taken over what was once farming land. They snuck into the barn and freed their horses, mounting and riding out of the area. The great black wolf ran beside them, able to keep up with the two horses with ease, even as they ran through grass that was taller than he was.

The journey back to the Moonriver Academy for the Supernaturally Gifted was shorter on horseback. Dante and Dimitri were silent. Dimitri’s mind was still focused on all the terrified people now without homes. The raids were becoming more common and they were hitting closer to their school. King Emeralde’s men, dubbed the Emeralde army or the Emeralde knights, depending on who was speaking, were ferocious. On glistening armor and strong horseback, the men raided town after town, weeding out those who were supernaturally gifted, as Dimitri and his other schoolmates had been taught the term was called. To the King’s supporters, the supernaturally gifted were just scum, lower than the lowest servant, to be arrested and put on trial for crimes they didn't commit. Once the guilty verdict had been given, all of the falsely accused would be put to death.

The thing the King didn’t seem to understand was that his kingdom only stretched so far. His knights raided far beyond the walls of his protected castle and the lands he ruled over. There were no other kingdoms to interfere or any united army to stand against the armored knights on horseback. Colonies of different creatures kept to themselves, from the colony of elves in their forest-city of Oraldine to the werecat tribe right outside the kingdom walls. They protected their own. The werecat tribe Kkyathi was especially good at defending their homeland, or at least that’s what Dimitri had heard. He shuddered to think of the kind of war they waged against the armored men.

As the three came back into Moonriver territory, they saw the great castle that was their school. Giant-sized stones made up a surrounding wall. Inside the wall were several tents and stands, most closed up for the night until classes in the morning brought people outside. The castle itself stood prominently behind the tents, towering over the stretches of cloth and wood. There were at least four stories that made up the castle, each housing both the teaching staff and the students. Several circular towers stretched up from the stone architecture, reaching for the skies with their towering heights and waving flags. Stretches of majestic purple cloth hung from the towers, advocating Moonriver Academy as the brilliant place it was, a neutral territory where all magical creatures could gather and learn not only the origin of the Second Realm, but various mythologies, spells and of the different species that inhabited the castle. Each flag that the castle waved reflected the neutrality and feeling of union. Dimitri recognized the Oraldine flag of gentle blues and greens and the Kkyathi flag of bright oranges and reds. Several other flags waved at their posts around the castle, each belonging to a different magical species and tribe. Most prominent was the Moonriver banner, of a large, silver crescent moon on a deep purple background.

The morning was still early, much too early for the general student population to be awake. It was crucial to return the horses to the main stable before anyone saw. Dante and Dimitri worked quickly to deposit the horses and return to their separate dormitories. Males and females were separated, although all magical creatures were thrown together. The only species separated were the weres, once a month. Werewolves and werecats, the most common two of
the were species, were taken out to the nearby forest for their monthly transformation.

The school was an alarming place to learn about the different magical species, sometimes. Fights broke out commonly, especially among Dimitri’s kind. Immortals loved a good fight. Human in shape and structure, they were able to summon swords and shields out of nothing more than pure energy, magic itself. Dimitri took no joy in fighting, unlike his fellow Immortal students. Moonshadow, his familiar, took pleasure in this. Every Immortal had a familiar, or an animal guide present with them. It was a familiar’s job to teach their Immortal student everything they were to know about their powers, such as weapons summoning, but as they were in a school where this was taught by others, the familiar’s role changed. As a result, Moonshadow was Dimitri’s guide and guardian, looking out for the gentle boy as a parent or sibling would. The two were never apart.

Dante didn’t have that kind of companionship. She watched boy and wolf head to their wing of the castle, almost envious of the relationship they had. She was an outcast among most of the students, her hybrid lineage to blame. More than once, she had gotten out of hand, her demonic side wanting to come out and do what her angelic side could not take action for. Despite the call for unity and tolerance among the supernaturally gifted, the myriad of elves, mages, Immortals and even vampires all despised demons. Demons didn’t last long here. Dante was only half-demon, but that was enough for her to have to endure the same kind of treatment, from everyone except for a select few and most were the teaching staff here.