The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (e reader txt) 📕

When they had finished eating, Drast'Oebev gave his wife a kiss and stepped out. They expected him to be in for the night, but he must have had business to attend to.

Reaper gave the order to follow him at a suitable distance. He wandered through the quiet colony, taking a predetermined path. Few people walked the streets at this hour. The stores were closed save for a bar which produced an occasional drunk stumbling out onto the street.

Oddly cold, the air seemed heavy. The darkness of night thick and encroaching. Drast'Oebev was feeling it. Eyes of shadows watching his every move. He hugged the lights as he passed underneath. He headed for the lowest part of town, where the weakest of the eldiravan stayed in homes that were shacks when compared to the rest of the buildings.

He slipped under a short bridge, careful not to slip down the muddy bank. There were three others waiting for him. None had a light to avoid being detected from far away.

"Ooh, boy! This is shady as hell!" Ruby said.

"Sure is. Wonder what this little secret is about." Jackal glanced up to Fenris, who had not left his side. "Can you see them?"

Fenris gave a nod of its head.

They were just out of earshot of the eldiravan. Which was fine. They needed to find the assassin, not eavesdrop.

"I can't see them very well." Reaper announced.

"Don't worry, I can see them." Mjolnir said.

"Fenris sees them, too." Jackal added.

"I've got movement on my end!" Sparrow chirped into the radio. "Someone in a black hood. Looks like our guy."

Fenris pointed out towards the bridge.

"He's climbing up on the bridge." Jackal said.

"Got eyes on him! Moving in." Mjolnir slipped through a stall to the rear of a truck parked on the side of the road.

"I'm moving, too." Jackal said as he inched forward. There was a smaller truck near he could get behind. Everyone began closing in, moving as quietly as they could. Some had the advantage of the bridge blocking them from view of the eldiravan.

Mjolnir was just about to pounce when the assassin jumped off the bridge.

No one needed to say it. They already saw it. Everyone moved in swiftly, no longer caring about being seen.

At least until they saw it.

Black smog rolled like ocean waves across the dirt. It spread out, encircling Drast'Oebev in icy shadows.

Jackal looked over to Fenris to see the creature holding out a hand. The gas fell from its open palm and flowed across the ground.

"Hold it!" Reaper called out.

Everyone stopped.

The eldiravan looked around. One of them coughed and grabbed at his throat. Another backed away. Drast'Oebev, stricken by confusion and fear, stayed in place. The smoke surrounded him, but remained a few feet away. As long as he stayed there, he would be fine. He hoped.

Mjolnir backed away when the gas rippled at his legs. He covered his snout.

The Syndicate knew the smoke was bad, though they did not know its effects. The assassin was like a shadow, tucked somewhere under the bridge.

The three eldiravan, stuck in the smog, yelled out. They thought they had been set up.

Ruby, under the bridge, spied the assassin who hesitated going for his target. He tackled him to the ground at the edge of the smoke.

The assassin was surprisingly small. Easy to subdue. Ruby pushed his face into the dirt and pulled an arm up. A knee between the shoulder blades and some pressure, the little assassin could go nowhere.

"I got him!" Ruby shouted.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Drast'Oebev called.

"Okay, stop! Stop doing that!" Jackal waved a hand at Fenris.

The creature's arm lowered. The smoke lingered with no sign of dissipating. When Jackal tried to run into it, Fenris stopped him. The wind changed. Blowing under the bridge and spreading the smoke further.

Ruby picked up the assassin and pulled him away from the smoke. Sparrow and Mjolnir converged on him. Reaper headed for Jackal.

The three eldiravan were crying out in pain. Their mouths and noses stained with black veins. They scratched at their throats as if it would help open them up to breathe. A thick, orange liquid pooled around their eyes before draining down their scaly cheeks. They coughed it up, a mixture of their blood and a black liquid. Under the lights of the Syndicate team, their earthy skin turned purple from the inside out.

They dropped to their knees, now no longer able to cry out. They could only squeak and gasp in desperate attempts to breathe. The tendons and veins in their necks popped out from their skin under the strain. Blood oozed out from thin membranes; nails, ears, lips, around their scales and spikes, and even from the pores their hair grew out of.

"What in God's name…." Reaper exhaled.

"Good thing we never took the risk." Jackal said.

"Fenris, can you make it stop?" Reaper looked at the creature.

It shook its head. It quickly retracted at the sound of a cough.

Drast'Oebev could not hold his breath, or it didn't matter if he did. He coughed. In mere seconds he was on the ground with the other eldiravan, wheezing and hacking.

Jackal cursed under his breath.

The wolf pulled back from them. Sat upon its haunches. A grave miscalculation. They were trying to save Drast'Oebev, not kill him. It should have gone after him to get him from the smoke. Why didn't it?

The wolf whined, or so Jackal thought. He looked at it. Even with it sitting there, it was still at eye level. Its cloak hugged its frame.

"Ruby, you said you got him?" Reaper asked, trying to ignore the cries of agony from the eldiravan.

"Yeah, about that…. You're gonna wanna see this."

"Take the long way around."

Jackal stood in front of Fenris, arms crossed over his chest. He was glaring at the wolf like an upset father.

"So, you can…. make that gas? Or whatever it is? What the hell are you?" Jackal may have been all right about eldiravan dying. He did not particularly care about them. Concern about