Fatal Sight (Harbingers Of Death Book 2) by LeAnn Mason (book club reads .TXT) 📕

This was a job for someone small.

“Dibs!” Grinning maliciously, Raven shifted into her bird and quickly flapped to pursue. One of the vampire woman’s arms dangled limply, leaving a trail of blood, and she was limping. It was an easy chase. Didn’t mean it wasn’t fun.

Dive-bombing her head, Raven went for the eyes. Pecking, stabbing, and angling her vicious talons, Raven went about doing the exact thing they’d warned Aria a bird was prone to do.

The vampire threw her hands over her head, trying to protect her vulnerable spots, which effectively blinded her as much as Raven was attempting to do, and forced her to pause her escape.

Out of nowhere, a thin body tackled the woman, and they both went to the rough asphalt.

Raven was surprised; she’d expected Cole to outpace the banshee when it came to jumping into a fight, but a quick glance told her Cole had remained where he was, diligently awaiting their captain’s return like a good sentinel. He was, however, vibrating, his fists balled. Behind him, Gunhilde and Torgny were collecting the soulless body, trying to move it out of sight of the back door, no doubt.

A groan and shout drew Raven’s attention back to the girl-on-girl action. She swooped around their heads, trying to make heads or tails of whose arms and legs were flailing around. She didn’t want to injure the wrong one... much. Seke would get all protective if Raven hurt Aria. Instead of helping, she circled again, a frustrated caw escaping her mouth.

The women rolled against a pair of trash cans, and one managed to get on top, straddling and strangling the other. The one on the bottom returned the favor, effectively putting them at a stalemate.

Suddenly, the one with silver hair, on the bottom, went limp. Had Aria passed out?

Raven swooped lower and saw the girl’s eyes glazed over. She was in the vision for only a second; then, the banshee’s mouth opened, and she gave a silent scream, the sound effectively cut off by the tight grip the undead bitch had around her neck, proclaiming someone’s death.

But whose?

When her eyes cleared, her mouth snapped shut into a baring of teeth. “Use what tools you have,” Raven heard Aria mutter to herself in a choked voice.

Aria let go of her opponent’s neck, which seemed like a reckless move, but before Raven could swoop in to save the day, the dirty, street-trained fighter grabbed a trash can lid and slammed it into the vampire’s head.

The blonde went limp immediately and slumped to the ground, leaving Aria to gasp air into her reopened airway.

Raven landed on the woman’s cracked skull, leaning over and twisting her head to peer one beady eye into the she-vamp’s. The orb was still black as night, but a sort of vacant sheen coated it as opposed to the malice-filled depths they’d encountered originally. She hopped off onto the ground and shifted back.

“Well, looks like we now have zero to interrogate. Nice going, Aria.” She was only half-serious, impressed with her teammate’s innovation. “Trashcan might be a good weapon for you. You can put a lid on your mouth too when needed.”

Finally sitting up, the banshee scrambled back, hands covering her mouth. For a second, Raven thought the girl was going to vomit on the poor re-deceased vampire and add insult to injury.

Maybe it was the first time Aria had actually killed someone. Despite how they’d met, the banshee had only seen deaths, never caused them first hand.

Raven still remembered the first time she’d accidentally caused a death during one of her first missions. She hadn’t needed the lecture from Seke about the nature of their work — collecting, not causing. No matter if it was an accident or deserved, taking a life was traumatizing.

“Aria...” Raven stepped forward tentatively, holding out a hand, feeling oddly empathetic. “Are you okay?”

“I… I saw it, and I just… I just did what I saw.” The woman’s eyes glazed over again, and she fainted.

“Shit!” Raven dove and caught the limp body right before her rolling silver-clad head hit the pavement. She eased Aria the rest of the way down, resting her head on her lap. “Great. I love being the support.” Sidekick wasn’t really her thing, but she had to admit they’d worked kinda well together.

“What happened?”

Raven looked up to see Seke and the rest of the team wedging their way, two abreast, down the narrow alley. There was no evidence of any body behind them. “She killed the vamp then passed out. And get this: I think she had a vision about the vamp’s death before she did it.”

If that was true, it was impressive; the director was never able to anticipate a vampire’s death — they were told only of a soul’s first death, not any subsequent ones.

“Yes, banshees can foresee all deaths. There is a reason the HD covets their skills.” Seke crouched down, touching Aria’s cheek gently in a caress.

Raven shared a look with Cole. “Well, I think having a death on her conscience was too much for our delicate flower.”

“No,” Gunhilde corrected sharply, causing Seke to pull back. “She’s having a vision. Look, her eyes are black.” Reaching forward, she peeled open Aria’s closed eyelids to reveal that the entire orb was a solid, terrifying, pool of liquid obsidian. “Quick, give her the shoe. It may help guide her.”

I hadn’t expected the alleyway to turn into a gilded hallway, so it took me a second to realize what had happened and get my bearings. When I did, my stomach dropped. This wasn’t a forced vision like I’d been having, which meant only one thing about the ending.

Still shaking from what I’d done to that vampire, I started jogging down the hall, heart in my throat. “No, no, no,” I chanted. “You can’t die. Not yet. Not when I’ve just found you. I’m coming for you!”

I’d wanted the vampire to die. So much so that apparently it had added some