Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

as he stopped by Caillen’s side.
    Caillen’s answer was short and clipped. “Assassin.” Nothing more than that was needed to explain the commotion.
    Darling let out a sound of exasperation. “League?”
    Caillen shook his head. “He had on civs, but he carried a League weapon—don’t know if it was a trophy or he was a contractor. As soon as they clear the room, I’ll have them run the DNA and see if we can find out if he was solo or attached and if there was a contract issued.”
    Maris scanned Caillen’s body with a worried frown. “Are both of you all right?”
    Caillen scowled. “I am so offended that you’d even ask that question. I’m sorry but if third-rate shit like that can take me out, I deserve to die.”
    Maris scoffed at his righteous indignation. “Forgive me for questioning your fighting prowess. However, I do remember having to pull you out—”
    “I was drunk.”
    “And you were bleeding all over my new shoes.”
    Caillen’s scowl melted under a smile he was trying to keep hidden as he remembered the event and didn’t want to cop to it entirely. “Yeah well, there was ten of them and one drunk me. Actually now that I think about it, I was so flagged, I thought there was twenty of them. My vision was just that screwed up.”
    His father sighed heavily. “Oh the stories I overhear. I shudder at how many close calls you’ve had in your life.”
    Caillen gave him an arch stare. “I wasn’t the one who almost had my head pinned to the wall a minute ago.”
    He was right about that and while Evzen prided himself on being intelligent with his safety and cautious by nature, he realized how much he lacked when compared to the child he’d fathered. Whatever had caused fate to take his son from his side, it had given his boy life skills that could definitely come in handy for an emperor.
    Now if he could only train and hone Caillen’s civility to the sharp point of his fighting skills he’d have a legendary leader.
    Caillen flagged down the hazmat workers as they came to extract the body. He divested the first one to reach him of her mask and gloves, then went to investigate the assassin’s remains.
    The man was lying right where they’d left him. A greenish cast to his skin let Caillen know the death had been quick and about as painless as it could be. But that wasn’t what concerned him.
    Kneeling down, he retrieved the League dagger and searched for the assassin’s reader. He found it and rose to his feet.
    The worker stopphim from leaving. “That’s evidence.”
    He stared down at the woman’s peeved glare. “Indeed it is and I’ll hand it over after I look through it.” He stepped away from her.
    She moved to block him again until her boss cleared his throat and shook his head. Her expression furious, she finally let him pass.
    Moving out of their way, Caillen turned the reader on and started scanning the open files. They all confirmed his suspicions. Typical hired hack. Nothing really to differentiate him from any of the other scum-sucking bastards eager to earn a credit at the cost of some poor soul’s life. At least not until Caillen bypassed the security on his device and started going through his secure files.
    While they searched the body, he isolated himself in a corner to review what their little hemorrhoid had been up to. Typical credit transfers that any butcher would have. Wanted postings where the perp had searched for victims…
    Encryption just difficult enough to keep a low-level expert at bay and one interesting nugget he hadn’t been expecting.
    He stepped out onto the balcony to make a call he didn’t want anyone to overhear.
    Nykyrian Quiakides picked it up a few seconds later. “I can’t imagine what trouble you’re in now, Dagan. How many you need for an evac and how covert?”
    Caillen snorted at Nyk’s dry, thickly accented tone. And for all of his bravado, the last time Caillen had told him he needed an evac, Nyk had told him to suck it up since