Dawn Walker

Chapter 362: Feeding Time II

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Bat Bat flew above them in silence at first. Actual silence. It was a miracle. Then after three full streets she whispered, "I feel I should be praised for my discipline."

Vela answered without looking up, "If you keep speaking, the praise will be delayed."

Bat Bat shut up again.

They crossed three roofs, dropped to a shadowed side lane, and moved beneath a broken hanging sign that no longer advertised what the building had once honestly been. The district below was quiet in the wrong way. Not asleep. Listening.

Lily stopped at the edge of the final roof before the target lane.

Sekhmet came beside her.

She pointed.

"There."

The building crouched at the far end of a bent alley like a guilty thought someone had boarded up badly. On the ground level, two lamp slits burned too low and too carefully to be for welcome. The side yard held three narrow transport cages under cover cloth. The back gate looked ordinary enough until one noticed the reinforced iron at the hinges and the fact that the dirt around it had been churned by too many feet who did not come and go by choice.

Lily’s voice remained low.

"There are men outside. Four. One is bored. One is cruel. One is hungry. One is afraid."

Bat Bat leaned forward on the beam and whispered, "You can smell cruelty."

Lily did not look at her. "Yes."

Bat Bat sat back with renewed awe. "That is incredibly useful."

Sekhmet looked over the structure.

No obvious Iron House insignia.

That meant lower corruption, contract filth, and useful prey without complicating tonight with stage-one enemy operations yet. Exactly right for what Lily needed.

"What do you want from it," he asked.

The question was not tactical only.

It was hers to answer.

Lily’s eyes stayed on the building.

"The women and children come out first," she said. "Anyone chained, caged, or sold comes out." Her mouth tightened slightly. "The men and women who run it die. The buyers, if there are any, die too. One can live if we need answers."

That answer made something quietly pleased move through Vera’s face.

Not a smile. But the Approval.

Vela said, "Good order."

Lily looked at them then.

Perhaps it was the marks at her throat. Perhaps it was the feed from Sekhmet still warming her. Perhaps it was only the night and the shape of what they were. But when she looked at the twins this time, she did not feel like the uncertain new woman entering an old arrangement. She felt like part of it.

Part of his.

Part of theirs.

And she chose to say the thing openly because the night deserved structure if blood was going to follow.

"I told you before," she said quietly. "I am the first wife."

Bat Bat’s eyes became huge again.

Of course they did.

Vera looked at Lily for one breath.

Then two.

The wind moved through the alley between them and the house below, carrying rope smell, rust, fear, and old filth.

At last Vera said, "Yes."

Vela nodded beside her. "You are."

It was simple. There was no wound in it. There was no challenge. No softness either. Something better.

It was recognition.

Lily felt the answer settle into her in a place deeper than pride.

Then Vera added, and because she was Vera the line carried no false sweetness at all, "That means you set the women’s line in this house when he is absent."

Lily’s eyes sharpened. "And when he is present."

Vela’s mouth moved faintly. "Good."

Bat Bat, unable to endure the hierarchy without inserting herself somewhere into it, raised one tiny wing. "Where am I in the order."

Three women looked at her.

Bat Bat lowered the wing. "I will discover it naturally."

Vera said, "You are noise."

Bat Bat looked offended. "I am texture."

Vela, very softly, said, "Both."

Even Sekhmet nearly smiled at that one.

Then the hunt began.

Lily chose the front.

Not because it was safest.

Because the blood there was freshest and the cruelty most open.

She dropped from the roof first. It was a clean landing. There was no stumbling.

The nearest outer guard turned at the slightest sound and saw only a dark shape and the pale oval of a face before Lily was on him. She did not bite. Not yet. Her hand struck his throat, her other drove into the knife arm, and before he could even fully understand what had reached him, Vera was behind him finishing the silence.

The second guard drew breath to shout.

Bat Bat dove straight at his face and slapped both tiny wings across his eyes hard enough that the man cursed and swung wildly at empty air. Vela cut the back of his knee. Sekhmet took the throat.

The third reached for the alarm chain near the side post. Lily saw him move and moved faster. Her hand caught his wrist. Her body twisted through him with new rank-four force still surprising even herself. Bone snapped. The alarm chain never rang. She threw him backward into the wall and his skull made a sound against the brick she would not forget.

The fourth turned and ran.

Sekhmet let him.

Two steps.

Three.

Then his blood threads caught the man’s ankles and dropped him face-first into the alley mud hard enough to break teeth. Vera was on him a heartbeat later.

The front was clear.

Lily looked at the door.

She could smell them inside now more strongly than before. Men. Women. Fear. Sweat. Old wounds. One fresh lash cut. Three children. One child sick. Two men gambling in a side room. A buyer. A guard half asleep. Another man who smelled of the specific arousal of ownership and cruelty.

Her mouth hardened.

"This one," she said.

Sekhmet looked at her. "You already chose."

"Yes."

He kicked the door.

It went inward with one brutal crash and the hall beyond exploded into movement.

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