Free Another Way To Bleed (Midnight Assassin) by Susan Harris

for her belt. Putting it around her waist, she checked her nine mil and her ammo. All present in their straps as well as her silver blade. She wished she had her sword, but that could be easily retrieved. Smoothing back her hair, Cassie tied it back in a ponytail. Checking her reflection in the mirror, she knew she looked fierce - scary as hell and ready to kick some ass. Taking a deep breath, she held it for a moment before exhaling, leaving the room, and trying to leave the ghosts of her unpredictable future behind.
    Strolling down to Luka's study, Cassie felt nervous, but her stubborn streak would not let her show it in front of Luka. As she came to a stop in front of the thick mahogany door, she paused, counting to ten before raising her hand to knock on the door. She rarely knocked but usually burst into a room. She sensed that Luka wasn't the only one inside. Something was telling her she should knock. Just as she was about to, Luka's voice rang out “Come in, Cassandra, no need to wait for an invitation.”
    Smartass! Flinging open the door, she dragged herself into the room. Luka sat behind his monstrosity of a desk. Standing to his right stood Archer, the handsome angel fully dressed today, surprisingly in distressed denims and an ACDC tee. Cassie had the sudden image of him blaring ‘Highway to Hell’ and couldn't help but smirk. The smile quickly disappeared as she saw Lilith seated on one of the chairs in front of the desk. She was dressed yet again in crimson: the picture of perfection. Cassie went to the window behind Luka, grabbing an apple off the desk as she passed, and sat on the window ledge. Pulling her penknife out of her pocket, she began to peel the apple slowly and slipped a piece into her mouth. She waited for one of them to speak, but silence suffocated the air. Swallowing hard, she decided to make the first move.
    “So what's been decided ?
    Luka pulled out a map and pointed to an area on it. When Cassie was young, the place had been called Dublin, but now it was home to Abandon City, a place she had never gone. Most of the island had been renamed, no point for having city names when little of them remained. Her home, Sector One was what used to be Cork, parts of Limerick and parts of Kerry. Sector Two was smaller with what was left of Galway and Mayo, while Sector Three had one little piece of land in the middle. Every sector had a wall built all the way round with 24/7 security. Nobody got in or out without the Keepers’ permission. There was only one tiny airport, but no humans were allowed to leave, only the vamps. She had ne ver left her sector before. Cassie knew that Abandon City was where all the cast outs were sent. A walled-in community, if you could call it that, homed the vampires overtaken with bloodlust, or a were that had stayed a wolf too long and had now become rabid. It was like a prison, just a hell of a lot more dangerous. Anticipation ran through her veins. Luka leaned forward in his chair and began to speak. “Cassie, you, Archer and I will drive tomorrow night to the Abandon City and locate the safe house before dawn. Then you and Archer will scope out the city during the day while most of the creatures like myself are incapacitated. As soon as the sun goes down, we will meet an old contact of mine and see if he has heard any rumblings about Lilith's Cole.”
    Archer swept a sideways look at her before his mouth raised slightly on one side. “You sure you can kee p up with me, Princess?”
    “Once you keep those wings under wraps angel-boy, then it's you that will have to eat my dust.... this is my gig.”
    Archer held up his hands in surrender, but the self-satisfied grin never left his face. Joking with him felt so natural, easy even. Why can't it be like this with Luka? She cursed herself as the thought popped into her head and Luka's hands gripped so tight on the table, she thought it would break.
    “If I may add some information, it is rumoured that my son has