Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 7: Apex Predators

Celia was glad when she saw that there was a mission for her. The alert popped up on her desktop, and then she could access the details after scanning her fingerprint. Celia read through the message and let out a cheer. On top of the fact that she now had an excuse to avoid the others, the mission was a kill order she had been waiting for: The target was a young vampire, who was apparently hungry for attention, since he kept spreading the rumor that he had incriminating evidence about the SRU. Since no one was able to confirm if that was true or not, he was posing a threat to the special force - a threat that Celia was eager to eliminate. Celia knew that the members of the special force had a bad reputation all together – everyone seeing them as cold blooded killers – and people like this vampire were not making life any easier for them.

It did not take her long to locate her target in a club downtown. Celia got up, grabbed her swords and the jacket of her uniform from the back of her chair and put it on. On missions that she did for the SRU she was required to wear an all-black outfit and this jacket, which only had a few golden embroideries on it, that distinguished her as a special force soldier. Additionally, she had to cover her hair and face. On official occasions, a few more accessories were added to her uniform, which would simply be unpractical while fighting.

Since she was not going to have much space to move around in, Celia decided to leave her swords here and took a slim dagger with her instead.

When Celia was walking up to the club, she was already glamoured so that she would not attract any unwanted attention from Mundanes. Now she pulled a black scarf over the lower part of her face and pulled the hood of her jacket up, fixating it with a pin.

Prepared like that, she walked past the human security through the front entrance. The club had two stories. The upper one was the VIP-area and usually the place where the Downworlders were spending their time. If they are not hunting for human prey... The upper floor was constructed as a mezzanine, allowing Celia to stay on the lower floor for now, but still scan the upper one for her target.

She spotted him after a few minutes, with a drink in hand, talking to another vampire. Celia decided to make her way up to him without any further hesitation. The werewolf that was guarding the staircase up to the VIP-area let her pass without a word. A glance into his face assured Celia that he knew what was going to happen, but he did not want to be a part of it. She got a lot more of those looks and people were moving out of her way when they spotted her as she walked through the crowd. They all knew what it meant when an SRU soldier showed up in any place at all. But they all heard enough stories to not get between those soldiers and their targets.

Celia was used to those kinds of reactions, so she just kept her focus on her target – which had not moved away from the spot where she had seen him a minute ago. She approached him directly – since she was already hiding her identity, she would not have to make this a secret assassination. People would be able to witness the SRU killing someone, but no one would be able to pinpoint it on one specific member, so the Clave could not put anyone on trial.

Celia got closer to her target. The railing is maybe two meters behind him... In the moment Celia grabbed the hilt of her dagger, the vampire turned around, looked straight at her and his eyes went wide:

"What are you...?!"

The rest of his sentence was cut off when Celia pulled out the weapon, pushing it right into his torso and him over the railing.

Though the only thing hitting the ground on the lower level was the glass he had been holding. His body had disintegrated into thin air on the way down.

Celia smiled coldly. No Mundane had realized a thing, but the message to the other Downworlders had been sent for sure. Don't pose a threat to the SRU.