The Killer's Wife

Chapter 1 - The Meeting

Accompanied by the sound of her heels, she stepped into a room of blue light. No sooner had the door closed behind her than the noise from the front of the restaurant, in whose back area the meeting was being held, died down. Fifty men, most of them of great stature, either in height or width and in suits, sat and waited obediently around the table in the middle. None of them had tattoos. When she first met them, she was surprised but quickly concluded that it was logical. Having a tattoo of a license plate is not a good move for professional favour-dealers and killers.

All the men stood up. With a few quick steps, she moved to the front of the table and sat down. The creak of fifty chairs followed. Everyone waited to speak first, judging and calculating, some more tense than others. She leaned back into the chair and tapped the table with each of her left-hand fingers. Then complete silence.

"I'd say you're all curious about what new rules I've come up with for you," she said in a bored tone, tapping her red-painted nails on the table again. "But that's not why we're here."

"Why then?" asked David, a brown-haired, broad man.

She threw him an unbiased look. "I'm not one of those people who forgive easily, and as far as my husband is concerned... Let me be clear. I want revenge."

"And you expect what exactly we do? That we will fall at your feet and serve you?"

She pierced him with another cold look. She smiled. "Did they elect you as a spokesman or what?" There were disapproving murmurs from at least thirty men. There is no talk with grieving murderers. "Won't anyone else tell me?" She looked around the room and looked several men in the eye. No one said a word. Grimly, she folded her arms in front of her chest.

"We're livid too, but..." The killer, who had taken the attention stage uncertainly, hesitated, not once looking her in the eye, "Is it really worth it? You know, with all due respect, ma'am, Daniel Malakai... I've had the pleasure of meeting him before and he's not a guy you want to have anything to do with."

She didn't allow herself to give in to her emotions and kept her expression calm. "Malakai had seventeen children murdered to prove what a monster he was. He's not interested in respect or honour, and he certainly doesn't care that one of you doesn't want anything to do with him, because you do now, had for a long time. He is interested in power, in controlling people through fear. And surely he will have no more mercy on you than he had with those children." The words came out of her mouth slowly and calmly, carefully so that each syllable fell on its target with its total weight. "What's your interest? Is it reputation? The association will not allow its members' lives to remain unrevenged. About money? I have more than anyone on this damned island. Don't you want to fuck up with someone who killed your boss? You literally can't have it any more fucked up. You're just a coward, admit it. If you're too much of a weakling, fine, go, but remember everything my husband has ever done for you," she knocked calmly on the table again, "and how he protected your families as his own. Because that's how he was, he wouldn't hesitate to slit a man's throat, but he protected his family. And he respected it as Mother herself. And now he's not here to do it."

Her last words were both a warning and a threat.

David snorted. She didn't even bother to look at him until he spoke, "Don't take Mother in your mouth, Luna," he spat out her name like poisonous saliva, "you don't know anything about her, you have no right to judge anything you think you know about us. Actually, I don't even know who made you the boss, shouldn't you rather polish dishes at home and bake cakes? You should leave this place to someone who has the means—"

"David, that's enough!" shouted one of the men sitting near him, jumping to his feet and grabbing him by the elbow. When David snapped at him, he grabbed him harder and wanted to lead him out of the room, but Luna stopped them by raising her hand.

"Let him speak," she said simply. The two men sat down.

"I just don't think you should be leading the Ravens."

"And who should do it then?"

"There are people who have sacrificed their lives for the association. You've never proved that you're devoted to it, and you're the only person here who doesn't have powers."

"She has Zalin's name," said another voice. The Raven to whom it belonged was a stocky man with a bald head. Even the blood with the fire magic of the Rinatina couldn't seem to keep their appetite and weight at bay.

"A name doesn't mean anything if she doesn't have abilities," said a skinny boy, who had only watched the action toll this moment, but there were fighting sparkles in his eyes. He waited for this.

"Who would you envisage?" She wasn't going to argue with them and waste her energy on a bunch of jerks with hurt pride.

"Mrs—" said the man who had wanted to bring David out before, but she immediately interrupted him:

"No, I'm honestly interested."

"Lucas Draganier," David said.

The Draganieri controlled the air, but it was not a rare family name. Her husband always took one with him to events in case it was necessary to cover his tracks from the examination dogs. They were fast and their movements thrifty and accurate. But she'd never heard of Lucas.

"Or Apat Somatter..."

The man with a set of dark-purple eyes was surprised when his name was mentioned. He had been waiting for it all along, too, she could tell.

"Wilf Corrak would make a good leader," said someone at the back of the room, glancing toward the curly-haired man in his forties, a few seats away.

Wilf Corrak, as explained by her husband, took the name from the Original in his family. He was one of his closest friends and went with him to most events. She had met him several times in the building or her husband's office when he was setting up a deal for Bastiel.

There were a few more names from different people in the room, but she had already chosen. She wasn't going to put David's puppet in the place of the Ravens' Chief Leader. She was fed up with that guy, but she was determined not to give him an excuse to hate her even more, plus The association would need a boss while she was away.

"In my absence, Wilf Corrak will represent me. Come to my,"she looked meaningfully at David, "office, and we'll do it officially. Ifno one has decided not to make a rat and join me in the hunt, you are dismissed."She used the last words deliberately instead of the usual "meetingends" and it served its purpose. She was the boss for now, and if anyonedoubted that, they should know that they would undoubtedly end up at the bottomof the Water.