dark faerie 04.5 - without armor by alexia purdy Page A

child brat to keep warm when the cold weather didn’t really bother the Unseelie captors. It made them aware of how little they knew about humans. Still, I could see he was mad to have to help a kid in the below freezing temperatures.
    I wanted to crack my knuckles, grab a hold of that scum’s neck and crack it like a walnut shell. Wouldn’t that get the night all nice and exciting for me?
    These creatures made me violent, even though I thrived and lived for a fight. Maybe it was their inherent cruel nature and disregard for human life that left me wondering how they could affect me so much, even after all this time out here, alone, fighting, killing…I lived to take them down, one by one, incarnation by incineration.
    I closed my eyes, pressing my thumbs into my eye sockets. I’d been up for days and there was no rest in sight. Not when tracking a nice group of banished.
    I sighed, inhaling sharply as I stretched the vertebrae of my back, enjoying each solitary pop of bone shifting into place. At least I knew where they were going. I’d stalked them long enough to know everything about their operation now. It took meticulous planning to take down a group of Unseelie, especially when some of them were Sluagh fey—the most dangerous of the dark creatures of Faerie.
    This part about stealing kids? Well…that was a new thing. It had spiked my curiosity and I kept several feet behind this illicit group I happened to discover by the cover of night during a hunt. There was no one who could rival my silent prowl. I was a hunter by now, focused on my prey and unfathomable. Even the magical ones, the faeries from the Land of Faerie, could not detect me. I was human, but my elemental powers cloaked me as effectively as one of them. Once, I even snuck into the Unseelie palace to save my sister, Shade.
    This was a cakewalk now.
    I froze in my steps as they paused to enter an abandoned church. It appeared to have seen much better days decades ago. The steeple was barely being held up by its supports, the bell long gone. Sideboards were missing and the foundation had cracks the size of Jupiter in them, running all through it like a mass of veins. Stained glass windows were all ruined, shattered by rocks and left in desolation. Even the front door, a once rich mahogany was now stripped, weathered and cracking from lack of attention.
    It was a forgotten place, and the faeries were making their way in like they owned the damn city.
    Once, not too long ago, I would run at them and holler into the night to grab their attention. I’d pull them out of their positions and lure then into the streets to off them one by one. I’d once been careless enough to engage in such tactics, but the scars crisscrossing my body were a constant reminder of lessons learned. Each one, a bitter memory.
    The faeries were all inside the church and rustling about, not caring how loud or rambunctious they sounded. Perhaps it was the empty streets that gave them confidence to be obnoxious. There was no one left to hear the ruckus.
    I made my way to the side of the church, keeping to shadows and cover of darkness. Reaching the first window, I carefully peeked inside, hoping I would see something of use. The faeries were not those of light. Their affinity to darkness made it impossible for me to hope they would light up the space around them and allow me to see the interior of the church. Not finding anything, I scanned my brain for something in my armory of spells which could help me see past the curtains of darkness prohibiting a clear view. If I couldn’t see what they were doing, it’d be like walking into a deathtrap once I set foot inside.
    One spell tickled against the fibers of my memory, and I stepped away from the window sill to dig through my pack. It was a small sack tied to my waist, much like a fanny pack, but less uncool. I was all about the cool factor so I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing such a relic.
    Cursing under my breath as I sifted