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  With a heavy breath leaving me and all eyes of my guard turned toward me, I raised my chin in confidence and headed for the tunnels that would take me to Onyx Elite.

  Grabbing the steel door, I didn’t turn back to look at anyone. Showing any form of hesitation would warrant more questions I wasn’t prepared to answer. So, I did the boldest thing I could do.

  I shoved my way through the door and let the heavy thing slam behind me. All the while trying to convince myself of the contrary. As I walked the darkened tunnels toward the chambers, I mentally put together a shoddy argument about why Luminous couldn’t have done what she was being accused of.

  By the time I reached the end of the tunnel and was about to grab the door, I had somewhat convinced my mind of the argument I had put together for the judges.

  In the end, everything was going to be ok and if push came to shove, I’d have to go down with the satisfaction of knowing I did everything I could to protect Luminous River…even if she didn’t deserve it in the end.

  Chapter 3 Okay, Not What I Expected to happen

  Pulling my hood up, I stared at the rain falling and listened to the city sounds. Castlehedge was something like a smaller version of New York City, just on the edges of the Colorado mountains while the citizens prided themselves on the view and luxury of seclusion that was offered in the mountains. Everyone minded their own business and kept to themselves. Yet and still, there were always those few who fell off the bad tree.

  Like most cities and counties, Castlehedge had their law enforcement officers during the day, but it was individuals like my Silver Guard and Demir’s Gold Guard who protected the great citizens at night. We were the ones who took care of the problems the day courts and officers couldn’t handle. We just didn’t get the recognition or the glory for taking down the jackasses who were let off on technicalities and insufficient evidence.

  I sighed, as I pushed my hair from my face and kept staring at the ground. It wasn’t a pretty lifestyle, and it wasn’t one I’d give to any Joe Blow, but my team and the others were good at our jobs. Not to mention we got a nice paycheck from the nighttime courts for our good deeds. That was a plus if there were one.

  Pushing my way through the front door of Silver’s HQ, I prepared myself for another night of handling typical crimes. Nodding to some of my subordinates, I beelined for my desk and sat down in my chair.

  “Hey Lumi,” I glanced up as Lovett came to a stop a few feet away from my desk.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He handed me an official report from Onyx Elite and started shifting his weight as I took it from him.

  Frowning at him, I took the report and started reading the thing.

  It is by the order of Onyx Elite, Luminous River sect leader of Silver Guard, squadron eight report for her crimes against Gold Guard senior members. On February twenty-first, 2022 Luminous River is accused of heinously killing two senior members of Gold Guard.

  By the order of the judges of Onyx Elite, Luminous River is hereby ordered to respond for the accusations against her no later than February twenty-fifth, 2022. Should she fail to appear before the judges, a Black Diamond Order will be assigned to the offended guard.

  “Well, that sucks, doesn’t it?” My head snapped around to stare at Karina as she read the official report on the Gold Guard’s loss of life.

  Holding the report up to Lovett, I waited for him to say something as a way of explanation to what the hell I was reading. When he didn’t, I turned to Karina.

  “Did you not see the part where they’re blaming me for their deaths?”

  “Obviously,” she rolled her eyes and laid the report on her desk.

  “And you think that’s a topic to be sarcastic about?”

  “I didn’t say it wasn’t bad news but,” she held a hand up to stop my protests. “They know and we knew you didn’t kill those GG idiots. We’re,” she pointed to Lovett’s back and looked at me. “Your witnesses, so what’s there to worry about?”

  “A Diamond Order has already been issued against her, Karina, that’s the big deal.”

  Karina and I turned around to find our own commanding officers coming in from the tunnel that led to the black courts.

  The first officer in question was none other than Lincoln Rocks. A tall man by daytime standards, standing at almost seven foot he was the very definition of a jolly green giant. The thing was, extraordinarily little—if anything—made the great Lincoln Rocks happy and jolly. His shoulder length light, ash gray hair was always pulled back into a loose ponytail at the base of his neck. While his dark gun metal eyes tracked everything with too much accuracy. Nothing got past him, and anyone would be a fool to try and make an idiotic move in front of him.

  The second commanding officer was probably my favorite; Malaki Greenaway wasn’t as tall as Rocks but his ability to slice someone in half without breaking a sweat was awe inspiring. Calm, storm blue eyes set a little too close together and the slash across his cheek was a warning to anyone with two-cents worth of a brain.

  Greenaway took in information, processed it, and then he came up with a plan. Unlike his fellow officers he didn’t explode on the first impact of bad news. The best way to describe him was chill and calm. Although, I wasn’t stupid enough to tell him directly to his face. I preferred my body in one piece and liked to breathe the air.

  The last officer, probably my least favorite, was Aayush Joyner. He was big in muscles and somewhat short in stature and by short, I mean, a staggering six-foot-six. Black hair with slate gray strands cut short just above his ears. If he wasn’t hellbent on following the rules, he was giving his subordinates hell for not listening to sound reason and advice.

  “More importantly the person assigned to the order is none other than Demir Losett.” Rocks continued.

  “Well,” Karina popped her eyebrows and looked for something on her desk. “That changes things immensely doesn’t it?”

  Scowling at her, I turned to the officers in front of us. “What now? I didn’t do this.”

  “We know that.” Greenaway nodded and crossed his beefy arms. “What we’re trying to figure out is where they have come up with this wild theory.”

  I sighed, burying my head in my hands.

  “River,” Greenaway squatted in front of me and clasped his hands together. “Right now, nobody has anything to solidify these rumors, Ok?”

  “Then tell me something, Sir,” I finally looked at him, “how am I going to do my job and still see the next morning when there’s a Diamond Order on my head?”

  The room fell silent as the calculating minds of Silver Guard’s finest thought about a solution. This was the type of situation no one wanted to be in. Whether it was the daytime citizens who thrived during the day or children of the moon. No one wanted to have a red order, green light—whatever you wanted to call it—bounty on their head. Especially, for something they didn’t do.

  “Luminous River, sect leader of squadron eight,” the automated voice for the BC chimed through our underground offices. “The judges of Onyx Elite requests an audience with Luminous River in precisely one hour.”

  Slowly, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Meeting with OE was as bad as greeting death like it were an old friend. The timing was always off, and you were never really ready. Not to mention the simple fact of facing the same group of people who accused me of doing something as ignorant as killing Gold Guard senior members.

  Onyx Elite were the type of people who killed first and asked questions later without so much as a hint of remorse. They didn’t like to admit when they were wrong or apologize for wrongly accusing someone of misdeeds. No, the esteemed judges were shady, flighty, arrogant assholes.

  Kicking out of my chair, I got up from my desk without saying anything to anyone and went to the lockers to store my weapons. Whether OE was full of assholes or not, I wasn’t about to give them any reason to send me to the HG’s gallows.

  “Lumi,” Lovett came to stand beside me as I tos
sed the weapons in my locker.

  “What?” Locking my whip and curved blades away I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. Not with the knowledge of me possibly not coming back.

  Lovett and I had grown up together, both two idiots not knowing what our adult lives would be filled with. He was a gentle child, never one to kill a bug and carried poisonous spiders outside just so they wouldn’t have to restart their lives as something else. Of course, he grew out of that innocence quickly when his training began and didn’t think twice about killing something. Naturally, that brutality and unforgiveness followed him into adulthood, molding him into the man he was today.

  “Do you want me to go with you? As back up,” he quickly added the last part and looked away from my screwed eyed look.

  I tried to smile, God knows I tried to morph my face into something of reassurance. But even my face couldn’t plaster on a fake smile right now.

  “You know as well as I do that nobody other than the requested is allowed on their turf.” And that was the painful truth.

  Onyx Elite territory was something of a cult. Granted, they didn’t have followers and every experiment—from Gold to Honor—knew about the dangers Onyx Elite held within their back pockets and with that knowledge came an undying, paralyzing fear. Only those who had served in the respective guards as top officials could be apart the machine known as Onyx Elite.

  In other words, when someone from the day found out about us, we simply told them Onyx Elite was the US Supreme Court of the night. Naturally, the answer went over as suffice and then, the day child would have his or her memory wiped, and they would be sent on their way. No harm, no foul.

  Lovett shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed, “Lumi, if I—”

  “Lovett, it’s fine. Really, it is,” shrugging, I looked around the office catching sight of the clock on the wall. “The worst they could do is kill me on sight.”

  “Not funny,” he glared at my smiling face.

  Pursing my lips, I shrugged, “well, I have to find humor in the situation somehow.”

  “Not by your death, though.”

  “It was just a joke, Lovett.”

  “That wasn’t funny, Luminous. If something happened to you…” he trailed off causing me to frown at him.

  “You’ll take my place then. It won’t be that big of a deal.”

  “Maybe not to you,” he grumbled, “aren’t you afraid of death?”

  This time I did smile, “life or death, what’s there to fear? Both are fated, it’s just a matter of how you accept them.” It was the most honest thing I could think of and for once, I knew down to my soul I was telling him the truth.

  “How can you—”

  “Luminous River, your presence is requested with the judges of Onyx Elite!” The automated voice blared through the speakers for the second time.

  I squeezed Lovett’s arm and smirked at him, “time to dance with the devils of the courts.”

  “Stop,” he breathed out a laugh and nodded to the tunnel doors that would lead me to Onyx Elite.

  Nodding, I didn’t waste any time with ducking under the low ceiling and breathed in the gun smoke filled air. Even though the tunnels had been cleared for well over a hundred years, the lingering smell of gunpowder and ash still clung to the walls and ground.

  I’d never admit it to anyone else, but I loved the solitude and silence of the tunnels. Honestly, it was the only place where I felt total peace and, dare I say it, safety.

  Nobody would just willingly come into the tunnels without good enough reason. I on the other hand, was always waiting for an opportunity to just find my way down to the peacefully dark stone walled enclosures. I could be myself down here, I could just think, or talk to myself. Have a drink, maybe read a book by candlelight. In actuality, I could escape from everything and not feel guilty about it.

  Being a sect leader required me to be on top of my game at all times. I didn’t have an option but to keep it together but sometimes—like right now—I just needed a break. However, as the fates would have it, I was no more afforded the luxury of a break than a slaughtered pig was afforded a second chance at life.

  My feet stopped in front of the steel door as my lungs filled with cement. I couldn’t convince myself to breathe at a regular rhythm. I had never believed the term of paralyzing anxiety until right now. A part of me wanted to believe this was nothing more than a nightmare, but I knew in my heart of hearts that was nothing, but a bullshit lie even the devil himself wouldn’t believe.

  This would be the moment I found out whether I would be allowed to leave or I would be killed on sight. Of course, I’d never heard of BC killing someone in their presence. Oh no, no, no. That would be improper and go against their precious code of ethics. However, even with their morals ingrained in everything they did I knew, I was a special case within myself and nothing in my life had ever been easy or just handed to me without force. So, what exactly was I about to walk into?

  “Luminous River, please enter.” Like in Silver Guard’s offices, the same automated voice made its appearance out of the speaker next to the now unlocked, black painted steel door.

  With another deep breath, I pressed the entrance code to the door and stepped over the threshold. Here goes nothing, I thought to myself.

  Unlike with the daytime courts, there were no security guards, lawyers bustling to and from, clerks talking about their lunches and one-night stands filling the halls. Instead, BC was strictly an underground courtroom. As soon as you crossed the threshold of your respective door, boom there was the bench fifty paces ahead and nothing in between. No gallery, no defendant and prosecution tables, no jury box. Just a singular diamond ✗ in the middle of the floor twenty steps away from the bench.

  Living up to their name, the color scheme of the room was nothing more than a solid tone of Onyx diamond. The only color in the room were the overhead lights and the judges. I didn’t know any of the people sitting in the high-backed leather chairs. And at this point I didn’t want to either. All I wanted to do was cut and run without looking back.

  “Luminous River,” a man in his late seventies looked down his nose at me over the brim of his wire rimmed glasses. “Are you aware of the reason why you’ve been called here today?”

  I wanted to say obviously not, but I was already skating on extremely thin ice as it were. So, getting smart with him wasn’t going to be in my best interest right now. Opting to keep my head still attached to my body, I steeled my face in a neutral expression and met his stare head on as I said.

  “No, Sir.”

  Maybe if I feigned ignorance this meeting would go by a lot smoother. However, I knew enough to keep that ignorance at bay. The judges knew I was the furthest thing from stupid and if I tried to play them like a fiddle? Well, I might as well find my way into a grave.

  “You have been accused of murdering, unprovoked or ordered, three senior officers of Gold Guard, sect fourteen. How would you like to respond?”

  “Not guilty.”

  He raised a skeptical brow but didn’t argue with me.

  “Do you know where such accusations spawned from?” A female judge sitting left of grandpa snow asked.

  She was obviously the younger of the six judges on the bench and still had the fire of a fighter dancing in her eyes.

  “No, ma’ am.”

  “It is said you, as a sect leader, do not agree with your guard’s duties. Is that true?”

  “Yes, ma ‘am.”

  “Why?”

  I took a subtle deep breath, “because ladies and gentlemen, Silver Guard is more than capable of handling the same charges as Gold Guard.”

  The younger judge looked at me with a raised brow and narrowed eyes, “your statement indicates your envy toward the other guard. In turn, you decided on your own conviction to seek your revenge.”

  “That’s inaccurate, ma’am. Gold has always been given the more serious orders, while Silver is stuck to handle the light weight of the situation. But I
would never snap to the point of killing official members, of any guard.”

  The young buck judge’s lips ticked up for a moment in a smirk before she fell silent.

  She had to know—as well as anyone in the room, I didn’t do this and even if I did, it wouldn’t be on the grounds of seeking revenge.

  “Do you care to elaborate, sect leader?” Another woman sitting at the other end of the bench asked.

  If I had to guess she was the same age as grandpa snow but could still get violent if pushed to do so. No matter what their true chronological ages were, no lines marred their faces, and their necks showed no signs of aging either. One thing was for certain these three men and three women were keeping the Botox companies in business.

  Brushing my ignorant assumptions aside, I tried to exude confidence as I kicked my chin up in defiance and spoke.

  “Ma’ am, we are a group of specially trained, competent individuals that have undoubtedly dedicated our lives, both personal and professional, to Silver Guard. Being confined to strictly petty criminals and the prevention of petty crimes is…” I trailed off, trying to find a better word for the one on the tip of my tongue.

  “Say it, Miss. River,” another grandpa snow spoke up as a certain look of interest danced in his periwinkle blue eyes.

  Squaring my shoulders, I looked at each of the judges, “the tasks assigned to us are beneath our skill set and, if I’m expected to be honest, an insult to the sects of Silver Guard as a whole.” Well, at the very least, I could die knowing I had spoken my truth.

  The two judges that had yet to speak smiled at me, like actually smiled at me. While the youngest of the six sat back in her chair with a satisfied smirk on her face and if I really wanted to beep my own horn, a look of admiration flirted with the satisfaction in her eyes. Beep, beep bitch.

  Grandpa snow was the first to speak, adjusting his glasses, he cleared his throat.