Calsoon stepped out of a shadow rift and onto a small lonely island sitting a few nautical miles north of the Eastern islands of Dragon Realm Abyss. He waited for Sable to follow him from the portal before closing it. A wisp of salty air swept through his silver hair as the two Dead of Winter members walked to a quaint beechwood cabin situated at the edge of a shallow selva.

  “This Shady McGee has avoided capture for many years according to Wraslyn,” Calsoon said without turning to his partner.

  “What of it?” responded Sable.

  “I suspect despite his idiotice name that he may be troublesome.”

  Sable gave the demon a thin smile. “Do you think you can’t handle him? Would you like it if we brought in Elucard?”

  Calsoon raised his brow. “Oh, I’ll wrangle him, I just think he’ll prove to be a menace, that’s all.”

  “We shall see,” Sable said with a slight chuckle.

  Calsoon rapped his knuckle on the front door. He paused for a moment before knocking a second time.

  An annoyed voice rang from inside the cabin. “I’m comin’, I’m comin’.”

  A disheveled man with shaggy black hair opened the door. He looked up and down at Calsoon and Sable before asking a single question. “Who are you?”

  Calsoon blinked at the man’s appearance. Was this the infamous Shady McGee they were after? A complete bum of a man?

  “Good evening, sir,” Sable began. “We represent the Duke Alifinster Fen with the request to purchase a rare artifact that a gentleman may have in his position that resides at this home.”

  The man narrowed his eyes. “The diamond key?”

  “You are Shady McGee then?” asked Calsoon.

  “The one and only, pal.”

  “Are you willing to part with the key then?” Sable asked.

  “Everyone is after this key,” muttered Shady McGee. “I’ve got nutjobs from Tylin talking about needing it to kill off Father to men like The Patron offering me endless riches for it. So tell me, what do you plan on giving me?”

  “You’ll walk away with your life,” Calsoon growled.

  The thief grinned and slammed the door in their faces.

  “Damn it,” mumbled the demon. With a hefty kick, the door flew off its hinges.

  Calsoon dashed inside and quickly scanned the cabin, spotting his target climbing through a window. With expediency, Calsoon moved to the window and snatched Shady McGee by his shirt and threw him to the floor.

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  Calsoon grabbed the thief by the collar, but a pocket full of sand blurred his vision. He rubbed his eyes red until he could see again. Frustrated, he reached for his sword, but found none.

  “What?!”

  Shady McGee beamed a smile as he tossed the blade aside. With light feet he snaked around the demon and tugged his black cloak and threw it over his head.

  Calsoon howled in rage and threw his cloak to the ground. He ground his teeth, eyes dark with murder.

  Where’d you go?

  Calsoon turned to Sable and followed her eyes to a set of long, olive green drapes. The demon slid a curvy dagger from his belt and cautiously approached the curtains.

  This thief had been making him look like a complete buffoon. If Wraslyn witnessed his mishandling of such an important task, he would’ve lost all credibility with the vampire. He needed to end this and end it immediately.

  Calsoon eyed the pair of boots poking from the drapes. This is another trick. He can’t think I’m so foolish to fall for this…can he?.

  Calsoon tore the drapes away with a hiss of anticipation escaping through his teeth. However, both as expected and to his disappointment, he only found a pair of worn boots.

  “Idiot!” Sable scoffed. “Behind you!”

  Calsoon spun on his heel, his face flushed with embarrassment. He tightened the grip on his dagger until his joints cracked and stomped across the room. Shady McGee creaked back in his chair while his brown-socked feet propped up on the table. He took a greasy bite of a turkey leg and waged in Calsoon’s face.

  “Listen, pal, I can do this all day! Offer me something for the key and we can put aside your sorry excuse for an intimidation tactic.”

  Calsoon’s eye twitched. “Offer?”

  Shady wiped a speck of poultry from the corner of his lip. “Make it worth my time.”

  Calsoon’s lower lip quivered. He slapped the turkey leg away and throttled the thief’s shirt. “The time for offers has passed!”

  Shady rolled his eyes and shrugged. Like a slimy critter, he slid his arms and head out of his shirt and sprinted to the other side of the table.

  The demon leaped to the right just as Shady juked to the left. Calsoon scrambled over the table, kicking tin plates and spilling wooden cups of fruit nectar and wine. He dove and lashed out at the slippery thief, but his target laughed and somersaulted away.

  “Too slow!” chidded Shady.

  “He’s making a mockery of you!” Sable shouted.

  Calsoon massaged his temples. “Anytime you’d like to help?”

  The runewriter shook her head and sighed. “Elucard. If you would?”

  Roaring through the shadows with steel flashing through the air, came the assassin. Shady was unable to react before a blade drove through his shoulder and pinned him to the wall.

  In a blur, Elucard unsheathed a dagger and pressed it so deep against the thief’s throat that Shady let out a frightened yelp.

  “Don’t—don’t I know you?”

  “The key. Where is it?” Elucard snapped with a cold whisper.

  Shady licked his lips, his breathing grew short. “You—you need me.”

  “I don’t need anyone.” Elucard dug his edge closer, now drawing a trickle of crimson blood.

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Where is it?!”

  Shady struggled to gulp. “There’s a monastery in Phelom.”

  Elucard narrowed his eyes.

  “I read it was hidden there,” Shady continued. “I swear, that’s all I know.”

  The assassin tightened his grip. “Shall I kill him?”

  Calsoon placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know that nothing would please me more.”

  Elucard ripped his blade from the wall. A yell of agony wailed through the cabin.

  Sable tossed a coin purse to Shady’s bloodied corpse. “For your troubles, Mister McGee.”