Chapter 10

This chapter is a little long. Sorry...

__________

It was already so dark outside when Ara and her siblings piled up in the car, a 2002 Lexus GS 300 they used to ride in their younger years. As to not attract unwanted attention, they agreed to take the only ordinary and non-expensive car in their garage. With Alaric in the driver's seat and she's in passenger seat while Varo sleeping in the back,they drive through the darkness of the city. 

The sound of things being rummaged are the only sound in the car. Ara makes sure she have everything prepared and in good condition. She could feel the hardness of metal of her favourite dagger against the side of her calf. She nodded to herself approvingly before she glances sideways at her big brother.

"Do you bring all your things?" she asked.

Alaric glances at her from the corner of his eyes before he turned his sight on the road again. "Yeah,in the back," he clicked his tongue,"Who is it this time?"

"Robert Whitaker,CEO of Haze Oberlo,a famous brand. The client want him dead cause apparently his wife cheated with him." she snorted.

Alaric raised his eyebrow,gesturing her to continue." Sure there are more?" Because he knows Ara would not take jobs carelessly. There is always a strong back up reason for her to agree on the bounty. Unless she was desperate.

"He is behind those missing people in these years. Trafficking human especially women in their teenage years to sell them as a slave outside the country,I believe," her eyes harden, "also associated with Rogelio Eberardo."

His face colors in shock,"That Rogelio Eberardo?"

She nodded."Robert is just a pawn,a thing or something he could use whenever he wants and throw it when he is sick of him."

"Then maybe we could get some information from this Robert."

After what felt like an hour and a half,they finally arrive in front of ordinary-looking building near the outskirt of town.Everything about the building looks normal and a little worn out,a sign it has been through some years standing on the land.What would have been a building painted in pure white,but now brown and black dirtying the building,with paint already scraped and corrosive. Who would have guess,this is actually a secret place for keeping human illegally to sell to an auction or club as a slave and prostitutes.

Alaric parked the car near bushes with trees surrounding to prohibit unwelcome attention to the car. Their car was enveloped in darkness,but a pair of eyes glowing in the shadow like the night sky with stars decorating it,mystical and hauntingly beautiful. 

Ara did not have any difficulty to see in the dark with her Soulpower, as she took out a gun and slipped it in the back of her black jeans. She has on her 'work' clothes, a clung-to-body long sleeved turtle neck under a hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans that allowing her to move easily in with half of her face was covered with mask. All black.

Alaric started to take out his eletronic things, typing furiously on the keyboard before he passed her a small black earpiece as a way of communication.

"It's been a while since we did this." he rubbed his hands together in excitement and turned to her, "Ready?"

Hearing that, Ara closes her eyes for a moment. And when she blinked them open again, she is a whole new person. Her usually gentle but slightly cold eyes became even colder, with a touch of fierceness that makes people shaking in their knees because of fear. Her movement is sharp and agile.

She glances at Alaric and her Bear still sleeping in the back for a second, before she put her black gloved hand on the handle of her side of the car door and pushed it open to the outside world.

__________

She sneaked her way to the back door of the building with silent steps. Her brother's deep voice suddenly rumbles through the earpiece. "All the cameras are off. There are three men chatting at the back door, one is two times bigger than you,the rest are average. You think you can handle them?", there is a moment of silent before he speaks again. "Good luck."

On the other side,Alaric is questioning his own intellect when he asked a question he already knows the answer of.

Ara calmly walks to the back door with hunched figure,trying to stay low. With the company of the darkness of the night, she knocks on the door confidently, the sound was firm and sharp.

"Huh? Who is it knocking this late night? Aren't they picking up another batch tomorrow?" A man voice spoke up,then he turned to the side, nudging his friend. "Hey,dude.Go get the door."

The said friend furrows his brow,dissatisfied and starting to get defensive. "Why should I? I've already opened it earlier. I don't want to."

The first man sighs and turned to their bulky friend to ask for the same thing. But a glance from his other friend forced him to swallow his words. He turned back to the dude earlier and start an argument.

She could hear muffled voices on the other side of the door arguing about who has to open the door.

At last, sound of footsteps nearing the door can be heard behind the door.

The door opened, "What do you-"

A choked noise came deep from the man's throat, his face starting to color in blue as he struggles to breath. He could feels the air from his lungs was sucked out by some invisible force,making him bring his hands to his throat in desperate attempts to seek some release. In his a-step-in-the-death-door moment,he could makes out a pair of glowing orbs staring back at him with a hand in the air through his blurry eyes, the signature color of a winter night sky that he pray to never see and came in contact with.

"R-ri-rio..."

His body slumped on the cold cement floor with a thud.

Sound of footsteps make her snapped her attention to the incoming fellows behind the door, effectively moving her eyes from the body on the floor.

"Hey, dude? Who is it?"

Eyes that cold, she stares at the two men silently.

Suddenly, both of the men freeze abruptly and lump on the floor the next second. Before they breath their last air, the only thing they could see was a pair of glowing frosty sapphire eyes before they faded to the color of night sky full of stars.

The two men didn't even knew what happened to them before they died. What they did know is the feeling as if the flow of blood in their veins suddenly stop, as if with the command of something, they freeze and the system crash,leaving their bodies immobile.

Ara walks in the building with such a mighty presence. In the eyes of people, they didn't see a young woman steps inside the building, but instead a goddess, someone so superior and far within their reach, someone who's beauty could turn the world upside down.

Without further ado, she stealthily proceed deeper into the building. So far, she did not cross path with anyone, only silence accompanying her.

She turned to a corner of a narrow hallway and climb up the stairs until she saw an oak door at the end of the hallway and instantly get in.

A man in his thirties was seated behind a mahogany office table is throwing back his head as lewd, disgusting noises was puked out of his mouth.

Even before Ara gets in, her sharp senses already catched those sound far at the beginning of the hallway earlier. She could see part of a woman's foot beyond the table and a glimpse of a blonde bobbing her head distractingly.

Too immerse in the pleasure, the man, Robert didn't even notice another person's presence in the room.

Ara scrunched her face in disgust as the silver color of her eyes dissolve into the sparkling and magical night sky.

With a simple wave of her hand, the ground shook visibly, all the furniture and things in the plain office room quiver under the force.

Angry with the sudden interruption, he turned his scowl to the person invaded in his room.

But then his eyes widen.

As if he saw an evil spirit floating in the air with a scary face, Robert suddenly tremble so viciously he couldn't even grasp his piece of clothing to put on.

He knows those eyes.

Everyone knows those eyes.

A pair of eyes that belong to the deadliest assassin in the world, Rio. Too many murders were committed, the news is filled with them all around the world. Sometimes, it goes as frequent as five cases a week. Though people all know this person, Rio is the one behind those murders, they can't do anything about it and the police including experts in this field as FBI couldn't catch her.

What makes the police so infuriating and the cases so popular and spread out to the world is the status and rank the victims in world. With her mysterious but so powerful Soulpower she possess, people couldn't even imagine just how it is just a snap of her finger to get people die.

There's a speculation that Rio have a partner in this. But whatever it is, the crowd wouldn't dare to speak a word fearing Rio would come after them instead.

Alas, Robert now is gazing straight to her eyes. And he dispise this moment.

Because he knows in the next second, he will be in extreme danger.

The woman at his feet is anxious seeing the reaction of her partner in bed, added with the sudden change in nature and atmosphere, quickly scattering up to her feet and dash to the door with her messy appearance.

Looking at his sick and pale face, the corner of her luscious red pomegranate lips behind the mask lifted slightly in mock.

Her eyes flashed with shining brown,like the color of the earth and the ground that changing to metal move to form a jail of some sort around Robert. He was so startled that he took a few small steps backwards.

Ara saunters forward somewhat lazily as she watches the man's wandering eyes, as if to find some weapon he could use against her.

Ara thinks he is stupid to even think he could look around for some weapon when there is absolutely nothing within his range. His space is limited to only the cage around him.

She brought her hand to the back of her pants and pull out a gun. The gun looks shiny and under immense care that it actually looks like a new one.

Ara suddenly stop and frowns. As if in dilemma, she bites her lower lip in thought, but then looks up at Robert with slightly tilted head and spoke with utter perplexity.

"Should I shoot you or should I just burn you down?"

The man started crying, "Please, I beg of you! You are Rio, right?! Just tell me the price, however how much it is I am willing to pay you as long as you don't kill me!" he pleaded.

Ara raised her brow, the cold look returned.

He seriously thinks he can negotiate his way out of this moment? His moment of death?

She let out an abrupt impatient laugh. The sound is low but smooth, and chill ran down the CEO's spine as he shivers in complete terror.

Let's just get this over with.

She raises her gun over the man's head, preparing to shoot.

But, then...

She senses another presences in the building, and one of them is just behind her at the door, watching.

A wave of something so intoxicating came rushing to her senses, it smells like the sea and sand, bringing her comfort and calming down her sudden erratic heart.

Following her instinct, she moves to turn her head.

3 𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓻...