Like a suicide waiting to happen, she blasted through Philly’s streets and drove to New York. Death must have been on vacation for us to have survived her constantly entering one-way streets in the wrong direction and randomly driving onto the sidewalk or straight through a pedestrians-only square.

  But we did arrive, and she stopped in a side alley in Manhattan.

  Isabella hopped out of the car, and I carefully exited, doing my best not to throw up from the ride.

  She skipped to the trunk, opened it, and motioned inside. “You take that.”

  I picked up a case. Sort of heavy, but not enough to trouble me. “What’s in it?” I regretted the question the second the words left my mouth. Too late.

  Isabella grinned from ear to ear. “Your wedding dress. I got you a beautiful lace dress, heels, and even a veil. I’m marrying you off to the dumpster next street.”

  Right. I earned that. The case contained a weapon, obviously.

  With a satisfied smirk, Isabella motioned at a ladder on the house wall. “That way.”

  I threw the case over my shoulder and started climbing. That wasn’t difficult at all, but at the same time, this started feeling serious. She never let me go first. My legs got heavy and started to drag.

  A thick strand of her hair swished through the air and slashed me across the back.

  I yelped in pain and sped up.

  The ladder took me all the way to the roof. What a strange spot. We stood on a small roof, which had a perfect view of the long street ahead, but we stood in the shadow of a skyscraper next to us, which didn’t have any windows in this direction.

  At the same time, our house was taller than the others, so the roof wasn’t actually visible from anywhere.

  Isabella arrived on the roof as well, heels clicking as she approached. “Open the case.”

  She sounded way too serious. I put the case down, opened its zipper, and found a heavy sniper rifle folded inside.

  “A fifty caliber, AI-aim-assisted sniper rifle, god-hunter edition,” Isabella commented. “Assemble it and lie down over there.”

  Very slowly, I assembled the rifle and laid myself down on the spot, facing the street.

  Isabella pounced on my back and lay on top of me. She barely weighed anything, but she still pinned me down, as if a skyscraper had fallen on top of me. The smell of her citrusy perfume filled my nose. She moved up and grazed my ear with her lips. “Load it.” She produced a long cartridge from her pocket and moved it next to my hand.

  My heartbeat sped up, and with a shaking hand, I took the cartridge. I loaded it into the rifle and closed the chamber. “I don’t see any demons in here.”

  “Because there are none. You see, I’m not the only one who hates humans. So does the System, and it shows it by giving a stupid amount of experience for killing them. That’s why I’m level ninety-three.”

  I froze completely, the citrus scent making me lightheaded. “What do you mean?”

  “Exactly what I said. In a few minutes, a convoy of cars and vans will drive out on the street. A gang thought it was a good idea to move white meat through our section of the port. They will pay for that. In the second row of cars, there will be a lone sedan with darkened windows. On the right rear seat sits Jonathan Montoya Ramirez. He leads the trafficking gang and is a sort of decent mage. He’s worth a ton of experience.”

  My entire body started shaking, heat and color withdrawing from me. “You cannot be serious. I can’t just kill someone.”

  “You killed the demons just fine. You’ve also almost died a few times. Usually, things go the other way. People are ready to kill, but fall apart when facing the risk of death. Aren’t you having it all twisted?”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  No. That was insane. Any decent person would risk their life for a good cause, but never take an innocent life. “Is that how you justify killing someone?”

  “There’s no need to justify it, really. God doesn’t care about you or anyone else. You aren’t going to Heaven no matter what you do, and Hell isn’t all what it’s hyped up to be. All that matters is your path through the right now, the one life you get to live, and it’s going to be a short one, if you don’t level up.”

  “Why can’t we just raid a dungeon or something?”

  “Have you ever seen any?” She sported a short laugh. “There are far too many mages and organizations for any dungeons to be accessible. Monster hunting has a similar problem. There just aren’t any to get. There’s the portal, but you’re going there tomorrow anyway. Plus, this is important for another reason.”

  The discussion made me shake less, which wasn’t a good thing. “What reason?”

  “There are firsts that leave a mark on a person. The first kiss, the first love, the first sex, the first car, the first paycheck, the first marriage, all of these pale in comparison to the first murder. The moment you first kill another human will be burned into your mind for the rest of your existence. My first murder was done in a damp cellar, and I did it because they promised me a good meal. I killed an honest and innocent man. So, I’m making sure your first kill is someone who deserves it.”

  What an absurdly twisted logic. In her eyes, she must have seen herself as being all so kind and caring. “You’re insane.”

  “I know. And that’s why I’m alive and well, while all the good people are miserable or dead. Look. The convoy has come.” She pointed at the street spread ahead of us. “Just don’t kid yourself that you would never kill anyone.”

  Automatically, I looked forward, indeed seeing a convoy of cars on the road.

  “Aim.”

  No. I couldn’t just kill someone. Even if he was a human trafficker or whatever. My body started shouting.

  Isabella leaned even closer to me and whispered. “Your father never doubted.”

  Fuck.

  I exhaled, aimed at the car, and fired. The shot thundered through the air, deafening me. The bullet hit the car, and the vehicle exploded.

  The explosion flipped the car upwards, which made the following car crash into the burning wreck.

  A bright flash blinded me for a split second, and all the lights I could see went dark in an instant, complete blackout.

  Isabella giggled and pressed her ear through the hair. She clearly hid an earpiece in there. “Move in.”

  Wheels screeched from the street ahead, and then gunfire exploded.

  Pale and breathless, I made out that the convoy had stopped.

  Three vans arrived at it from the sides, their doors opened, and men, from whom I could barely see the shapes, jumped out of them.

  More gunshots echoed through the air, and screaming joined them.

  I stared at the scene, unable to move, my entire body lightly shaking.

  Isabella cackled on my back and pressed her earpiece again. “Yep, everyone. The cargo should be split among all their vans.”

  An absolute massacre unveiled itself before me, the agents from the vans massacring everyone from the convoy.

  Ding. A level up.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  The gunfire died as the agents ran out of people to shoot. The blast opened the vans, turned the lights on their helmets, and started taking out bags and crates.

  My face flushed. “You told me they were white meat traffickers.”

  “And they might be.” She cackled again. “They have been using our port section without paying the fees, so we’re taking the payment.”

  A gang hit. That’s what this was. And I played into it.

  Worse, I just killed someone. At least two people, probably more.

  I didn’t even know. For all I knew, there might have been a child in the car.

  My stomach turned, and vomit burst out from my mouth.

  Since I was still lying on the floor, I hurled all over my arms, and it promptly bounced back on my face.

  Isabella jumped off my back and up to her feet. “Way to treat the steak I bought for you. I might as well have fed you dog food.”

  My vomiting intensified with another burst. I retched afterwards and curled up, catching my knees.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  “Geesh, stop overreacting so much. You didn’t even see the light go out of their eyes, or blown up body parts, or any of the other good stuff.”

  I went completely limp, mind blank.

  I murdered at least two people.

  Isabella walked to me until her heels stopped an inch from my face. She lifted my face up with the tip of her shoe. “This was fun for a while, but you need to get up. You have places to be tomorrow, remember?”

  Damn her. I did. I had to get Francesca out through the portal. Plus… “What do you know about my father?”

  “Everything. And when you are ready, I will tell you.”

  “Until then, you will dangle it in front of me.”

  She laughed, but neither in a vicious nor in a mocking way now. “Precisely. I have almost all the cards I could have over you, and this is one of the better ones. There are about four people in the world who know about your father, and your mother isn’t one of them. She got shagged once and that was it. You either make me happy, or you never find out.”

  Demons were so much better than her. Even when they wanted to kill me, they aimed to do it swiftly, not to slowly torture the soul out of their victim like she did. Or at least, when they did, they didn’t pretend it was out of friendship or something.

  With a grunt, I rose and shook off whatever vomit I could from myself. “You better have some booze.”

  “But of course I do.” She smirked. “And I might even share a bit with you.”