[Later That Night, Charlotte, North Carolina (November 2022)]
The lights of the city sparkled below like spilled diamonds, glittering against the black velvet sky while Hannah Donovan, also known as Frost, stood on the rooftop of her apartment building. Her frost-tipped fingers were curled around the rail of a rusted fire escape. And her breath misted against the evening air as she gazed upon the city that had been her home for the last few years.
From here, she had an almost unobstructed view of the entire city. And the woman couldn't help but smile at what her life had turned into. From a common street beggar to an upcoming Iznana operative, life had never been so good. And now that she was officially in the Boss's inner circle, things could only get better from here.
'Exactly as it should be.' The 'ice magic' user told herself with a faint smile.
It had taken her only three years to go from enforcer to Lieutenant. And now, Hannah was sitting comfortably in her new position. She had her own agents. Her own infrastructure. Her own little kingdom to look over while raking in the money from the group's operations.
Of course, the money was good, but the prestige of her new position was even better. And most importantly, she was given free rein to operate as she pleased. No more babysitting from the higher-ups, like Reyna and Duncan. No more needless questions. And no more tedious oversight from the ones above her.
Life was good.
Still, there was one thing that gnawed at the back of Hannah's mind the more she thought about it. Something that was beginning to irk her nerves with each passing day.
The lingering silence from the Boss pricked at her thoughts as she watched a horde of mongrels scurrying about on the ground below. Which only made sense, considering that she hadn't heard from the woman in well over a week.
At first, the 'ice magic' user expected a flood of new missions or special orders to follow her promotion, some grand test of loyalty or strength to further ingratiate herself into the upper echelon of the organization. Instead, what she got was silence. No major updates outside of the normal check-ins. And no new big operations to busy herself with.
The other operatives under her command assured her it was a good sign. A sign that showed how much the Boss appreciated her ability to handle business without having to constantly check in with her.
"It just means that she trusts you." Mikayla had said to her just yesterday. "Means you're stable. Reliable. No point in worrying yourself over it."
It was hard for the strawberry-blonde sorcerer not to agree with that sentiment. After all, Hannah had performed her duties swimmingly up until this point. And the results spoke for themselves. Just in the last year or so, Hannah had tripled their group's income with all of the operations she had personally put together. Her agents feared her wrath, revered her power, and didn't dare screw up. She was efficient. Ruthless. And above all, loyal.
And yet...it wasn't enough.
Eventually, Hannah made her way back to her apartment to relax a bit. And all the woman could do was walk around her home while trying to come up with something to do. Her brother still hadn't returned home yet, and her best friend was still at work. So for now, all the woman could do was try to find a way to keep herself busy.
To be honest, Hannah wasn't expecting to have this much downtime after her promotion.
Nowadays, instead of running operations with the rest of her people, she was stuck looking over the area that the Boss had assigned to her. Sure, she was now in charge of coordinating all of Iznana's operations in the state of North Carolina while the Boss dealt with other matters around the country, but the new job was a lot more lax than what she had planned. All she really did now was just read reports, give orders, and send messages out to her minions whenever she needed something to get done.
It was so damn boring….
'I haven't even gotten any new toys to play with.' Hannah then thought to herself before pulling out her secured phone and opening up the photos app to the folder she had created of her most recent conquest.
As crazy as it may have sounded to anyone with a normally functioning brain, the woman truly did miss having Cyrus on her exam bed. The 'tree magic' user had been her most fun toy by far. And all of the photos that she had of him just didn't get her going the same way that having him right in front of her did.
It was a shame that she had let him go so soon after getting what she needed out of him; she could really use a bit of stress relief at the moment. And because of that, she was now left wondering when the next time she would be able to have him all to herself would be.
It was rare to find a guy who scratched that itch exactly the way that she liked. Something like that only ever came once in a blue moon. And it was unlikely that she would be able to find someone like the 'tree magic' user again anytime soon. Men with the stamina to keep up with her desires were simply too hard to come by, after all.
'Maybe I'll let him off his leash the next time I get to have him.' Hannah then thought with a wicked smile while licking her lips at a photo of a freshly scarred Cyrus, only a few minutes after she got done marking her territory all over his face. 'There's some good party drugs out there that'll pretty much turn him into a dog in heat. And there are still a few positions that I want to try on him.'
Suddenly, the woman got a notification on her phone. For a brief moment, she wondered if it was the Boss finally contacting her. But after looking at the name on the screen, it was just another one of her minions who was giving her a routine update on an operation she had sent them out on.
"Seven shipments in. One delay at the truck stop. Intercepted, but product secure. No exposure."
Noted. Handled. Dealt with.
The woman sighed.
For all the danger and mystique of Iznana, the blood oaths, the forbidden rituals, the whispered rumors that disappeared overnight, being a Lieutenant often boiled down to nothing but babysitting and damage control. Hannah wasn't complaining, though. At least not really. Things could be a lot worse, all things considered.
The power was real. The money was incredible. She had a roof over her head. Her stomach was full. And she was always draped in designer clothes whenever she stepped out of the house. Everything was exactly the way that it should've been. Everything was exactly the way that she hoped it would be when she agreed to take the Boss up on her offer all those years ago. Hell, she had even gotten to the point where her minions would flinch at her the moment she looked at them wrong.
She loved their fear. It almost made her mouth water at the mere thought of it.
But she hadn't frozen a man to death in weeks. It was all just so bland….
'Man…I really need to get some action soon. Maybe there's some drunk fool around here I can play with for the rest of the night? Someone whose family won't come looking for him if he goes missing.'
Hannah missed the rush. She missed the chaos. She missed the thrill of staring someone down, knowing they were seconds away from being turned into a frozen statue with a single flick of her wrist. Fear was a beautiful commodity.
And she wanted more of it.