Vespera looked at the captive's face above the pistol.
Vespera's killing intent struck the room hard enough to make Mara flinch behind the shadow lattice. Darkness surged beneath the pimp's shoes and climbed her legs while she tried to drag her captive through the rear door.
"I'll shoot her! I'll-"
Vespera's shadow clamped around the pistol and wrenched its barrel toward the ceiling. It fired as another tendril peeled the woman's arm away from the captive's throat.
A broad coil caught the captive around the waist and lifted her clear. Vespera set her behind the lattice beside Mara's cage while the pimp screamed over the breaking bones in her gun hand.
Mara reached through the bars and caught the woman's wrist.
"Here! Come here!"
Vespera drove shadow hooks beneath the pimp's ribs and pulled them outward. "I'm truly treated as a pushover in this nation," the Shadow Monarch noted with a flat tone. "To think I'd stop because you took a hostage... I don't even know her name."
