Around the room, the assassins’ postures went from relaxed to alert in a split second. The suit hadn’t noticed, his gaze still on Ara.
“You looked better when I starved you. You’re too fat now,” the suit said.
Growls and snarls echoed throughout the room, his being the loudest, and he tightened his grip on Ara’s hand.
She took him by surprise, again, and threw back her head and laughed at the man. Her laugh brought smiles from the assassins in the room. She wiped at her eyes before she pinned her gaze on him.
“I don’t give a shit about your opinion of me. I couldn’t get away from you fast enough.”
The man smiled, but Ara’s words affected him more than he let on. His hands clenched the chair until his knuckles whitened and the leather creaked from the pressure, but it was the hatred that flashed in his eyes as they moved over to Reaper that gave him away.
Reaper wondered how long he would have to contain his rage and listen to this fucker, before he could rip his throat out and leave him gasping for air on the floor.
“Why are you not dead?” the suit barked at Reaper.
Reaper shrugged; a smile quirked up the side of his mouth. He didn’t answer the question directly, but Reaper watched the man closely as the minutes ticked by. This man was used to people falling at his feet—he needed that power—but the assassins couldn’t care less who he was or what he had. He had hurt Ara, and killed another shifter, and he had to go.
Another reason that they had to kill him. The man was batshit crazy. He walked into a home occupied by immortal assassins with untrained bodyguards, seeking a woman who he’d kidnapped and held for six months. He thought that she would walk out with him, as if his power alone would compel her to do as she was told. But with Ara refusing, and resistance from the immortals he underestimated, he tried another tack.
“Are you going to come with me peacefully, or do I order my men to kill everyone?”
Chapter Twenty
Ara
Ara blinked at the threat.
The simple statement was issued without malice in his tone. He really believed that she would willingly go with him, but she could sense the rage that radiated underneath his passive exterior expression.
As she delved deeper into the reason for his anger, she realized that he thought himself powerful enough that a simple woman, like Ara, would want him because he exuded it. He thought it would be easy. Walk into the immortal’s home, and when she spotted him, she would immediately obey. The one thing that he’d forgotten since she’d escaped was that she never bent to his demands, even as his prisoner. He’d gone so far as to beat her unconscious in order to have his way with her, and yet, she was able to fight him off every time.
The longer she stood there without a word, the more his anger flooded her senses. She should have been afraid of what he might do, but she found herself wondering why she feared him in the first place. For as long as she could remember, she allowed her insecurities about her abilities to cloud her judgment. She could have fought them, used her powers to break the others out, and yet, she cowed to the man who was clearly insane.
Guilt and rage built inside her at the threat she received. She couldn’t help feel responsible for Solomon’s death, but this man put them in danger and ordered Solomon killed. A stunning realization slammed into her at that moment. Her eyes ran over the man’s face that looked vaguely familiar to her, and with a rush, she realized she knew him.
The similarities between the drug dealer who killed her parents, and the man who sat in front of her, were obvious. His hooked nose must’ve been a family trait, as was the pale skin and the thin build. Even the part in his hair was the same.
I think he’s the brother of the man who killed my parents. That’s what the note had been referring to.
I don’t really care. I just want him dead, beautiful.
Leave it to Reaper to make her want to laugh in the toxic situation. She gave his hand another squeeze before she stepped forward. Reaper’s answering growl let her know he was uncomfortable with her moving even inches closer to the man, but she needed to show that she wouldn’t ever be afraid of the man again.
“If you think you can get me out of here, you can try.”
The answering smile she received was supposed to strike fear into her, but irritation started to creep and spread throughout her, and she growled at him, taking him by surprise. He reached for the gun that he hid in the waistband of his slacks and pointed it at her.
“Which one of your new friends should I kill first?”
At that moment, all of her concerns fell by the wayside. She smiled as rage, pure rage of which she’d never experienced before, coursed through her body at his threat. She let it wash over her because it assured her that she could shift into her wolf and rip his throat out before he got a shot off.
“Don’t threaten them. It will not end well for you.” The words came out clipped and deep.
He threw his head back and laughed. Again, she blinked at his crazy antics, but watched where he pointed the gun as it traveled around the room. It stopped at each immortal—Hunter, Ghost, Jade, Gunnar, Ax, Kai, Thomas, Isaac, Kane, Xander—but before he could fix on one of them, his eyes found Liv. She should have known that he would select a woman. He lived for terrorizing women, and by selecting Liv, the smallest of them, he thought that he would distract them away from his main objective. Her.
Kai snarled when this man threatened his mate. The low, menacing sound would have been enough warning for a normal human, but this man wasn’t paying attention to anyone but Ara.
Worried that Liv or one of the others would accidentally get shot, Ara decided to make a move.
Without moving any part of her, she levitated the gun from his grip, and held it in front of his face. She dismantled the gun, piece by piece, until the gun wasn’t recognizable as such. With a sneer on her face, she dropped the fragments onto the carpet at his feet. “Don’t…threaten…them.”
Instead of showing fear, he held his hand out to the closest armed man and palmed another gun. As soon as he gripped the weapon, he whipped his arm toward Reaper and placed his finger on the trigger.
That was the last straw.
She lifted her hand and pressed her fingers together. Instead of watching his hand, she watched his face the moment she crushed his wrist with more force than was necessary. The gun slipped from his hand as the crunching of his bones echoed throughout the room. The gun bounced once against the carpet and no one made a move for it.
The suit dropped to his knees, clutching his wrist against his chest, as a keening sound escaped his throat. “Kill them all.”
“Shit.”
Everything descended into chaos at that moment. Before the human mercenaries could move, Kai had taken out the two closest to him with a simple snap of their necks. She hadn’t seen Reaper move, but within seconds, he had stolen a gun from one of the men who had already fallen, and with practiced ease, killed the two of them with well-placed shots to their foreheads. Before Reaper could reach the third, who had ducked behind a wall near the basement, he called for help.
“Move in, now!”
“Outside,” Ghost shouted.
Ara caught Reaper’s gaze. I’m going to bind him outside. We’ll take care of the others and then decide what to do with him.
With his nod of approval, she strode forward and picked up the suit by the collar. He gasped as her strength surprised him, but she held him up and sneered at him. She growled at him; the vicious sound made him flinch back, but with her hold on him, he couldn’t move. Although the fear in his eyes should have given her satisfaction, she felt nothing other than rage.
“Call your men off,” she demanded.
“Fuck you.”
“Okay, we’ll do it the hard way.”
She dragged him behind the assassins as they flooded through the door. Fighting and gunfire echoed through the forest the moment she stepped past the threshold. Scanning the area, she f
ound a sturdy pine and bound him to the tree using her powers. He tried to struggle against the invisible hold, but was unable to move an inch. “I’ll deal with you later.”
As she turned away from the tree, two mercenaries ran into view. The smile on her face wasn’t a happy one as she assessed the situation and waited for them to make their first move.
It didn’t take long before they fired on her.
She held her hand up to block the bullets with ease, and while they were distracted by her abilities, she closed her hands together. Their heads bashed together with a sickening thud that made her flinch. She listened for a moment for their vital signs, but when she didn’t detect any, she moved on to join the main fight.
Although there were twelve immortals to fight since Liv had gone back to the basement after Kai’s harsh demand, the mercs sought Ara, as if they had orders to destroy her, and her alone. Her weeks of training had become second nature, and she dodged bullets and strikes with ease. Some of them had given up with their guns and came at her with knives, but she dispatched them easily.
By the sounds of the screaming that surrounded her, the humans had no idea what kind of fight they walked into. Instead of feeling sorry for them, she hoped that they would be dispatched soon so she could kill the one man responsible for the entire mess.
She had no idea how long they’d been fighting, but the realization that the fight had been slowing made her realize that she left the asshole bound to the tree, and she hadn’t checked on him in a while. Darting to where she remembered she left him, she found the ground empty and felt a flare of panic.
Reaper!
The same moment Reaper answered her call, she heard the distinct cock of a gun to her right.
Frozen in place, she watched as Reaper ran through the clearing, determined to find her. She opened her mouth to warn him, but the first shot rang out and pierced Reaper’s chest. Unlike other bullets that she’d seen, this one expanded the moment it entered his chest, and she watched in horror as the bullet exited with an explosion. Six more struck him with the same result, and she watched in horror as he crumpled to the ground. The man had aimed for his heart, and there would be no way to save him with that much damage.
Shutting off her mind, she allowed fury and revenge to take over. With deliberate slowness, she faced the man who had managed to kill the one person who had meant everything to her. When he came into view, she watched, without caring, as he rushed to release the clip in the gun to replace it with a fresh one. His movements were hindered by his broken wrist, and he kept cursing each time the clip missed.
“You should have left us alone. Now, I’m going to kill you, painfully and slowly.”
“Ara.”
Ignoring her friend who was supposed to be safe in the basement, she pinched her fingers together and heard the snap of his forearm as it bent backward.
The gun dropped from his hand and he fell to his knees, holding his arm to his chest.
Oblivious of the man’s screams, she started breaking bones, one by one—the tibia and the fibula in the right leg, before she moved on to the left. There was no satisfaction gleaned from watching him suffer, but she couldn’t break through the rage that had squeezed her chest in a vise.
“Stop! I want to live,” the man screamed.
“You should have left us alone,” she seethed.
“Ara!” Liv screamed.
She turned toward her friend. The sorrow in her eyes almost broke her in half. Instead of turning back toward the man, she drew an invisible circle in the air and heard the man’s neck snap. She would no longer look at the one who had killed Reaper.
The blood that surrounded Reaper became dark as it pooled around him in the dirt. She knelt beside him, and although there were gaping wounds on his chest, she pressed her hands against them, trying to stanch the blood that continued to flow through her fingers. Tears fell from her cheeks and struck his chest as the vision of him blurred.
“I love you. Until I met you, I had no idea that love existed. You held my hand, and told me that everything would be okay. You told me that you would protect me, but I failed at protecting you. I’m sorry, so sorry. This is all my fault. I love you.”
Determination swelled in her chest. She had healed him once before, when she thought him dead, and she would do it again. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and opened her palms on his chest. For a moment, nothing changed, but she sensed the faint heat in her palms before a piercing light flooded inside his chest. Although she couldn’t see the damage inside, she believed that she could save him.
Blackness edged into her vision, but she shook her head, refusing to give in until she knew that Reaper would survive. She hadn’t fought for her friend, or for her freedom, but she would do everything in her power to save the man she loved.
Closing her eyes to concentrate, the light that soaked into his body flared once, and then again. Exhaustion threatened to envelop her, but she kept her hands on his chest until the heat fell away.
With one last plea for his survival, she welcomed the blackness.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ara
Awareness returned slowly. She could hear the sounds of the shower running, and light footsteps on the floor below, but she couldn’t force her eyes open and confront her new reality. The one in which Reaper was dead.
She had been foolish to call him in a panic. If he hadn’t come through the clearing, she would have taken those bullets that were meant for her, and life would’ve gone on for him. Being selfish had caused Solomon to lose his life, and then Reaper had been taken from her. Although she wanted to believe her healing could’ve been successful, she couldn’t sense Reaper near her, or anywhere in the house for that matter. If he were alive, she would feel it.
Her eyes snapped open. As much as she dreaded it, she needed to see Reaper’s body. Maybe there was something more that she could do to save him.
Although she desired her body to move, she felt sluggish and sore. She stretched her muscles to get them working again, and took a moment to glance around the room. Pain struck and she sucked in a breath when she realized she lay in Reaper’s bed, in his house. They hadn’t been back here, in a place they both thought of as a sanctuary, for over a month. She blinked back tears, not understanding why anyone would bring her here. The place belonged to Reaper, and he was gone now.
The door opened, and for a split second, she hoped that she would see Reaper wandering in, giving her the smile that would make her melt each time he directed it at her. Disappointment clogged her throat when Liv came in, carrying a tray that Ara ignored, as the pain in her chest became unbearable.
Liv smiled at Ara. “I’m glad you’re awake.” The smile dropped off her face when she noticed Ara’s pained one.
“Where’s…” Ara’s voice cracked and she swallowed to complete her question. “Reaper?”
Liv shook her head, and Ara threw back the covers, determined to see him. When Liv looked back through the open door of the bedroom, Ara stood on shaky legs. She stumbled when she tried to lock her knees, and reached for the wall as she tried to balance herself. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, but when she tried to walk, she cursed under her breath at her weakness.
Glancing at her friend, she begged, “Please, Liv.”
“I’m right here, beautiful.”
Relief squeezed her heart as tears filled her eyes. She swallowed as the lump in her throat threatened to suffocate her, and it took her a long moment to lift her gaze.
He stood near the doorway, in a black tee and jeans, looking healthy and strong, and yet he made no move toward her.
Her eyes lowered. In the time they had known each other, Reaper had never put distance between them, but now it was if he couldn’t stand to be near her.
Although it had hurt, she understood.
“You need to rest, Ara. You brought Reaper back from death, healed tissue, muscle, and skin damage, and it took a lot of energy,” Liv said.
&nbs
p; Unable to speak, she nodded but hoped that Liv wouldn’t leave them alone together. She tried to stem the tears from falling, but a stray one slid down her cheek and she wiped at it angrily.
The blame for everything—having a madman stalk her, putting the assassins in danger, and Reaper being shot—was on her shoulders. Carrying the weight of that burden seemed simplistic now that she knew Reaper lived. She would find a way to live with it, because Reaper would be alive and well.
Liv squeezed Ara’s hand, bringing her out of her thoughts. Ara couldn’t come up with words of thanks, so she squeezed back. She almost spoke when Liv pulled away and headed toward the door, but closed her eyes and listened for the room to empty and the door to close.
Minutes later, she heard a car start before driving away, and she allowed the silence to swallow her.
“I’m sorry,” she choked.
“Why aren’t you looking at me?”
Instead of answering his question, she made a statement of her own. “I have to go. I am sorry.”
She could feel his rage at her words, but he would realize, in time, that she had been nothing but a danger to him.
In the months since she’d entered his life, he’d been gunned down, twice. He was safer as an assassin, on assignment, than he was being around her. He could have a normal life, one filled with friends and maybe someday, another mate. Although that thought crushed her, she knew it was nothing compared to watching him die.
“I shouldn’t have brought danger to you and the others. For that, I apologize.”
Her legs barely held her up as she started for the door. She made sure that she wouldn’t have to touch him, her resolve already shaky.
“You’re my mate, beautiful. You’re not going anywhere.”
Although his words were fierce, she knew better. He hadn’t touched her in the long minutes they had been in the room alone.
As she thought back on their relationship, his claiming, she should have insisted that they wait to see how the situation would end.
Reaper (A Dark Assassins Novel Book Two) Page 16
