After her tearful reaction to my appearance, we had spent the night talking of the years that had passed and had fallen asleep long after it had become dark. I had no expectation of renewing the life we had shared before I left for London, but it was something that I wanted more than I had realised.
“We will definitely talk later,” she agreed, pausing to glance back as the door opened behind her. “Look who’s finally awake.”
Our children stood in the doorway, wearing pyjamas. Angelina wore a fluffy monstrosity adorned with the sheep which she so resembled while wearing it. From her glower, she was well aware of how ridiculous she looked and did not like it.
Gabriel wore a brightly coloured all in one suit that had a hood that was supposed to resemble some kind of imaginary creature. He was fairly dancing with excitement as he was gently pushed aside by a dark-furred creature that stared up at me with eyes almost as deep a brown to be black.
Her tail wagged, which I understood to mean she was happy. The others all waited a moment as though expecting some response from either me or the hound and I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to be. Jinx, it seemed, experienced the same confusion as she tilted her head to look at me, as though to say, ‘you do something.’
I stared down at her and she up at me and I thought, just for a moment, that I could see those long years I had been absent. Lily had told me some of what happened during those years and one thing she had been clear on, unlike my idiot minions, Jinx had not let me down.
A step forward and I crouched, reaching out to gently touch her fur, running my fingers through the thick, soft, dark strands as she trembled beneath me. I kept my eyes fixed to hers as I spoke for I wanted her to hear that what I said was spoken with complete and utter conviction.
“You fought to protect my family.” My hand moved, down across her side, feeling the scar tissue beneath the fur. “You were wounded doing so. For that, you have my gratitude.”
I could almost believe she understood me as she stood there, tongue lolling and breath heavy as she watched me with that silent stare of hers. I stroked her, hands gentle for the brave creature who had stood as protector over my children for those years I had been absent.
“Thank you.”
As I stood, Lily brushed at her eyes with her hand and even Cass, standing behind the children wore a misty-eyed smile. Gregg, face calm and free of tension, gave a curt nod of approval, though for what I was unsure.
“What?” I asked, more than a little irritated by their display.
“Nothing.” Lily patted my arm gently and gestured for the children to go back into the house. “Let’s all have breakfast and then we are going to have to have a serious talk about what we do next.”
I looked back over my shoulder. The crowd hadn’t thinned and instead had grown. Lily too saw that and was as unamused as I was, though I suspected for a different reason.
Whatever it was, she would tell me if it was important. For that moment though, I was going to do something I had not done for many years, and something I had never before enjoyed.
I would have breakfast with my family, and something told me that I wouldn’t hate it.
Chapter 4
My home, once a place of refuge for my little family here in Mostyn, had become the de-facto base of operations in the short time since Ryan had returned home. Charlie, it seemed, had realised before anyone else had that I would have a need of privacy that wouldn’t be possible if surrounded by curious people.
She’d moved a great deal of equipment into my home as we ate breakfast and by the time we were done, she was already seated in the corner of what had been my dining room, staring at her computer screen.
Isaac, watching Ryan warily, stood beside her, large arms crossed over his barrel chest as he kept his expression neutral. The children went with the black-garbed cultist who would be watching over them for the day, as Cass, Gregg, Ryan and I, gathered quietly in the dining room.
“Well,” I said, breaking the silence. “I guess we should all talk.”
All eyes seemed to be drawn to my beloved, Ryan, who merely blinked and stared back with a slight smile softening the hard lines of his face. I drew in a deep breath, and gave a curt nod of my head, signalling for Charlie to begin.
“Okay folks, here’s the deal.” She flashed a wide grin as she tapped rapidly on her keyboard, images appearing on the screen of crimson tentacles slithering their way up a pebble-strewn beach. “The parasite in Liverpool has reached our side of the bay. Moving fast enough that it will be with us in a couple of weeks at most.”
I risked a glance at Ryan, but he didn’t speak, and I exhaled softly. He hadn’t done much resisting when I’d told him that I wouldn’t let him leave again. That worried me.
Sure, I had no right to tell him what to do. He was his own person and had the right to make his own choices, but I didn’t think that I would survive another death. The last one had broken me and there was no way he could keep evading death.
“With the viral agent brought by our very own newly returned friends,” Charlie continued. “We have a way of killing it. We’re just not sure how.”
“Something I’d like to know,” Isaac said, voice rough, almost a growl. “We threw everything we had at the damned things and you just come along and find a way to kill them! I don’t buy it.”
“It’s true.” Gregg coughed into his hand as he was suddenly the centre of attention, something he had grown unaccustomed to being. “Two of them have been killed. The viral agent works. You just have to inject it into the main mass.”
“We saw one of them things pull a plane out of the sky!” Isaac snapped back. “How the hell do you expect to get close enough to stab it with a needle?”
Again, silence from Ryan, who leant back against the wall, gaze distant as though not really listening. I didn’t believe that casual pose for a second, but it was Gregg who replied after a short pause.
“The one in London was killed by-“
“Yes, yes.” Isaac waved a hand, gesturing him to silence and then pointed one meaty finger at Ryan. “You, Clever-Bastard. How’d you kill it?”
Ryan’s smile never wavered as he shifted his gaze to the big, former, mercenary.
“I moved faster than the appendages.”
That seemed to be all he was willing to say on the subject and after a long silent moment that stretched taut, Isaac realised he wasn’t about to say anything else. His face darkened with anger and he shook his head.
“Damn you! So be it. I’ll lead a team and we’ll take it out.”
Still no response from Ryan and my stomach seemed to be doing flips as my heart beat faster with each passing moment. I’d expected an argument, a firm announcement that he would go anyway.
But… nothing. He stood there silently, watching us all as though trying to figure something out. It was maddening.
“You can’t do it!” Gregg said, throwing his hands up. “You’ll die, you know you will.”
“If he can do it, then others can too!”
Great, a pissing contest. Just what I needed. Hurt feelings and a need to prove he was as good as Ryan. Bloody wonderful.
“Prepare your team,” I said, cutting off further argument. “Let me know what you need and how you plan on doing this. We have some time before it reaches us, but not much. So proceed swiftly.”
“Aye, will do, lass.”
“Next issue,” Charlie said, eyes briefly turning towards Ryan before she ducked her head as he noticed her looking. “The raider groups.”
I’d known this was coming, but still, I’d hoped not to have to do this until I had spoken to him in more depth about what he had done. There were things people wouldn’t understand, not that I was sure that even I would, but things I could forgive, they wouldn’t.
There had been too much to speak of after he’d returned, and we’d only touched on a fraction of what had happened in the time since he had left on that ill-fated journey to destroy the Genpact threat. I
bit down on my lip as I watched his face, hoping for some kind of reaction, a denial, of what was about to come.
“Rumours abound,” Charlie continued. “It’s all people are talking about. The largest raider group in the area was hurt, badly. Some northern groups have already started pushing south into the Rider’s territory.”
“Sensing weakness,” Isaac added, eyes narrowing as he too watched Ryan. “Understandable considering what we heard.”
“What did you hear?” Gregg asked, keeping his face perfectly still.
“Mutilations, torture, murder. Acts of terror that had them pulling their people back to fight an enemy that terrified them. It’s what led them to Wrexham where they were bloodied.”
“After wiping out a good portion of cultists,” Cass added. “Not something to gloat over.”
“It’s not?” Isaac scoffed.
“We need them still.”
“Not as much as they think we do,” he replied with a glower as he lifted his chin, gesturing towards Ryan. “That’s where you turned up. Anything to add?”
I couldn’t help a moment’s hope that he would say he had just turned up as the fight started and stepped in to help. Not that I would believe that, but it would be nice to think it. Just for a moment.
“The leader of their group was a former minion from Glasgow,” Ryan said, and that hope died. “He’s trying to set himself up as figurehead of a new cult with limited success.”
“So, you met him?”
Ryan’s smile widened but he didn’t reply.
“Christ!” Isaac snapped. “What the hell did you do to them?”
“They were rapists and killers,” Gregg interjected quickly. “They terrorised those communities around their home and did as they pleased. People were kept as slaves, used for labour and pleasure both. They are scum!”
“Tell me what happened,” I said, speaking directly to Ryan, and he turned his head towards me. “Please.”
“It was an easy choice to make,” he said, not looking away from my shimmering eyes. “There were many of them and only a few of us.”
“A tactical decision?”
“Not entirely, though that played a part.”
Oh, God.
“What then?”
“I wanted to hurt them, to make them feel that same fear that they so inspired in others.”
My heart sank as his words sunk in. I knew he was a killer and had been long before the rest of us had killed out of necessity. He gloried in murder and had found a way to continue to enjoy it while retaining the promise he had made me so long ago.
He only killed those who harmed another, the bad people of the world. But he had never tortured people. That wasn’t what brought on the thrill he so needed.
“How?” I asked, voice trembling.
“At first I would simply kill a group and leave their heads in a neat pile where they could be found.” His smile remained in place as his eyes grew distant, remembering. “Soon I grew bored and suspected they would be losing that fear those heads would have once brought on.”
“With a hammer, I nailed a man to a barn door and once he hung there, weeping with the pain of his wounds, Two castrated him.” Cass gasped and I raised a hand to my brow, the urge to weep almost too much to bear. “The men that were keeping Seven and Eight captive, tied up in cars so that they could be used whenever they pleased. Those I killed, then I cut off each of their faces and laid them at the door of the larger group that was sleeping inside.”
He chuckled softly then, seemingly unaware of the growing looks of horror on the faces of everyone else.
“I can only imagine how upset that made them.” He blinked then, seeming to sense the shift in the room and his voice grew cold. “I cut the tongue from one raider and the balls from another. I blinded several and I burned one alive, leaving her screams as a warning to the others. I unleashed my full rage against them, and I taught them what fear truly was.”
Silence stretched thin in that room and I cleared my throat, taking a moment to collect my thoughts before I spoke.
“You made them fear you,” I agreed. “They were scared enough to abandon a lot of their territory and chase after you.”
“Good.”
“No!” He wasn’t the only one whose voice went cold with anger. “What you did destabilized the entire area. People are going to suffer more as new raiders fight over the territory the Riders lost. Then there’s them!”
“What about them?”
There was no anger in his voice, no guilt nor remorse, just curiosity.
“You wounded them and if their leader wants to remain in charge you better believe he will need to double down on his own brutal regime to make sure his people don’t turn on him.”
“There’s the Jackals too,” Charlie added, and he turned to look at her.
“Who?”
“A third group that were in Wrexham. They were likely waiting to pick off whoever survived but then you bloody well showed up and slaughtered everyone! Now we have no idea where they are or what they are up to.”
He cocked his head at that, seeming to consider it for a moment and I had the barest hope that he would understand that he had made a mistake. Then he lifted his shoulders in a shrug and I sighed.
“Then I will have to find them and kill them.”
“You’ve done enough of that!” I snapped. “This isn’t a game. People are going to suffer because of what you have done!”
“We’ll need to start training more soldiers,” Isaac said, just the slightest hint of glee at Ryan’s predicament in his voice. “If we want to bring peace to the area, we’ll need the troops.”
“Do so.” I had to take a breath as I snapped at him and he waved away my apology before I could form it. “A boat will be heading back to the island with the vaccine and data. I’d like you to go and take some of your people to make sure it reaches the labs safely.”
“You suspect it won’t?”
“No, but that is the hope of our species surviving and I sure as hell don’t want to risk anything happening to it.”
“I’ll prepare now.” With a nod, he pushed away from the wall and marched from the room as the others waited in awkward silence.
“Well, I think I’ll check on the kids,” Gregg said, taking his sister’s hand and leading her from the room.
Charlie, with a smirk and a shake of her head at Ryan, followed after and then it was just me and him. The killer, the torturer, the mutilator, the man I loved.
“You’re upset?”
“Yes.”
He actually seemed pleased about that! No, I realised, not about me being mad but that he had recognised it.
Sometimes he was as simple and straightforward as a child and it was so easy to forget that he was a killer more dangerous than any I had ever heard of. Still… I loved him.
“You know you were wrong to do what you did?”
“I know it served a purpose.”
“To inspire fear?”
“Yes.”
“Why not just come straight through their territory and return with an army?”
He seemed to think about that for a moment before he answered.
“I wasn’t going to return home.”
That set me back and I gaped at him and his simple confession. A million questions seemed to rush into my head and become tangled, one after another colliding and breaking apart as I struggled for a response. In the end, I settled for the simplest.
“Why?”
“So much time had passed that I thought you would have found a new life, one where you were happy. I had no desire to cause you pain or to bring my darkness to darken the light you live in.”
Which was kind of… sweet, I supposed. It showed he was thinking of me, but in doing so, he had then taken out his frustrations in a number of unpleasant ways on others.
Another soft sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut and wondering how I had ever managed to fall in love with a man ca
pable of everything I abhorred.
The answer to that was easy though. I just didn’t want to voice it.
“Are you going to stay?”
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.” No hesitation in my reply and no doubt either. “For now, and forever.”
I paused then, considering what I was about to say next and knowing that I may not like the answer.
“You won’t leave again?” I stepped towards him, finger poking him in the chest for emphasis as I looked up into his eyes. “I can’t lose you again.”
“If that is what you want.”
“You could live with that? An end to violence, to killing?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
He grinned then and I was in his arms, head resting against his chest. I knew that beneath his shirt there were countless new scars and he had told me the story behind some of them but there were too many to go through them all.
It told a tale of pain and torment that he had endured in those dark years away from me. His rage, his fury, it wasn’t just because of me. I could well imagine that there was a great deal more behind his actions than even he suspected.
Someone I knew might be able to help shed a light on that of course.
“Evie is going to come here when the boat returns.”
“My sister, why?”
“To see you of course.”
I looked up and smiled at the confusion in his eyes, but he didn’t voice it.
“Tell me,” I said, and he cocked an eyebrow in query. “Why aren’t you arguing to go and kill the parasite?”
“You were clear in not wanting me to leave.”
“That’s never stopped you before.” I really wasn’t sure if I wanted the next answer. “Why now?”
“I’ve missed too much time with my family, and I don’t want to miss more.”
Which was almost sweet and even human of him to say. Which also meant there was something else coming.
“Besides,” he continued. “I figured that once you get tired of your people dying you will finally agree that I should just go and kill it for you anyway.”
Killing The Dead | Book 23 | Come The End Page 3
