Chapter
Twenty-Two
Fighting
in an enclosed space was not the most favourable of situations. Add a
pissed off vampire Queen with a knife sticking out of her right eye socket to the
mix, and that’s when things really started to get challenging.
Nate had two choices when Cyd plunged her knife in;
go in for the kill whilst Destiny had her guard down, with Cyd potentially
getting caught in the melee, or get Cyd out of the danger zone once and for
all.
He
chose the latter. He’d always choose the latter if Cyd’s safety was on
the line.
Knowing
that Hadleigh would be there to catch her cousin helped as he raced forward to
snatch up Cyd. Destiny was shrieking in shock and pain, whirling in a
frenzy of rage, nails raking the air, catching Nate across the back, leaving
behind four deep furrows between his shoulder blades as he heaved Cyd across
the room into Hadleigh’s waiting arms.
Destiny
kicked out, sensing a threat was too close as she sent the coffee table
skidding into the back of his knees and an armchair flying across the
room. A lamp and several photo frames followed, dangerous sharp missiles
in a room that had suddenly gotten a lot darker and a lot louder as planks were
hammered into place by his fellow warriors, blocking all the windows, all the
exits.
Nate
crouched, his sword drawn and ready in the suddenly pitch black room. His
body taut and alert, thankfully the gripping ache in his gut had eased knowing
that Cyd was clear of the building… safe. Now it was time to deal with
the bat-crap-crazy vamp Queen, who had gone all too quiet and still.
Fuck, where was the bonkers bitch?
Then
she laughed, somewhere off to his left. A low grating humourless sound
followed by a loud hiss as metal scraped against bone. Damn, she’d pulled
the knife free, as if the bitch didn’t have enough in her personal armour of
wicked sharp nails and pointy teeth, now she had his knife.
“Oh
Lover, if you wanted to get me alone in the dark, you just had to ask.”
Destiny had moved, her voice now sounded off to the right, double damn her cat
quick reflexes. “Of course I think you forgot one small thing when you
put together this little plan of yours Stud.” She was on the move but he
couldn’t exactly pinpoint her. “I’m a vampire remember, I can see
perfectly well in the dark… even with one eye.”
Nate
tensed, listening for the slightest whisper of leather or drop of falling vamp
blood to pinpoint her location. Come on bitch… make a move, make a
mistake.
Two
things happen simultaneously, Destiny moved and from the direction of the
chimney came a loud rattle as about fifty glow sticks hit the ground and
spilled out of the fireplace, courtesy of Flynn, thank you brother.
Nate
leapt up high, his sword piercing Destiny’s side and lodging in the wooden
ceiling, he meant to pin her there but Destiny was too quick, tearing herself
free of the blade, leaping from the ceiling to the far side of the room.
A hissing laugh issuing from between her broken teeth as she stood enveloped in
the golden glow now filling the room.
Her
one good eye glowed iridescent silver as she ignored the tear in the side of
her catsuit and the deep cut just below her ribcage. Destiny grinned, a
chilling broken smile, her own black blood smeared across her chin and
jaw.
“Not as romantic as candlelight but
I suppose it’s the thought that counts.”
Nate
moved forward a few feet, broken glass and knick knacks littered the floor,
making traversing the room that little bit trickier. “Seriously, if you
have to keep running your mouth all the time at least pick a topic I give a
damn about, like where I might find your former clients, Sek and Mot.”
“I’d
much rather talk about what I’m going to do to your friend Cyd once I’ve dealt
with you and all your warrior pals.”
“Is
that supposed to rile me? Get me to act rashly? Cyd is safe.
Please, I’m a professional, if I don’t kill you, then I have absolute faith my
fellow warriors will skewer you the moment you step outside. You might
say that it’s your…
destiny
to die
tonight.”
“Did
they bring an army? Last time we fought it took three of them to keep me
occupied, and I walked away with nary a scratch.”
Nate
laughed with genuine amusement. “Oh bless your chipped fangs.
You believed that carefully choreographed
act? Tag teaming you was all part of the plan to play your narcissistic,
over-confident, catsuit wearing ass so I could place that tracker on you.
Even now, you don’t get why you and I have been having this drawn out little
game, do you? It’s because every time we talk, you drop just a little bit
more information on Sek and Mot, but you’ve become a time waster now and you
almost hurt Cyd… enough’s enough. Tell me where I can find them and I’ll
kill you quick… my word as a warrior of Maat.”
“A
game, please,” Destiny scoffed, tossing her head back.
“You would never have allowed your little
friend who couldn’t fly to be damaged if it was all just a game.”
“I
blame myself for Vivian getting hurt, who knew you’d be so obsessed that you’d be
willing to cling to the side of a skyscraper to spy on me. That’s why I
changed the venue and lured you here.”
“Lured
me here? Now who sounds over-confident?” Destiny used the toe of
her boot to send a pillar candle lying on the ground hurtling through the air
in Nate’s direction. Even with one eye the trajectory was good, forcing
Nate to duck and move, circling the room.
They
clashed, Destiny diverting his sword with the edge of her knife even as his
boot swept out, kicking her legs out from underneath her. She rolled as
she landed, coming up on the other side of the sofa. Panting hard, she
glared at him with one silver eye for a moment before launching herself up over
the sofa. Nate bought his sword up, but not high enough as tricky Destiny
somersaulted off the ceiling. Nate ducked just in time to avoid a blade
in the cheek as she landed on the top of a side table across the room, crouched
low and ready.
With
a jagged smirk on her face Destiny reached over with one finger, pushing a
large vase off the table next to her, sending it crashing to the floor.
“Whoopsie, so clumsy of me.”
“Yeah,
yeah… I get it, the whole world gets it, you’re a bitch and you don’t care who
knows it.”
“Reputation
is everything in my line of business.” Destiny traced an idle finger over
the edge of the blade she held.
Nate
found himself laughing once more. “Oh I get it. When you fucked up
that contract for Sek and Mot, they put the word out, didn’t they? The
whole stalker thing… you can’t resist playing with your kills first. And
that’s what you need to do isn’t it? To get your assassin rep back, kill
a Maat warrior?”
“My
reputation is just fine thank you.”
“Oh
I doubt that. You failed to deliver them the blood of the
descendant. You failed to deliver them the blood of the witch. You
lost a whole mess of minions in the process. And you allowed a warrior of
Maat to place a tracking device on you that almost led straight to your
client’s hide out. If we look up the definition of ‘fuck-up’ in the dictionary,
I’m pretty sure there’ll be a picture of your bony face.”
“I’m
a professional, everyone knows that.”
Nate
laughed again. “No wonder Sek and Mot aren’t chasing after you to extract
revenge, they’ve already gone and had it, haven’t they? You’ve been
black-balled from the assassins’ guild.”
“Don’t
be ridiculous.”
“No,
you lost everything when we found your lair. Trained minions gone.
All your equipment gone and no way to create any more cash flow, unless you
manage to kill me.”
“Killing
you would be nice, but I’ll settle for parading you around on a leash for a
decade or two first.” Destiny launched herself off the table.
Nate
was ready for her, side stepping, sweeping out his sword as she flew by to
crash land amongst some broken furniture on the far side of the room.
Nate held his ground where he was, there was too much debris on the floor along
the edges. Better to wait for Destiny to come to him, plus it allowed him
more time to bait and fish for information. “I’m surprised you let Sek
and Mot get away with that, considering how weak you said they were.”
Destiny
kicked a broken chair out of her way. “They’re weak alright, subsisting on
strict rations but essentially they’re cowards. They know how to fortify
themselves and surrounding themselves with hundreds of miles of desert in every
direction is the most effective way of keeping my kind at bay… unless I was
feeling in need of a tan and suicidal.”
Nate
grinned in victory, gotcha bitch. This time he was the one to launch
himself across the room, Destiny forced to jump back out of range of his sword,
slamming hard into the wall behind her, sending paintings crashing to the
ground. The edge of Nate’s sword opened up a long dark cut along the side
of her face. She shrieked and attacked, they rolled to the floor, broken
furniture, shattered glass and pottery impeding them both.
Destiny
angled the knife to thrust it deep in Nate’s gut, with only a second to spare
he managed to head butt her in the face, rocking her back and sending her knife
skittering across the room. This close and under these conditions he was
finding it hard to use his sword, not Destiny, who without the knife still had
her lethal claws. Damn, he had no alternative but to use the hilt of his
sword to hit her hard across the jaw, creating just enough space between them
for him to grab a fistful of leather and send her flying across the room.
Standing,
Nate stalked after her, sword at the ready. With only one eye, a mouthful
of broken teeth and fangs, a cut along her face and several arrow bolt wounds
in her body Destiny was beyond a mess. As she struggled to her feet
amongst the wreckage, for the first time Nate glimpsed a look of fear skitter
across Destiny’s face. She was hurt, she had no minions and she had no
escape. It looked as if the reality of her situation had finally hit her.
“What
if I surrender to you? Offer to go peacefully?
As a warrior of Maat, you have a code of
honour.”
Still
he stalked closer. “I swore to fight for the truth, which means I know a
lie when I hear one.” He feigned going in low and instead went in
high. Still Destiny managed to duck his sword but she couldn’t avoid his
other hand that sent her slamming face first into the nearest wall with a loud
thud.
Nate
could have bought his sword around, but the face slam had been so satisfying,
he decided to do it again. Grabbing a fistful of her hair he sent her
once more face first into the wall. “That’s for Vivian.”
Thud.
“That’s
for hurting Cyd.”
Thud.
“That’s
for ruining catsuits.”
Destiny
was a disaster; one cheek caved in, black blood bubbling from deep gashes and
her empty eye socket and yet, as she reeled back one more time, she managed a
laugh. “I knew you cared Lover.” She spat blood to clear her
throat. “Why else would you be prolonging…”
Her
head separated from her body in one clean stroke.
Before
it could hit the ground, Nate slammed a broken chair leg deep into the pale
flesh just over her heart. The resulting explosion of dust in every
direction sent Nate flying backwards to hit the nearest wall hard, his head
ringing. Thank Maat he’d held his breath, the thought of inhaling even a
particle of that venomous vamp was abhorrent.
Grabbing
the neckline of his t-shirt he yanked it up over his mouth. He had the
information he needed and all he wanted right at that moment was to get
outside, breathe in some fresh air and reassure himself that Cyd was
safe. With that plan in mind, he crunched his way across the living room,
heading down the hallway to the front door where with the heel of his boot he
managed to smash his way out.
Standing,
blinking under the surprisingly bright moonlight he pulled his t-shirt down and
grinned at his fellow warriors.
“Ding
Dong, the vampire bitch is dead!”
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Nate
was alive. Charisse sagged against Declan in relief. Even better he
looked relatively unscathed; some scratches, some cuts, a few splinters but
nothing life threatening or even in need of medical attention. Thank the
Goddess above for hearing her prayers. She felt tears of relief glitter
in her eyes, blinking hard she forced them away. This was a moment of
victory, not a time for tears, as the warriors all shouted out a celebratory
war cry that had her cringing in surprise.
Declan’s
arm tightened around her as he sheathed his sword and smiled down at her.
“It’s okay, just an ‘I am warrior, hear me roar’ kind of thing.”
Charisse
nodded and laughed. “Ah, the macho grit thing. I’ve heard of
it.” Smiling in relief, watching as Nate accepted appreciative slaps on
the back from his friends, though his eyes were on her… no, they were trained
on Declan and they glittered an unfamiliar dark fiery amber.
“Who
are you?” Along with the hard look, Nate was now scowling, his tone abrupt and
clipped.
“That’s
Declan, my apprentice.” Hadleigh supplied, noting with surprise the
expression on Nate’s face, unsure if she’d ever seen the normally jovial
warrior with such a murderous look before, not even on the battlefield.
“And
he’s their cousin.” Flynn and Dash provided helpfully.
“Though
I’m adopted.” Declan added with a broad grin and a cheeky wink, a breeze
coming out of nowhere to mould his t-shirt to his rock hard abs and tousle his
hair just so. “So, not actually a blood relative as such.”
Drum
growled. Vaughn growled and for some reason Nate found himself joining in,
baring his teeth at the too good-looking to live himbo with his arms currently
wrapped around Charisse.
Hadleigh
rolled her eyes, Nate… of all the warriors, jumping on Vaughn and Drum’s
needlessly jealous of Declan bandwagon? She would have lost money on that
bet. Seriously, she could not believe these century old warriors let Declan get
under their skin. She looked at Charisse to gauge her reaction, the
expression in her cousin’s green eyes turning rapidly from thrilled delight at
seeing Nate safe and well, to shocked surprise, edged with anger at his
reaction to Declan. Hmmm, it seems they still had a few things to sort
out. Goddess, Darcy was going to go nuclear when she heard about these
two. Hadleigh was no expert on relationships, but anyone with half a
brain could see melding was in their future.
“Do
you know where Sek and Mot are?” Vaughn rested a casual hand on the hilt
of his sword, even as his whole body vibrated with eagerness.
“Yes.”
Nate confirmed with a nod. Damn, they had to go. He had so many
things he wanted to say to Cyd. Though first things first, he’d be
punching the
so-called cousin,
in
that ridiculously handsome face of his. Even as he had that delightful
thought he was taking a step in their direction, intent upon making his dream a
reality.
Only
Drum’s large hand coming down to rest on his shoulder prevented Nate from
taking a second step.
“Later.
Trust me I know what you’re feeling.”
“So
where are we going?” Marcus enquired.
“And
what equipment will we need?” Rafe followed up.
“Explosives.”
Nate glanced around at his fellow warriors. “Rafe, you still have all the
building blue prints for the insane asylum where Serena was being kept?”
“Yes
I do.” Rafe nodded coolly.
“Those
tricky bastards…” Flynn whistled out softly.
“Circling
around behind us like that.” Dash finished the thought his brother had
started.
“I
wanted to blow that sucker up the first time I laid eyes on it.” Drum
rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“Well
now you get your wish.”
“We’re
heading out people.” Vaughn announced, casually capturing his wife’s hand
in his.
“We
can use the hall closet here to transport back to Atlanta to gear up.”
Hadleigh gestured at Charisse’s house. “Assuming it’s not damaged?”
Flynn
glanced inside the house. “I think that might be the only thing Nate
didn’t break.”
“Move
out warriors,” Vaughn instructed, keeping his warrior wife close to his side,
her hand securely in his still.
Still
Nate found himself hesitating for a moment, before Drum literally used his
massive body to block him and start herding him physically back inside the
house. Maat, damn it… he glared up at the big guy. “Drum.” He tried
to protest but Drum just continued to force him back towards the house.
Shit… there were so many things he should say to Cyd. Apologise about the
house. Make sure she knew how he felt about her. Angling his head
to the side he caught one last glimpse of her, before Drum’s massive shoulders
blocked his line of sight and he was muscled inside the house.
Damn,
he wished he’d gotten to say goodbye to Cyd. His next thought was much
more primitive, stemming from that previously untapped jealous well he’d just
discovered he possessed when it came to Cyd. “There’s something about
that guy that just makes me want to rip the dimples right out of his head.”
Drum’s
growling response echoed off the walls and drifted outside. “I hear
you.
Next time, I’ll head-lock him, you
bring the pliers.”
*
*
*
The
sudden quiet was strange.
After what had
felt like hours of noise and mayhem, suddenly the night had gone perfectly
still and hushed, the muted crash of waves as they broke on the nearby beach
the loudest sound to be heard.
Turning
her head, Charisse stared up at Declan, who looked markedly unperturbed by the
last exchange of words they’d overheard, if anything, it looked like he was
trying hard not to burst out laughing.
Charisse
was instantly suspicious. “Just what game are you playing at?”
“Me?”
Declan batted overlong lush dark eyelashes her way.
“Don’t
play the innocent with me.” She slapped his arms away. “Using me to
taunt the warriors of Maat like that… positively shameful.”
Declan
shrugged. “It’s hardly my fault they get riled so easily.”
“Right.”
Charisse eyed him again.
“Hey,
I’m your cousin, family, they’re getting all uptight over nothing.”
“Family
huh? So why did you feel compelled to remind everybody that you are
adopted?”
Declan
shrugged again, failing completely to look innocent. “They might be
Maat’s gift to the world but I don’t think they should get complacent when it
comes to the women in their lives.”
“Well
I hope you know what you’re doing.” Charisse sighed, shifting her
attention to her house… or what was left of it. Even as she contemplated
the idea of heading inside to investigate the extent of the damage there came
the sound of something heavy falling, followed by the tinkle of shattering
glass. “Oh Goddess, my poor little house.” She took a tentative
step towards it.
“Not
tonight.” Declan grabbed her hand.
“But
I…”
“Shouldn’t
have to tackle it alone for one thing. You need a good night’s sleep and
tomorrow, I’ll ring around the family and get a working bee organised.
Get Locke to take charge of the clean-up.”
“Locke?”
She frowned thinking of Hadleigh’s older brother, her cousin, who habitually
wore three piece suits volunteering to help sort out the mess that had once
been her sweet little house.
“Trust
me.” Declan laughed. “You want Locke in charge and Serena will be
all too willing to help… she’s an Earth witch you know, cleaning up dirt,
stains, mess, it’s kind of her forte… the hardest thing will be keeping those
two apart.”
“The
rumours are true then? Locke is settling down?”
“Hook,
line and sinker.
They just have to agree
on a meld date… not that it seems to make much difference for them, they barely
come up for air. Getting out of the house will be good for them.”
There
was a tone in Declan’s voice that had her eyeing him with suspicion. “I
assume you flirt with Serena too?”
Declan
grinned, giving her the full blown dimple effect, it was a wonderful smile and
she could see why women everywhere loved him but for some reason that smile of
his just made her want to hug him, comfort him… be his friend. For all
his teasing ways, she was positive there was a lot more going on with Declan
than just his GQ, Man of the Year, looks.
“Me,
flirt with Serena? That would be a very safe assumption. Oh and
I’ll put a call into Fen, Erik and Uncle Gun to help out. What about your
brothers, are they in town?”
Charisse
shook her head, then clicked her fingers at a sudden thought. “No, but I
know some builders that would be more than happy to help out if I asked.”
“Course
you do.” Declan laughed. “We also need to report this to the
police. You might need to make a claim on your insurance for building
materials and such.”
“Can’t
I just make one later, if it’s needed?”
“You
haven’t heard? We have a new Police Chief, he started two weeks ago.
I hear he’s a Council approved hire but more
significantly, he’s a norm.”
“We
have a non-magical Police Chief?” Charisse found that very hard to
believe.
Declan
shrugged. “Who’s going to question the Council?”
“I’m
surprised Darcy didn’t make an official protest.”
Declan
smiled and shook his head. “She was too distracted at the time… stalking
your boyfriend I believe.”
Charisse
gave him a tired smile before turning her attention back to her poor little
house, she should be brave and walk in, catalogue the damage.
“It
will still be there in the morning.” Declan gently grabbed her by the
hand and began to pull her away. “Come on, you can sleep at Hadleigh’s
tonight. She won’t mind.”
Charisse
let out a small grateful sigh. “Thanks Declan.”
“Hey,
that’s what tall, physically blessed and mentally nimble cousins are for.”
Charisse
shook her head with a laugh. Thank the Goddess for family.