Their Vengeance: Siren's Revenge Book Two

16. Nikolai

Fyodor’s Rules #34 - Never underestimate the power of patience.

Fiorenza”s granddaughter had stood stiffly, holding onto my arm all night. I had done what I could to calm her, and show her I wasn”t as much of a monster as she imagined. To reassure her, this would all turn out okay. But it felt like whatever I tried made it worse. She ignored what I had to say, drank steadily, and talked with her family.

It was definitely not the happy engagement party I had thought I would experience.

I had done my best to watch over Yana and my brothers throughout the night. After Sasha and Darya had dragged Yana off to meet Ksenia, I had been worried I might have to intervene. However, Yana had handled it with the same grace she did everything else which was thrown at her. I was in awe of her poise and control. I could still remember the bratty little girl who had arrived on our doorstep and glared up at me as though I were an enemy.

None of us were the same children we had been, though.

Anetta bordered on drunk when the night was over. Fiorenza offered an apology, but I waved it off.

“Nerves are to be expected. The party was bigger than planned, and with Alexei”s family here, I don”t blame her for needing something to take the edge off.” I then made sure I put her into a separate car from Fiorenza.

The Italians weren”t the first to leave.

The Armenians had left first—silent—much the way they had arrived. I had little business with them and didn”t know as much about their inner workings as the other families. Honestly, I had been surprised when they responded they were coming. It was good to have more people in the room, though, as it acted as a buffer between the different factions.

I kissed Fiorenza”s cheeks as I helped her into her car.

“Tonight was a good night, Nikolai. Clearly, you can provide a wonderful future for my granddaughter. You were a good choice, and I look forward to welcoming you into our family properly.”

I couldn”t do much other than thank her, knowing I placed her in this car and sent her to her doom. Though I had no regrets. Rage burned in my veins as I thought about the way she took advantage of a group of scared young boys, all to turn things to her benefit. Tonight was the harvest of the seeds she had helped to sow a decade ago.

As soon as she pulled away from the curb, I took the earpiece from my pocket and slid it into place. Pasha had left the party to set up as soon as the Armenians had departed, not wanting to be rushed. He had taken the van and was parked central to all three locations so he could reach whoever needed him as soon as possible. I had seen Lukas slip from the ballroom as the Italians said their goodbyes. We didn”t want them noticing half of us were gone before they left, but he needed to be in position now. Thankfully, I could hear him talking with his men in the earpiece. Pasha would split them off on their own channel once things kicked off, but for now, it was reassuring to hear their banter and to know everything was going according to plan.

I didn”t go back into the ballroom, as now was the chance for me to meet with Fyodor discreetly. I sent him a quick text, knowing he would not be wearing an earpiece. He didn”t want it bothering him when he shifted. A quick elevator ride down to the garage, a change of shirt, and I was on my way. The shirt was Kevlar, although I wasn”t convinced it would do anything against a werewolf’s claws. There wasn”t much that would, but it had placated Pasha and Yana to know I was wearing it. I tried pointing out I healed quickly, but they insisted we all be armored where possible, and arguing with the pair of them wasn”t worth the headache.

I was about halfway there when Pasha”s voice came over the earpiece. “Switching Angel team over to private channel.” I didn”t respond before he spoke again. “Werewolf on the move. You have approximately fifteen minutes.”

Damn, less time than I was expecting.

I put my foot down, not concerned about being pulled over. The police knew what our cars looked like and were paid enough to ignore them. It only took me minutes to reach my destination. I stowed the car in a parking lot half a block away before I joined Fyodor where he waited in an alley.

A cigarette was pressed to his lips, and judging by the butts on the ground, it wasn”t his first of the night.

“You sure you”re right to do this, old man? No one would blame you, she is your sister. You could go help Alexei.”

The glare he shot in my direction made me want to swallow the words I had spoken, but there was nothing to be done about them now.

“I”m fine. Family takes care of family. You kids aren”t the only ones she betrayed. I will look into her eyes as she pays for that betrayal.” His empty hand flexed, his claws already out. I understood how he felt. If it had been my sister—if it had been Yana—I would want to be the one who took care of it, rather than leaving it for someone else. Even though it would hurt, there were some things you had to take care of yourself.

I looked at my watch. “Ten minutes—yeah, Pasha?” He corrected me, it was now nine. I rolled my head back for a moment, taking the time to stretch. It had been a while since I’d been in a fight for my life, and I could feel my muscles already tensing in anticipation.

Looking at Fyodor, I noticed him doing the same thing. Rotating his head, rolling out his shoulders; his joints cracking as he moved and shifted. We were on the very edge of town in an industrial estate before the town gave way to the freeway and open roads. I wasn”t worried about someone coming along and seeing us. If they did, hopefully they had the good sense to fuck off somewhere else as quickly as they could.

When Pasha gave us the two-minute warning, we moved. It was easy enough for me to scale the building beside us, perching on the roof. I watched the roads to make sure they stayed clear. Fyodor wanted me to hang back, at least at first, and this way I didn”t feel like I was standing and waiting with my thumb up my ass.

Fyodor moved into the center of the road and stood waiting. I watched as his muscles rippled; his body grew another three feet tall as he transformed. His face elongated into a muzzle, and fur sprouted from everywhere. Fyodor’s claws were even longer now, and it was clear this was a form built for dealing destruction and violence.

The car we had been told to look for came up the road and I whistled the signal. I couldn”t see anyone else—cars or people—but I didn”t jump down yet. I was waiting to see what she did. Fyodor hadn”t moved other than to dig his clawed feet into the asphalt, bracing himself in case she tried to run him down.

Whether it was the shock of seeing a werewolf in the middle of the road in their shifted form, or she recognized him, the car slowed to a stop about fifty feet away. For a long, tense moment, nothing happened. I felt the edge of the ledge I crouched behind crumble in my grip as I waited, breath held.

Finally, the driver’s side door opened, and Fyodor”s sister stepped out. I had never been more thankful for my enhanced vampiric hearing. Not only could I hear her voice, but I could also hear the way it shook, hear as she swallowed, and every other indicator of nervousness or lies she broadcast into the night.

“Fyodor? You know it”s not safe for you here. I told you I would call when it was safe to come back from Europe. The boys are still hunting you. There is a standing bounty for your death if you step foot in Chicago. I”ve been trying to convince them to forgive and forget, to let it go, but you raised those boys to be stubborn.”

Fyodor wasn”t the only one who growled. I leaned forward, my fingers digging in deeper to the concrete ledge. The desire to swoop down and tear her head off burned in my veins. I had promised Fyodor I would follow his lead, but I hadn’t known at the time how hard it would be. Standing still while hearing a woman I trusted, someone I turned to when I needed help, lying about me as though I meant nothing to her burned at my restraint.

Fyodor stepped forward, and I heard his sister swear under her breath as she stepped back.

She tried to pull something from her pocket, but her hands were shaking too much. Her phone hit the ground, the sound of it shattering was music to my ears. She didn”t know, but it didn”t matter who she called. No one would come to help. I could already taste the sweetness of victory on my tongue.

Fyodor still moved forward, his growl low and menacing. He didn’t speak, having nothing more to say to her. She knew what she had done; she just hadn”t known she’d been caught. The realization dawned quickly, and she backpedaled.

“Let me explain, Fyo. They made me do it. They told me I would die if I didn”t.” I didn”t have to understand the growls of his wolf to know he didn”t care for her excuses. He just prowled toward her, no hint of mercy, no effort to understand her or converse. Determination that this would be the end of her treachery and her life.

She must have realized what I already knew, and she gave up on pleading and bargaining. Rather than shifting to match him, she shifted down, growing smaller and leaner. She fell forward onto four paws, and a sleek gray wolf now stood where a woman cowered moments ago.

“Fucking bitch,” I snarled. She was going to turn tail and run.

Every predatory instinct I had latched onto the prospect of chasing prey. I launched myself off the roof, even though Fyodor had not yet given me the signal. He’d realized the same thing, though. If she had shifted to this form, it was because she planned on trying to escape him.

With a roar, Fyodor launched himself at the wolf just as she turned to run. But she hadn”t known I was waiting.

In a mirror of the situation she had driven into, I now stood in the middle of the road behind her. My fangs glinted in the streetlights as I grinned at her, waiting for her to run past me. “Hello Auntie.”

With a whimper, she looked back and forth, weighing her options. It was always a mistake in a situation like this. Hesitation led to death, Fyodor taught us that lesson. Make your decision and stick to it. If she wanted to run, she should have fled the second her paws hit the ground.

Instead, Fyodor picked her up by the scruff, his strong, deadly claws digging into the sides of her throat. Blood dripped down and splattered on the road. She yowled in pain and tried to squirm free, but all that did was further tear at the hold he had on her. Her paws tried to dig into nothing but air.

Stepping forward, my grin widened as I watched her struggle. Fyodor had a tight grip, and she wasn”t going anywhere. It was a touch disappointing, both of us expected a fight, but I was glad to come out of this unscathed.

“You thought you could lie to us all and you wouldn”t get found out. You, of all people, should have known better than to underestimate your brother or my sister.” I leaned in slightly, the scent of her fear acrid in the air.

She couldn”t speak in her wolf form, and if she shifted back, she risked Fyodor”s claws ripping her throat wide open—human skin was so fragile. I could see her eyes plead and beg. It surprised me how little I felt for a woman who had saved my life. “I hope whatever they gave you for your loyalty was worth it. Because you”re going to die here, alone. It didn”t have to be this way. We were family. If you needed something, you should have come to Fyodor, or to us.”

There wasn”t anything more to say. With a swift shake of his hand, the sound of her neck snapping echoed down the street. Then Fyodor dropped her, letting her corpse hit the ground with a thud, but he was already walking away before it landed. I didn’t follow him. Even though he’d repeatedly said he wanted to be the one to deal with his sister, it didn”t mean it had been easy.

He was a few steps from me when a sound niggled at my hearing. I could see him tilt his head as well. My hand went to my ear, only to find it empty. The earpiece must have fallen out when I launched myself off the building. I had been so wrapped up in the fight in front of me, I forgot about the others. I could hear Pasha yelling, but couldn”t make out the words.

A frantic high-speed search led to finding the cracked earpiece laying on the ground. It was still clearly working, from the way I could hear Pasha yelling my name. I picked it up and slid it into my ear. An action I instantly regretted when his voice felt like it echoed off my teeth and ricocheted around my skull.

“Nikolai! Where the fuck are you? Alexei is down. They need fucking help. I am heading to them, but you need to get there! Now! What the fuck, man?” It was followed by a string of Romanian curses.

FUCK. FUCK!

“I’m on my way! We both are. Tell Yana to hold tight.” Whatever damage had been done to the earpiece, it seemed to now only transmit one-way. Pasha obviously couldn”t hear me with the way he was still cursing. Pulling it from my ear, I threw it away, listening to his cursing wouldn’t help my temper.

With a blur of speed, I stood in front of Fyodor, who had stopped walking to see what was wrong. “Shift down, old man. We have to go.”

He didn”t question me as his form melted back into his regular tattoo-covered skin. I had the strength to carry him in his shifted state, but his height and bulk made it awkward. There wasn”t time to wait for him to finish shifting. I scooped him into a firefighter”s carry and took off down the road. I could run faster than any car, though doing it in the city was dangerous. There were too many things that could go wrong, and too many things I could run into.

But now wasn”t the time for worry. As good as our hit had gone, the witches were proving to be a problem. I could only hope we got there in time.