Chapter 21
Twenty-One
The world narrowed to the man in black.
Benoit’s voice was low and melodic, like the echo of a song you couldn’t quite remember but couldn’t get out of your head. Each word slithered through the air, wrapping around Nikos like smoke: thick, cloying, invasive.
Nikos’s jaw clenched as the pressure built. He took a step back, blinking hard as a haze crept into the edges of his mind. It wasn’t just his thoughts that felt sluggish—it was the way the light bent, the way sound dulled, like reality was being smothered by invisible hands.
He shook his head, trying to clear it.
Benoit took a step forward as he took another one back. He drew in a deep breath, trying to clear his head.
Then, like a rush of crisp wind cutting through fog, the haze vanished.
His spine snapped straight. His senses sharpened just as suddenly as they had been dulled.
A familiar warmth touched the edge of his consciousness—soft, protective… fierce. Kiki.
She was there. She’d felt the shift. Felt what Benoit was doing—and stopped it.
His grip on the rifle tightened.
Benoit’s expression didn’t change, but Nikos saw the flicker of awareness in the bastard’s eyes.
He knows she’s shielding me.
“Kiki’s special. She is that rare, unique gem that comes unexpectedly into the world,” Benoit said, his voice still smooth as silk, “I’ll admit that I’m surprised that she let you in, though. Then again… Kiki knows how to use people to get what she wants.”
Nikos sneered. “You’re a fine one to talk. How often did you use her and the others for your own agenda?”
Benoit took a measured step closer.
“You’ve fallen under her spell,” he said, almost amused. “That’s one of her more… compelling talents.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Nikos growled.
Benoit continued to advance, one step at a time.
“Kiki knows how to get under someone’s skin,” Benoit murmured, “how to make them do what she wants. It’s instinctual. Genetic. And when she’s done…” He smiled, cruel and quiet. “She discards them. Makes them forget she was ever there… or worse.”
Nikos’s heart pounded harder, but it wasn’t doubt. It was rage. Controlled. Ice-cold. Building like pressure behind reinforced steel.
“You’ve kept her on the run. Never letting her have a life without looking over her shoulder.”
“She has a home,” Benoit said with a tilt of his head. “She belongs with me. You know it. I know it. Deep down, she knows it. Someone like Kiki needs what I can offer her… a place where she can be herself.”
Benoit paused, letting the silence stretch before he continued, “Has she told you about the men and women she’s killed? The ones who didn’t survive her… affection?” he asked softly, his voice sliding over the words like velvet over broken glass.
“It’s time for you to leave. I won’t give you a second chance. Our conversation here is over,” Nikos snapped, his fingers twitching on the rifle.
Benoit’s eyes gleamed, and for the first time, his smile reached his face in something more primal. “Would you stake your brother’s life on that?”
Nikos flinched inwardly.
Something shifted.
Movement to his right—small, subtle, menacing.
His eyes tracked it instinctively. The woman emerging from the shadows was lithe, dressed in black, her long hair pulled back tight, her steps soundless as she descended the porch.
A pistol gleamed in her hand. The barrel pressed against Markos’s temple.
“Drop your weapon,” the woman ordered, her voice calm. Deadly.
Markos’s hands were raised, his jaw tight, his gaze locked with Nikos’s.
Cosmos’s curse snapped in his ear, followed by Angel’s clipped snarl. “Where the hell did she come from? I can take the man.”
The sound of the front door opening echoed behind him. Benoit had achieved his goal.
He’d drawn Kiki out.
Created the perfect distraction.
“You stand down now,” Benoit said, all pretense of charm gone, “or your brother dies.”
Kiki stepped into view.
Nikos didn’t dare take his eyes off Benoit, but he felt her behind him, her energy like a live current threading into his skin.
She took one step toward them.
“Ah-ah,” Benoit said sharply, turning just enough to cut her a look. “You might save one, Kiki. But not both.”
Benoit’s eyes glittered with triumph when the woman pulled Markos closer to stand several feet behind him. Nikos’s eyes locked with his brother’s for a fleeting second. In his ear, Angel cursed that he didn’t have a clear shot of the woman.
“My companion and I both have biometric detonators attached to our bodies. If my heart so much as stutters for more than a second, the explosives attached to me will explode. I fear your dear Nikos would be the first to fall. The same goes for his dear brother. What is your choice, little one? You, your lover, or the brother? Who will you choose?”
“Everyone, stand down. IED positive,” Nikos warned, slowly lowering his weapon.
They stood locked in a triangle of tension. Kiki curled her fingers into a fist behind Nikos while Benoit stood in front with a confident, smug curve to his lips. She flexed her fingers.
Her breath slowed as she waited. Timing would be everything. She could feel Benoit’s energy, his confidence, his arrogance. He truly believed he would win.
But he didn’t know her anymore.
Not the woman she had become.
Not the strength forged from years of surviving the hell he’d created.
She took a step forward.
Benoit’s eyes tracked her like a predator watching a wounded animal. She saw his lips part—ready to speak, to seduce, to deceive.
She paused when Nikos reached out, his hand closing gently around her forearm.
She looked at him.
The fierce protectiveness in his eyes stole her breath. His jaw clenched, his entire frame drawn taut with tension. She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers across his lips. A soft smile curved her mouth as she pushed calm through their bond, reassurance blooming like golden light between them.
He kissed the tips of her fingers, a silent promise: I trust you.
Benoit’s voice slithered through the air like smoke. “Such a tender moment,” he drawled. “But I’m afraid we have business to finish. Olga, take the brother to the car.”
The woman beside Markos pressed the barrel tighter to his temple.
Kiki turned to Benoit. Her voice, when it came, was steady. “No.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you remember what happens to those who disobey me, Kiki? Do you remember the pain?”
“I do,” she replied, lifting her chin. “But there’s one thing you’ve forgotten.”
“Oh?” His tone was condescending. “Do enlighten me.”
“I’m no longer a child under your control,” she said, her voice ringing like a bell in the charged air. “And I’m not the only one here with extraordinary abilities.”
A shimmer danced in the space between them.
RITA materialized—combat boots, fatigues, her fiery-red braid swinging as she strode through Benoit’s form like an apparition. He flinched, the shock finally cracking his calm. RITA kept walking.
The gun woman’s eyes widened. She jerked instinctively, turning her pistol on the strange woman—
Markos moved the second the weapon was redirected away from his head.
He grabbed the woman’s arm at the same time as RITA touched the woman.
Markos’s fingers jerked back when the woman was lifted off the ground by the powerful jolt that struck her in the chest. Kiki watched with a tinge of amusement as the woman soared backwards like a rag doll before landing in a crumpled heap on the ground.
“Oops, I’m bad,” RITA said, flashing a grin at Kiki as she winked. “Are you okay, luv?”
“What the fu—?” Markos muttered, shaking his arm and flexing his fingers from the residual shock.
“No—!” Benoit roared.
Kiki shook her head at Benoit, her eyes gleaming as she stepped forward. Benoit’s eyes widened with fury. His mouth tightened.
“You are a miracle, Kiki. You, Beth, and Eric are destined to change humanity. You are my children. Under my tutelage—”
Kiki shook her head. “No, Benoit. We were never your children. It’s over. I know you’ll never leave us alone. I wish you would, but you won’t,” she murmured, deep sorrow coloring her voice with grief.
“If I can’t have you, my dear, then neither can the world. They don’t deserve you,” Benoit said.
His voice filled with determination as he raised the detonator. Kiki watched in surreal slow motion as his thumb descended onto the red button. Behind her, she heard Nikos’s choked warning as he reached for her.
She stumbled back against Nikos, her lips curling in a smile when Benoit’s triumphant smirk turned to a confused frown. He ripped his gaze from her face to the detonator in his hand, his thumb moving up and down in rapid, desperate moves.
Click-click-click-click.
Nothing.
Benoit turned to look at Kiki, his eyes growing wider. He dropped the detonator in his hand and started to slide his hand under his jacket.
“Angel, take the shot!” Nikos bellowed.
There was a thud as Benoit’s head jerked back. He stumbled a step before straightening. A bloom of red blossomed at the center of his chest, spreading like ink through water. He slowly looked down, his eyes wide in disbelief before he dropped to his knees.
He stared up at Kiki.
“No,” he rasped, lifting a trembling hand toward her as a ribbon of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. “You… you were always mine…”
Kiki watched as he crumpled face first to the earth.
The world stilled, as if holding its breath.
She wilted against Nikos’s hard frame as movement exploded in the background—Lucas dragged the driver out of the SUV, shoving him into the dirt. Markos stood over the woman who was regaining consciousness. Cosmos’s voice rang through the comms.
“All remaining forces are withdrawing. CRI reinforcements have arrived. We’re clear.”
Kiki’s eyes lifted toward the lake. She couldn’t see Eric. But she felt him.
A whisper of consciousness brushed against hers, full of regret… and peace.
He had made his choice.
And now he was gone.
Tears stung her eyes, and for once, she let them fall.
When Nikos turned and cupped her face, his hands trembled. His gaze searched her eyes. She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice raw with emotion.
She shook her head. “No,” she murmured. “But I think I finally know what peace feels like.”
He looked down at Benoit’s lifeless body, his expression unreadable. “I love you, Kiki. I love you so damn much it hurts.”
Kiki released a shaky, watery giggle and held him tightly. “I love you, too.”