Chapter 9 #2
His smile was one of madness.
Pure and total insanity.
Fear gripped her—far harder than the hand at her throat.
“I’m going to keep you all for myself.” He rutted against her again. “Show me your real face, won’t you? If you don’t, I might have to peel that one off…” Squeezing her throat harder, he didn’t seem to care she was about to black out.
With her last ounce of strength, Nadi reached into her bag and pulled out a device that Raziel had given her in case of emergencies.
And this was an emergency. A small smoke bomb.
She dropped it at their feet. Dense gray smoke billowed upward, and Braen’s grip loosened just enough for her to break free.
Gasping for air, she shifted forms again—this time into a nondescript club patron—and stumbled toward the door.
“Come back! Come back, my love! Don’t go!” Braen shouted after her, hidden now by smoke. “Guards! Guards!”
The corridor outside was chaos, with guards rushing toward Braen’s office and guests streaming toward the stairs. But for a split second, she caught sight of someone unexpected. That young woman—the one from the Wild she had seen before. She was running in the wrong direction.
She was running toward the basement with a gun in her hand.
Nadi’s heart soared. There was hope. But she couldn’t help her—no matter how hard she wanted to. She allowed herself to be swept along with the crowd, clutching her purse with its precious cargo.
She had to reach the rendezvous point. If Raziel saw the commotion, he would know something had gone wrong, but he’d wait for her at their predetermined location before implementing the backup plan.
Heart racing, Nadi pushed her way through the panicking crowd, taking the stairs two at a time. The smoke had spread to the second floor, adding to the confusion.
She reached the ground floor and cut through the main dining room, now empty as guests fled. The kitchen was ahead, its doors swinging as staff abandoned their posts.
As she pushed through the kitchen doors, a hard body slammed into her, driving her against the wall. A guard—one she recognized from her reconnaissance—held a gun to her head.
“Don’t move,” he growled. “I just saw the exact same you come through here ten seconds ago. What the fuck are you?”
Her hand inched toward the blade strapped to her thigh, but before she could reach it, another figure appeared behind the guard—Raziel, his movements a blur as he gripped the man’s head and twisted. The sickening crack of breaking bone was followed by the guard’s body crumpling to the floor.
“We need to go. Now.” Raziel took her arm, pulling her toward the service entrance. “Braen’s men are locking down the streets outside.”
“How did you know?” she asked as they ran.
“I saw the smoke. Figured you’d gone to our contingency.” His lips twitched in what might have been a smile. “Besides, you’re remarkably punctual. When you didn’t appear at our meeting point, I knew something had gone wrong.”
They burst through the door into a narrow alley behind the club. The night air was cool against Nadi’s flushed skin as they ran, the sounds of pursuit growing louder behind them.
“This way,” Raziel urged, pulling her into a recessed doorway. “There’s a warehouse we can cut through. We can lose them on the other side.”
“You can turn into bats. Go. I’ll be fine.” She was suddenly jealous of the Nostrom family ability to shift their forms into the flying rodents. It would come in handy right about now.
“And leave you to be captured and tortured for information?” He huffed.
“Hardly.” He put his shoulder into the metal door, breaking the lock with a loud wham.
It would alert the guards to where they were, but it was a calculated risk.
It also gave them the means to escape. The warehouse on the other side was deserted, and it was fast enough to cross.
When they got through to the alley on the other side, it was empty.
“Did you get the proof?” Raziel asked as they paused to catch their breath. It had been raining recently, and the damp cool air was a blessing.
Nadi nodded, patting her purse. “He kept a ledger. I assume as dirt. Transaction records. Buyers. I hope it’s enough. But Braen—he knew I wasn’t his assistant. He knows I was fae.” She kept out the knowledge of the other one she saw there. That wasn’t important to Raziel.
“He’s more perceptive than most,” Raziel admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. We have what we need. He doesn’t know we’re working together, and he won’t connect the dots.”
A distant shout echoed through the warehouse—the Rosovs had found their escape route.
“Time to go,” Nadi warned.
Raziel’s expression hardened. “We keep to the alleys. Ivan is waiting six streets up, but we have to keep to the shadows. This is Rosov territory.”
They ran through the darkness, using the twisting network of overhead roads in the metropolis to shadow them. Here, on the outskirts, it was almost as good as being underground in the Wild, for as little light reached them.
Raziel moved fast, and had no pity for her shorter legs.
Nadi’s lungs burned as she pushed herself harder, her fae blood singing with the familiar thrill of the hunt—even when she was the prey.
Behind them, the heavy boots of Braen’s men echoed off the brick walls, growing closer despite their best efforts to lose them in the labyrinthine streets.
“This way,” Raziel hissed, pulling her sharply to the left into an even narrower passage between two crumbling tenements.
The space was barely wide enough for them both, forcing them to run single file.
Poorly maintained mortar crumbled from between the bricks as they scraped against the walls, leaving chalky streaks on their clothes.
Water dripped from the overpasses, forming puddles that splashed beneath their feet in the low areas of the cobblestones of the alleys and dripped from the rusted fire escapes of the closely crowded buildings.
The shouts grew louder. “There they are! Stop!”
Gunfire erupted, bullets ricocheting off the concrete walls around them. Raziel pulled Nadi behind a support column, shielding her with his body. “The exit is just ahead,” he said, his voice tight. “But we’ll never make it with them right behind us.”
Nadi peered around the column, counting at least six pursuers. “We’re outnumbered.”
Raziel’s eyes gleamed in the darkness, his fangs extending. “Not for long.”
Before she could stop him, he stepped out from their cover, facing the oncoming guards. His voice, when he spoke, carried a power she had felt before.
“Kill each other.” The phrase was simple. Elegant. Unavoidable.
The effect was immediate and horrifying.
The guards turned on one another, their expressions blank as they obeyed without question. Gunfire erupted once more, but this time directed at their own ranks. In seconds, the tunnel was quiet again, save for the moans of the dying.
Nadi stared at the carnage, stunned despite knowing what Raziel was capable of.
She had seen it herself. She knew what he could do. But to just… see it done like that. So effortlessly? The ease with which he had condemned those men to death?
“Don’t look so shocked.” He shook his head. “They would have done the same to us.”
Before she could respond, another figure emerged from the shadows ahead—a guard who must have circled around to cut off their escape. He raised his weapon, aiming directly at Raziel’s back.
“Raziel!” Nadi lunged forward to push him aside.
The gun fired, the bullet grazing her arm as they both tumbled to the ground. Raziel rolled, coming up in a crouch, then launching himself at the guard with inhuman speed.
The fight was brief and brutal. The guard, though skilled, was no match for a vampire of Raziel’s power. Within moments, he lay broken on the tunnel floor, his neck twisted at an impossible angle.
Raziel turned to Nadi, his eyes wild, fangs extended in rage. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, clutching her arm where the bullet had grazed her. Checking it, there was blood, but not much. “It’s nothing. Just a scratch.”
He was beside her in an instant, examining the wound with gentle fingers that belied his ferocious appearance. The contrast was jarring—this creature who could command men to slaughter each other, now tending to her injury with caution.
“It’s already healing.” Clearly fascinated, he watched as her fae physiology closed the wound before his eyes. “It must have been a struggle to pretend to be wounded after the wedding.”
“It was a serious pain in the ass, actually.” She chuckled weakly.
“You continue to surprise me, little assassin.”
His proximity was intoxicating, the adrenaline of their escape still coursing through both of them. Nadi could feel his breath on her skin, could see the hunger in his eyes—not just for blood, but for her.
“We should go,” she said, her voice unsteady. “Before more guards arrive.”
Raziel didn’t move away. Instead, his hand slid to the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair. “Tell me what happened between you and Braen. Every detail.”
“Now’s not the t—”
“Would I see bruises at your throat, if it weren’t for this magic of yours?” He backed her slowly into the wall. “Bruises from his hands on your body?”
“Yes…”
“Did you like it?”
“No.”
He slid his hand to her throat, his fingers taking the place where Braen’s had been only so many short minutes before. “Why not?” He pressed her gently to the wall. It was such a familiar situation—and yet so different than it had been with the other vampire.
She felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Raziel, we need to g—”
“Answer me. Why didn’t you like it?”
“He was going to hurt me…”
“And you don’t think I will?” His hand tightened just a little. “Do you trust me, Nadi?” His question was almost breathless—filled with disbelief.
She swallowed the rock in her throat. Did she? Her whole body was trembling. This was all too much.
The tension between them was electric, charged with danger and desire in equal measure. Nadi knew she should push him away, maintain the emotional distance that was her only protection against him.
But when his lips claimed hers, fierce and demanding, she couldn’t resist responding with equal hunger. The kiss was raw, honest, born from the heady rush of survival.
His hand tightened at her throat—just enough—proving to her the difference between the two men.
Pulling her from the wall, he tilted her head back to deepen the kiss.
Nadi clutched at his shoulders, her resolve crumbling as her body betrayed her once again.
She wanted him—here, now, surrounded by death and darkness.
The realization was as terrifying as it was exhilarating.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Nadi felt a surge of frustration—at herself, at him, at this impossible situation. She pushed him away, creating physical distance to match the emotional barriers she was struggling to maintain.
“Don’t,” she warned, her voice low. “This doesn’t change anything between us.”
Raziel’s smile was knowing, infuriating in its confidence. “Doesn’t it?”
Before she could respond, the distant sound of voices echoed through the warehouse—more guards.
Sighing, Raziel’s posture changed. He was suddenly all business again. “Let’s go.”
As they ran through the darkness, the ledger secure in her purse and the taste of him still on her lips, Nadi fought against the confusion in her heart.
She had come to destroy the Nostroms, to avenge her family and her clan.
Getting closer to Raziel was supposed to be a means to that end, nothing more.
So, why did it feel increasingly like she was losing herself in the process? And why, despite everything she knew about him—the monster he was, the blood on his hands—could she not resist him?
These questions haunted her as they emerged from the alleys onto the main street, glistening like a river after the rainstorm. Ivan was waiting for them in the car.
She shouldn’t have felt relief when she saw it. Because it shouldn’t have felt like freedom to her. Freedom—or another kind of prison. She wasn’t sure which anymore.
Climbing into the car, she slid onto the bench to make room for Raziel.
“Go.” The command to Ivan was urgent. No hypnotism needed to get his friend and bodyguard to stomp the gas.
But it seemed she wasn’t going to be given any time to relax. Raziel pulled her into his lap, rolling up her sleeve to inspect the wound on her arm. It was closed, but the blood remained.
Lowering his head, he lapped up the red stain slowly, his eyes boring into hers. “We have a discussion to finish when we get home, Monica.”
A knot twisted in her stomach even as her face went warm in anticipation.
Everything was becoming too complicated.
And complicated was going to get her killed.
But for now, all she could think about was the taste of his lips.
And the sensation of his body against hers.
I am losing my mind.
This has to stop.
One way or another.