Chapter 36
Havoc
Despite my insistence she take some of the white stag powder, it had no effect on her hands. Which helps narrow down that it’s not a physical problem, but a magic-based one.
So now I just need to find a magically equivalent miracle before she does permanent damage, because my infuriating, reckless mate refuses to quit working while I search for a cure.
I swear, if my son hadn’t already turned me grey, my mate would have.
“Hey, babe, how was work?” Stryker asks, letting himself into the back room Kiara and I are reorganizing.
She leans in to kiss him, and he hands over a bouquet of roses. “Found these on the doorstep. Thought about burning them on principle, but figured I’d double check you hadn’t met someone and hadn’t had a chance to fill me in yet first.”
She frowns, searching for a card. She finds it wedged down amidst the thorns, plucking it out and grimacing before dumping the whole thing directly in the trash.
I meet Stryker’s curious gaze, irrationally thrilled at her rejecting some asshole’s courting gift so easily, yet kept mine. “Who were they from?”
She hesitates to answer, so I stride over and pluck the card from the trash. “Sebastian Thorn? I take it we don’t like him?”
At least there’s finally someone she hates more than me.
When I glance up, Stryker isn’t smiling anymore.
He’s positively pissed. “No, he’s my piece of shit brother.
Set me up so our father would choose him over me to take over the family business, and now is trying to steal Kiara from me out of spite.
He can rot in a ditch for all I care,” he spits, turning to Kiara.
“Has he left you anything else before now?”
She runs a hand through her amethyst hair with an exhausted sigh. “If so, it’s the first I’ve heard about it. He’s just trying to get under your skin, don’t give him the satisfaction. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
We pile into Stryker's truck, and while he silently fumes, I call in an order at a local restaurant. The tension in the air is offset by the radio, and a small, awkward eternity later, we’ve got the food and are pulling up outside of Kiara’s old house.
It’s stressing me out that I don’t know where she’s living, but that’ll be remedied tonight.
I fully respect the fact that she’s not comfortable inviting me there yet, and I can’t blame this Devlin guy for not wanting strange men over to court his mate in his own home.
But I damn well am going to know where my mate is staying whether I step foot inside or not so I can keep an eye on the situation.
With Carnage loose in Mercy Ridge, and now Stryker’s brother sniffing around?
Someone needs to have eyes on her at all times.
Kiara attracts trouble, simply by being her beautiful, kind self.
Darkness will always try to snuff out the light, but I refuse to let that happen to her.
Stryker checks his phone while Kiara lets us in. “Looks like Dev and Z are running a little behind, but are almost here. Zayd forced him to drive so he could actually stomach dinner.”
We set up the table while we wait, passing out plates and unbagging dinner.
I’m anxious to see what sort of state the shifter is in.
Last I saw him he spoke, and that’s damn near unheard of after someone is driven feral.
The fact that Kiara’s brought him back this much?
I worry how much damage she’s done to herself to accomplish it.
The front door creaks open. “Honey, I'm hooooooooome! Sorry I'm late, the dog didn't want to go outside.”
There’s a snarled, “You tried to drag me out of the shower straight to the car! I'm not about to freeze my dick off because you’re too impatient to let me get dressed.” But the first voice still has me frozen in place.
Two men come around the corner, one with a heart shaped box of chocolates, and my chair crashes to the ground as I jump to my feet.
Conversation screeches to a halt and the tension in the air rises to suffocating levels.
My knife is in my hand before I even registered grabbing it, muscle memory and instinct driving my actions.
I have to actively concentrate on slowing my breathing as ice crystalizes across the blade, the temperature in the room plummeting.
“What happened to ‘family is safe’?”
Across the room, he narrows his eyes. “Was just about to ask the same thing.” Without breaking eye contact, he hands Kiara the box of chocolates. “I thought I made myself clear; she’s off limits.”
Ice has spread to the table, and I war between rage, and panic. “Stryker, take Kiara and get out of here. Now.”
The King of Carnage smiles a cruel grin of bloodthirsty excitement that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Great idea. I'll meet you at home, sunshine.”
Kiara rises to her feet. “What the heck is going on? You two know each other?”
“Remember the serial killer I warned you about?”
She frowns. “And you think it's Devlin? That's ridiculous. This is the man that wakes up early to clear the sidewalks I take to get to work. That hooked up a nature projector to keep me from feeling claustrophobic and set up his house so not only me, but Stryker and Zayd would be comfortable. He’s not a serial killer.”
“Oh no, he's right,” Carnage- Devlin- corrects easily.
The three of them turn to look at the man in surprise, but he simply shrugs without a shred of remorse. “In my defense, if I didn't kill them, he was going to.”
“It's my job.”
Devlin snorts. “Not very good at it, though. It’s been what, nine years?”
My jaw aches as I grit out, “Ten.”
The asshole’s face lights up. “Ten years! I can’t believe I missed our anniversary.” Reaching over, he plucks a piece of candy out of Kiara’s gift and offers it my way. “Forgive me?”
I smack his hand away with a snarl.
He frowns, following the path of the chocolate rolling across the table until it falls to the floor. “Well that was rude.”
I’m gonna kill him. Paint the walls in his blood and have to repay Kiara for the cleaning bill. But it’ll be worth every cent.
Replaying our conversation from the other day, I growl, “So that’s the reason you’ve had it out for me all these years?
Revenge for killing your brother? Newsflash, every target is related to someone.
Do you have any idea how many people you’ve done the same damn thing to?
A decade of leaving devastation in your wake.
Hundreds of casualties, and every single one was someone’s brother or sister, their parents or children.
You didn’t give a damn about the trail of grieving families you left behind in your quest for revenge, so don’t act all high and mighty like I’m the only monster here. ”
Kiara still hasn’t left, and it’s stressing me out to new levels, the ice spreading to creep up the walls. But I can’t risk closing my eyes and centering myself; not with the love of my life and mortal enemy in the same room.
“Dev? What’s he talking about?” she tentatively asks.
Head cocked, Devlin never takes his eyes off me. There’s something familiar in their dark blue depths that puts me on edge. A level of reckless craziness that alludes to how dangerous and unhinged the man truly is.
“I’ve never once set foot on a moral highground, Knight. You really think I’d have spent all that time fucking with you if I wanted to avenge my brother?” He scoffs. “I’d have killed you a decade ago if that was the case. Not like I don’t know where you sleep.”
I debate burying my knife in his eye, but he’s too close to Kiara for me to risk him deflecting the blade. “Then why the hell have you been stealing my targets all these years?”
“Because you stole my brother,” he says calmly. Matter of fact. “An eye for an eye, give or take a few. But in my defense, I didn’t realize the one had a glass eye until I tried to stab him in it. So I’m currently three behind on that front.”
Stryker interrupts, “Let me get this straight. Are we talking about targets, or victims?”
“They weren't victims. They were pieces of shit that deserved worse than an easy death. Human traffickers, men that hurt women and children, criminals that pissed off the wrong families.”
Zayd scratches his jaw, looking between the two of us curiously. “Then why are you mad that Devlin killed them?”
“Because he's only doing it to fuck with me!” I shout.
“Ten years he's been stealing my bounties out from under me.
There are thousands of monsters that deserve to die, and the families of their victims can't afford to put a bounty on their heads.
There's no reason he couldn’t take out those bastards if he's doing this shit for free anyway.
But no, it's always my targets. And he's sloppy.
That's the biggest insult. He doesn't give a damn if innocent people get hurt in the crossfire.
He's not doing this for some twisted, noble reason.
Dozens of bystanders have been killed by his recklessness simply because he's more focused on taunting me than making the world a safer place for people like Kiara.”
Dead silence holds the room hostage until Devlin finally whispers, “It's not for no reason.”
“Then for the love of the gods, tell me already. What did I ever do that made you hate me so much?”
He meets my gaze, a riot of emotion swirling in his eyes. “You left me behind.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You left me! Took my brother and gave him everything I couldn’t.
He never had to worry about where his next meal would come from or if he’d make it to morning without freezing to death.
That’s all I ever wanted for my little brother, and you gave it to him without a second thought.
But you didn’t give a damn about leaving me behind to suffer.
” He smacks his fist into the wall so hard it shakes, and something lightly smacks my head before fluttering to the ground.
“What the hell?” I murmur, picking it up.
Devlin merges with the wall and goes up there, returning a split second later with some weird, makeshift nest made of socks and snakeskin, and drops it on the table with an annoyed sigh. “I thought I found all of his stashes, the crafty bastard.”
My mouth parts in surprise as I see Kiara’s name scrawled across the envelope in my hand, still sealed, but with two small puncture marks, barely bigger than pinholes. “My letters…”
Kiara grabs another one from the nest and looks at Devlin. “You said nests. You found more of these?”
“Yeah, like four of ‘em,” he says breezily. “They're in the box marked Snake Shit. Why?”
She closes her eyes and exhales slowly through her nose. “Let me get this straight. You see my name on dozens of envelopes, and never once thought to mention it?”
Frowning, Devlin points at Zayd. “I thought the vampire noodle was like your other pet.
You know, how he wraps himself in your blanket while you're at work so he doesn't lose his shit and murder everyone because he misses you. I figured you made, like, little scent pillows that had your hair or something inside for him to sleep on.”
Gods, he sounds like-
My brain audibly screeches to a halt.
No. No, no, no. It can’t be. Not him.
But no matter how I look at it, the pieces fit too perfectly to deny.
He really is Arson's brother. And if he’s Kiara’s mate too?
There’s no escaping the demon that’s haunted me all these years.