Sin of Fury

Chapter 19





The feeling that had spread down to his back now covered over his chest and thighs. Soon enough, he felt like he had stepped into a batch of poison ivy. But by the time he was at the meeting place, right behind the large rec-center in the middle of downtown, it had dissipated.

Thankfully.

Materializing near one of the back alley entrances to the rec-center, he took in his surroundings and wondered how long he would be waiting for Devlin. The distant flapping of wings meant nothing to him, nor did the dank stench that came with it.

Was Zyn actually going to meet them? What was Devlin going to look like out of her suit? He had only seen her one time without it, when she had first been initiated. She’d been adorned in skin tight jeans and a curve hugging shirt. She’d worn plain black shoes and her hair and been short, almost a bob. The second he had seen her, he’d known that he’d do anything to have her. Talon had taken care of the recruits, had mentioned a redhead with potential, but Lucian hadn’t paid any attention.

Now, as he waited for her, he felt like every gun he owned was going off, like every nerve he had was going to explode. The beating wings got close enough that they were right in his ear. He turned around slowly, the tingle returning. Was he going to piss himself or some shit?

Rubbing his hands over his thighs, he took his time looking for Devlin. She liked to wait before making an entrance. She clung to the shadows like a spider. It had always been something that he’d admired her for. The way that she held her control with such tight restraint, the confidence she held in herself.

A painful image crashed into his mind. Tears raining down her cheeks, such...pain in her eyes. Losing her job shouldn’t have been so much of a terror for her, right? He understood that his work was his life, but it had to be. He didn’t have a choice -- she did. She’d only been with him for several years, maybe long enough to get attached but not obsessed. She was still a young woman, young enough to get a life and have children and... marry.

At the thought, his body hardened and jealousy ran through him. His fists clenched. Lucian was quite f*cking sure that any guy with enough balls that came up to her would quickly lose them

Soft steps. His name was called. Lucian turned around and stared, wondering where the hell she was. And then she was right in front of him.

Sprouting.

F*cking.

Wings.

“What the f*ck?” he barked, jerking backwards. His hand automatically went to his belt, where his gun and blade were holstered. Her hair was pulled back from her face, bright blue eyes sparkling with fire and an inner knowledge that had him backing away even more.

Black wings, almost the size of his chest, sprung proudly from her back. His jaw clenched at the site. The darkest, more solid part of the wings were close to her back. The more they extended outwards, the more they became almost invisible. In the sunlight that shone behind them, they seemed to glow and wave, and as if it had never happened, disappear completely.

Devlin took a cautious step forward, even though her eyes were anything but hesitant. Lucian tightened his hold on the Beretta at his hip. “You know, Lucian. I used to really like you,” she said lowly, emotionless eyes peering upward. He snapped his gaze in that direction, wondering if any more demons were going to come as back-up.

Now that he knew, he could smell the soft scent of evil that permeated the air around her. It came with every demon, some being strong enough to hide it well enough to be considered human. Lucian had thought she was just unique. In their world, some people had no specific race, just labeled as unique or different. Often enough, they weren’t so special that they had to be introduced to Lucian’s world. They had a guardian, someone to make sure that they stayed out of harm and didn’t reveal anything too damaging, and that was it.

Lucian had been dumb enough to believe that Devlin had been unique. Thick tendrils of betrayal flowed through him, the stench as rotten as a decaying body. Disgust for the woman he had once desired flowed through him freely, and she must have known it. Her nose flared and her gaze shot back to him.

“Enough that I almost betrayed the only man that ever treated me right,” she continued, backing him into a corner. And... yup, there went the jealousy. Right out of his head and into his dominant hand. In less than a second, he had a gun pressed to her neck and her luscious body was pressed to his.

If she moved back even an inch, he would fire. And she knew that also.

“You were our little sneak,” he accused darkly, rage flowing freely now.

Her head nodded, and her chin kicked into the air with haughtiness. “I’ll do whatever I can to protect him. And now that you’re here?” She paused, smiling wide enough to reveal small little fangs peeking down from her gums. “I can do just that.”

Her body shot into action, slamming against his. Lucian dropped to a crouch, pulling out the Beretta and aiming. Wings -- those damn f*cking wings -- sprung from her back and she was airborne with a great spring. Lucian didn’t notice he was roaring until it became loud enough to hurt his own ears, and before he knew it he was flashing onto her back. Like a snake with prey, he wrapped his arms around her neck and tried weighing them down to the ground. Her wings bat against his body as she tried to stay afloat.

Silver flashed, and then a sharp pain in his thigh had him hissing. He unleashed his blade and dug it into her back. Devlin let out an inhuman screech and they fell to the ground, spiraling. He only had a second to flash away from her and onto the ground, several feet away from her body. Blood trickled from her lips, and for a second, he thought he had won.

“No fight?” he asked, shifting the weight of his feet. God, he wanted this. He wanted to tear her apart. She had betrayed him, after everything he had ever f*cking done for her. And his team...his men. His only family.

She was going to pay.

“You’ve watched me train before,” she snarled, rising to her feet. Her shoulder looked like it was cranking to the right, which was the wing he’d damaged. He knew that even though she was a demon and her body could handle any amount of pain, the wings were the most sensitive part. Their greatest weapon and their weakest point.

“And?” he asked, throwing his jacket aside. It was causing him a lag in movement, and he knew for a fact that Devlin was a bitch in battle. She played rough and dirty, and didn’t hold back on the cock shots.

Blood red eyes stared him, seeing past his soul and straight into his future – his death. Grimly, he accepted the fact that unless anything happened to intervene, neither of them were going to make it out the fight alive.

Heat boiled through his arms and legs, coursing through his body and going straight through his hands. Instead of melting the metal as his power would have, it caused the bitch to flame up and in less than a second, Devlin was screeching.

And throwing herself at him.

He dodged out of her way and slashed the knife across her bicep, barely missing the her frosty wings. He knew enough from fighting with demons that if their wings were damaged, they emitted a coldness strong enough to freeze an arm until it burst apart.

“F*ck,” he cursed, turning around, only to be kicked in the side. His body slammed against the wall. He brought up his fist, throwing the knife with a death-letting accuracy. It slammed into her shoulder, but she kept coming at him. Her fist connected with his face, and for a brief second he wondered why she wasn’t using her wings.

The question caused him a dangerous pause.

Bam.

The wall blew out behind him, and once-a-f*cking-gain he was tossed – straight into Devlin. She screamed, her body trapped under his. He felt the crush of rubble and large bricks as they landed on his back. Furious, he pushed with his knees and, while stealing the now-bloody and cold knife from her chest—jumped over a large piece of stone.

Devlin didn’t follow him.

Smoke curled out of the building that had blown up on them, and he had only a second to whip around before a large, hulking body shuttled its way through the crushed stone. The large bang was deafening, startling. He saw familiar silver eyes, quickly turning to a dangerous onyx, before he was looking towards the building.

“Jamie,” Talon tried to shout. His voice was rough and panicked, and Talon barely understood what he was saying before he was unconscious.

“Oh my f*cking god,” he groaned, getting ready to save his friends love, and die at the same time. Whatever was going on in there, it wasn’t good. Evil, so dark and black, was pouring out of the building in oily waves. He had no clue what was happening, but he knew that he’d been betrayed. And set up. And everything was going to f*cking hell.

He only made it through the large, gaping hole of the rec-center before another blast echoed and collided with him.

The last thing he heard was Jamie’s cry of pain, Talon’s unconscious shout, and a small whimper from under the rocks before he was also dropped the f*ck out of the world.

~*~

“She’s in danger.”

The soft voice carried over him, through him. Curled in his gut. Sunk into his soul.

Zyn turned around, seeing nothing but empty air and trees and a telephone. Emptiness.

“Who’s there?” he asked into the forest, feeling the pull and lure of it as he had from the beginning. From the beginning of time, the forest had been his only solace, his only home. It was what called to him in his darkest days, what comforted him in his sorry excuse for a life.

“You need to go to her. She’s in danger!” the voice said, more insistent than before. It was feminine, yet strong. Controlled. As beautiful as a lullaby.

“Who is?” he asked to the voice, lifting his face to the sky. Nothing was there either. Leaves rustled softly, small drops of moisture falling from their high thrones of beauty. Besides one thing, nothing else had enchanted him as much as the forest had.

But she was gone.

Missy had given him a twenty dollar bill, a smile, and a nod toward the diner. He promised to repay her, and could only imagine the look that would come over her face when she opened her purse. The baby had slept the whole way to the diner, and it had been all he could do not to sit there, stare, and cry.

He’d never gotten to see his daughter as a baby, so innocent and untouched. He’d never gotten to see her first steps, her first word. He’d known nothing about her till she entered school. Every award she received, every performance she’d done, he’d seen. Revealed. Regretted. Loved. She would look so happy, so carefree. So smart and intellectual, just as a woman who was heir to the throne of their world was meant to look.

And he’d lost her. Because of his own foolishness. Because of his own selfish need to make her know that she was his blood, that he loved her. That someone cared for her as they should.

Zyn turned away from the forest and stared at the diner. He could hear the graceful steps of a deer a little ways behind the diner, searching through the brush and then loping away.

“You freaking idiot! Your daughter is in danger!”

Zyn froze.

“Are you going to listen to me now?” the voice asked. It was much closer than before, much more clearer. And much more angrier.

“My daughter is...dead,” he said numbly, walking away from the voice. The twenty was just a folded up paper in his hands, but it could get him something to eat. Something to gain strength with. He’d promised Lucian that he would come back, would take care of things.

How could he do that when he couldn’t even take care of himself? He thought of the deer, and felt his stomach clench. It was time that he fed. Cleaned up. Got back on track.

His large, thin frame shuddered. Not with cold or hunger, but with trepidation. For the future. The past.

Inside of the diner, only a few people sat among the tables, with the rest of them behind the counters, cooking and talking and laughing. The second he stepped inside, though, it became dead silent.

Awkwardly walking to the counter, he sat down and looked at the menu. The void in his mind was nothing but a normality. He could forget about things in a second if he had to, was used to doing so. But that voice, the female voice with such anger in her voice, was haunting him.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Zyn’s head snapped up in the direction of the voice. A large guy, dressed in an apron with grease stains and in checkered pants was standing in front of him. He held a spatula, a plate of fries and burgers, and standing behind him was the whole staff.

“Why?”

The cook blinked and then looked at him as if he were stupid. He cleared his throat awkwardly, and then gestured with the greasy spatula. “No shirt, no shoes, no service.”

Zyn stared at him.

He shifted on his feet uncomfortably, eyes flickering away from Zyn’s and then back. “Listen, man. I can’t serve you, so there’s no reason for you to be here. You’re making the Misses uncomfortable,” he tried, his deep voice even more awkward than it had been before.

Zyn stood up slowly, hating that it felt like needles were being shoved through his joints. Now that he was ready to come back, to take his place in the world once again, all of the pain that he had felt in the past ten years was coming back like a burning flame.

“Is he?” a quiet, scratchy voice said from the corner. The cook’s eyes shot over to the window-seated booth before landing on Zyn.

“Ma’am...”

“Give me one of everything on the menu,” she said. A thin figure peaked up from the booth, frizzy hair and bright blue eyes connecting with his.

The staff began to disperse, walking away from the cook, who stood his ground -- or tried to. Denying her would be a big loss of money, he thought absently, sitting across from her.

“Now, boy,” she said, sounding not in the least condescending as she completely forgot he was there and started talking to Zyn. “It’s been so long, I had almost forgot how tall you were,” she said quietly.

Zyn took in her appearance, nodding. Her hair was white and frizzy, sticking up in the most random places. Her eyes, bright and blue, were insightful and lively. Her hands were nothing but bones, wrapped loosely around a cup of coffee. Her floral patterned shirt hung off of her frail body.

The last time he had seen her, she’d been so very young. She’d used to have thick brown hair that fell down her back, and she hadn’t had even had laughing lines on her cheeks.

He nodded, lips lifting. “I almost didn’t recognize you,” he said easily, leaning back into his seat. He stretched his legs out and steepled his fingers.

“Well, Zyn, it’s been so long since you’ve graced our lovely world with your presence. I assume you are going to re-take your throne? Talon and Lucian seem to have done a wonderful job, but that still doesn’t account for the fact that we haven’t had our king. Plus, I believe that Talon will be getting married soon.”

His eyebrows popped up. Talon, marrying? A snort almost left him. “Are you sure your head is on right, Scesia? I can’t see Talon marrying, let alone talking to a female.”

She gave a small laugh. “I’m as sane as I was ten years ago, Zyn. And yes, they do not know that I’ve been watching over them. Poor Vladimir is at his wits end. He’s my little spy. I hook him up at the hospice and he tells me what is going on with Talon and Lucian.”

“Who’s Vladimir?”

“A friend of mine. A diva, but very apt and loyal to the throne. Also the last vampire,” she tacked on, nodding her head at his shocked expression.

“That’s surprising... Who is Talon getting married to?” he asked, brow furrowing. He knew he should be asking about the throne and his people and the demons, but something was nagging him, pulling at his neck.

“A fine young woman, I heard. Barely twenty-six, but very mature. Vladimir thinks highly of her,” she told him, fluffing her already frizzy hair as the door opened to the diner. A young man walked past them, shooting Zyn a look before disappearing into the back.

“And that’s something that I should take into consideration, I’m guessing?”

“Vladimir isn’t easy to get along with, very judgmental, and highly temperamental. If he trusts someone like he does to this young woman, than you can trust your life with her. Simple as that.”

“I see,” he said, watching as the door to the kitchen opened. The cook and several of the staff members came out holding plates. With a glare and a disgusted sniff, they started to place plates and plates of food on the table. He waited till they were gone, ignoring the hunger that shot through his stomach at the amazing scent of eggs and bacon. The second the cook’s back disappeared into the kitchen, he dug in. Scesia picked up a piece of toast and took bird-bites while watching him.

He didn’t notice her silence until he saw the glazed look in her eyes. “Scesia?” A low glow came over her eyes, and they shot straight gray. He reached over, grabbing her hand, shaking her. Alarm laced his voice.“Scesia? Stop, this isn’t funny.”

“She is going to die.” He froze at the deep, inhuman voice that came from her closed lips. Her back was jack-straight, eyes locked on his yet obviously not seeing anything, and they were slowly turning into a glistening black. A red tear dripped from her black-hole eyes, and a second later, she was gasping for breath.

“Who?” he demanded. He’d seen this happen before, when he’d been a child playing in the field with his brother. Zyn had left to get a wooden sword, and he’d run into Scesia. Back then, they’d still lived in the Scayth, and he had thought that nothing would ever happen to his family.

The second she’d seen him, her eyes had done exactly as they had right then. Except then, she had said, “He is going to die.” When he’d ran to his brother, the household following them with her mother sobbing and calling his name, they had found Dyvl torn up. Bloody. Dead.

“Zyn, you must leave. Take the food with you, but leave. Search for her -- your daughter. Reach deep inside of yourself and find her, you don’t have much time!” Scesia grasped his hands, pulling him to his feet. His body was rock hard, shocked.

“She’s dead...” Even as he spoke, he was already searching. Already dying on the inside. Already realizing that he might not ever see the daughter he had thought long dead. Scesia could be wrong -- hell, he had seen her die before his eyes in that dark forest, yet she was rarely wrong. Never wrong. Pain tore through him, and then the belief that after everything, he might get another chance.

“No! Find her -- before it’s too late. Oh god, Zyn. If she dies, everything is over. Amenia will --”

He didn’t hear the last words she said.

Zyn was gone.





Jamie shot after Talon in an almost blind state. He was laying close to Lucian, blood pouring from his forehead. His eyes were closed and she knew he was unconscious. Panic assailed her like a house on fire. The car was down the street -- they’d rounded a corner that had taken them close to the rec-center, even closer to the car.

She saw a flash of metal in her mind, and pushed it aside. She had to help them before the fire reached them.

Jamie was blind to why the building had lit on fire, didn’t even care. Her lover was in danger, and so were his friends. She flung herself over the crushed rock and, ignoring the pain in her feet from the contact with bare ground and gass, started dragging Talon. A ragged groat left his lips as she pulled him, dragging his body across the rubble.

God, she wouldn’t be able to do it if his shirt kept catching on things -- his jacket. She could pull him on his jacket. Jamie hopped over some glass, gasping when it caught on her leg. She ignored the small trickle she felt and climbed through the hole.

She realized, too late, what she was doing. The building was on fire and she was going back inside to grab his jacket. But she didn’t want to bring him more pain by dragging him through rocks, and the closer she looked through the hole, the less fire she saw.

In fact, the building was just full of smoke.

Dazed and more confused by the second, curiosity got the best of her and she continued inside of the building. She stared around her, coughing through the smoke. Just several feet away, she saw his jacket. Crawling close to the floor, she grabbed the edge of it and yanked it to her, knowing that when the heavy weight fell into her lap, it had been the right thing to do. There was something heavy in the pockets, maybe a cell phone or a gun.

Snap. Something small and blonde shot in front of her face, and then a bright burst lit up in the corner of the room. Her heart stopped. The smoke got even more dense, making it hard to see what was happening. Instinctively, she started backing towards the entrance of the hole, keeping a strong hold on the jacket.

Her hand itched inside of it, wrapping around the cold metal. Yup. She’d been smart, she thought as she took out the gun, clicking off the safety. Her mother had taken her to gun safety classes, and Jamie was grateful she hadn’t put up much of a fight when she’d insisted that her daughter take self-defense.

When she got to Talon again, he had moved onto his side, his brows drawn over yet still dead to the world. She slipped the jacket under his body, cursing the whole time. God, he was so freaking heavy.

“What do you eat?” she hissed, grunting when she rolled his body onto the jacket. She shoved a hand through her hair, feeling hope. She could get them out of this, she thought. It was just an explosion, and besides the fact that the most dangerous men in the world were currently unconscious, nothing was relatively fatal.

Jamie didn’t get a chance to start pulling him again. A trail of fire shot through the hole, bursting through the smoke, and slamming right past her head and into the wall. And kept going. And going. And going. Her head snapped away from the layers of holes through about twenty walls, and into the direction it had come from.

“Oh shit,” she said, reaching for the gun again. Talon wouldn’t get pissed if she went trigger-happy, would he? She ignored that and focused her gun on the tall, thin figure that was moving with grace through the smoke, nothing but a thin outline.

“Don’t shoot,” a murmur said at her ear. She wiped her head to the side, seeing nothing. Heart pounding, Jamie turned her eyes back to the hole and saw nothing except smoke.

She froze, stopping even the sound of her breathing. All she could hear was the city, the low groans of Talon and Lucian, and her own pounding heart. A car honked in the distance, and an eerie rumble sounded through the sky.

The sun was covered by clouds, casting down dark lights and shadows. They moved, surrounding her. She had a horrible feeling that the shadows weren’t caused by the sun.

Jamie pressed close to Talon, fisting his shirt in her hand. She had never doubted that she would give her life for him, but now, as she stared at the hole that was oozing black smoke, she desperately wished he was awake and would save them. For some reason, she felt like she wasn’t going to be good enough for the both of them to survive.

Another shot came, this time leaving a trail behind so hot that she felt it on her face several seconds after it had passed. Shutting her mind down, numb to fear and the pain in her legs and feet, Jamie got to her feet and aimed the gun with a steady hand.

The figure appeared in front of her vision, still inside of the hole. Why was it hiding?

“Do not shoot me, darling. I’m only here to help.” The voice was deep, soft. Beautiful and ethereal. The gun lowered slightly, but Jamie shook herself out of it and pressed forward.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Jamie hissed, taking a step forward.

“I did nothing, it was the fall that took him out. Come here, darling. I want to see the woman that everyone is making such a fuss about.”

Jamie paused, but after a short second, listened. Her feet made soft scraping sounds as she crossed the rubble, but that was the only thing to be heard. The city seemed to have died down, and even the men behind her were quiet.

Through the smoke, she made out a pale haired woman with a long slender neck and chillingly calm eyes. Her hands were folded in front of long white robes, and her feet were barely visible. She was barefoot, also. An aura surrounded her, and it shocked Jamie that it was visible. A low, glittering white light was surrounding the woman.

Jamie could only imagine how she looked. The woman, with eyes as dark as the midnight sky, gave no outward judgment. Instead, her thin eyebrows lifted and a small lifted her lips. “Ah, so this is the heir to the throne. How beautiful, indeed...”

She ignored the throne comment, choosing to use all of her strength to stare the woman in the eyes. It was hard, but she managed. Ice coursed through her veins, chilling her to the bone, as those inhuman eyes took in her appearance.

“I understand why Chris was so admitted to keep you by his side, now,” she commented absently, lifting a white-as-snow hand to touch Jamie’s cheek. The contact made her feel as if someone had pressed ice to her face.

She froze, mouth opening on a soft gasp. Chris...

“Yes, it is a shock,” she said quietly, nodding her head. “I came to him in his dark hours of sleep, and... Did you know that he is such a broken man that he has latched onto you to survive? It was quite moving, what I found in his mind. He believed the only way to keep you was to abuse you. He felt as if he were going insane, you see.”

Jamie’s head started to shake back and forth, but the woman’s hand on her face stopped her.

“Do not worry. With such a poor, tormented man, I have taken it into my hands to give him solace.”

She felt her heart stop, disgust and fear colliding into her mind as one. “And that would be?” she asked in nothing but a breath of air.

The woman, with her perfect lips and perfect teeth, smiled. “Why, eternal peace with the one he longs for, of course.”

Jamie felt the earth sway under her feet, and she listened with growing terror as the woman continued to speak. The way she spoke, the images she put into Jamie’s head, was going to kill her. God, she made it sound as if Jamie and Chris were meant to be together. As if Jamie was meant to live a life of pain. And without Talon...

“No!” she cried out, jerking away from the woman’s touch. “I won’t go back to that thing. You can’t take me away from Talon like this -- he’ll kill you.”

So convicted with what she was saying, she didn’t notice another dark figure walking behind the tall woman. “I won’t have to take you from anything, darling. See, I brought him to you. And once Talon is awake, he will get to see the woman he loves more than anything in this world and the next, die. At the hands of her previous lover.” For the first time, the woman showed emotion other than a calm knowingness. Her hands clapped together and she smiled with giddiness. “Oh, this is better than those human TV shows!”





“Wake up, Talon.”

The calling reached him deep. It was like a floating note around his head, like magic and beauty all wrapped in one. His eyes opened on their own. The first things he saw, he could barely make out. His eyes were blurred from his sleep, and for a second he swore he was still with Jamie, but at a hotel or something.

Except, they weren’t even in a room with a bed. Or a naked Jamie.

He searched with frantic eyes for her. There was no one around him, not even the woman who had called to him. The ground he was laying on was cold and hard, like marble but rough. There wasn’t enough light for him to see past his feet, and the more focused he became, the more de ja vu ran over him like a semi-truck.

He moved his arms, trying to stop the wave of coldness that ran over him.

When he heard the shackles, though, he froze. And almost screamed with inhuman rage. Wrapped around his ankles was familiar chains that linked to were linked to the wall behind him. A small, barred window was placed neatly in the center of the room, with not even the light of the moon to show him much.

A frost had shrouded the room, and specks of snow were lightly dancing their way in front of his face. Only the light of the stars gave him a sliver of vision, and even that was barely enough.

There was a weight around his neck…his bare neck.

Chains rung with a metallic clang as he brought his arms up to his chest, feeling for clothing.

There was none.

For possibly the second time in his life, tears stung his eyes and he realized that, once again, he was trapped. His head fell back as his roar of fury echoed through the room, completely desperation. He couldn’t be here, not again. Not again.

“Auro,” he shouted, body flinging into the air, straining against the chains that were wound against his body. “Get the f*ck in here! Face me, you coward,” he snarled, feeling a rage so deep that his body became as hot as fire, blazing and destroying. A small, pleasurable pain came then, in his mouth. Fangs exposed, he bared his teeth in the direction of the door and roared again, helpless.

There was no response, not even a malicious chuckle. No, all he heard was his own ragged breathing and short, gasping sounds. He wondered what they were until he realized that it was him. Talon fell limply to the ground, eyes burning even worse until he felt the small trickle of the tear.

Jamie…

God, what had he done with her? If he had Talon, he sure as hell had Jamie. And because of his brother, he could only imagine what he was doing with her…

“God damn you, Auro!” he bellowed, punching his fist into the wall with helpless rage. When Talon got his hands around that bastard’s neck, he was going to kill him…

“I’m sorry to say this, but Auro is no longer with us,” came a smooth and golden voice from thin air. His head snapped up in the direction of the voice, chest tight with a painful burn.

“Where the f*ck is Jamie,” he snarled to the voice, eyes flickering around to see where it had come from. Why did it sound so familiar? He knew he’d heard it before, and not just when it had called him to wake up.

“Right here, warrior.”

Suddenly, the room was washed in light and there they were.

Jamie, staring at him with terror in her eyes. Chris, her bastard ex-boyfriend, and…an image from the past. Amenia. Amena’s twin sister. She was in the robes that he had seen her in last, her hair was exactly as long as it had been before, and her eyes were a soulless black. Something that only happened when death was following her, ready to sink its greedy fangs into the next damned victim.

“Witch…” he breathed, and only a second later he was shouting, trying to break away from the wall. “I’m going to kill you, you f*cking bitch. Let Jamie go!”

“And how are you going to kill me when you won’t even have the strength?”

Chris stared at him with one of the most pleased smiles in the world. He reached over and yanked her by her hair, causing her to cry out and fall against him. Talon stared at him, letting his hate flow between them. The cold stare was enough to make him back up, but he tightened his hold on her and once again yanked on her hair, pulling her farther back.

“The second I get my hands on you, I’m going to drain you dry and throw you carcass into hell,” he snarled, chains rattling as he twisted his wrists, about to just crush the damn things so he could get to Jamie.

“What would be the fun in that?” she asked softly, gliding closer to Jamie. Her hands, like snow covered twigs, reached up to caress her cheek. Jamie snapped at her, almost taking off her fingers. Talon growled. “It would be much more enlightening to watch your pain at the loss of this beautiful young woman.”

Talon screamed, denial coursing through him.

Chris shoved Jamie onto the ground, right in front of him. He reached out, taking her hand in his. It was so small, so delicate. So cold and scared. He could feel the tremors that were shaking through her hand all the way to him.

“Talon,” she whispered, staring into his eyes. “I want you to look away. Just turn your face to the wall. Please.”

Tears were falling down her face, yet her eyes were no longer terrified. Beautiful and blue. They were strong, so much more stronger than he was. Her eyes clear and straight. Not pleading, but telling, him to look away. Chris was behind her, laughing maniacally. He reached into his jacket, pulling out a small black gun. Pointing it at her head. Clicking off the safety.

“Talon, please just turn away. I don’t want you to watch –“

“No,” he bellowed, trying to drag her to him. Chris just sneered, aiming the gun. “Chris, I’ll give you anything, I swear – I’ll give you life, money, anything. Just don’t,” he shouted, trying to cover her body with his. Yet she was pushing at him, rejecting him, crying for him to stop.

Never in his life had he felt so weak. So helpless. Now though, as the realization came that he was going to lose the most important thing he had ever had in his life, he was shuddering. Pleading. “Chris, don’t.” He could taste his own tears, could taste the pain in them.

Amenia spoke from the shadows, staring at Talon. “Your pain does not bring me the happiness I had thought it would. The way you murdered my sister will never leave me. This woman will feel no lasting pain when she dies – that is only for you.”

Several things happened at once.

There was a small flash. A pop. A startled gasp.

“Jamie, no!” A horrified, pained voice rang around the room. There stood the king, standing over his daughter. He burst into action, attacking Chris like a wild man – but he wasn’t quick enough.

“Talon, turn arou—“ Her scream was cut off.

And replaced with the last sound she would ever make in her life – a soft cry.

He watched as she fell limply to the ground, a gentle trickle of blood marking the life that left her body.