Marked by an Assassin (21 page)

Gods, she was beautiful.

But she could never be his.

He would only taint her with the darkness living within him.

As his mate, she deserved the best life that he could give to her and that was the life he would give to her.

A life without him in it.

His leather boots were loud on the polished black stone floor that reflected warm torchlight up at him, each step a heavy thud that echoed along the broad arched corridor of the main entrance of the guild. Harbin adjusted his grip on the female in his arms, cradling her closer to his body as he carried her into the heart of the place he now called home.

Her head lolled, falling against his biceps, and he couldn’t resist the urge to look down at her that stole through him. Her soft shell-pink lips parted, her warm breath fanning his skin as he held her nestled against him. In his arms. Where she belonged.

He erased that last thought as two assassins approached him, neither of them from the guild. Sometimes the guilds teamed up when a particularly dangerous target with a high enough price on their head came along. What business had these two assassins been doing here?

The blonde females were quick to notice his cargo and even quicker to speak with each other in their native language, one he had never bothered to learn. Succubi made good assassins, but he preferred to keep away from their kind. They had a tendency to kill any male who sampled their wares.

One giggled as he passed them, a snigger that made him want to turn and growl at her in warning. The rules of his guild were known by all in it and even some from other guilds. They knew he was breaking them and he was sure they were just itching to watch the calamity that was about to unfold when he reached the main reception room. He locked his senses on the pair, monitoring them, feeling them swaying between continuing out of the door and turning back to see Hartt rip him a new one.

The bitches turned back.

Harbin huffed and kept trudging onwards, into the impressive black-walled reception room at the end of the corridor.

Four of the guild’s longest serving demon members lounged in the horseshoe of black velvet couches that surrounded the monstrosity of a marble fireplace to his left, the satisfied smiles on their faces telling Harbin that the succubi had been here for pleasure, not business. The demons all looked at him the second he entered the room.

One of the male’s black horns curled through his thick dark hair, so the points protruded past his cheeks. A sign of aggression.

Harbin had considered he would have trouble with Hartt when he brought Aya to the guild, but he hadn’t considered that other members of the guild with have a problem with her presence.

The male pushed onto his feet, coming to stand at least three inches taller than Harbin and twice as broad.

If he fought, the three other demons with him would fight too.

Harbin wasn’t sure he would be able to protect Aya from them.

The black door in the far right corner of the room shot open and Hartt strode in, his violet eyes dark with the anger rolling off him in waves so intense that Harbin was sure everyone in the vicinity would sense the elf’s fury.

Hartt’s black clothing disappeared, replaced in an instant by his armour as it swept outwards from the black and silver bands around his wrist, the scales coming to cover him from toe to neck. They coursed over his hands too, forming deadly jagged talons.

Harbin tucked Aya closer to him and bared his fangs in warning.

He didn’t want to fight Hartt, but the male was throwing vibes at him that had his primal instincts firing and demanding he protect his mate.

“What the hell do you think you are doing bringing her here?” Hartt snapped, ignoring his warning, and stormed towards him. His pointed ears flared, poking through the unruly strands of his blue-black hair, and his fangs showed between his lips as he talked. “You were meant to kill her.”

Harbin roared at him.

Hartt’s eyes widened and he stopped dead.

The entire room dropped into stunned silence.

Fuck, the reaction had shocked even him. It had been feral and powerful, overwhelming him and seizing control, hijacking his body and forcing the response from him when he had felt his mate was threatened.

He breathed hard, fighting for control over his instincts, aware that he had just crossed a line and that if he wasn’t careful, Hartt would do more than shout at him.

Hartt would do more than fight him.

This place was his home, his pride, and he couldn’t allow anything to jeopardise his place in it. He had already lost one family. He couldn’t lose this one too. He needed the guild. It was his life now, and nothing would ever change that.

“You good now?” Hartt whispered softly and Harbin nodded. “Care to explain to me why you brought her here?”

That riled his snow leopard side, making it push for freedom. He needed to shift and show this male that he had no right to question him when it came to his mate. He had no right to look at her in that way, as if she was something to be eliminated or cast out into the dangerous world outside of the guild.

He deepened his breathing, seeking some sliver of calm that he could hold on to while he mastered his animal side and regained control of it. He could feel everyone staring at him, their gazes piercing him. Judging him.

He knew the rules. He knew he wasn’t allowed to bring anyone from outside the guild into it with the intention they would stay longer than a few minutes, as long as it took to satisfy whatever urge had struck the assassin in question or take a potential business partner away from the guild to a local bar to talk about a job.

He knew no one had ever dared to break that rule since Hartt had created it centuries ago.

He just had nowhere else he could go.

He looked down at Aya where she slumbered in his arms, unaware of the danger that he had placed her in by bringing her to this dark place. It was danger that he could control though. He hadn’t had a choice. This was the safest place he knew. The witch could enter Hell, but he wouldn’t dare attack an entire guild of assassins.

“The contract is a trap,” Harbin said, his tone flat and controlled despite the emotions that raged out of control inside him, whipped into a frenzy by the memories of what had happened and the thought of Aya being in danger. He lifted his head and locked eyes with Hartt, catching the male’s surprise in their violet depths. “It’s her… the huntress.”

Hartt’s eyes widened. “You’re sure?”

Harbin nodded. “A male witch made himself known to me when I was tracking Aya. I recognised the huntress’s scent on him. They’re in league with each other, which means Aya was bait for me.”

“Because she’s part of your pride?” Hartt’s steady gaze challenged him to admit that she was more than that to him but he refused, unwilling to surrender that information when so many of the guild were present.

What Aya was to him was personal and he wasn’t in the habit of sharing personal shit with other guild members.

Personal information was another weapon they could use against him if they ever turned on him.

“I couldn’t take her to Cavanaugh. I won’t place him and the others there in danger.” Harbin looked back down at Aya and bit back the sigh that tried to leave his lips as he studied her soft face, losing himself in her beauty all over again.

“You’d put us in danger though,” the dark-haired demon muttered.

Hartt whipped around to face the four males. “If you’re afraid of a little witch and his lackeys, perhaps you’re in the wrong fucking profession? Take your whores and get out of my sight.”

The demon snapped his mouth closed and shuffled away, heading for the exit with his friends and the succubi.

“I should set Fuery on them for being whelps,” Hartt snarled as he watched them go and then sucked down a deep breath and switched his focus back to Harbin. The darkness in his boss’s eyes remained, lingering like dangerous storm clouds. “Cut the crap… she’s more than just a former member of your pride. The huntress has been in hiding for two decades. There’s no damned way she would risk a showdown with you unless she had an ace up her sleeve and I’m guessing the female here is that ace.”

Hartt’s eyes narrowed, holding Harbin immobile and unable to escape what he could feel was coming.

“She’s your fated one.”

Those words seemed to echo around the room forever, each stinging his heart and making him feel the dreaded weight of them. She was his mate, but that wasn’t a good thing.

“I’ve been too close to her. The connection between us is already awakening and that means it’s strong.” Harbin blew out his breath. “If the huntress harms her, I’ll feel it. She’ll use Aya to weaken me.”

“Fuck,” Hartt grunted and dropped his eyes to Aya, and Harbin had to bite his tongue to stop himself from growling and demanding he take his gaze off his mate.

Hell, he had thought that being on the cusp of sexual maturity had been a royal pain in the arse. It was a cakewalk compared with the urges that ran through him every second of every minute that he was close to Aya, a barrage of needs and desires that seemed at odds with each other, tearing him apart from the inside.

Part of him wanted to give her the life she deserved, one without him tainting it, and the rest demanded that he stay with her.

It screamed at him to protect her and claim her as his mate so no other could have her.

“I take it you have a plan?” Hartt said, pulling him back to the room and away from dangerous thoughts of gouging his boss’s eyes out so he couldn’t look at Aya.

Harbin really wanted to nod and say that he had, because he knew there was going to be a fuck-tonne of disappointment in Hartt’s eyes when he told him the truth.

The elf’s expression shifted and it seemed Harbin’s hesitation was all the answer the male had needed.

Hartt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can come up with something. For now, take her to your room and keep her there. I’ll send out a mandate to the guild members that will protect her but it’s best she isn’t left alone.”

Harbin couldn’t agree more.

He intended to stay by her side for the entire duration of her stay. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight. He wouldn’t risk her.

He looked down at her again, his heart heavy as he realised that risking her might be his only option, his best shot at drawing out the witch and the huntress.

Harbin turned away from his boss, heading to the back right corner of the room and the door to the east wing, where his quarters were. He stared down at her the entire time, unable to take his eyes off her or shake the creeping sense that he had no choice this time either.

If he wanted to have his vengeance, he would have to risk Aya.

He would have to place his fated female in danger.

It was the only way.

Spice and snow. It wrapped around her, warming her down to her soul and soothing the ache from her tired limbs. Aya rolled onto her side and curled into the thick blankets, pulling them around her and burrowing deep into them. The scent grew stronger, teasing her senses and making her yearn to see the male the pleasing smell belonged to, but she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes, not when she was so warm and comfortable.

Her ears twitched as a distant bang sounded, rattling her from her dream.

She fluttered her eyes open but they were hazy, her vision blurred, blending everything together into one sombre mash of colours with a single golden glow in the centre. When the room around her finally came into focus, she shot up in the bed and her eyes darted over everything from the lamp burning on the side table, to the black walls and to the dark ebony dressing table and drawers opposite her near an equally obsidian door on the right side of the small room.

A room that wasn’t hers.

Where was she?

Aya tossed the dark crimson covers aside and leaped from the double bed, heading for the window cut into the thick stone wall to her left.

She stopped dead when she reached it, her eyes widening as she stared at the dark world outside.

She had the sinking feeling that she wasn’t in London anymore.

Black mountains rose in the distance, above crooked roofs tiled with dark grey slates. A gloomy sky filled the space above the town and the range of cragged peaks, nearly as black as them.

Where the hell was she?

Aya paused.

Hell.

Gods, it was all coming back to her now. Harbin had been there on the rooftop. He had saved her from the witches. He had drugged her.

He had brought her to Hell.

Her stomach flipped and she shot to face the door when another bang sounded.

Her heart pounded, thundering against her chest, and she threw a panicked glance around her at the room. It smelled of Harbin, but she could scent others too, and she could sense many moving around the building.

Assassins.

She was in their home, and she had a price on her head, a contract that this guild was meant to fulfil.

She was in danger here.

Her every instinct roared at her to run. She shoved at the sash window but it didn’t move. Her fingers shook as she fumbled with the lock, managed to get it open, and tried again. The window still refused to open. It was sealed shut.

Her breath came quicker, panic setting deep roots in her as she looked across the room to the door that led outside. She had to risk it.

She bolted for the door and had it open in a heartbeat. Her head swung both ways, eyes landing on a black wall to her left where the corridor ended, and a long hallway that seemed to go on forever to her right, lit by wall lamps at intervals. She shoved off and was sprinting barefoot down the corridor a second later, her cream satin slip whipping around her thighs as she passed several corridors shooting off from the one she was running along. She swiftly bolted down one on her left when she sensed someone ahead of her, and took the next right, which only led to another left and left again. A growl curled from her lips. The place was a damned maze. How the hell was she meant to find her way out of it?