Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1 (32 page)

The clear, shadowed depths beneath Kara suddenly lit up. Seconds later, she heard the crack of thunder over the water sloshing in her ears. She glanced up at Firebird Island and paddled harder as heavy drops began to fall from the sky, hitting the surface of the water and bouncing heavenward again before finally giving in and merging with the vast expanse of the ocean. Jaxon glanced back to make sure Kara was still behind him, then they both forged ahead.

It was farther than it looked to Firebird Island, and by the time she and Jaxon walked up the rocky shore, they were panting with exhaustion. Kara wiped the salt from her eyes and twisted the water out of her long brown hair as Jaxon slicked his hair back and spit again.

Kara frowned, almost angry with the bloody saliva caught at the corner of his lips. “Are you strong enough to get her home?”

He nodded, his expression miserable but resigned. “I am. I vow to you that if it’s in my power, I will take Abigail from this place.” He reached out a cold hand and wiped a trickle of water from Kara’s cheek. “You’re a treasure among women, and it has been my honor to serve you.”

Kara swallowed. “No goodbyes, Jaxon. We don’t have time for that.”

She marched up the beach, careful where she placed her bare feet in the rocky soil. As they got closer to the mountain, her stomach roiled. She felt the same dark energy she had the night she’d found the carved woman…the same energy she’d first felt at her bedroom window the night before she’d met Gavin. It was all she could do to keep moving forward as evil thickened the stifling air around her. “I think it’s this way. The base of that mountain looks familiar.”

They didn’t speak again as they walked. She could tell he thought this wasn’t going to end well, and she couldn’t mentally go there. She had to put one foot in front of the other and get to Abbey. She’d worry about Brakken once her friend and her warrior were safe.

When they came over the crest of the hill, a small valley stretched before them. Green shrubs popped out of the black soil along the edges of an old trail of lava.

A man leaned against the trunk of a palm tree, his legs crossed and his hands playing with a small piece of auburn rope. The rain glued his blond hair to his head. Knives and other heinous torture devices hung from the dripping straps crossing his chest. Kara squinted to get a better look at his face and her heart lurched.

Gavin.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Gavin?” Kara called before she could think better of it.

“No,” Jaxon whispered, taking her by the shoulder.

But it was too late. Gavin glanced up at Kara and smiled. At the same time Kara looked to the scene at his feet. Abbey. Naked and stretched out, her hands and feet bound with rope to stakes in the ground. Her body was pale. Pink rain dribbled down her sides.

Pink?

A small cry burst from Kara’s throat as she stumbled forward, never taking her eyes off her friend. The closer she got, the clearer she could see the rain pooling on Abbey’s belly, filling in the gaping tracks left behind by Gavin’s blade.

The sign of Brakken.

Kara fell to her knees, unable to support her own weight. The black rocks dug painfully into her skin, helping to keep her mind from retreating in shock. She heard the metallic sound of Jaxon’s blade pulling free of the scabbard behind her.

Gavin pushed away from the tree, still smiling. “I thought you would get here sooner. She’s almost bled out, I’m afraid.”

Kara moved her lips, trying to speak several times before the words finally broke free. “Why, Gavin? Why would you do this?”

Jaxon came to Kara’s side. “Stand, mistress,” he commanded, pulling her roughly to her feet. Then more loudly he added, “This is not the Mercury Lord. This is his brother, Gable.”

Kara settled her feet firmly in the soil and pulled the dagger from her waist. “Gable.” If not for the reptilian look in his eyes, he’d be indistinguishable from his brother. “Yeah, we’ve met. I’m glad to see you, Gable.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Are you really? Even with the dreams we’ve shared, that is a warmer greeting than I expected.”

Kara squeezed Jaxon’s hand hard.
Remember your promise
, she wanted to say. “Oh, trust me. I was expecting a black-wing. To see you standing there, I’m delighted.”

“And why is that?” As Gable twisted the short rope in his hand, Kara realized it was Abbey’s hair—a beautiful red braid gathered at both ends with twine.

She glanced at Abbey’s still form. She couldn’t tell if she was breathing. Her hair looked as though it had been hacked away by a dull blade, different lengths stuck to her forehead and cheeks. Kara felt like she was looking down on the scene from above. Her whole body tingled. “Because now I can kill you.”

Without another thought, she launched herself down the path, running full speed at Gavin’s twin with her dagger extended. When she was only inches from him, arcing down to slice into his chest, he vanished.

A moment later, he appeared on the other side of the tree with his wings unfurled, laughing as if they were playing a child’s game. “Not a true black-wing perhaps. But you see these?” He bobbed one black and gray dappled wing in her direction, like a peacock fanning his tail. “I am the only one of my species who has both. I’m utterly unique. Hope you don’t mind I chose the black feathers for our courtship. It was more fun that way, don’t you think?”

Kara’s heart pounded like the surge of the heavy rain around them. She gripped the dagger tighter and lunged at him again, hitting nothing but air. “Get Abbey!” she bellowed, spinning in time to see Jaxon slice through the final binding around Abbey’s wrist.

Jaxon dropped the sword and gathered Abbey’s limp, bloody body in his arms, his gray wings stretching from his shoulders. “I’ll come back for you,” he said over the sound of the rain.

“No! Stay with her. Don’t you dare let her die!” Abbey couldn’t be dead already. She couldn’t be.

Jaxon nodded with a quick jerk of his head and pained concentration washed over his features as he began to flash. Then, like a scene from her worst nightmare, Gable materialized behind Jaxon and plunged a blade into his back, delivering the blow to his spine, between the base of his wings.

Kara screamed in warning, but the damage was done. Jaxon’s eyes went wide as he curled into a ball, his arms still wrapped around Abbey’s sheet-white body. Seeing Gable poised above Jaxon, Kara flung her knife as hard as she could, burying it to the hilt in Gable’s bare chest above his heart.

Gable looked up at Kara and growled, flashing his long fangs. She saw it then, the glint of insanity. He grimaced and pulled the knife easily from between his ribs, then tossed it to the ground. “I wasn’t aware you had that skill.”

He pulled a long sword from the sheath at his waist and swung it back, arcing it toward the base of Jaxon’s neck. Kara watched it happen as if in slow motion. She didn’t even have time to scream.

A silver-winged shape burst from the sky, plowing into Gable’s body with enough force to send them both flying. Gable’s sword spun up in the air like a pinwheel and came crashing down not more than an inch from slicing into Abbey’s calves.

Kara scrambled over to Jaxon, her gaze flitting back and forth between her two friends and the dark-haired blur grappling with Gable. “Jaxon!” She slapped his cheeks, trying to wake him. He blinked open bloodshot eyes. “Go!” she cried desperately, praying it was possible.

“Knife,” he murmured.

It took Kara a second to understand him, then she reached around and pulled the blade from Jaxon’s back. His breath hissed in. Slowly, he began to dissolve, just a blurring of his edges, as though she were seeing his reflection in a foggy mirror.

She watched in horror, unsure if it was worse for him and Abbey to stay on Firebird Island or risk getting caught forever in the bottomless mire if he didn’t have the strength to get them home. He glanced at Kara one last time as his essence faded in and out, and Abbey’s with it, until at last, they were gone.

Kara glanced up, her ears ringing with the sounds of snarls and grunts from the two winged men writhing on the sharp, rain-splattered stones. Claws dug deep and muscles flexed. Gable straddled the other man and grabbed a handful of his hair, using it as leverage to smash the man’s head into the black wall of rock. In the brief pause, Kara saw clearly. It was Julian lying under the deranged Demiáre. He’d come for her.

Julian lunged at Gable’s throat, pulling a chunk of flesh out between his fangs in a cascade of scarlet blood. Gable’s scream was a wet gurgle as he slashed his claws over Julian’s exposed face. The men thrashed on the porous stones, each one injured and desperate.

Gable spread his clawed fingers wide above Julian’s forehead, and Kara felt a draw on the energy around her. Julian cried out in agony as steam billowed around his body.
Like Jaxon
. Gable was going to try to burn him from the inside out like he had burned Jaxon.

When Julian’s scream dissolved into a guttural groan, Gable laughed. “I’ve always…enjoyed…a fair fight, mutt. Call the shadows…to come and get me.” His voice was as shredded as his throat. “What?” he asked, leaning closer to Julian’s convulsing form. “You can’t? Oh…the things we give up…for the sake of love.”

Kara pulled the sword from the sheath on her back and crept forward, staying out of view. She would do whatever it took to keep Julian from burning. She raised the sword over her head, praying she could bring it crashing down on the plateau of Gable’s shoulders without completing the arc straight into Julian’s forehead.

Just as she swung, Julian glanced up, giving away her position—and as quick as that, Gable was gone. Kara’s whole body moved with the momentum of her swing. One of Julian’s eyes was shredded, gaping from the socket, and the other was staring at her, as if doubting in that instant she would really hurt him. Kara yanked back with all her strength and went tumbling after the sword, barely rolling in time to avoid falling on the blade.

She stopped and caught her breath. She was still in one piece. “Julian.” She crawled toward him and grasped his bloody face in her hands. There was so much blood. “Oh my God. Your eye. Your skin. Are you all right?” He wasn’t all right. His face was a gory mess and his skin was cherry red and blistered.

“Turn around, Kara. Don’t leave your back exposed.” Julian stood and twirled Kara so they were back to back, both facing outward with swords in their hands. “I deflected most of the heat to the surface. I’ll be fine.” With his left arm, he reached behind him and grasped her hip, trying to keep her close. His wings pressed softly against her skin, sheltering her from the worst of the wind.

“He hurt Abbey.” Her voice cracked like she was going to cry, but she blinked hard, not daring to let a tear fall until Gable was dead.

“He’s out of his mind. We’ve done nothing but provide for his every need, but no matter how much Gavin wants to fix him, Gable is irreparably broken.”

She gripped the sword tighter. “He’s a silver-wing, right? He can be stopped.”

Julian circled around slowly, still keeping Kara pressed to his back. “We’ll have to take his head. That’s the only way. Out of all Brakken’s offspring, Gable is the strongest.”

Kara had taken down more thugs than she could count, but she knew a Demiáre like Gable was out of her league. She felt Julian shift against her back, and she was amazed he was still standing, amazed he would fight Gable to protect her. “Thank you for coming for me.”

“If I would have been brave enough to ask you to wear my symbol, you could have summoned me instead of Jaxon. I didn’t want to force you into something else you weren’t ready for.”

Kara swallowed. She wouldn’t tell him that she hadn’t come to him because she wasn’t sure at first whom she could trust. She was an idiot and he didn’t need to know that. “I’d love to wear your pendant, Jules. It would be my honor.”

Julian laughed as the rain fell around them, shielding his face with his forearm to keep the damaged eye from the worst of the weather. “Is that the way into your heart, then? All I have to do is kill one little warrior? You should have told me this last week.”

“You don’t have to do anything to get into my heart. You’re already there.”

“God, woman, I love you.” She felt the press of his back against hers and knew he wanted to hold her right then as much as she wanted his arms around her.

She opened her mouth to tell him she loved him right back, but she couldn’t utter the words. There would be time for that later when Abbey was safe and Gable’s head was at the bottom of the sea. There would be time to tell him how he meant everything to her and how her life was fuller somehow, now that she shared it with him. So instead she asked, “Why is he doing this to me?”

“I don’t know.” If Julian was hoping to hear
I love you
, he didn’t show it.

Kara looked at the bloody scene around them. The rain was already cleansing the ropes where Abbey had been. But there on the rocks… “Where’s Gable’s sword? It’s gone.”

“We need Gavin.” She felt his hand move from her thigh. “Damn it. My charm must have fallen off when Gable cut me. Here, move with me, love.” He shambled back to where they’d fought and from the feel of his movements, must have been searching the ground for his charm. “Got it!”

“Is that really necessary, Julian?” a deep voice asked from somewhere under a blanket of rain.

Julian shot upright, fitting himself tightly to Kara. She heard him quickly mutter some words and felt the summons flow past her into the angry gray sky.

Gable materialized to Kara’s left, causing both her and Julian to turn to face him. The bastard was still smiling. “It doesn’t matter.” He cleared his throat, and although his flesh was still ragged, his voice already sounded stronger. “It’s time to let him in on the game, anyhow.”

“The game?” Kara’s sword hand trembled with fury. “You think this is a game between you and me?”

“Between you and me?” He looked honestly surprised. “What would be the point of that? You are an insignificant speck on the timeline of my life. This is a gift for my brother, though I’ve been disappointed he’s let you have all the fun.”