Worth Dying For (10 page)

 
“Reward?”

“You don’t know about the reward? Katerina has put a bounty on her. The first of us to bring back the woman’s head will be given a permanent seat on the Council.”

Bane smiled, despite his savage rage at Katerina’s amoral scheming. “Ah, I see. No, I hadn’t heard. Well, you are too late. They’ve released her.” He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. Lying had never been one of Bane’s long suits. “My guess is she’s on her way back to Augusta.”

Levi wasn’t as green as Bane hoped. “You wouldn’t be trying to put me off the scent, would you?”

“Check for yourself. It’ll give me a head start.”

Bane turned and ran for the hills, knowing his actions would lead Levi away from Amber. Outrunning him without much effort, he circled back through the trees when he knew Levi could no longer see him. Bane hoped they were all as stupid as the youth.

Downwind of the station, he caught another scent a split-second before the sound of her muffled gasps chilled his dead soul.

Levi hadn’t come alone.

* * * *

The hand clamped over Amber’s mouth crushed her lips against her teeth but the pain barely registered. The pressure building in her chest hurt the most as her screams were halted by the arm pressed across her throat.

Amber’s gaze darted around the room, landing on the hole in the outer wall to her cell. Two huge grey blocks had been torn away from the bottom of the tiny window, and whoever it was that now held her in an iron grip had passed through it.

“Come with me,” her captor said into her ear, his soft words at odds with his hard grip on her body. “There is nothing to be afraid of.”

Amber fought against the heaviness invading her limbs. The voice seeped into her bones, sucking the resistance from her until she fell limp in her attacker’s arms. A part of her brain screamed that she should fight but the voice seemed to drown it out and, as the hand clasped over her mouth slid away, she found she had no desire to call for help.

Struggling to lift her eyelids, Amber turned around and tried to focus on the face swimming in and out of her vision. The person smiling down at her had the same strange eyes as Bane…except it wasn’t Bane. This large and frightening man had no kindness in his face and every part of her being knew he intended to harm her. Her flesh crawled when he lifted her hand to his lips and trailed a kiss across her skin as he pulled her towards the opening in the wall. He released her to leap up into the cavity in a single bound, making her dizzy as her eyes tried to follow his movement.

 
“Shall we?” he asked in the same silky tone, offering his arm to her as if inviting her onto the dance floor. Amber reached for him and he grabbed her hands to pull her up to him. Again, she wanted to fight, scream, run…but she couldn’t do anything but do as he asked.

“Good girl,” he said, lifting her into his arms and cradling her to his chest as he jumped to the ground.

“I’ll take it from here,” another voice said, from somewhere behind them, a voice she recognised despite the fog clouding her brain.

The man holding her tensed and began to vibrate as a low, rumbling growl built in his chest where her ear was pressed into him. Amber’s fear reawakened and she struggled for release. The stupor she had felt only moments before disappeared as he threw her to the dirt, as if tired of her squirming, and turned his back on her.

“Bane,” he said, bowing his head in greeting. “I fear you are too late to claim the prize. As you can see, I got here first. “

Bane crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. “In that case, I would say we have a problem, Milo.

 
“Amber, move away from him and whatever happens, don’t make a sound. Your very life depends on it.”

Bane’s stare didn’t waver from the man who had taken her, his eyes full of barely restrained murderous rage that she realised she had not yet seen from Bane. He had never looked at her that way. She stayed on her knees as she inched across the ground, keeping her gaze on them as she felt her way with her hands, terrified Milo would turn at any second and stop her.

Had Bane been watching her all this time? Yet again, he seemed poised to fight over her and she still didn’t know why.

Milo
smiled in her direction, as if indulging her attempt to get away then lifted a hand to his face to examine a broken nail as he sighed. “Bane, this is tiresome. I plan to claim the reward, and I
will
kill you in order to do so.”

Bane laughed. “Shall we begin then?”

Amber reached the bushes at the edge of the lawn and crawled into them, ignoring the sharp thorns tearing at her arms and clothing. She scrambled to her feet and started to run, until the loud, savage growling at her back stopped her short. Spinning around to look into the clearing, she saw the men drop into an attack position like the one she had witnessed in David’s apartment. Milo moved first, launching forwards so fast, Amber barely followed the movement. Bane leapt upwards in response, soaring over the other man’s head and spinning catlike in mid air, to land on his feet behind his opponent.

Amber gasped. Bane must have jumped at least ten feet high.
How the fuck…?
She had no time to think about it as Milo crawled up the wall and a new question replaced the last. He scurried sideways, like a spider, moving backwards and forwards as he hung over Bane, as if looking for the best angle for another attack. Then Bane’s opponent gave a terrifying hiss and threw himself from the wall, his bared teeth glistening in the artificial light illuminating the yard.

A scream ripped out of her and she clamped her hands over her mouth to suppress it as her knees gave way. Bane sidestepped Milo, turning quickly and grabbing him as he passed before slamming him to the dirt. Pressing a knee into his back to hold him down, Bane reached into a pocket and pulled out a canister, placing it on the grass by his side.

“Run, Amber,” he said without turning towards her, but she couldn’t. Her feet pushed ineffectually against the ground but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the carnage in front of her. Bane leant over the man, locking one arm around his chin and the other over his head while Milo spat and strained against him, his hands scratching at Bane’s arms.

Bane grunted as he shifted a little, took a deep breath…and tore Milo’s head off.

Amber vomited into the grass, fighting to keep her head up to watch the horror unfolded before her, too scared to look away in case Bane came for her next.

The body underneath Bane continued to fight and struggle, its hands no longer locked onto Bane’s arms. Now, they seemed desperate to grab onto something else. Amber knew what he wanted—Bane held Milo’s head by the hair, just out of Milo’s grasp. The lips were pulled back in a snarl, exposing his teeth and she could see and hear them snapping, as if trying still to bite their enemy. She couldn’t see the expression in his eyes in the darkness and she was grateful that she could not see him in even more gory detail.

Bane picked up the canister, pulling the lid off with his mouth and pouring its contents over Milo’s head. He threw the still snarling mass a few feet away before reaching into another pocket and pulling out a lighter. The body beneath him began to buck and kick harder as Bane flicked a flame to life and tossed the lighter at Milo’s face. A bright flash illuminated the side of the building and the hissing and spitting head went up in flames. Milo’s body tried to crawl towards the burning mass but Bane kept him pinned to ground, riding out the struggle until the flailing finally stopped.

Amber shook with a new fear. She shouldn’t have seen what she just had—shouldn’t be fucking sitting here waiting for the same to happen to her. Her legs listened to her brain and she staggered to her feet, stumbling through the trees in the dark to she didn’t know where. Trying to get away from Bane and what she had just seen was a waste of time and, even as she ran, she knew she would never be safe again.

A blur at the edge of her vision gave her a split second’s warning that she wasn’t alone. She stopped, unsure which direction the danger would come from but certain she was running towards rather than away from it. Leaves and twigs crunched a few feet away at her side and she turned to find Bane closer than she feared, his massive frame casting an ominous silhouette against the grey backdrop of mist and trees.

His hands were raised, as if to show her he meant her no harm. “Don’t panic, please.”

Backing up as he approached, Amber kept her eyes forwards and her gaze fixed on him. Her heart crawled up into her throat and her stomach gave a violent lurch and she knew she would die.

If she screamed, nobody would hear her in time anyway. The armed police just yards away inside the station house would not be able to save her. She’d seen Bane in action before—she would be dead before she could take another breath.

“I’m not going to hurt you. You’ve got to stop running away from me. You need my help.”

Confusion mingled with the fear clouding her thoughts. “Help?”

He sighed. “I told you last night. You are in danger and I’m your only hope of survival.”

“Why? What danger?”

“Leave with me now and I promise I will explain everything.”

His eyes held a plea, as if he wanted her to go with him through choice. As crazy as it sounded, Amber could see Bane hoped she would trust him. The image of the dead man and the horrific way he met his end flashed through her mind and she took another step away from Bane.

“Why did you do that to him?”

“It’s the only way to stop them.”

 
“Them? You mean there’s more?” He nodded. “Who are they and why are they trying to kill me?”

Bane’s head snapped around. His vision locked on to something in the trees and he sniffed the air.

“Levi,” he growled.

Before she knew it, Amber was off the ground and in his arms. She pushed at his shoulders and tried to wriggle free but he began to run, so fast that the trees became a blur and the breath caught in her throat.

“No more time for talking. You’re gonna have to trust me.”

“No. I don’t want to go with you. Put me down.” Amber heard the panic in her voice and, as scared as she was of making him angry enough to kill her, she couldn’t help but scream when he just ignored her.

Bane stopped running. Amber pushed against him but he didn’t relax his grip. Would he hurt her now?
 

“Amber?”

She looked up at him, surprised to find his black eyes glowing with gentle warmth that chased away her fear. Amber’s eyelids began to droop and she let her head fall against his shoulder, even as her brain warned her that she should be fighting.

He must have drugged me, Amber decided a few minutes later as she wrapped an arm around Bane’s huge neck when the insane running had started again.
Fuck it.
She didn’t care anymore. She felt safe and warm for the first time in what seemed like ages and she curled into the sensation. But then the nice, fuzzy feelings went away and she found herself standing alone and cold as she rocked on unsteady feet.

“Are you awake?” Bane asked, his rough grasp on her chin forcing her to look up at him.

“I wasn’t asleep,” she said, stepping out of his reach. She couldn’t have fallen asleep in the arms of someone who terrified her…could she? Amber didn’t recognise the area they were in nor did she remember getting there. Hadn’t she just been screaming into his face? Maybe she’d blacked out. She held her breath, waiting for the fear to return. But it didn’t.

He’d fought to protect her twice and as scary as he seemed to be, Amber began to know at some instinctive level that he wouldn’t hurt her. Still, she had to get away from him as soon as she could and figure out what the hell was happening.

He gave her shoulders a shake that he might have intended to be gentle, but still set her teeth rattling in her head. “Amber, I need you to think. We need a car. Where do you live?”

“In Augusta,” she said automatically.

“We are in Augusta. Where
exactly
do you live?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“We need your car.” Bane raised a hand to stop her asking the obvious. “We need to get away from here as quickly as possible. I could do it on foot but, if anything were to happen to me, a car would be your only chance of escaping.”

“Escaping who? Or should I say what?” A muscle flexed in his jaw and she gave up hope of getting any more out of him for now.

“I promise I will explain everything in time…including how I got you into this predicament.” He raised a hand as if to brush back a strand of her hair but she flinched away from him, the memory of what he could do with those hands still too fresh in her memory. “Now I really need you to show me where you live.”

Five minutes later, after another dash through the dark streets in Bane’s arms, she found herself in a doorway facing her apartment building.

“But why can’t I come with you?” she protested when he attempted to leave her in the street.

“You are a suspect in a murder. Where do you think the authorities are going to look for you?”

Okay, so he had a point
.

“What about you? Why aren’t you a suspect? I told them all about you.”