by Lucy Auburn
Final Kill
Cain University 3
Lucy Auburn
Contents
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Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Afterword
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Also by Lucy Auburn
About the Author
Copyright 2019 Lucy Auburn.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
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Author’s Note
This book contains explicit sex, as well as blood and gore.
My mother's killer is on the loose. He wants to live forever—and he has help. Fat chance I'll let him get away with immortality.
The future I saw with my Conduits is coming to pass. Chaos, destruction, and violence. Worst of all, something terrible has happened to me.
I've had something vital taken from me by someone I thought I could trust.
Now it's a race to hunt down a killer, get revenge, and take back what's mine.
Can I protect myself and my Conduits from what's coming—or will we lose everything in the battle over life and death itself?
Final Kill is the last book in the Cain University series. It has violence, supernatural powers, inventive cursing, steamy scenes, a cat who may not really be a cat, and a lot more. Don't miss out on this epic finale to Ellen Arizona's story!
Chapter 1
Darkness. Not the easy kind, but the all-consuming kind. The bone-shuddering, fear-inducing, overwhelming kind.
My eyes are wide open, but I see nothing. At all. Not the blue light of dusk, or the shadowy hint of objects in the dark. This isn't the kind of darkness I'm used to.
It's the black world of the completely blind.
And I'm alone.
Panic hits me, makes me want to crawl on the ground like an infant, suddenly sure the world is spinning beneath me. I resist the impulse and reach towards the walls of the university instead, pressing my palms against them so I can feel something solid. It's not enough to comfort me, but it helps me swallow the panic in my throat, trying to reach up to ruin me.
I haven't felt this scared or alone since the first time Jack hit me full on the face. The look in his eyes—the surety that I wouldn't fight back, that there'd be no consequences for his actions—shook me more than the bruise I had to cover up with theater makeup to attend my classes.
I've promised myself time and again that I won't let fear like that rule my life once more.
So I decide that being blind won't change anything. I'm still a Brutus, a killer with four Affinities and four Conduits. I've killed three men, one just earlier today, and I've finally done what I've wanted all along: I've found my mother's killer.
If only he weren't wearing my fathers face.
If only I could see that face. An overwhelming desire hits me as I feel around in the darkness. I find myself wishing that I didn't have this blindness, didn't have a weakness at all—even if it meant no powers.
But I shake that thought off. My powers are a part of me now, whether I wanted them to be or not. And I've watched my guys each deal with their weakness all on their own without succumbing to bitterness and despair. Grayson certainly never let the pain in his leg stop him from being a complete and total asshole in the arena. I can't start feeling self-pity and weakness now just because I can't see anything.
Reaching carefully into my backpack, I let my Emotional Affinity feel for the poisonous snake inside. It's confused and irritated—all this running around and yelling isn't what it wants. It wants warmth and the taste of blood on its tongue. The snake is hungry; it's been at least a day or two since its last mouse, heated up in the lab and dropped into its cage.
I send it thoughts of a full belly, reassuring it that I'll bring food at some point, then urge it to curl around my arm. Pulling it from the bag, I crouch down, brace my free hand on the floor, and let my intentions flow into the snake.
As it slithers off my arm onto the floor in search of my target, I feel a little more than its emotions. I can feel its senses, too. It has very little sight, but its belly give it information about the world around it, and so does the red, forked tongue it flicks out every few seconds to taste scents on the air. Relief goes through me at the realization that I might be able to see again, through my powers if nothing else.
Standing up, I force myself to push away from the wall. I've walked down this hallway dozens of times by now; I know the way through memory alone. And my sense of hearing will tell me if an enemy is coming. I'm not defenseless just because I'm blind.
Though the jelly-like feeling in my legs doesn't seem entirely convinced of that.
Around the corner from me, the snake scents another person. I tense up, unsure how I feel about that—it could be the killer, or could be one of my guys. Finding myself near a doorway, which must be the supply room just past Headmaster Shu's office, I duck back so I won't be spotted.
Footsteps echo in the hallway.
Reaching in my bag, I pull out a knife, just in case my Physical Affinity powers decide to desert me again. Though now that I have my weakness, I get the feeling that won't be happening anymore. Lucky me—I can through out force fields without even seeing what I'm attacking.
The snake gets close to the person, and a hot rush of fear coils in its belly. Before I can stop it, the Water Moccasin lashes it and sinks its fangs into an ankle—just like I saw when I used my foresight outside Lionel Copenhagen's house.
There's a distinctly female scream. Then a string of curses—"Fucking Hell-fuck, where'd a goddamn snake come from?"
"Eve!" I jump out of the doorway, and hold my hands out towards her. "Don't kick it. It was just defending itself. And I brought the antidote from the lab with me, just in case it bit someone. Here, I'll get it out
for you… if I can find it by feeling around..."
"That's goo—wait, are you fucking telling me that a poisonous snake bit me? Also, Ellen. I'm over here. Hello? No, this way..."
"Yeah." A heavy emotion fills my throat and forms a lump. To distract myself, I hand the vial of antidote to Eve—or at least, I hold it out vaguely in her direction, hoping she'll take it. "I'm kind of blind now. It seems to be my weakness."
"Holy shit." There's sympathy in her voice, and I feel her presence shift, her hands closing around my shoulders and drawing me into a hug. Into my hair, she says, "We'll figure it out somehow."
I joke, "At least I already have a seeing eye dog lined up."
"Wait, you got a dog?"
"Long story." Pulling back from the hug, she pushes my hair behind my ears, and takes the vial from me. "Have you seen my guys, by the way? I haven't. Cause, y'know. I'm blind now."
"No. I came because I heard yelling. But Ellen... there's no one here. The campus is empty."
"I wouldn't know, I can't see the difference," I joke.
She groans. "Let's hope you holding hands with your Conduits gets rid of your weakness just like it gets rid of theirs, because otherwise I'll have to deal with these jokes until the end of time. And I just might wind up strangling you to death if you tell any more."
"The hand holding thing is a good idea. Though we figured out what if all five of us connect, it makes their weaknesses go away temporarily." Fear for my guys nearly overwhelms me, so of course I have to make a dirty observation. "Maybe if I fuck all my Conduits in some kind of gang bang style orgy, none of us will have any weaknesses anymore."
"That sounds—wait." Her voice goes high pitched all of a sudden. "Have you been having sex in my room?"
I'm saved by a sudden loud bang that makes Eve grab my arm and pull me behind her. Holding on to the back of her shirt, I desperately wish I knew what was going on—and if I'm ever going to see my Conduits again.
I even miss Grayson's mouthy remarks right now. And I'd take one of Levi's smelliest farts if it meant getting to see his face again—getting to see at all again.
"Ellen, back up—I don't like this."
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Just let me find somewhere safe to put you—"
"I don't want to be hidden away," I protest. "I have four fucking Affinities, Eve. And this fight is mine, not yours."
Thankfully, before she can say anything else, a familiar feisty little cat rubs up against my ankle. I didn't sense her before now, but suddenly Penny is here, close enough that I can feel the rumble of her purr in her chest.
And as I reach for her little body with my Emotional Affinity, I sense more than just her alarm, or the fact that her heart is racing after bounding down the stairs and following Eve to me. I can sense what she sees, too, and borrow her eyes as she stares between Eve's legs at the fight going on further down the hallway.
It's a relief to see the guys.
Less of a relief to see the dark red blood on Wyatt's body, or the way Levi is facing off against the killer wearing my father's face, his hand out as he poisons him.
As Eve pushes me back towards safety, I try to fight her off, but she's strong and stubborn. And I can't see much using Penny's eyes as the little kitty peers between her legs.
"What's going on?"
"We're getting you out of here, that's what's going on."
"I can fight—"
"Not like this," she insists, pulling knives and pushing me around the corner. Penny runs behind my legs, cutting off my vision of the brewing battle. "Stay here, Ellen. I'm going to take care of things. We can figure out what to do about your weakness after the imminent threat is over."
"You're not going to just get rid of me—"
But I forgot that this is Eve I'm dealing with, and not only am I blind, but I've been so busy with chasing Marks and having romantic entanglements that I've barely practiced my combat techniques. With a simple grab-and-twist of my wrists, she pulls me into a nearby classroom, shuts the door, and shuts me out.
"Not fair," I mutter. "This is my fight as much as anyone's."
It hurts to be a liability.
I wish more than anything that I didn't have a weakness right now.
"Hiding out, are we?" A familiar voice catches my ears, and I realize that I'm in Professor Vervaine's classroom. The professor herself is here—as Penny presses against my ankle, I can see and hear her. "Quite the cat you've got there. I didn't even see her slip in."
A strange feeling of foreboding hits me. "I thought the whole campus was empty. The students and professors and... everyone."
"You were almost right about that." She stares at me, leaning forward over her desk, cunning in her eyes. "The truth is, I wanted your four Conduits. And he had them for me... until they proved too wily. So I decided this would be a better option."
My mind catches up. "You're the one Lionel Copenhagen was talking about. The woman he was so afraid of. I thought it was something to do with his motivation for killing. But he was hiding out from you."
"Was he? I'd already moved on from him. Found a better candidate." She walks around the desk, staring at me. "You know, it's a shame. I really thought Grayson's powers would make for a nice replacement. But he wants four."
I may not be able to see, but I can still roll my eyes. "Jesus, lady. You really have that long, drawn-out evil yet vague monologue down pat. Just get to the point or kill me already."
"Gladly."
Of course, she picks killing me. I don't know why I keep goading villains into violence. I just can't help myself sometimes.
I throw up my force field as she pulls... a ball of yarn? No, surely she's not pulling a ball of fucking yarn out of her desk drawer. Unless she's planning on distracting Penny, in which case, that might just work. I just don't know how it's supposed to kill me.
It's not just yarn, though, I realize. It glows with magic. Through Penny's eyes, the glow is different, but I can sense the magic in the air. Without my sight, I can almost smell it, too.
Pulling a length of the strange ball of yarn between her hands, she holds it up and paces towards me. I push my force field out... and it disintegrates at her feet like it was never there, the magic yarn slicing through it like a knife through butter.
Penny starts to growl low in her throat, claws skittering on the ground, fur rising along her spine. I get the same feeling. This is not going the way I had hoped.
My ears, unencumbered by sight, pick up the sound of the battle outside the door. There's a grunt and a cry of pain. I need to go back out right now—as soon as I'm done with this bitch.
"I don't know what your deal is, or why you're working with my mother's killer, or what the deal is, but there's no way in fuck you're killing me."
"You're right," she says simply, a sharp smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "I'm going to take your powers. Then your Conduits. Then maybe one of their bodies... I was thinking, if they survive the severing of the connection—they so rarely do—that I'd take that big delicious beefy Physical Affinity. My Marcus will look lovely in that body."
I don't know what's going on.
But I'm starting to get it.
And I wish I had more knives on me.
Breaking away from my connection with Penny, I decide to fully embrace this whole being blind thing. Every weakness I've ever seen has brought struggle, but also strength. This can't be any different. Just because I can't see doesn't mean that I can't be a badass.
So I let my other senses take over. Pulling as much of my force field into my hands as possible, I remind myself: you don't have to aim when you've got as powerful a Physical Affinity as I do.
"Ellen." Vervaine's voice is a low purr that she must think is convincing or something. "There's no need for things to get violent. You'll only regret trying to fight back."
"I've heard that before," I tell her. "The man who said it is dead now."
Throwing my hands out, I push my force f
ield at her, a pure wall of overwhelming energy rippling from my fingers. Everywhere the field touches, I can see the world, or at least feel it: the hard edges of the wall and floor, ripples as it passes over desks, and slams into the chalkboard-covered wall behind Vervaine.
The only object in the room it doesn't touch is Vervaine herself.
It does, however, slam into the wall so hard that things start to creak and crumble. Penny growls, and I back up, not needing my sight to tell me I've just made a colossal mistake.
"Oh, Ellen. So rash. As if you could fight a full member of the Shadow Fold like me." Heels click against the ground as she approaches me, and I try to think through all my options. "I'm going to get what I want. The only question is, will you come out the other side with your sanity intact?"
"What do you mean?"
I'm not listening for her answer. I just want to delay her long enough to figure out a strategy. Looking into the future won't do me much good here, and neither will the dead, since I doubt Vervaine is frightened by a few ghosts. She's immune to my force field somehow—but I'm sure a little snake bite venom could get to her. I just have to find my wayward Water Moccasin.