E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  I don’t want to do this, but what choice do I have? Don’t think. Just do it. Julien’s spell will be broken, and I’ll be free to move on. To return to hell. My work and job. Killing vampires and drinking cocktails.

  Pulling the trigger, I flinch at the sound as the silver bullet makes impact. A trembling invades my limbs. Shock wrapping itself around me at the reality of what I’ve just done. Within me my tiger gives a long mournful cry that tears through my heart and soul.

  Dante is dead.

  The gun slips from my grip to land on the mattress beside the spreading ash as he disintegrates. I need to leave. Get out of here before I’m discovered, but my legs refuse to work. Why do I feel so suddenly empty?

  A tiny noise has me looking up to see a shadow detach itself from the darkness. For a heart beat, the breath in my lungs struggles to find its way out of my chest. It’s not Julien watching to see if I’ve obeyed.

  A blue-eyed gaze burns me with such cold intensity, it has my knees going weak. I stare at him in confusion. What the fuck? If it wasn’t him, then who did I just kill?

  Standing frozen, there's no thought to protect myself as he stalks toward me all lethal and deadly.

  Reaching out, Dante wipes away my tears at the corners of my eyes with his thumbs. “Tears from an assassin? I don’t know who you are, but you just murdered my brother. No show of remorse will save you from my wrath.”

  14

  Dante

  “Dante.” Just my name on the assassin’s lips is an agonized plea. Her beauty is bewitching even if she is fatal. I don’t know who sent her, but she’s going to pay for killing my brother. If I’d sensed her faster, I would have been in time to save him.

  Caressing her jawline gently with my knuckles, I take a hold of her throat squeezing it tightly. “If I’m your target too, unfortunately for you, it's not going to turn out as you envisioned.”

  “It’s me. Yukie.” She wheezes going limp in submission. “You don’t remember, do you? Julien took your memories before I arrived, didn’t he? Another twist to his sick game.”

  “Is that your employer?” I sneer and choke her harder.

  “No, he's a tempus demon.”

  She’s intoxicating. Her arms, lips, the scent of her calls to me like the sweetest of flowers. Yet I know it's poison. This murderous bitch killed my brother. She deserves nothing but my hate and vengeance. What better way to punish her for her crimes than to break her. Those defiant green eyes won't glare at me for long. I'll leave my mark on every inch of her. Every untouched part, and when she finally cracks, I'll be there to destroy her completely.

  Dragging her toward the bed, I bend her over the mattress, my hips tight against her body subduing her weak struggles. Wrapping her hair around my fist, I use it like a pair of reins. Using my free hand, I rip down her leggings hauling them to her ankles. Unbuttoning my jeans, I brush my knuckles against her bottom. A scream tears its way from her throat, which only makes me smile. Shoving her legs apart with my knee, I press the tip of my cock to her entrance. Holding myself there, I let her feel it, knowing there’s nothing she can do to stop what happens next. In one long hard thrust, I impale her on the end of it. Yukie cries out at the invasion.

  Possessiveness swells through me as I thrust in and out of her. The knowledge that she was ready to kill me only has my excitement building. Keeping her face buried in the remains of Vincenzo, I drive into her mercilessly watching the ash coat her skin. Shuddering to a finish inside her, I keep her pinned as my cum fills her.

  She better get used to it. Pulling out of her, I feel her wince. Using her hair, I yank her up turning her around to take her roughly by the cheeks. I squeeze until she gives a yelp of pain. “You're going to tell me exactly what I want to know, and then you’ll spend what time you have left collared as my plaything before I kill you.”

  Pushing her down on the bed, I loom over her while I tuck my cock away and zip up my fly. One quick text has Mateo and my bodyguards joining us.

  “Vincenzo is dead. This is his assassin,” I inform them the second they step into the room.

  Mateo swears long and low under his breath, his distress at the news clear. “You want me to execute her?”

  “No take her down to the basement and chain her to the wall. I want some fun with her before I get rid of her personally.” Letting her go, I hand her off to my waiting bodyguards. I note the way she shivers. Her cat-like eyes narrow before she notices me watching and wipes every stitch of emotion from her face.

  “Give my excuses downstairs,” I tell him, attention returning to the ash that’s all that’s left of my little brother. “I’m not in the mood to announce an engagement tonight. Vanna will have to wait.”

  In that moment of loss, something inside me cracks. The love for my brother becomes shadows and sorrow. Pain coming and going like waves on a frigid winter beach. He’s gone. My little brother is no more. Torn from me at the hands of this woman. Every breath feels hollow in my chest. My vision blurs, but it's not with tears. The rage searing through me is so fierce I’m surprised it doesn't melt my skin. I need to see life extinguished from her green eyes. Hate colors my soul. It spreads through my system like a virus, shutting down all other feelings. I will wreak vengeance for Vincenzo.

  15

  Yukie

  Chained to a wall, collared in silver and segregation, I’ve been left for hours. My shifter blood makes me weak against the metal, but it won't kill me like it does vampires. I’m still reeling from what Julien let me walk into. Was that even the real Vincenzo? He tricked me, and I should have listened to my tiger and my gut when they told me not to do it.

  Everything is so messed up now I don’t even know reality from fantasy. With Dante’s memories altered, he’s become my enemy. Tears burn behind my eyes, but I blink them away. I have to keep myself from unravelling. Julien and whoever summoned him need to be stopped.

  The bolts on the door being drawn back announces the arrival of my captor.

  “Miss me?” Dante taunts as he stalks into the room. He doesn’t stop until he’s standing before me. So close I can see directly into his dead, frosty eyes.

  Raising my chin, I stare at him defiantly. “Never.”

  Smile edging his lips, he buries his fingers in the strands of my hair fisting it with enough strength to keep my head steady. “Little liar.”

  His hand tightens until I wince, right before he forces me up off the floor. Dante doesn’t release me until I’m standing on shaky legs, using the wall for support. I haven’t forgotten how big he is in all departments. The span of his broad shoulders, his height towering over me. My tiger purrs weakly remembering how he’d aggressively taken me over the bed after I’d been caught.

  Caging me against the wall, his hands rest either side of my head. “Even though you smell like a human, Mateo thinks you might be some kind of shifter. All you are is a feral beast that’s been tamed and conditioned to be aimed at those your masters see fit to have killed. You're a weapon to be used. Aren’t you sweetheart? Who sent you? Give me the names of your employers.”

  “Just kill me if that’s what you plan to do. None of this matters. We’ll just restart it all at midnight anyway,” I snap, feeling my anger surge. All I want is to get this day over with. Once everything resets, I can start hunting Julien down and let the others in the EVIE office know what I’ve found out.

  Dante dips down to kiss the side of my neck. “Are you going to battle for your freedom now or roll over and take what you're given like a good little pet?”

  “You mother fucking son of a—”

  Mid-tirade, he presses his lips to mine and slides his tongue into my mouth. Shock holds me immobile. For a full thirty seconds, my brain is frozen before it kickstarts. Snapping my teeth together, I bite down on the tongue that’s stroking against mine. An effective method to get his attention.

  Tension thrums through the muscular body keeping my own rigid. Refusing to let him go, I keep my mouth clamped shut.

/>   A growl surges up from his chest, hands curving around my cheeks. I brace myself for violence, but it never comes. An electric buzz crackles between us. Part of me wants to back down and submit to the mate it knows Dante is. My tiger side demands I give in. The other side is clawing to fight, not giving in to time old instincts.

  I can taste blood in my mouth, as coppery and wrong as everything else in my life right now. Closing my eyes, my heart slams into my chest as I realize my mistake. I’ve damned myself. Dante’s blood seals my fate, tying me to him in eternal servitude as my mate. Within me my tiger roars in triumph at the outcome. My mind soaks in newly found pain at what I’ve just done. Our heart beats settle into a rhythm beating as one. The bond I’ve just made binding us closer.

  Releasing him, I flinch away at the contempt I see in his chilling stare.

  “Bitch.” The backhanded blow sends my head to the left. The taste of my own blood as I bite the inside of my cheek mingling with the sanguine essence of Dante still lingering in my mouth.

  He unclips the chain keeping me shackled to the wall from my collar. “I’m going to get you a shiny tag saying the property of Dante and parade you around. Degrade you. Humiliate you. You’ll lick my shoes and thank me for it.”

  Before I realize what’s happening, Dante has me across the room. Spinning me in his arms, he tosses me onto the mattress of the narrow cot in the corner. Shrieking, rolling onto my stomach, I scramble to the edge, but he drags me back by my ankles. Vice-like grip finding my hip, my arse is violently yanked to meet his groin. Everything inside me stills at the feel of his erection. My tiger reacts to his aggressive actions sending pleasure racing through me.

  Mate she purrs. Our mate.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I realize somewhere between grabbing me and throwing me on the cot, he’s unzipped his jeans. Cock in hand, he’s poised to fuck me. I’m on all fours and ready to be mounted. Hormones flood through my system, my feline side unable to resist the link between us.

  “I hate you,” I pant, frightened of the mixed-up feelings he causes to storm through me.

  Dante laughs his voice raspy and low. “By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll wish I’d put a bullet in your pretty little head. Once I'm within you, I never want to stop devouring all your cries of pleasure and pain until you're incapable of speech. I’ve never fucked anyone to death before, but with you, I’m up for the challenge."

  One look at him and I know. My life belongs to him. His smile says it all. I’ve let myself get caught up in his web. I can't turn off this attraction. It's only getting stronger morphing from Lust to obsession and sliding into addiction.

  In one long hard thrust that has me crying out he takes me. Dante pounds into me mercilessly. He fucks me over and over until my thighs are shaking, and I’m lost in ecstasy. His lips move along my neck biting hard enough to leave marks. No fangs though. Dante refrains from using them on me. After he’s found his release, instead of chaining me up, he lays with me on the cot.

  There’s something to be said about power and pleasure. Pain can be used as a tool, but I’ve been taught to resist it. I have no way of protecting myself from Dante. The way he strokes his fingers over the back of my neck kneading out the corded tension and dissolving my resistance. His actions confuse me. The intimacy of his touch. His lips brushing my skin.

  Tears come out of nowhere. Rolling down my cheeks, until I’m crying on the mattress, confused at the conflicting emotions inside me. I’d been expecting violence not this.

  "Look at you. A sobbing squirming mess crippled by your own animalistic urges,” he murmurs, cupping the back of my head and guiding it to his shoulder to stroke my hair in mock tenderness. “Shh, it’s all right, calm down. Just match your breathing to mine.”

  Some inner instinct warns me of danger. Dante is far too calm. Nerve endings jangling my heart races inside my chest.

  “We both know I’m going to hurt you regardless of the sex,” he admits, crowning my forehead with kisses. “This is only the start.”

  Dante presses his lips to mine, silencing my sobs. His hand moves in a blur. A knife he must have kept hidden in his pocket is suddenly angled at my throat. I feel the sharpness of the blade. The tiny slice it makes against my skin. Eyes locking with his, I remain as still as possible. Bringing it up, he caresses it along my jaw, catching a helpless tear on my cheek with the edge.

  The naked hatred in his eyes is there for me to see. He wants to kill me. Rip me open and gut me for what I did to Vincenzo. In my heart, I already know he doesn’t believe me about things resetting at midnight. Dante is too consumed with his loss and fury. There’s nothing I can do to make him stop.

  “I’m going to make you miss the feel of my lips against your neck.” His whisper is brimming with venom and loathing. “My hands roaming your naked body and the feeling of my cock sliding inside you.”

  The knife is thrust violently into my stomach.

  Screaming at the agony, my hands grip his as he twists the blade cruelly inside me inflicting the maximum damage. I can’t seem to catch my breath. Writhing on the cot, I cry out a second time when he jerks the knife out of my body.

  “Let’s see how quickly you heal before I come to fuck you again. I’m going to make you suffer for what you did to my brother,” he spits, his face dangerously close to my own.

  Darkness swirling as my vision dims, I see him striding purposefully toward the door without a backward glance.

  “Dante?” Blood bubbles from my lips with his name.

  Panic starts with a tightening in my ribcage. My mind turns to static where nothing makes sense. A slow-moving train wreck that has pressure building until I can barely stand it. Something snaps inside me. I break like a tempest, torn up in hopelessness, and shattered in despair. Repressed memories come flooding back. Everything stolen from me poured straight into my skull in a raging river of words and sensations. I remember everything.

  All of it.

  Dante.

  My true life.

  Love.

  My heart mourns the desolate distance between us. I miss his arms and his heat. Paradise, the feel of his skin against mine. My life floats around me in fiery ruin. My purpose stripped from me. Everything I am has been taken away from me. The pitiful reality of the future that lays ahead is bleak and short. I lay bleeding on the ground in agony, floating between awareness and unconsciousness. Maybe if I let go it will be quicker. Everything will reset to Friday, and I can start this all over again, but do I really want to? Now I know the truth? The painful reality. It makes the torment even sharper, harder to bear.

  Shapes and colors shift in front of my eyes. The floor is cold and hard against my back, noises buzzing through my ears like the static of a bad phone call connection.

  Wait, floor? Dante had left me on the bed. When had I gotten to the floor?

  Watch for the glitches.

  Gabriel’s words echo in my head, with it comes a tiny thread of connection. I’m vaguely conscious of footsteps thudding toward me. Vision refusing to focus, it takes me a few moments to recognize the ugly shadowy face of the creature leering down at me.

  Julien.

  The demon grins down at me. “Poor little Yukie. Do you remember everything now?”

  I nod. None of this is real. It's fake. A fantasy world woven by this monster at the bidding of someone who’s summoned him. He’s been playing games with us. Somewhere along our timeline, reality slipped into his cleverly constructed illusion.

  “He could have kept you. Instead he broke you. Weakened you…even though you're still very capable of killing him if you chose to, you didn’t.” Julien’s sigh. “I was curious to see which was stronger. Your conditioning to be loyal from birth or a destined mate. It's so easy to manipulate you all. You’ve been my puppets for so long now and haven’t even realized.”

  He’s nothing but a tyrannical ruler of his own little reality while he shapes our world around us. Diabolic in his control of our lives.

&nb
sp; “I…” My voice is barely a whisper.

  “No, don't talk,” he coos softly. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you. The Vampire King will be busy still trapped in the loop I’ve already reset. For him it’s once more Friday night and he has a party to attend. He won’t even know you're gone, because I’ll make sure to erase you from his memory.”

  16

  Dante

  Stepping into the throng of people, I scan the faces but see no sign of Vincenzo. Where the hell is he? He knows how important tonight is. He was supposed to be here on time. Vanna and her family will be hovering, waiting for the confirmation of our engagement to my guests.

  Knowing him, he’s busy banging a couple of women. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s let his dick think for him. He’ll end up missing the whole event and will turn up tomorrow evening hungover. Not exactly the show of unity I planned for this. We’re going to have to have serious words about how he conducts himself. This is no longer acceptable.

  “Ready to give up being a bachelor?” Mateo greets me at the bar.

  Scowling at the werewolf, I click my fingers at the bartender and order a drink before replying to him, “Vincenzo is a no show. I want him found wherever he is, dressed appropriately, and his arse dragged here. I don’t care who he’s fucking; he will be here for this.”

  My second in command flashes me a crooked smile. “You don’t want him to miss you going down on one knee in front of your intended bride.”

  “Fuck off,” I grumble, infuriated at his suggestion. “I am not getting on my knees for her.”

  “I’d be more worried about her fangs around your cock. That bitch is a viper, and I still think you're insane for going through with this. You should be waiting for the one.”

  “The one?” I snort, taking my drink from the blonde behind the bar, her coy smile offering more than blood if I chose to accept her silent invitation.