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

by Lexi C. Foss

  From where I lay against the pillows, I can see the view he’s looking out on is of fields of bubbling orange lava and jagged black rocks. “It’s a secret isn't it? That I’m your daughter. That’s why you’ve never called me to your court.”

  The Devil nods sharply. “Like your sister, Kiko, those eyes of yours are just like mine. Far too distinct to be missed if we were seen together. Our connection will remain that way by all and every means necessary.”

  “Does Kiko know the truth?”

  “No and you will not tell her,” he warns darkly.

  It pours more heartache into my chest. I know he has a baby daughter with an assassin he’s taken as his consort. He has a family. I’m just a dirty little secret. One to keep buried. He’s feared by his subjects. Rules with an iron fist using his persuasive words to anchor his control over the demon masses and his army of the damned. Why would he waste time on me? The rejection cuts deep, shaking my already unstable foundations.

  Struggling to sit up, I fail miserably, still weak. “Are you going to kill me?”

  Turning back to me, amusement flickers on his handsome face. “If I had wanted that outcome, I would have left you in Julien’s hands. I have no wish to end you, Yukie. No matter how you were created, you are still my child, but your blood ties to me must remain buried.”

  “Why?”

  “Many look for a weakness to use or power to wield. They would see you as both with the legacy that runs through your veins. If anyone discovered who and what you are, they wouldn’t hesitate to use you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” I agree, seeing the truth behind his words. “They’d use me as a weapon.”

  “We both know you're already that, my child. Effective and deadly. You have exceeded all of my expectations and beyond from the day I saw you kill for the first time.” His voice holds pride, his expression wistful. “I can’t give back what was taken from you by the Chaos Lord but I can continue giving you purpose as my slayer. You are mine. I will always give you a path to walk, my daughter.”

  My purpose.

  It’s what I’ve had all my life, but now it feels hollow.

  Empty.

  20

  Dante

  Yukie and I have unfinished business. What’s between us has scorched me right down to my soul branding me from the first second I laid eyes on her. She may think she can slip away and forget me, but she’s going to discover that's not easy to achieve. I don't chase; I conquer.

  It’s taken me three weeks to find her. Five hundred and four hours to track her down. Knowing her track record, it should have been easy. Her prey, though, had scattered to the four winds, and she’s been hunting them down a handful at a time.

  I stand hidden in the shadows of a rooftop, transfixed by Yukie’s beauty. Her knives are razor-sharp and tipped with silver. She looks pale and thinner than before. Her need to hunt had been strong through our connection, thanks to our mate bond, and I’d felt the moment she had surrendered to it. A familiar sensation that reminded me of my own blood lust. It had consumed her, condensing into action.

  She doesn't seem to notice the stifling heat of the Athens’ night air. All her focus is centered on the vampires surrounding her. My gaze clings to her slender form in the courtyard below. The moonlight reflects the bright blue highlights among the ebony locks of her hair. A form-fitting black tank reveals her toned figure; black skin tight jeans encase her legs, ending at a pair of sneakers. Beneath her lie’s rags and ash, evidence the show had already started before my arrival.

  The scent of blood is an enticing aroma in the air. From the tears and rips of her clothing, my huntress has suffered injuries even as she stands tall.

  Head tilted to her left, her eyes are on the male who’s in charge.

  Santino Piovene.

  Vanna’s father. He’d fled from Rome with the rest of his family after his treachery at helping his daughter summon the demon came to light. He’s nothing but a coward.

  The need to protect races through me, but I don’t act on it. Yukie is more than capable of taking care of herself. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her in action. I’m not about to intrude on her battle.

  Spinning on her heels, she pirouettes gracefully slicing the throat of the first vampire to get too close. Her next move takes out another as she stabs him straight through the heart. As he explodes into dust, she ducks the arm of a third, lashing out to carve open his stomach. Three more are on her before she has a chance to take her next breath.

  Nails sharpening into claws, my canines lengthen to match those of the other vampires. Black, hungry violence blasts through me, but I don't respond to it. Gaze locked on my woman, I calculate the movements of her attacks ready to assist if ever needed.

  A slashing hand catches her side taking her to her knees. In the next heartbeat, she's pushing up and lunging quickly, dispatching the assailants in quick succession. Stepping over their fizzing remains, she approaches Piovene.

  “Where is Vanna?” Yukie demands.

  “You’ll never find her,” he spits, lips curling in hatred.

  He doesn’t turn and run like I expect him to. When Yukie stops before him, an avenging reaper of death filled with righteous fire and fury, he slaps her. His hand cracks across her face, snapping it back with the force of the blow. Yukie gives a startled gasp of pain, but it doesn’t stop her.

  Santino blocks her punch. From his posture he throws his body weight behind the fist he aims at her jaw. Yukie swivels to the side dodging it. Snatching a fistful of his hair, she yanks his head down while bring up her knee. There’s a blunt crack as his nose impacts with her kneecap. Crimson leaks from both his nostrils when he tilts his chin up.

  “Bitch,” he hisses going for the knife she holds, his fangs bared.

  They grapple for a moment before stumbling apart. For one brief second they both seem to catch their breath before diving in a blur back at each other.

  Yukie evades the next swing of his arm. Jamming her knife through his chest, she pierces his heart, slashing her second blade across his throat.

  Staring into his eyes, she smiles as the silver consumes him, watching him convulse as his body turns to nothing but dust. Silence stretches. Alone in the courtyard with no enemy left, she remains unmoving.

  She stands among the ashes of the carnage she’s wreaked, green eyes welling up and tears streaking down her dirty face. The emotions overwhelming her are visible in the trembling of her body. Throwing back her head, slashing her knives in the air, she screams her anger and frustration into the night sky, the sound primal and heart wrenching.

  Her pain is my pain.

  The howling of her soul matches my own.

  Each beat of my heart misses her as hers aches for mine even if she denies it.

  The need to hold her in my arms and put her back together again, piece by piece, is so strong I have to physically will myself not to move. This is her moment. I can’t interrupt it. She needs this. Worked hard to achieve it and I am not going to steal it from her.

  Yukie’s lips tremble until she bites them and straightens her shoulders in resolve. I shadow her as she slips from the courtyard like her hunter nickname, the ghost. She limps back to her hotel room, keeping her head down and avoiding eye contact with others.

  Giving her time to reach her room, I wait for ten minutes before entering the building to find her. She hasn’t even bothered to lock her door. Opening it and striding inside, I find my beloved slumped on the floor her back against the wall.

  She barely moves her head at the sound of my footsteps, letting out a shuddering breath of defeat and hopelessness even though she’d won tonight.

  “Hello, Pussycat.” My tone is gentle.

  “What are you doing here?” I note the defensive edge to her voice, her gaze slowly rising to mine. I’m greeted with the full force of her jade-green eyes, the exotic darker flecks gleam in the light.

  “Looking for you and making sure you don’t self-destruct. It was
n’t easy, but I had a little help from an angel named Gabriel. What happened?” I question, gesturing at the mess she’s in and hoping to coax the truth from her. I’m not about to tell her I’ve been stalking her. If she were more like her old self, she would already know.

  “There were more vamps than I anticipated, but it didn’t help them in the end.”

  I nod in silent understanding, aware of the hard, cold look she gives me when talking about others of my kind. There’s no remorse for killing them. I wouldn’t expect anything less from her. It’s to be expected, after all. Yukie has taken retribution for what was done to us out on Vanna’s house, wiping every family member from the planet except one.

  “Where’s Vincenzo?” she asks, looking around like she expects him to pop up out of nowhere.

  “He’s safe,” I tell her, for once not feeling any jealousy at the mention of his name. “He’s finally taken on some responsibility while I’ve been searching for you.”

  Picking her up off the floor, I note the violent tremors wracking her body. The ones she’s been trying to hide since I found her. Carrying her across the room to the bathroom, I lower her so she can sit on the edge of the bathtub. Yukie doesn’t say a word but continues to glare at me.

  Opening the taps, I run warm water into the tub. Stripping her carefully of her clothes, I assess the damage as I go. She’s been beaten and battered. Watching her wrap her arms around herself protectively, I see she’s intent on keeping me out.

  When the tub is half full, I scoop her up placing her within it, disregarding the sleeves of my jacket as they get wet in the process. Tugging off the expensive garment, I leave it in a crumpled pile on the floor.

  My whole focus is on the woman before me. Goosebumps contract over her skin, and her shivers continue even with the warmth of the water surrounding her. I want to dispel the coldness within her, which I know runs deeper than just shock and a drop in adrenaline.

  “I can do it myself. I don’t need your help, Vampire,” she snaps when I crouch and reach for a bar of soap, lathering it over a sponge.

  I don’t miss the way she quivers under my heated gaze. She’s not as unaffected by me as she pretends. My poor, mixed up pussycat. She lays tensely in the water, her whole being vibrating with the ball of emotions at war inside. Emotions I can sense through our mating bond.

  Fragile, resilient, beautiful, and deadly. Yukie is captivating. She always has been. It’s the reason she pushed through the cracks she caused in my armor. It’s the reason I did everything in my power to make her mine while we were under the demon’s spell. Our relationship might have been fictitious, but the love I feel for her is not. I’m not as unfeeling as people believe. Not since she came into my life. I’ll do everything I have to show her this can work between us.

  Dragging the sponge along her hip, I bathe her gently, careful of the bruises already healing. Stroke by stroke, patient and slow, I wash away the blood on her skin, cleaning the cuts and claw marks. Yukie hisses at the sting but doesn’t move to stop me.

  Trailing it up over her breasts, her nipples pucker in excitement at my touch as the soapy water runs down her chest. Her shivers begin to calm, her color returning flushing her body a healthy pink.

  “I have this dream where I keep all the feelings I thought you made me feel in a Mason jar. The kind of love where I have no idea where I'm going, but I crave every step. To be lost and found all at once,” she whispers, eyes screwed tightly shut.

  “I’m here,” I murmur quietly. “You don’t have to keep them imprisoned. What I feel for you isn’t fake or a fantasy some demon created. It can be real if you just let it be.”

  “How can you be so sure of that? We don’t even know each other. None of what we experienced is real.”

  Her tiny confused voice has my heart aching. I’ve never heard her sounding so vulnerable and frightened. This isn’t a part of this woman I’ve ever seen before.

  “Look into my eyes, Pussycat. You have nothing to fear here,” I assure her, cleansing the last remnants of her battle away. “I love you. My heart isn’t complete unless you're at my side. The only shaking I want from you is in pleasure. Come with me. I will make you my queen for all eternity. My beautiful fated mate. Let me rescue you.”

  “I don’t remember everything of my life before,” she confesses in a whisper. “Julien ripped out memories like the pages of a book. I have blank spaces. Holes. Then others that are filled with images, sounds, and sensations so overwhelming they bring me to my knees. I was in love with your brother before all this, but that was taken from me too. I never thought it was possible to have an emotion cut from you. It leaves a terrible miserable ache. A sense of mourning I don’t understand.”

  “Let me give you what was taken,” I urge. “What was lost. We can make it bigger and better than before. Rewrite those pages the way we want to. Give us a chance. It wasn’t all make believe. I dreamed of you when we were trapped in that loop. I still do.”

  Yukie doesn’t reply. She remains silent and still in the water, her breathing quiet, and it makes me wonder if she's wishing me away. For now, her fight is spent. It won’t be for long. My pussycat will come back battling with a vengeance.

  I let her remain where she is until her skin starts to wrinkle. A light touch on her shoulder makes her jump, waking her from the light doze she’d sunk into. Keeping her face averted from me, eyes cast downward she rises and steps from the bath. Draping a fluffy towel around her shoulders, I use another to dry every inch of her. Once I’m satisfied, I rid her of the other and lift her up into the shelter of my chest carrying her into the bedroom.

  She’s exhausted.

  Her head rests limply against my shoulder, her limbs lax and languid. A tiny snore indicates she is once more asleep. Some part of her trusts me. It remembers what we had, or she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be so vulnerable before me.

  “It doesn’t matter what we were before. We keep moving forward,” I whisper into her hair, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “And we don’t stop.”

  She's the woman I've always needed. The one I gave my heart to. From the first moment I saw her, she took my breath away. Enchanted me with her beauty. One chance meeting was all it took. Two hearts forever bound. I know being with her will have consequences. What we have goes beyond just the physical. It's perfection.

  21

  Yukie

  Waking slowly, I find myself sprawled over a male body like I own it. The vibrant azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea sparkles in the moonlight beyond a pair of french doors opposite the bed. A glance down at the man below me and I find Dante watching me closely.

  “You.”

  I’ve been spiraling out of control with no anchor to ground me. Adrift in uncertainty and mourning memories lost and a reality that was never mine. Killing those responsible has not brought me any satisfaction or restored what was taken.

  “Me.” Dante’s slow smile melts my insides. Rolling me beneath him, his muscular thighs pin me to the mattress. “I’m not letting you go, Pussycat. With me is where you're meant to be.”

  His words douse the warmth seeping through my bones. “No, I’m not.”

  “We’re mates, and we both knew the truth from the day my brother introduced us at that party.”

  Anger has me pushing him off. Scrambling for the edge of the bed, I stand on shaky legs. I’m no longer in my hotel room. This place looks far nicer and more expensive.

  “Where...am I?”

  Chasing after me he rises, prowling around the mattress and making me back up. “My Villa on the Amalfi coast.”

  Panic tightens my chest at the news. “How...”

  “I have a new friend who knows how to teleport,” Dante confides with a wink.

  “Let me guess, the angel.”

  He nods.

  “You kidnapped me! You shouldn’t have brought me here. I remember you torturing me while we were trapped in the time loop….” A tear escapes the corner of my eyes trickling dow
n my cheek, I don’t even try to prevent the others that join it.

  “I wish I could go back and change it, but I can’t and the times we were together as lovers I wouldn’t even want to.” He smothers my tear coated lips with his mouth. Hand moving from my neck to fist my hair gently holding my head still as he backs me up. My arse meets a desk. Lifting me up onto it he parts my legs to stand between them.

  “You and Vincenzo both made me feel special, wanted. Things I've never felt before. Then you took it all away,” I tell him in a tiny voice hating him for what he did, hating him more for what he’s doing to me now. I can’t stop aching for the vampire, but this isn’t a fairy-tale.

  This could destroy both of us. I’m a hunter. We don’t fall irrevocably in love with our prey. It's forbidden, and I’ve already broken rules with him. I can’t allow him or his brother to push me further over the line. The callous memories that were made are carved with cruel claws. They’ve hardened with the hidden pain in my veins. I only remember brief moments of our time together trapped in the spell, snatches of love and laughter or the time before when I was dating Vincenzo.

  “We still couldn’t deny the bond that sparked between us.” His lips brush over mine, the fleeting touch barely there. “We have always belonged together. Your sanguine soul calls to mine. There’s no escaping it. We just hadn’t realized it yet, and then others interfered before we had a chance for things to bloom naturally.”

  I shiver at the contact. “You were an arsehole to me. Vincenzo introduced us, and you were nothing but rude.”

  “You tipped my world upside down with one look. I knew instantly you were the woman for me, yet you were hanging on my brother’s arm. I admit I hadn’t acted very politely, but how could I, when Vincenzo was watching you so adoringly. I wanted you myself, and it drove me crazy with jealousy. Let me show you what it can really be like between us, Pussycat. The only fantasies and dreams will be the ones we build ourselves.” Dante’s breath feathers my lips between heated kisses.