by A. M. Hardin
“Mercy,” she pleads, “listen to me. This, you killing people simply for the sake of killing people, isn’t you. It’s not you at all. Please, come back to me. My brother and his team, they all need you.” I tense, before relaxing and flashing her a smile.
“It won’t work,” Torn says from behind me. He moves to me and wraps his arm around my neck from behind, pulling me close to him. “Mercy has no conscience, you appealing to that part of her that no longer exists won’t do anything besides disappoint you and annoy her.”
Tears fill Farrah’s eyes before she turns around and runs out of the room, quick enough that I couldn’t catch her if I tried.
“Pity. Why’d you let her go, dearest?” Torn asks, rubbing his cheek against mine.
“I figured I owed it to her.”
“Why is that?”
“She saved me when someone got into my room and poisoned me.”
He runs the back of his fingers down my arm, caressing my skin softly. “Hmm, then I suppose I should thank her, too, huh?”
“No, you won’t go near her. Me letting her live was thank you enough.”
“Whatever you say, my dear.”
I glare at him. “I may not have the urge to kill you anymore, but I am not your anything.”
He chuckles flatly. “Of course, Mercy. Now, shall we move on?” He asks, sweeping his hand out toward the door.
“Sounds like a plan.”
The second we get outside the library an angry voice shouts, “You little traitorous bitch!”
I turn to the side and grin when I see Bianca stomping her way toward me.
“You killed my husband.”
“Oh, please,” I scoff. “He was never a husband to you, admit it. He was just some jackass who needed his ass kicked and needed to die. And look, he’s dead now.”
Bianca uses her vampire speed to grip me by my throat and slam me into the wall so hard it caves in.
I probably shouldn’t have, but I chuckle as her grip on my throat tightens.
“What about this is funny to you?” She snarls.
“The fact that you think you’re so big and bad is pretty funny since all I have to do is this,” I say, thrusting my dagger into her heart making her gasp, but she still doesn’t let me go, “and add my fire to it to kill you, slowly and painfully from the inside out.”
I smirk in satisfaction as she pales when I add the fire to my dagger and direct it into her wound and throughout her veins. Her hand drops, and she falls to the floor, screaming in agony as my flames eat her alive.
22
Hunter
“What the hell is going on around here?” Kai asks as we see another few vampires exit the house quickly.
I frown when I see Parker’s sister leave the house after them like hellhounds are hot on her heels.
She frantically looks around then relief flashes across her face when she sees the five of us standing beside the large oak tree in front of the house. Using her vampire speed, she’s standing in front of us in less than a second.
“Parker, oh thank god,” she pants.
“What is going on?” Parker asks.
“It’s Mercy.”
Just like that, every one of us tense.
“What about her?” War asks, jaw clenched.
“She-she’s gone rogue. And there’s a guy with her. She’s killing everybody, Parker,” she says quickly.
“Shit,” Parker hisses.
“Let’s go,” I bark. We all start moving, but before we even get to the sidewalk the door slams open with a bang.
Mercy walks out with a giant smile plastered on her face. My brother is standing behind her, grinning evilly.
My mouth dries up as I stare at the little half-demon that’s turned all of our lives around, covered completely in blood, looking completely untroubled by the havoc that’s been caused.
Her step doesn’t even falter when she sees us. She stops after a few slow steps and runs her gaze over all of us.
She’s close enough now that I can see her eyes. They’re pure black. The ultimate sign of a rogue half-demon. There’s absolutely no sign of the breathtaking purple eyes that I fell in love with.
“Mercy,” Talon breathes. I flick my gaze to him to make sure he’s okay, since he’s the one who’s had his life completely torn apart by a rogue demon once before. I’m not sure how he’s reacting to Mercy’s turning.
“Brother,” Torn says, a cocky smile in place. “You look shocked to see me.” I clench my teeth as he moves forward just enough to lay a hand on Mercy’s shoulder, and she doesn’t shake him off, shocking the hell out of me, and I’m guessing the others. “Though, I suppose you wouldn’t have expected Ethan to be the one to invite me here, either.”
“My father?” Parker gapes. “He’s not that stupid.”
Torn grins. “Oh, he was. He wanted one night with our girl here,” he explains as he pats Mercy’s shoulder once. Looking at her expression, she doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that Ethan had essentially betrayed Parker at all. In fact, she looks kind of bored. “Of course, I couldn’t allow that, so she killed him.”
“My dad’s dead?” Farrah asks, shocked.
“Mhm, so is your mom. She tried putting Mercy through a wall. I’m sure she regretted that decision.” Torn chuckles.
“You son of a bitch,” Parker bites out at my brother.
“I’m more concerned with how you turned rogue, Mercy,” I finally say.
Torn laughs. “Oh, that’s not her fault. She really had no control over it. Just like she has no control now.”
I tense and feel the others vibrate with anger around me.
“What is that supposed to mean?” War demands.
“Ah, yes. Well, Ethan has been quite helpful the last few days while Mercy’s been imprisoned.”
“What?” Talon growls.
“See, we learned long ago that I couldn’t control Mercy. Her mental shields were just too strong.” Torn shrugs before taking a lock of Mercy’s hair and twirling it around his finger. “So, I had all of these years to create a solution to that little problem. Ethan was kind enough to give the drug to her while she was without her precious guards. All it took was a couple injections, and Ethan was able to control her without any problems.”
“When the hell did you and my dad become conspiracy buddies?” Parker snaps.
“When he found out you were here with Mercy, and he decided he wanted her for himself. Anyway,” he stresses, sending Parker a pointed look, “before I was interrupted, I was saying, Ethan called me and told me it worked. I showed up, took control of Mercy. Made her kill your dear old dad, then made her go rogue.”
Mercy sighs impatiently. “I’m getting bored with story time.”
Torn chuckles and runs a finger down her cheek, smearing the blood there. “In any case, doesn’t she look absolutely beautiful? Like a warrior goddess.”
“You made a mistake coming here, brother,” I spit. I move to attack, but Mercy puts herself in front of him, stopping me in my tracks. “Mercy, what are you doing?”
“Sorry, Hunter. I can’t let you hurt him,” she says, not sounding sorry at all.
Torn smirks. “She is indebted to me now. She won’t let anyone get to me.”
“How the hell is she indebted to you?” Kai grinds out.
“He helped me see the light,” Mercy says slowly, almost as if she’s not entirely sure of what she’s saying.
“Mercy,” Farrah starts, “please fight this. This isn’t you.”
“It’s me now,” Mercy says with a grin.
“Mercy, why don’t we get out of here?” Torn asks, putting his mouth right next to her ear. She looks at him sideways like she’s not impressed, but still she nods.
Mercy meets my eyes with her black ones. “The only reason I’m not killing you all right here, right now, is because of what you’ve done for me. This is the only opportunity you have. Don’t even attempt to find me.”
“Mercy,” we all say a
t once, but then Torn grabs her hand and they disappear.
Farrah drops to her knees in the grass. “I-I don’t understand what’s happening.”
I meet the eyes of each of my teammates. “Some things are apparently set in stone. Now we need to figure out how to get Mercy back.”
“What about the warning she gave you?” Farrah asks.
“We’re not just going to listen to her,” Talon growls.
“Exactly, we’ll find her and we’ll bring her back to herself,” War says, complete conviction in his tone. Everyone murmurs their agreements.
“Now we just need to find a way to explain to her parents what happened,” Kai mutters.
“That definitely won’t be easy to do,” Parker says, his voice devoid of any emotion. I think he’s in shock. Especially when learning the girl that you’re involved with killed both of your parents. That’s got to be screwing him up inside.
23
Torn
I chuckle as I enter my living room to see Mercy with her hand inside the chest of one of the lower-level demons in my service and watch as she pulls his beating heart out, stepping back to let his body fall to the ground.
“Mercy,” I drawl. “Now, what did he do to you?”
“He looked at me funny,” she says simply, dropping the heart and wiping her bloody hand on her pant leg.
I raise a brow as I get a good look at the demon she just killed. Laughter bursts out of me and she growls at me.
“What’s so goddamn funny?”
“He wasn’t looking at you funny, Mercy. That type of demon has weird quirks and tics with their faces. It was just his face.”
She looks down at the body in front of her then shrugs. “Oops. Oh well.” She turns her attention back to me. “We got any food?”
“Yeah, have the cook make something for you,” I say waving her toward the kitchen. When she’s gone another of my servants enters the room.
“My Lord, permission to speak freely?” He asks carefully.
“What?” I snap.
“Lady Mercy, she-she’s killed nearly all of your servants, my Lord. I-if she keeps going, you won’t have any left at the end of the week.”
I raise a brow at him. “So find some more. Now leave.”
“Uh, of course, sir,” He stammers out before leaving the room.
I move to the couch and rub a hand down my face. Having Mercy here has been exhausting.
The woman doesn’t sleep, since as a rogue, their main need and desire is to spill blood, eat food, and have sex. Although she hasn’t been showing any interest in the last. Whenever I attempt to coerce her into sleeping with me she tells me to get lost. The one thing I refuse to do is force myself on her, especially when rogues are notorious for losing their shit at the littlest things.
Rape is far from a little thing.
The only thing I know for a fact is that I don’t have complete control over her, or she wouldn’t have a problem with getting into my bed. She’d probably be fucking anything with a dick if she were a normal rogue.
I’ve come to find that Mercy is not at all normal. She probably never has been and never will be.
“What did you do?” My father’s voice booms from behind me.
“You’ll have to be more specific, father,” I sneer.
“Your brother just showed up at my place out of his damn mind looking for you.”
“Ah, that,” I say slowly, “would probably be because I have his team’s little whore in my kitchen.”
“What the hell is she doing in your kitchen?” he asks.
I smirk at him. “She chose to come with me. Is that so hard to believe?”
“Considering how tight she seemed with both Talon and Hunter, yes, I do find it hard to believe. What did you do?”
I roll my eyes. “She’s rogue, father. Do you honestly think they’d let her live? They’d kill her because of the simple fact that she’s gone rogue, no matter how they feel about it.”
“I very much doubt that,” my father mutters.
“Oh? Why do you say that?” I ask, curious.
“Because any fool with eyes can see that they’re in love with that girl. I’ll bet you anything that they’ll do their best to bring her back, before they even think about killing her.”
“Love.” I snort. “Please. She might be hot, but I don’t really think there’s much else there besides that.”
Father raises a brow at that. “Really? She managed to dodge Payne’s clutches for years, Torn. Years. The only reason he caught her recently was because he used her family against her, and he knew she wouldn’t let them be hurt in her place. Just as you know that she won’t do that. How does that show there isn’t anything there besides looks?”
“She’s got balls, too. I’ll give her that. Otherwise, I’m not sure I understand what my brother sees in her.”
My father sighs and rakes a hand through his hair. “Your brother will kill you for this, Torn. You know that.”
“I know he’ll try. So long as I have Mercy, he won’t touch me,” I add smugly.
He shakes his head. “You’re a fool, son.” He gives me a hard look. “I’m going to make it clear right now, the only reason you aren’t strung up in my dungeon with Payne right now is because I know your brother will torture your spoiled-rotten ass more than I would. Enjoy your freedom with Mercy, Torn. It won’t last long.”
THE END
Keep an eye out for updates on Mercy’s Battle, Book 3 of the Mercy Ashby series.
Releasing sometime this summer <3
Acknowledgments
First, I want to thank my family for just being there for me while I babbled about this book and had my freak outs about not having it finished in time because I’ve been sick. I love you guys and I’m so thankful that my girls are willing to cuddle with me on the couch when I need to edit haha.
Brandi, you rock and I’m seriously thrilled to have you as a friend and I’m also excited to be able to encourage you to pursue your dreams like you’ve been doing for me. Love you!
Chesca, I love you! You’ve been such a HUGE help for me and my family and I honestly don’t think I could thank you enough for it. Thank you for being such a supportive friend.
Gem, thank you for being there for me when I need it and for helping with my formatting, for your encouraging words, and for just being you. I love you hun!
Aspen, I haven’t known you for long but you’re quickly becoming a great friend and I can’t wait to start writing together!
To my ARC team and my hussies, I love you all! You’re the reason that I can continue doing what I love and I will forever be eternally grateful for that.
About the Author
A.M. (or Autumn) Hardin was born and raised in Holland, Michigan. She’s married with three girls. Her favorite books always depends on her mood, though her tastes are very eclectic. As long as it’s romance there’s a high chance she has or plans to read it. When she doesn’t have a book in her hand or spending time with her family she can be found writing in either a notebook or on her computer.
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