He looked around for Gregory, while sending up a continual silent prayer that the bastard had been lying, but he couldn’t see him through the heavy rain. Driven by desperation, Riley knew he had to find the Casus, and destroy him, before he was able to make his cruel words a reality.
“Where the hell is he?” he growled, turning toward the place where Ian was standing with Shrader and Winston.
His brother’s expression was haggard with strain from the scene he’d just witnessed, but Riley could tell that he was trying to pull himself together. Shaking his head, Ian said, “We’ve taken down most of the Casus that attacked us, but I never saw Gregory.”
“Spread out. Find him,” he grunted. “We can’t let him get away. He knows the female Casus, which means he can get to Hope. If he gets his hands on her, you know what he’s going to do.”
Without further discussion, knowing time was working against them, they split up, running into the woods. Riley lifted his nose, struggling to pick up the bastard’s scent, but the rain was too heavy, the storm making it impossible to sniff out his prey. As he narrowed his eyes against the downpour, he caught a glimpse of Gregory’s leathery gray skin through the trees. Muscles burning, Riley took off running, not stopping until he found himself standing in the center of a small, familiar clearing that ran along a portion of the cliffs. The clearing bordered the area of land that they’d spent that morning searching over for the Marker, and Riley had been struck by its incredible beauty. No fence bordered the cliffs here, and he’d walked to the edge at one point during the day, staring down at the crashing fury of the waves, the air thick with the salty scent of the sea.
Riley had just turned in a full circle, distracted by the strange sensation that he was no longer alone, when he looked over his shoulder to see Gregory’s monstrous body stalking toward him.
“I’m going to cut you down first,” Gregory growled, his eyes burning with hatred and hunger, “and then I’m going after that bastard big brother of yours. I’ll eat him with the taste of your blood still hot in my mouth, Merrick.”
Before Riley could respond, a throaty female voice called out Gregory’s name from the edge of the woods, and they both looked toward the sound, watching as a tall, green-eyed brunette came into view. She had her left arm curled around Hope’s throat, and Riley’s heart nearly burst from the staggering wave of emotion that slammed through him. Terror that she was in the female Casus’s grip. Blinding, breathtaking relief that she was alive. And a powerful, fierce determination to do everything that he could to get her out of there.
“She’s dead, huh?” he grunted, cutting a quick, snarling look toward Gregory.
“Oops,” the Casus drawled. “Looks like I lied.”
With a gun gripped in her right hand, the brunette took aim at Gregory’s chest, saying, “He does that a lot, Merrick. Ol’ Gregory and I had a deal, you see? One that was meant to buy me exclusive rights to you, but which he obviously isn’t planning to honor. I’ve been screwing around with the Watchman, waiting for you to finally awaken, as well as find that bloody Marker, and then, once you’d done both, I was going to use Kellan as bait to draw out that brother and sister of yours for Gregory here. It was a genius plan, really. But then I had a visit this morning from a Casus named Miles. He told me that Gregory was going to be taken down, so I did the smart thing and switched my loyalties. Your Watchman pal is currently drugged to the gills back at the motel, where Westmore’s men will be picking him up any second now, and it looks like I’ve shown up here just in the nick of time to keep Gregory from taking what belongs to me.”
“Don’t get cocky,” Gregory chided. “It makes you look cheap, Pash.”
She flashed the Casus a sharp smile. “I should have known better than to trust you.”
Gregory threw back his monstrous head and laughed. “Said the pot to the kettle. I’ve been keeping my eye on you, Pasha. I knew about your little meeting with Miles the second it happened. And with the eldest Buchanan arriving in town this morning, I can have both of them and don’t have to give you anything.”
She curled her rouged upper lip, glaring at Gregory as she tightened her arm around Hope’s throat. Riley tried not to look at Hope, knowing it was going to kill him if he had to see the fear in her eyes. Though her hands were bound behind her back, she seemed to be unharmed, and he planned on doing everything he could to keep her that way.
“What exactly is it that you want?” he asked the instant the female Casus looked back in his direction.
“How about an exchange, Buchanan? You for the girl,” Pasha offered, leaning down to lick the gentle curve of Hope’s pale cheek. “Mmm, and she’s so sweet. If you don’t agree, I might go ahead and take a bite out of her right now. What do you say?”
As if those were the words needed to spark her fury, Hope struggled against Pasha’s hold, screaming, “Don’t you dare, Riley!”
He flicked a quick look toward Gregory. “If I trade places with Hope, he’s just going to kill her the second you let her go.”
“Not if I kill him first,” Pasha purred, her gun still aimed at Gregory’s chest. Riley could have taken the weapon away from her with the use of his power, but he held back, knowing Gregory would simply go ahead and attack before he could aim the gun at the Casus himself.
Taking a deep breath, he struggled to come up with a plan that would get him and Hope out of there alive. Though he’d never expected it to happen, he knew that he was being given a second chance at happiness…at the life that he’d always wanted and, goddamn it, he was going to take it. Take it, and hold on to it for the rest of his days. No way in hell was he going to let this bitch take it away from him.
But he had to do something—had to find some way to buy them more time. He wished he knew where the others were. Wished he knew how long he needed to stall before Ian or Shrader found them, tipping the balance in his and Hope’s favor.
“Your time is ticking away,” Pasha snapped. “Are you willing to make the trade, Merrick? Or do I tear her throat out while you watch?”
“You can’t have him, you bloody bitch,” Hope snarled, her body going wild as she fought to break the Casus’s hold. “He’s mine! You lay one finger on him and you’re going to be so sorry!”
Pasha started to laugh, as if she enjoyed Hope’s desperate struggles, until Hope suddenly threw back her head, slamming her skull into the Casus’s face. Screaming, the woman lifted both hands to her gushing nose, and Hope dropped to the ground. Curling up on her side, she tried to work her wrists down her body, so that she could slide her legs through her bindings and get her hands in front of her. Riley had already started to rush toward her when Gregory used the distraction to make his move, throwing his body against him. They crashed to the ground, rolling across the clearing, stopping only feet away from the edge of the cliff. He could hear Hope screaming, as well as Pasha, who was hurling curses at Gregory for daring to attack what was hers, the gun waving wildly in her hand. Doing his best to keep Gregory from ripping his throat out, Riley knew that at any second Pasha could turn and tear into Hope, and the thought burned through his brain that he needed that third Marker.
If he could find it, Hope could use its protection…could use its power to keep herself alive. Ian had seen the powerful cross in his dream, and after everything that they’d been through, Riley believed in the power of his brother’s gift. Which meant that the bloody Marker was out there somewhere, just waiting for him to find it. When he’d talked to Saige that afternoon, she’d been sure that the cross would be found there in the patch of land by the clearing, where he and the others had been searching. And considering the way he’d used his power to control the trees, Riley suddenly wondered if there was any chance he could somehow “pull” the cross to him. God only knew it was worth a try, but he needed to be able to focus, and it was taking everything he had to fight off Gregory.
Sending up a silent plea for a miracle, his heart about stopped when he heard Pasha give a sudden cry of pa
in. Cutting his gaze back toward the place where the female Casus had been standing, screaming at Gregory, Riley watched as Shrader quickly stripped her of the gun, then slammed his fist into her jaw, sending her sprawling onto the grass. Without waiting to see if she’d get up, the Watchman sprinted across the clearing, launching himself at Gregory’s hulking body and pulling him off Riley…giving him the opening he needed to find the Marker.
Instead of moving to his feet, Riley closed his eyes, pouring everything that he had into pulling the Dark Marker to him. His body strained, the now familiar pressure building inside his skull, the intensity so great, he wondered how his head didn’t simply split in two. He could just make out the low sounds of Shrader’s fight with Gregory, and knew that no matter how brilliant a fighter Aiden was, he wouldn’t last long against the Casus. After all the human feedings Gregory had taken, he was far stronger than the monsters who had come with the Collective soldiers.
Gritting his teeth, Riley rolled to his side and dug his right hand into the damp earth. His desperation grew, the pain in his skull like a great, snarling beast as the ground began to shake with violent tremors, the sky exploding with a blinding, stunning burst of lightning. It seemed like madness, but he could have sworn that he felt the Marker’s heat…its power, vibrating up through the ground. He shoved his arm deeper into the moist earth, reaching…calling the Marker, demanding it come to him, and the shaking of the ground grew so violent that it knocked Hope off her feet as she tried to make her way to him.
Riley wanted to shout for her to stay where she was, but a deep, guttural roar poured up from the depths of his soul, and in the next moment, something slammed against the center of his palm. With his heart beating in hard, painful surges, Riley closed his hand around the object and ripped it from the ground. Looking down, he saw that he held a small velvet pouch, its original color indistinguishable from the muddy soil that covered it. Using both hands to rip open the knotted end, his breath caught as he felt the hot, metallic weight of the Dark Marker spill across his palm, its black velvet cord draping across the thickness of his wrist.
Cutting a look back at Gregory and Shrader, he blinked with shock at the sight of the Casus lying on his back, his throat ripped open with three deep slices, while Shrader stood over him, struggling for breath. Wondering if the Watchman had actually managed to kill him, Riley started to yell for Shrader to check the bastard’s pulse, when a deep, chuffing noise pulled his attention back to Pasha, and he saw that while Gregory seemed to be down for the count, she had managed to pull herself back to her feet. Her hands and mouth had already transformed into their Casus shape, while the rest of her remained eerily human. She eyed the Marker he held in his right hand, then let out a chilling cry of rage as she charged him across the clearing. Riley gripped the Marker against the palm of his hand, in exactly the way Ian had shown him to do, and the heat of the cross began to spill up his arm, burning and painful, as he readied himself for Pasha’s attack.
Just before she reached him, he twisted to the side, stretching out his arm and grabbing her hair with his left hand. Twisting the long skeins around his forearm, Riley jerked her into position with her back to his front, then drove his molten “arm of fire” against the base of her neck. His fiery hand broke through her skin, sinking into her convulsing body, and the sizzling burn of the flames spilled through her, setting her on fire from the inside out. Her pale skin began to glow an unearthly blend of orange and yellow and black, the colors melting together as raw, agonizing howls of pain tore from her throat. Despite the pouring rain, the intensity of the flames began seeping through the Casus’s charred flesh, and Riley turned his head away, unable to stare any longer at the blinding light.
Trying to breathe his way through the stunning pain radiating from his arm, throughout his body, he focused on Hope. She stood no more than twenty feet away, taking in the violent, savage scene with a wide, worried gaze, while the rain poured down on her head and shoulders. Shrader came to stand by her side, his own amber gaze focused on the burning body of the Casus.
Riley was still locked into Pasha when Hope gave a jolt of surprise, a sharp cry breaking from her beautiful mouth as she stared over his shoulder, and he realized that Gregory must have regained consciousness. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to break free of the dying Casus in time, leaving him wide open for Gregory’s attack, a deep, piercing ache of regret poured through him at the loss of what could have been. The future he’d always wanted. The woman he’d always loved.
He opened his mouth, ready to finally shout out the words that he’d never allowed himself to say to her before, when she shoved her bound wrists into the bag draped across her body and pulled out the gun he’d given her before she’d left with Kellan. In the next instant, Pasha’s burning body suddenly disintegrated in a violent explosion that sent Riley sliding over the rain-soaked ground, just as the blast of the gun rang out through the night. Hope had fired, the bullet slamming into Gregory’s chest. The Casus’s arms flew wide, and he lowered his muzzled head, staring down at the bright bloom of crimson that spread over his gray-skinned chest. When Hope hit him again, in the shoulder this time, his head shot up and he stumbled back, an outraged roar ripping from his chest as he plunged backward over the edge of the cliff…
And disappeared into the darkness.
SHAKING HIS HEAD, still unable to believe what had just happened, Riley took the velvet cord attached to the Marker and looped it over his head, then pushed himself to his feet and looked back toward Hope. They stared across the moonlit clearing, her beautiful gaze slowly touching upon the Merrick’s face without a trace of fear. The rain finally mellowed to a soft, lazy drizzle as he began moving toward her. With the Merrick pulling back inside him, Riley fell to his knees in front of her and went to work on the ties that bound her wrists. Drawing in a deep breath of her sweet, mouthwatering scent, he thought about how fate worked in such strange, wonderful ways. It had been his belief that he’d lost her that had almost driven him into that dark, desolate hell he’d always believed was waiting for him. And yet it was the faith…the hope that she’d given him for the future, that had helped him make his way back to the light, crawling out of the pit and rediscovering his soul.
The instant her hands were free, Riley lifted her shirt and touched his mouth to the cool skin of her belly, before pressing a tender kiss against the thickest of her scars, finally able to face the pain of her past. Finally able to trust himself in a way that he hadn’t been able to do in years. He had a second chance at life, and he wasn’t going to waste it. He was going to do everything he could to show her how he’d changed. How precious she was to him. How crazy mad in love he was with her. With every perfect, beautiful inch of her.
“Riley, we’re not alone,” she gasped, trying to pull her shirt down as he continued to kiss her scars, while Shrader snuffled a low rumble of laughter under his breath.
Staring up at her beautiful face, he said, “I sucked it up, took the blow, and walked away from you once. No way in hell am I doing it again. Whatever it takes, I’ll keep you safe. Make you happy. Just tell me that you’ll forgive me, Hope. Tell me that you’ll give me another chance, and I promise that you’ll never regret it.”
She whispered his name, looking awed by his words while his fingers bit into her hips, his voice a husky, desperate scrape of sound as he said, “Even if you don’t love me yet, you can…you can keep using me for sex. I don’t care. Just don’t leave me.”
More muffled snorts came from behind her, where Shrader stood, and she tried to put her hand over his mouth. “Honestly, Riley,” she whispered. “We’re not alone!”
Moving to his feet, he cupped her face in his hands. “Damn it, Hope, I don’t give a crap what Shrader hears. I just…I need to tell you that I love you. God, I’ve been in love with you for half my life. And I’m going to love you till the day I die.”
Her chin trembled, and he watched as her mouth bloomed into a precious, breathtaking smile. “You never t
old me.”
“I know,” he rasped. “And I know that I’ve been such an ass, Hope, but I swear I’ll spend the rest of my life worshipping you, proving to you every minute of every day how much you mean to me.” He kissed her between the husky words, tasting her lips, her mouth, her chin. “I’ve always loved you. And I need you, for so many reasons. But most of all, because I can’t live without you.”
“You won’t have to,” she whispered against his lips. “I promise, Riley. And I love you, too. You probably already know that, but I’ll say it anyways. I’ve loved you for what feels like forever.”
A hard, shivering tremor of relief swept through him at her soft words, and he pressed his forehead to hers as he took a deep breath and said, “The light, Hope. It’s still burning.”
“What light?” she asked, her voice soft with wonder…with love.
“I’ll tell you later,” he whispered, wanting to be alone with her, to show her with his body how much he loved her. To make amends for everything that had happened between them.
He touched his mouth to hers, sinking into her, lost in her perfect taste. It was like warmth and sunshine spilling over his tongue. Like…happiness. And hope.
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