Neri disappeared and reappeared in front of Zahava. Her right hand clamped onto the wrist of the hand holding the gun and squeezed the two bones until a loud crack echoed throughout the quiet, tense room. Extreme pain replaced the sneer on Zahava’s face. Neri held onto her wrist, kept her gaze locked on the woman who sank to her knees, writhing in pain.
Hunter chose that moment to appear behind Damian. But before he leapt up and put a chokehold on the fucking giant, Damian disappeared. Axel roared when Damian landed on him. Ax’s reaction was immediate. A loud ripping of his clothing made Hunter pause, and he turned and watched as Ax shifted into his lion form.
“That’s the fucking worst idea ever, Ax. You’re too fucking huge for this room and you’ll destroy everything,” Gunnar shouted, but paused before he continued, “Never mind. Wreck the place.”
Ax flipped onto his stomach and swiped at Damian, snagging a claw on his side and ripped open his skin, dripping blood onto the floor.
Instead of disappearing again, Damian held out a knife and held it in his right hand. He drove it down, ready to plunge it into Ax’s chest after the lion’s latest swipe missed, but Ara appeared from his left and shouldered him off Ax and straight into a steel door that caved in with the impact. When he stood, he left a splatter of blood behind and disappeared.
Zahava still writhed under Neri’s hold as Hunter and the rest kept their eyes open for Damian’s form. Neri jerked on Zahava’s wrist a second before Damian appeared behind her. He reached for Zahava, but Neri switched hands, holding the screaming woman with her left one, as her right arm swung around.
He noticed her nails had turned into claws and when she struck Damian in the same spot as his previous wound, her nails dug in. Neri clenched her hand into a fist and when she ripped her arm back, she took a chunk of Damian with her. He sank to his knees, clutching at his bigger wound.
“That motherfucker, is for touching my mate.”
As Neri’s focus was on Damian, Zahava struggled to pick up the gun.
Can I kill Damian angel or do you want both?
No, by all means, he’s all yours.
Hunter concentrated on his panther and shifted easily into the large cat. He rolled his shoulders and stretched out his back legs, waiting for Damian to recover from his latest blow before Hunter pounced.
His eyes focused on Neri, who pulled Zahava to her feet. One hand held the broken wrist while her dominant hand held the gun, Zahava’s gun to her forehead. Her hand was steady.
“How much pain can you take, Zahava?”
“Fuck you!” The woman screamed.
“Well, that’s not very nice, Zahava. So if you want to talk about something else, we’ll list all the fucking crimes you have committed since you met Anzû, shall we?”
A sneer was the answer she received.
“So, you helped Dr. Steven’s turn me into a shifter and then a vampire, taking satisfaction from the pain you put me through. All for the sake of taking over Dark Company, but for a reason we have yet to fathom.
“You were probably behind the torture of Liv, Kane’s mate being killed, and Ara, along with the other immortal’s being kidnapped and used as fucking science experiments. You sent someone to kill Reaper and Ara, twice after she escaped. And then, your mate went after Frost and Xander, threatened Silas, which I should kill you for that alone, and sent Jade and Noah on a wild goose chase after you killed Noah’s best friend. Then, you fucking bitch, planned to kill my mate after you experimented on him. Was there anything else I forgot?”
Neri glanced around the room, but the assassins shook their heads, all of them glaring at the whimpering, yet defiant human standing tall.
“And yet, I don’t understand why you haven’t become an immortal yourself.”
Zahava spit at Neri, who dodged it and jerked her broken wrist. A howl escaped Zahava, and she moved to sink down onto the ground again, but Neri’s hold prevented her action.
“You, you lot are fucking disgusting. Freaks of nature. Why the fuck would I want to be like you?” Zahava jeered.
“You married a shifter. You create shifters in your lab. To what end?”
“Power and money. What else would I fucking do it for? I want that fucking contract from the government.”
Neri’s brows drew down, as though she didn’t understand the reasoning.
Hunter glanced at Damian who looked shocked at the vitriol spewing from his boss’s mouth. The huge immortal sank down against the door and sighed, almost as if he’d given up the fight. But Hunter didn’t relax. Hunter sat back on his haunches and kept an eye on him.
“We already explained why that would never work. But you took him anyway.”
“Because they are the key to a successful shifter. They’re not tainted. They can shift and live forever. But my shifters, well they all dead now, have all been failures. I needed him to see what I was missing. If his blood didn’t hold the answers, I needed him to make a new group of shifters I could control.”
Neri shook her head, disgusted. “That’s not how it works. No matter how you get the venom, the likelihood the human would survive the transition is slim.”
Another scoff. “But you did.”
Kai stepped up. “There is no rhyme or reason to why some humans survive and some don’t.”
“Damian did.”
The grunt from the defeated man had Neri scowling. “You did the same thing with him? Injected him with shifter venom and then vampire venom along with the bioweapon.”
“No, the opposite this time. It’s why he’s stronger, but Anzû hated vampires—”
“Yeah, we got it.” Kai said.
Hunter, we can’t kill him. He’s a pawn, like everyone else in her sick world.
I know, angel. Ara, can you heal Damian?
Hunter made sure everyone had heard his request of Ara, so when they all nodded in agreement, the red wolf shifter stepped toward Damian and knelt beside him. In voices too quiet for Zahava to hear, Ara explained her powers to Damian and asked him if she could heal him. With reluctance, he nodded.
Neri shook her head at Zahava, pulling the human’s attention away from her once loyal lackey as Ara started the healing process.
“You’ve done nothing but fail for years. Why would you keep going?”
“I wanted to find you. Find you and kill you.”
“And you couldn’t find me, so you went after them?”
“They were a bonus. Anzû already had the idea to kill every shifter and vampire, especially after his precious woman met her mate.” Zahava pointed at Xander who stood there with his fists clenched at his sides. “But that fucking man never had a plan. I was the planner. The confrontation was spontaneous and then he got himself killed. Every turn, some stupid man failed me and I had to change my plans. But the moment I spotted you with the rest, I knew it was my chance.”
Something about her tone of voice caused him to shiver. “Did you kill Dr. Stevens?”
Her eyes, brown eyes that held no emotion, jerked up to meet his. “He let her go, allowed Nerissa to escape. He deserved to die for that. Draining the brake lines and a curvy road took care of him.”
Zahava was a true psychopath. Hunter had met a few in his line of work, but there was no banter with them. He had no clue how to deal with one other than put a bullet in their head. But this woman took things far beyond the crimes of those who were on listed on the government contracts. Despite her need for power or money, revenge and the thrill of killing were her ultimate goals. She never flinched when her shifters died because she knew there were more. Even Damian, her saving grace more than once, was disposable.
“Damian?”
Ara placed her finger up to her mouth and shook her head. The light faded from Damian’s wounds and his skin flooded with color.
“Where did he go?”
“That’s the difference between them and you. They would do anything, even die, for their family. But you, you only think about yourself, care about yourself. So yo
u demand loyalty, but you get nothing because you give nothing.
“I hated every moment of my time spent in the orphanage. Not because there wasn’t much food to eat, or the blankets were scratchy and didn’t fend off the cold. No, it was because I hated every moment with you. You demanded instead of asked. You bullied others to do what you wanted, and I’m sure that hasn’t changed. But I have a family, a mother, and a mate. And after all these years, you still have nothing,” Neri said, her tone flat and unemotional.
An inhuman screech erupted from Zahava’s throat and she ripped her broken wrist from Neri’s hold and lunged for the gun. She wrapped both hands around the frame and jerked, trying to take the gun from Neri’s grasp. Instead, Zahava’s finger slipped down to the trigger, and the gun fired with the barrel pointing at her torso.
The boom was loud in the contained room and made him flinch. But Hunter worried for Neri when her eyes widened as she stared at the woman in front of her. Zahava jerked forward as the bullet struck her chest and a second or two later, blood bloomed on her white shirt as it seeped out of the wound. The dark red sickly and spreading fast.
Zahava slumped to the side and Neri laid her on the floor as her eyes fluttered closed and she took her last breath. No one, not even Damian moved to help her. They had come into the confrontation knowing they would have to eliminate her, but she’d done it herself.
Neri stood and closed her eyes.
Are you okay, angel?
Yeah, I… well, I don’t have her death on my conscience since she pulled the trigger herself, but I expected… not this.
She took a deep breath and blew it out, and when she opened her eyes and found him standing in front of him, she smiled.
Hey.
Hi, angel.
Is it over?
Hunter glanced back toward Damian, who spotted his hard stare and held his hands up, shaking his head.
He turned back to Neri. Yeah, it’s over.
Good. Then you can marry me. Neri reached behind her and pulled out the box he’d dropped.
He shifted back and blew a sigh of relief when he noticed the ring was still intact. He dropped onto one knee, still naked.
“Neri, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
He slid the ring on her finger before Neri dropped into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him breathless.
After tonight, he would never hesitate ever again.
“Let’s go home,” she whispered.
He nodded and lifted her into his arms, holding her tight.
“Hey, what about us?” Axel complained.
He turned them toward their friends to see them grinning. Ax clapped when they noticed the ring and the rest followed. Leave it to the naked lion shifter to whistle and clap the loudest.
“Damian isn’t a threat any longer. He’ll take you back to Kai’s house.”
Ghost smiled. “Congratulations, both of you, and thanks for saving us, Neri.”
She shrugged. “Anything for family.”
And with a laugh, she teleported them home.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NERI
Neri glanced at herself in the mirror in the bedroom she and Hunter share at Kai’s house, taking in the beautiful white sleeved corset wedding dress etched in silver lace and emerald green accents that matched Hunter’s eyes.
She had never worn a dress before, much less an elegant one made with lace and satin, but as she twirled around to see the intricate design in the back, Neri could live in the dress.
Jade, Liv, Frost, Thalia, and Aubrey had dragged her and Ara to every wedding dress store in Denver and Snowfall. She had the dress she loved saved on her laptop since the day after Hunter’s proposal. But she laughed at each grumble or curse Ara had given whenever they had to stop at ‘just one more’ store. And when she found the exact wedding dress in a small bridal store on the outskirts of downtown Snowfall, and Liv had made a beeline right to it.
“Oh, this is beautiful.”
Neri stood still as Liv handed Frost the wedding dress to hold up against her clothed body.
“It’s perfect,” Thalia gasped.
She had seen Aubrey’s perfect white and peach sleeveless dress and Liv’s simple, yet elegant pure white one, and knew this dress matched her as much as their dresses complimented them. After a whirlwind fitting session and a few minor adjustments, Neri took the dress home that day. But they had to wait another two months for the actual ceremony.
Hunter had wanted to get married at the courthouse the day after her birthday. But with the fight and Zahava’s death, Neri wanted a new date to start their life. So, they decided on November thirteenth.
Friday the thirteenth.
Neri knew under most circumstances the date was unlucky. But to her, she’d gone through the impossible by becoming the first shifter vampire hybrid, met her mate after years of being alone, and found her mother because of her new immortal family.
Life had changed for the better since she met Hunter in the clearing that first day. She couldn’t deny how fast she fell for him, but after talking to the others, the assassins didn’t hesitate to commit in once they found the one person destined for them.
Neri loved Hunter, and he loved her.
Since Zahava’s death, the constant unknown stopped plaguing them. Her shifters died from sickness from the subpar serums or at the assassin’s hands. Ghost and the others had searched the remaining floors where the shifters lived, and the ones who hadn’t fought, killed themselves. They were obsolete.
After Liv’s autopsy of the shifter Neri had gifted her, she found the transitions succeed and were less likely to kill with the diluted injections. The scientist created a way for humans to survive a transition without a mate.
Similar to Neri’s transition, the shifter venom was strong enough to strengthen the cells and mutate them, but soon the serum broke down healthy cells until the body, about a year after the transition, killed them.
Hunter had raged when he learned that Dr. Steven’s saved her life by mixing the bioweapon and the vampire venom. Although the combination was beneficial, it was luck it hadn’t killed her.
“If I introduced the bioweapon and vampire venom to any shifter, they become a hybrid.”
Liv’s statement was meet with silence, until Axel stood up.
“No, thank you. We’ll let gray eyes be the only one.” And with a wave, he was out the door.
The rest of the assassin felt the same way.
But the most surprising part of the entire situation was Damian. They found out that Zahava had his tongue cut out as a vindictive measure when he didn’t locate Neri and kidnap her within the first year of her escape.
To control Damian, she used techniques she learned throughout the years to brainwash him. She targeted him as a loner, offered friendship and then separated him from his life. Zahava made affection or praise conditional on how successful he completed his tasks. But the time she met Anzû, she controlled Damian with fear and isolation. Anzû hated Damian and could punish him whenever he displeased Zahava. He was so relieved when Anzû died that he stuck with Zahava.
“Have you ever killed anyone?” Ghost asked.
Damian shook his head. He wrote out she liked to kill and she assigned him surveillance and being her personal transport.
After that confession, Ghost told him he was free to go, but he didn’t have a place. Knowing firsthand how Zahava was, Neri wondered if she could do something. She pulled Hunter aside.
“What do you think about Damian working with both of us at the workshop? He can get supplies and I can show him how to design and build furniture.”
Hunter didn’t even hesitate. “Yeah, I’m fine with it.”
Neri kissed Hunter and smiled against his lips. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Hunter asked.
“Being you and loving me.”
She asked Damian if she wanted to work with her and when he agreed, Hunter offered Damian
his house. “I live with Neri and the house would be empty. This way, you have your own home.”
In response, Damian wrapped his long arms them and squeezed.
The same day, they moved Hunter’s clothing and belongings to Neri’s and left the furniture, along with a new dining room table Neri built along with six dining room chairs. Damian settled into his house and worked with Neri, picking up woodworking skills with ease.
The assassins, along with Neri, Seth, and Aubrey all learned sign language. Damian knew the basics, and he honed his skills as the rest of them soon picked up enough to have simple conversations. They learned new words and phrases every day.
There was a tap on the door and Neri turned to find Thalia standing in the doorway, the smile wide on her face as she took in her hair swept up in an elegant braid and down the princess dress.
“Oh, moró, you are so beautiful.”
“Thank you, mamá. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Neri smiled. “So when are you and Tajo going to get married?”
A blush on her cheeks was all the answer she needed. “And we must find Jack a girlfriend.”
“I’m too old for a girlfriend,” Jack grumbled.
“A boyfriend then?” Neri wiggled her eyebrows.
“If it weren’t your wedding day…” Jack walked in with Tajo.
“You know I love you, Jack. If you weren’t family, I wouldn’t tease.”
Kai cleared his throat. “At least she didn’t leave you a dead body on your coffee table.”
Neri beamed at the vampire. Kai would walk her down the aisle because Tajo wanted to walk Thalia.
Thalia kissed her on the cheek and squeezed her hand. “I love you, moró korítsi.”
“I love you, too mamá. See you after the ceremony.”
She watched them walk out and turned to Kai. “Why am I so nervous? This is what I want and now butterflies are dancing in my stomach.”
Kai leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “It’s because you haven’t seen Hunter yet today. Once you do, everything will settle into place.” He held out his arm, and she placed her hand on his elbow.
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