Return of the Assassin (All the King's Men) (34 page)

Brak couldn't sit still and paced in Micah's office. Someone needed him, and he didn't require the shattered cry of a male obviously in the throes of loss to tell him that.

"I have to go." He threw the door open and started down the hall in the direction where death hung like fog.

"Brak! What are you doing?" Cynthia hurried to catch up as he sniffed the air and turned down another hall.

He was a bloodhound on a mission to seek death's imprint and obliterate it. "Someone needs me. Now. Before it's too late." He could help. He had been born to help. This was what his power was meant to be used for. This was his true purpose.

He pushed through a set of double doors into what had to be a medical unit.

"Wait! You can't go back there!" The nurse tried to stop him, but he pushed past her. His only goal was to find the person who needed him now.

"I can help," he said flatly over his shoulder as he forged onward. He sniffed, looked in each room, and sought the Grim Reaper as it reached to claim another soul.

This one.
He stopped in front of a brown door and gently pushed it open.

In his periphery, he saw several males in a state of mourning, but his focus was on the female lying lifeless in the bed.

One of the males stepped toward him. "Who are you?" His hair was short and dark, and Brak sensed he was a close friend of the deceased.

From behind, Cynthia followed and urged the clean-cut male back. "He means no harm."

Murmurs fell on his ears, but Brak was already in the zone. The energy his mother had gifted him spun into a vortex. It coursed through and around him, preparing to work in the way Mother had intended.

Taking his place beside the bed, he closed his eyes and fell into a trance. He saw the female's body in his mind's eye as a network of energy and light. Only hers was fading as her spirit departed for the other world. But there was enough of her essence left to work with, and he could save her.

Slowing his breath, he hovered his hands over her body and fed life back into her as he glided them up to her head and back down, past her chest, over both arms, her torso, her hips, and down both legs to her feet.

Her womb was barren, and she had suffered a broken knee recently, which had partially healed. Both were easy fixes, but her primary infliction was that she had been poisoned. So much poison was inside her. Almost too much for him to cleanse.
Almost.
But whoever had done this to her had failed. He would make sure of that. This female would not die today. Not on his watch.

After repairing the damage to her womb and knee in the blink of an eye, he suspended his right hand over her torso while he pushed the ethereal essence of his left hand into her chest and around her heart. As he drew the poison out through her belly button, he rhythmically pumped her heart, manually stimulating her circulation. Within seconds, he held the poison in his fist, focused his concentration, and turned it into harmless vapor. He would be ill when he finished, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was bringing this female back to life.

With the poison destroyed, he sent his right hand into her throat. With one touch of his index finger on her trachea, air surged into her body and lungs as if he was performing CPR. Which, in his own way, he was.

He pumped her heart and continued to force air in and out of her lungs, until—

The female's entire body jerked as she sucked in a blast of air, and then coughed violently as she gasped ragged draws of breath in and out of her lungs without assistance.

Brak broke the connection and woke from his trance as he staggered backward, suddenly too weak to stand. He had done it. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he had saved a life instead of taken one. The poison had been powerful, but no match for his strength, which now faded from the magnitude of what he'd done. Sickness roared into his stomach. Just in time, he spied a waste can, fell to his knees, leaned over it, and vomited.

Within seconds, Cynthia was beside him, stroking her hand up and down his back. "You did it. You saved her, Brak."

"What the hell?" someone said behind him.

The others in the room burst into action, a mass of movement and disbelief.

"How did you…? Who are you, man?" A male with long, blond hair knelt beside him.

All Brak could do was turn away and throw up again.

The room was a cacophony of noise. What he had done sent everyone into exclamations of celebration and relief until the female stopped coughing, caught her breath, and asked in a raw voice, "Where's Malek?"

Brak could have heard a pin drop as the din abruptly quieted.

"Oh fuck," the guy with the blond hair said.

Oh no. This wasn't good.

* * *

Micah wiped his eyes for about the hundredth time, but his fucking tears wouldn't stop coming. He couldn't do this if he was crying. He needed clear vision. He didn't want to risk missing, which would destroy him. One shot. He had only one shot.

To his credit, Malek was holding it together, although his restraint was clearly taking a toll. That insane voice in his head was back, and Malek was having one hell of a conversation with it. None of the jabbering made any sense, but he got the impression that was the whole point. Malek was simply trying to bide time, and blathering a load of nonsense with his inner demon seemed to be his way of doing that.

Micah checked the clip again, took a deep breath, and slapped it into his Sig. He never thought he would have to kill one of his own, let alone the one guy he had thought of as a brother for almost as long as he had been alive. But life had a strange way of playing out in unexpected ways, and now all Micah could do was honor his promise not to let Malek suffer anymore.

He chambered a bullet and took several deep, steadying breaths as the Sig hung at his side.

Malek stood in front of him. His head moved back and forth as he took on both sides of the conversation with himself, totally lost. Game over. Checked out.

"I love you, man." Micah lifted the gun and pointed it at Malek's head.

Malek stilled and met his gaze. Clarity shone back at him for the first time in five minutes. Was that relief he saw in his friend's eyes? "I love you, Micah. Thank you. Take care of Sam."

Micah almost lost it all over again at Malek's words, and he nodded tightly, blinking back tears again. "I will." He swallowed his sorrow and looked at the ceiling, willing the tears to stay away. "God, forgive me."

Just as his finger began to depress the trigger, the door to the weapons center burst open.

"STOP!" Severin barged inside.

Images Micah couldn't reconcile with reality blasted him from Sev's thoughts, and he snapped the gun back and pulled his finger off the trigger. "What the hell?" He couldn't believe what he was seeing from Sev's mind. Trace's brother had…somehow he had brought Gina back to life. Was this for real?

Sev stepped aside as Trevor carried Gina into the room. She was still weak, and her coloring was still pale, but mother of all miracles, she was alive.

How the hell…? He and Brak definitely needed a little one-on-one. There was more to Trace's brother than he first realized.

"Malek?" Gina's voice sounded frail, but her spirit was strong.

Malek turned toward her voice and frowned. "Gina?"

Tears fell down her cheeks. "Trevor, put me down. Please." She struggled to get out of Trevor's arms and dropped her feet to the floor with a wince.

Her knee was swollen and she looked like she might fall over, but she managed to stay upright and limp across the room with Trevor's help.

"Am I dead?" Malek held out his arms. "Are we together again?"

Gina shook her head as Trevor helped her into Malek's arms. "I'm not dead,
tesoro.
"

Malek's brow furrowed. "Yes you are. I was there. You stopped breathing."

Micah saw inside Malek's mind. He thought he was in the afterlife or hallucinating. Micah set down his Sig and went to Malek's side. "No, Malek. You're both alive."

"But…the Reaper's Blade?" Malek struggled to grasp what had happened as he looked between him and Gina. "You died in my arms. I was holding you. I felt you leave me."

"It's a miracle," Micah said as he backed away to join Sev and Trevor. "I'll explain later…after I get a few answers of my own." He
really
needed to get that face time with Brak. "Fellas," he said as he clapped Sev and Trev on the shoulders, "let's leave them alone."

Malek still looked dazed as Micah and the others turned for the door, but just as he was about to grab the door's handle, the dam burst. Malek's splintered mind fused back together with such force, Micah felt it like a slap on the back, and he glanced over his shoulder at the most beautiful sight he'd seen since mating Sam. Malek had Gina in his arms, his face buried against her neck.

"You're alive? You're really alive?" he said, as if he still couldn't believe it.

Gina laughed through her tears as he took them both to their knees and hugged her to him. "I'm alive, baby. I'm really alive."

Micah had seen a lot of strange shit in his long life, but he had never seen someone come back from the dead. Until now.

When he turned around, Sev and Trevor were grinning from ear to ear.

"Some stranger came in and saved her," Sev said. "He was all Jesus-looking. Long, brown hair, white shirt, loose pants, sandals. I have no idea what he did, but whoever he is, he saved Gina's life."

Micah ushered them out and closed the door. "That would be Brak," Micah said.

"Brak? Who the hell is Brak?" Sev fell into step beside him.

Micah sighed and hit Sev with a hard glance. "Brak would be Trace's brother, Sev."

Sev nearly tripped over his own feet. "You're shitting me!"

"Nope."

"Well, fuck me."

"You said it."

Goddamn. Trace had a brother. A goddamn brother. And apparently the guy was just as powerful as Trace, but in his own way.

How 'bout that?

* * *

Malek pressed his lips to Gina's forehead. "I thought you were gone. I thought I'd lost you,
piccolina.
"

"I know, but you didn't. I'm here." She breathed against his Adam's apple as he held her close and rocked her.

The warmth of her body seeped into his. She was warm. Not cold as she had been ten minutes ago. Life surged through her again, and with each second, he felt it grow stronger. She was reanimating right before his eyes, as he held her, as he breathed in the vanilla scent of her hair. "How?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. One second I was walking toward a bright light, and the next I was back in my body, gasping for air as a tall, strange male stood over me. I don't know who he is, but he brought me back. He saved me. Somehow, he saved me."

Malek pulled back and met her wistful, confused gaze. He didn't know who the mysterious male was or where he'd come from, but it didn't matter. "Whoever he is, I'm indebted to him. He gave you back to me. He saved my life as much as yours."

She blinked and nodded. Her eyes glistened with tears of happiness. "Maybe Lady Luck is finally smiling on us."

Lady Luck. Until now, that bitch had all but abandoned them both. "Maybe she feels we've been through enough."

"I hope so, because I'm done with her shit."

He chuckled and pulled Gina against him. "I love you. God, I love you."

She was alive and safe, and they were together.

Gina gently pushed away and searched his eyes. "What were you doing, Malek? What was going on in here when Trevor brought me in? Micah had a gun in his hand, and it looked like…I thought he was about to…"

Malek looked down at her lovely, elegant hands and threaded his fingers between hers. "I couldn't live without you,
piccolina.
"

There was a pause, and then, "Was Micah going to kill you?" She spoke softly.

With a nod, he met her gaze again. "Yes. I didn't want to live without you, so I asked him to…" He shook his head and fought back tears. "I couldn't live without you, Gina. Do you understand? I only just found you. You made me whole again, and I—"

She cut him off with a kiss. Her soft lips pressed against his mouth and flooded him with life. What was once cold now warmed, and what had been broken now fused back together. All from the tender brush of her lips on his.

When she pulled away, she arched one eyebrow. "Don't you ever do anything as stupid as that ever again, baby. Or I'll kill you myself. Is that clear?"

He licked her taste from his lips and smiled as he caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. Even after dying and coming back to life, she was full of fire. Gina was the polar opposite of Carmen, but he couldn't imagine himself with any other. His biology had chosen well. "Crystal clear." He kissed her again then spoke against her lips. "And don't you ever stop bossing me around."

"Now you're just asking for trouble,
tesoro.
" Her eyes twinkled.