Return of the Assassin (All the King's Men) (36 page)

Three days later, and already moved out of Malek's old home, Gina joined him and the others inside Micah's office at AKM. Micah, Io, Severin, Lakota, Trevor, and even Arion—who had supposedly retired from enforcing—were there, chatting among themselves. Malek kissed her cheek and excused himself to talk to Micah. She gazed after him. He already looked ten times better than he had a few days ago. The wounds on his neck and cheek had healed, and he had already gained back a few pounds.

"Hey you," Trevor said after pulling her aside. "How does it feel to have the wind in your hair?" He smiled and ruffled her bangs.

With a glance over her shoulder at Malek, she grinned. "It feels damn near perfect."

She and Malek has spent a whole day getting him through the last of his calling, which she hadn't minded one bit, and then helped pack up his belongings with a team Micah sent over. Malek didn't mind moving. He told her that as long as she was with him, he would happily live in a one-room shack if he had to. As it was, the house Micah found for them was anything but a shack, and the security system was rock solid. The king himself would be safe there.

They still had a few things to unpack, including all the books Malek had stored throughout various rooms in his old home, but they had all the time in the world to get to that.

"Gabe would have loved to see this, little sis." Trevor's multihued eyes twinkled with fondness.

"I know he would." She hugged him. "Now, what about you, Trev? Gabe would love to see you happy again, too, you know. Are you going to take your own advice and run with the wind in your hair, too?"

He chuckled. "Been there. Done that. It didn't work."

Trevor had dated his Knights of Justice partner, Talon, for two years before they broke up.

"So, you're just going to give up?" She playfully punched his shoulder. "After your pep talk about me taking another chance on love? Was that all just bullshit, Trevor?"

He laughed and held up his arms in surrender. "No, it wasn't all just bullshit, but I'm not going to force it, either. I learned my lesson the last time."

"Talon really loved you, you know."

"I know, but we just didn't work out."

What he meant was that they had never mated. Trevor wanted a mate. He was ready to feel that connection with a special someone. He wanted what Gina now had with Malek.

"Give it time, Trev. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you." And wasn't that the truth? Never in a million would she have thought she would take another mate.

Before Trevor could answer, Micah stepped behind his desk. "Okay, let's get to this."

Malek joined her and took her hand as they sat down beside Sev on the couch. Everyone in the room looked determined, primed, ready to kick some ass.

"We found our unwanted guests," Micah said.

Malek squeezed her hand just as she did his. For the past two days while she and Malek got settled into their new home, the others had burned the midnight oil and pulled out all the stops to find Searcy, Vaydon, and Lorena—quietly so as not to tip their hand—and developed a plan.

"I've met with King Bain, and he wants us to send a message, not kill them. And if we can obtain the Reaper's Blade, he wants us to." Micah turned toward her. "Gina, you're lead. Malek, you and I are secondaries. The rest of you will take up posts around the location to make sure they don't escape and be at the ready if we need you." He pulled up a map on his computer and projected it on the far wall as Lakota turned off the lights. "Here's the plan…"

* * *

Three hours later, Gina lurked in the shadows, wearing black on black with a crossbow slung over her shoulder. Malek and Micah were right behind her. And hopefully Lady Luck had shown up as an ally this time, as well.

The three crept into the back door of the row house where Lorena was rumored to live, and where Searcy and Vaydon were staying.

Sounds of hard, brutal sex came from upstairs. What sounded like a bed banged violently against the wall as cries of pleasure and harsh curses echoed through the upstairs hall.

She looked over her shoulder at Malek and Micah, who nodded once to let her know he wasn't picking up any thoughts from anyone downstairs. He held up two fingers. Only two were here. Damn. Two wasn't as good as three, but was better than nothing. And since the king only wanted them to send a message and not kill them, two was fine.

With the coast clear on the lower level, they started up the stairs, and Gina pulled her crossbow down to the ready, securing a long, metal-tipped arrow against the bow.

The sounds of sex grew louder as they reached the landing and fanned out. Gina led the way down the hall to the bedroom where all the action seemed to be taking place. A quick peek through the cracked door revealed that Searcy was nowhere to be seen, but Vaydon had Lorena pinned to the bed by the throat with one hand, the other holding her ankle up in the air, her leg stretched out at what had to be a painful angle. Still, Lorena seemed lost in oblivious pleasure, as did Vaydon.

They had to move fast. Vaydon would pick up their scent within seconds.

Gina ducked back against the wall and held up her index finger then made a fist. She was going in.

Both Micah and Malek nodded, hands on their weapons. And what impressive weapons they were. Micah had a long, steel blade that looked like a freak of nature, as if someone had given growth hormones to a regular knife and said, "Go my child. Go forth and be lethal." Malek held a beast of handheld firepower that would make Dirty Harry say more than just "Go ahead, make my day." Shit, that piece would probably give ol' Clint an orgasm. This was a gun you pointed at someone and said, "Bitch, who's your daddy?"

Gina peeked inside the room again to find that Vaydon had released Lorena's leg and now had both hands wrapped around her throat, fucking her in earnest.

She gave her boys a look, nodded, stepped away from the wall, and with a quick step forward, she leaped and disappeared into vapor, blew through the thin slice of open air between door and jamb, and shot into the air.

A split second later, she reappeared above the pair on the bed, almost suspended in midair, legs tucked up under her, crossbow aimed at the center of Vaydon's lower back.

She released the arrow and flew down, landing with her feet on either side of Vaydon's torso as the arrow shot clean through them both, pinning them to the bed. The bed jolted from both her landing and their sudden convulsions of pain, but Gina was back in her element. Deadly and vicious, and monumentally pissed off and ready to level her own kind of justice on those who would have killed her and Malek. With a hiss, she lunged forward and grabbed a fistful of long, white-blond hair and pulled Vaydon's head back as he let loose a scream mixed with anguish and lust. His body shuddered. Obviously, he had been about to come as the arrow penetrated his back, and now let loose his orgasm.

Lorena screamed as her body fell into orgasm, as well.

"Man, you guys are fucked up." Gina's face wrinkled in disgust. "Whack jobs."

Micah appeared and pressed his Godzilla-sized blade against Vaydon's throat. "I know it's not the Reaper's Blade," he said with a devilish grin, "but it'll get the job done better than that puny knife of yours." He glanced at Gina. "As you can see for yourself, Gina's alive and well."

Vaydon and Lorena both hissed and snapped their fangs at him, but they weren't going anywhere. Not with an arrow holding them down.

An instant later, the muzzle of Malek's gun pressed against Lorena's head, and he leaned in close. "Hello again. Surprised to see us?"

Lorena regarded him through angry, shocked eyes, pinned under Vaydon and held to the mattress. Then she shot an acid glare up at Gina.

Gina gave Vaydon's head a healthy yank so she could look down at the bitch. She tsked and feigned concern. "You don't look happy to see us, Lorena."

Vaydon growled and thrashed, but Micah knocked his arm away and pressed the blade farther into his throat, bringing his resistance to a halt.

"I'm only sorry Searcy isn't here." Gina crouched behind Vaydon. "I guess we'll have to leave our little message with you, bitch."

"Fuck you." Lorena spat blood at her.

Malek hissed and jabbed his gun against Lorena's temple. "I want you to watch," he said, repeating what they'd said to him in the parking lot four nights ago. "And I want you to be reminded forever of what we're capable of." He slithered in close. "We can find you anywhere, anytime we want, and you and your boyfriend here will become the poster children for what happens to anyone—Dacian, Thracian, or otherwise—who threatens us, the king, or the throne. So pay close attention. You lose." Malek stood and nodded once at Gina.

With her hand still fisted in Vaydon's hair, she yanked back his left arm with her free hand. He protested and snarled, but Malek darted around the bed and grabbed hold of Vaydon's hand so he could help her hold his arm away from his body.

Lorena began panting, desperate to break free. But she was trapped. There was nowhere to go and no way to free herself.

Gina exchanged glances with Micah who said with deadly malice, "Consider yourselves warned." With the deadly grace of a ninja, Micah drew his blade from Vaydon's throat, spun, and swung the razor sharp edge through Vaydon's forearm.

Vaydon shrieked as blood sprayed the floor. His body convulsed with pain.

Lorena screeched a litany of obscenities at them as Vaydon's blood splattered her body. "I'll kill you! You'll pay you filthy whore."

Malek dropped Vaydon's severed hand to the floor.

"Awe, don't worry, Lorena. We didn't forget about you." Gina pulled a small, dagger-shaped knife from her boot and pressed the tip against the skin below Lorena's eye. "We wouldn't want you to feel left out." She swiped the blade down her face in a diagonal.

Lorena screamed and tried to slash her with her nails, but Gina slapped her hands away.

"Salt water," she said to Micah.

He tossed her the bottle of water they brought with them. She caught it, popped the top, and poured half the contents on Lorena's face before dousing the stub of Vaydon's arm with the other half.

Their mingled screams of pain split the air as smoke rose from their wounds and sealed over in ugly, black scabs. They would forever be maimed, and within days, everyone in the vampire community would know not to fuck with the King's Men…or their women.

Gina hopped off the bed and turned back to lash Lorena with a vicious backhand. "Let's see how Searcy likes you now. Maybe if he puts a bag over your head, he can fuck you and not be reminded of how you and his son let three 'weak vampires' get the better of you, or that he's not as infallible as he thinks."

Lorena's face would be scarred forever, and Vaydon would never grow back his arm. They would forever be maimed…marked as a reminder to Searcy and anyone else of what traitors risked by going against the king, which was the only reason Vaydon and Lorena weren't dead right now. King Bain wasn't a fool, and he was more ruthless than many gave him credit for. He knew the best way to quash an uprising was to show others what could happen to them if they did. Lorena and Vaydon would serve his purposes well.

Malek stepped to her side, a powerful presence both in body and in mind. Not only had she found a mate in him, but also a true partner.

"You give Searcy a message for us, bitch," she said to Lorena. "You tell that bastard he fucked with the wrong assassin, and if he wants to kill me and mine, he'd better bring more than that pathetic knife of his and two pieces of shit like you and his son. You tell him that if he wants to live, he'd best leave Chicago, because I've got more where this came from. If he wants to play, we'll play. And we'll win. You got that?"

Lorena's breath came in angry, wicked bursts.

Gina smacked Lorena's cheek as Vaydon scowled at her. "That's a good little bitch."

Malek popped Vaydon in the jaw. "If you ever come near us again, you're dead." Then he leaned over Lorena, cocked his head, leaned closer, and whispered, "Still feeling spurned that I kicked you from my bed, sweetheart? Because this…" he circled his index finger in the air to indicate what had just gone down. "This is nothing compared to the hell I will rain down on you if you come near either of us again." Then he leaned even closer until his lips almost touched Lorena's ear. "I
will
kill you if you try to hurt my mate again. Not even the king will be able to stop me. And now that I'm feeding again, not even your Dacian studs here will be able to hold me back. And you know it." The last he almost spat at her as he stood back up and took his place beside Gina.

Pride rose in Gina's heart for her mate. Yes, he was perfect for her. Strong, deadly, and magnanimous in the most powerful way. Gina had no doubt that Malek would move mountains to keep her safe.

"Let's go," Micah said. "Our work here is done."

She and Malek joined him and made for the exit as he radioed the others and checked to make sure the coast was clear. It was.

"This isn't over!" Lorena screamed from the bedroom. "Do you hear me? You bitch! This isn't over!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blow it out your ass, psycho." Gina stepped out onto the back porch and projected herself back to the AKM parking lot. A moment later, Malek appeared beside her and took her hand. Within an instant, Micah showed up and led them inside.