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But I found myself somewhat jealous of her ability to feel.
I wanted that.
Not her psychosis. Simply to have a glimmer of something other than the constant nothingness that was my only companion.
I shifted my scope again, moving the target from her head to her leg. It wouldn’t kill her, which would piss off Daria and Polina, but I couldn’t bring myself to end the young woman. Maybe she could teach me to feel.
Around me, the smell of urine and excrement filled my nose. A group of homeless people took shelter in the abandoned building at night. But I had a little more time before anyone returned to the warm sanctuary.
Heaving a sigh, I pulled the trigger. Moments later, Samara jerked as the pain sliced through her thigh. I watched her through the scope. How she bit her lips together to muffle the scream of unexpected pain. Her blue eyes glanced around frantically, looking for a sign of the shooter or which direction the bullet had come from. I was about to fire another at her feet, a nudge to remind her to never stand still, even in a group as large as she currently was in, but she was already moving.
Running through the crowd of tourists, away from the blood spatter she’d left behind. I’d stunned her, but she was too smart to drop her guard for long, even while in excruciating pain.
And for the first time in my life, I found myself smiling. Something stirred in my chest. Affection, maybe. Pride, for sure. The muscles in my face felt tight as my lips lifted, but I enjoyed the foreign sensation.
“Keep running, little sister.”
* * *
Staying in the shadows, I watched as Samara slowed to a walk, cooling down after a hard run. The Northern California winter air was freezing, but she didn’t seem to notice it in her tiny shorts and sports bra. I watched her steps, making sure she wasn’t still limping from the gunshot wound I’d given her two weeks earlier in Budapest.
If I hadn’t been looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed the scar that had formed on her thigh. Whoever had patched her up after I’d shot her had done a good job. There would still be a mark, no matter what, but it wasn’t readily noticeable even this early in the healing stages.
Her strength of will was commendable. Her ability to power through pain and discomfort was on a level I’d rarely seen in anyone outside of myself. I wasn’t sure if that was our genetics or her refusal to let anyone see her weakness. Either way, I respected her for not letting a little thing like an attempted assassination slow her down.
As she walked, a flash of red out of the corner of my eye caught my attention at the same time I sensed Samara tense. Feeling like someone had hit the slow-motion button on my reality, I turned my head. My ears rang, shutting out all other sound, while all the oxygen felt sucked from my lungs as I took in every inch of the young woman. Her slender frame. Her perfect curves. Her hair, like the flames of a wildfire. All of it drugged me. Made me weak and yet stronger in a single heartbeat of time.
My heart suddenly felt as if it had been ripped from my chest as the girl ran past, giving Samara a chin lift. Slow motion was deactivated as reality returned to normal. I had to swallow a bellow, a feeling of loss hitting me so hard I stumbled back.
All I wanted was to be trapped in the moment when I first saw her. Live in the euphoric, stolen time for the rest of my existence.
How did such perfection walk the earth? Was she a goddess tossed out of the heavens? How were we mere mortals allowed to breathe the same air?
Keeping my eyes on her, unable to bear looking away for even a moment, I watched her until long after she’d faded from sight.
My mind rushed to keep up with what I’d seen. Dressed for the weather better than my sister, she’d been wearing a Trinity University hoodie along with a pair of yoga pants. I was jealous of the cotton that got to caress her delicate skin. It should have been me touching her. My body molded to every glorious inch of her incredible curves.
Heart racing, the organ practically throbbing, demanding I follow the flame-haired goddess, I quickly checked myself before I gave away my hiding spot to Samara. If she discovered me, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. As she should. I was a threat to her and her family.
But the revenge that had been beaten into my head from the moment I was born no longer mattered. All I cared about was finding out who the beauty was.
Suddenly, my sister’s mental stability, or lack thereof, made sense. For the first time in my life, I was overwhelmed with so many emotions, they were suffocating. But if breathing meant giving up the sensations battling for supremacy inside me, I would gladly die.
Numbness was no longer an issue, but I experienced a new emptiness that gnawed at me until I felt the stirrings of insanity clawing at the walls of my psyche.
Like the multishades of gold and red of her hair, wildfire flames incinerated my heart and mind until all I could think was…
Follow.
Protect.
Make her mine.
CHAPTER ONE
abi
Sweat soaked through my hoodie as I hit my third mile. Running was my de-stressor. It had gotten me through some tough times. When my friend Maddie went dark on us for a while back when she was sixteen, neither Hayat nor I knew how to help her. It was a scary period in our lives, one that made us all stronger individually and as a group. But I never could fully shake the thoughts of losing her.
