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It could be that Gabriel’s darkness has rubbed off on me. Or it could be that it’s always been there, hiding deep within me, and it’s taken finding my equal in Gabriel to bring it to the surface.
Either way, when I make my move, it’s without any hesitation. Without a second thought.
Without mercy.
I lift the sword, feeling its strange lightness in my hands as my fingers curl around it even as my lips curl at Orochi’s back.
“We’re not even.”
He stops, his shoulders rising and falling with a sigh. “Mrs. Black,” he says as he turns back to me. “We?—”
Orochi chokes out a bleating groan of pain as I ram the point of my dad’s sword through his chest.
“You ruined my family,” I snarl. “You killed my mother, chased me and my father from our home, and then a few days ago you had me kidnapped.” Orochi’s eyes bulge as I sink the blade deeper into him and step closer.
“But you know what really gets me?” I hiss. “You fucked with my husband.”
Orochi cries out in pain as I twist the blade without mercy, watching the blood leaking out of the corners of his lips and his face turning white.
“Now we’re even.”
I yank out the blade. Orochi stumbles to the side before his legs give out. His eyes roll back as he topples forward onto the stone, and then lies still.
I don’t realize I’m shaking until Gabriel comes up behind me, gently pulls the sword from my hand, and then wraps his arms tightly around me. I twist in his embrace, looking up into his eyes as he reaches up and cups my jaw.
“You…” I swallow as I shake my head incredulously. “You came…”
“Surely you’ve figured it out by now. There’s no place you could go,” he mutters quietly, “and no place you could run where I wouldn’t catch you, Kitten.”
I melt against him as he leans down close.
“I love you,” Gabriel growls.
“I love you too?—”
His mouth slams to mine in a brutal, punishing, possessive kiss that curls my toes and makes my pulse race.
When he pulls away, I’m no longer trembling. He takes my hand and I follow him back through the shrine, stepping over the bodies of Takato’s men. There’s no sign of the priest, but that’s probably a good thing.
We step out the front doors into the moonlight. Then suddenly, we both feel it at the same time: a presence behind us, and we whirl at the same time.
The man is unarmed. Tall, and handsome. Looking at him in the moonlight, it appears that he’s Japanese, but definitely with some other heritage, too—possibly Nordic.
He also looks strangely familiar. My brow furrows as Gabriel tenses next to me.
“We’re leaving,” Gabriel growls. “Watashitachiha shuppatsu shimasu.”
The man, who seems to be somewhere between my age and Gabriel’s, cocks his head to the side with a slightly amused smile on his lips.
“My English is just fine, Mr. Black,” he says mildly. “Though you didn’t get a chance to hear it last time.”
Suddenly it hits me.
“You,” I whisper. “You were with Takato’s bookkeeper. You came to the firm that day to help with the transfer.”
He smiles. “Very good memory, Fumi.”
“Make your choice,” Gabriel growls at him. “You can walk away and forget all of this. Or you can try and stop us, in which case, I’m going to kill you. You have five seconds to pick?—”
