Page 49 of Signed in Blood

“He was never going to be able to hurt her. I promise you, I know how much she means to you.”

“But he wanted to,” she objects with a shaky voice. “Someone wanted to hurt her; tell me who it was.”

Although I could silence her, strip her of this power she possesses, terrify her even, the sight of this woman’s strength and the burning intensity of rage is intoxicating.

The deal was three. Three men who hurt her. A man wanting to harm her friend, that fucking counts. I’ll never tell her this man was going to hurt Sabrina next year. He was going to hunt her down until he had her. And Sabrina…after losing Lilith and then that happening to her. Sabrina was going to buy that gun one day and use it on herself. I couldn’t let Lilith live with that. I had to give them both a gift.

I don’t have to offer Lilith anything or give her permission for her to let her anger rule over the moment. And it’s fucking beautiful. What a progressive emotion, what a decadent sight.

“Close your eyes and the crows will show you where he is,” I tell her. In one hand, I offer her the gun and the other, the sight of the crows.

“Thank you.” She breathes and kisses me deeply before whispering, her hand in mine, and then closing her eyes. “I love you.”

The last thing I hear is her gasp before my little piece is gone, taking hell with her to a back alley where the prick has moved on to another victim.

Chapter 23

Lilith

The feeling of flying steals my breath away.

All at once it’s dark and cold. I feel weightless and yet my heart is heavy all the same. The only thing I have as the sight of the crows takes me is righteous anger. In one blink, the world seems to drop out from under me and repositions.

And then I fall for what seems far too long. So long that the feeling itself disappears. There’s no drop in the pit of my stomach, no wind caressing my face. And just as there is comfort, the ground is beneath me, and my knees slam down on it.

Hard and unforgiving.

I’m at the back of the bar with a woman who’s stumbling, a man I’ve never seen and don’t know leans her against the brick wall.

She seems drunk maybe, but not incapable of walking.

He’s not pushing himself on her, yet. He’s laughing and caging her in. Like a joke. She tries to push him away, but he keeps her there, as if it’s a game.

Maybe he wants her to fight. Maybe he thinks he actually has a chance. I’m not sure. I don’t care what he thinks.

All I care about is whether this was what he was going to do to Sabrina.

My heart pounds in my chest as I raise the gun. I fire it into the dirty wall and the bang makes both of them jump back. It’s only then that she’s far enough away that I can shoot the bastard in the head.

It’s easy. So much easier than the first time I killed.

Bang. A single shot lands directly in between his eyes. The man staggers slightly before falling back, his eyes still open.

The girl in the alley screams. Her shriek of terror ricochets off the alley walls. I don’t care. The frantic beating of my heart slows as I watch the blood pour from the small bullet hole in his forehead.

Sirens sound in the distance. I ignore them. Cops must’ve been close. Probably at Ted’s down the block. I don’t fucking care.

I aim the gun and pull the trigger again and again, the bullets shooting out and jolting the limp body of the pervert beneath me over and over. The bangs turn to clicks, and with a wave of my hand, I rip the bullets back from his body, the force of it lifting his dead weight up

And then I throw the bullets back down into his body.

One bullet lands in his throat, and I’m surprised by the soft crunching sound. I aim it there again. Just to hear the fucking sound. How many times would he have taken pleasure from raping Sabrina? How many thrusts? He deserves twice as many bullets to violate his body.

My only regret is that I had killed him so quickly.

Again and again, I unload the bullets into him until he’s a bloodied mess and his face unidentifiable.

This fucking monster. He doesn’t deserve the gift of life. I brutalize him as he would have done Sabrina. Like those men did to me.