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A heartbeat later, Azriel knelt in front of me, his concern radiating through me like the wash of a warm summer breeze. He pressed his hand against the wound, my blood oozing up through his fingers as energy radiated from the epicenter of his touch. It flushed strength through my shaking muscles as it began to heal my leg, and, after a few seconds, I felt decidedly better.
My gaze met his. In the depths of his differently colored eyes, barely leashed fury burned.
If she but gives me the tiniest of excuses, he said, mind voice flat and in many ways scarier than even Hunter herself, she will be dead.
She won’t. I lightly brushed some spider goo from his cheek. His skin was far cooler than usual, and concern sharpened anew. Will you please shift into energy form and burn away the venom?
Your wound is not fully healed, and I am in no danger as yet—
I don’t care about my wound—
A continuing problem with you, he cut in. There was both amusement and frustration in his mental tones.
I smiled. I’m okay, so just humor me and heal yourself, will you?
If you insist.
He disappeared, leaving me once again staring at the scene in front of me. There actually wasn’t that much to see anymore. All that remained of the spider woman were the bits I’d sliced off—some leg pieces, her fang, and one of the spinnerets. Everything else—all the gore and other body parts—had been consumed.
Hunter turned and our gazes met. I froze again, pinned by the awful darkness of her eyes, and for a moment feared that I was about to become her second victim. Then she blinked, and the darkness retreated.
But the air still burned with the wrongness of her being. Worse still, blood and flesh covered the lower part of her face and dripped from her chin, and her shirt was soaked with gore.
My stomach once again threatened to rebel, but I had a feeling vomiting all over her no-longer-shiny shoes would be a sign of weakness I could not afford. I just wished I could control my pulse rate as easily, because right now it was through the roof.
“So,” she said, “have you got anything to say?”
Her voice was cool, unthreatening, but my skin crawled. “Absolutely nothing.”
She smiled, revealing razor-sharp, blood-stained canines. “Wise choice.”
I swallowed heavily and wished like hell I could take back the words that now bound me to this woman. But breaking our deal was an option I’d never really had, no matter how much I might have flirted with the idea. Yet I had no doubt those flirtations were the reason behind her revealing her true nature here today. She’d wanted to show me just what would happen to Ilianna and Tao if I ever stepped out of line.
It was my desperate need for revenge that had led them into this woman’s sights, and I hated myself for that.
But what was done was done, and regretting the path I’d chosen in a desperate moment of pain and anger didn’t help anyone, particularly them.
I licked dry lips and said, “Are you going to call in the Directorate, or do you want me to?”
“Oh, there’s no need for them to be advised of events here.” There was cold amusement in her voice. “The Jorõgumo is dead and I will erase the shifter’s memory. I’m afraid this is destined to become just another of the Directorate’s cold case files.”
And how many of those files, I wondered, were cold because of Hunter’s intervention?
“Then I can go?” I tried not to sound overly eager, but failed dismally, if the gleam in her eyes was anything to go by.
“You may. Just remember, I want to be advised if you do find the next gate key at that gun exhibition later today.”
“Given you have Cazadors following me about like trained puppies, that goes without saying,” I snapped, and regretted it almost instantly.
That darkness flared in her eyes again. My breath froze in my throat, and I took an involuntary step back. Even that one small movement had her half baring her teeth, and it wasn’t only Amaya who began screaming inside my head. I was at full voice, too.
Then Azriel appeared in front of me, providing a physical barrier against the wash of hunger and darkness coming from Hunter and allowing me to breathe normally again—although the fury and tension rolling off both him and his sword wasn’t any less breathtaking.
“Do it,” he said softly. “I will enjoy watching your soul be escorted through the gates of hell.”
For a moment, she didn’t move. Didn’t even blink. Then she smiled—still all teeth—and said, “Oh, I will give you your chance, reaper, but not now. Not yet. There is still much to be achieved.”
Yeah, first high council domination, next the world. Azriel reached back and caught my hand, squeezing it in either reassurance or in warning. Then his energy surged around us, tearing us apart swiftly, but he didn’t take his gaze off Hunter until the gray fields were around us.
