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Knowing his demon would be experiencing that same ire and not trusting that it wouldn’t surface and reign fresh hell, Raini again reached out to Maddox. Stay calm and think. Please don’t give Euan what he wants. You won’t get out of this alive if you do, and neither will I. It wouldn’t hurt to remind either Maddox or his demon what was on the line.
Euan’s smile faltered when Maddox gave no reaction. “Don’t think I won’t hurt her. As you can no doubt see, I have no issue with doing that. I can imagine you’re tempted to do something extremely stupid—your little succubus experienced that same temptation. She paid for that.” It was a pure taunt. It didn’t spur Maddox into exploding, though.
Raini kept flicking her gaze from him to Castiel to the other players on the battlefield. The archangel repeatedly glanced from Euan to Maddox, and she suspected Castiel hoped Euan would do something to weaken her mate. The halo-bearers kept glancing at their leader, looking for direction, while the Black Saints watched them closely.
“Before you think to order me to release Raini and Carmen, know that it won’t happen,” said Euan. “They’ll die here. As will you and the rest of the lair. If your allies have any sense, they will leave now and save themselves.” The Black Saints didn’t move from where they stood. Euan snickered. “How very noble of them.”
“Some people have honor,” Raini sniped, hoping to push him into turning his attention to her. Given how agitated Euan was—courtesy of the pheromone—it hopefully wouldn’t be hard to provoke him into making a mistake, which would give Maddox an opportunity to strike.
His lips flattening, Euan cast her a sideways glance. The tremors hadn’t left his hands, and sweat now dripped down his temples. “You can blame yourself for this, Maddox. You failed to see the part I played in ensuring the misery of your anchor. It was I who hired the harbinger. I who betrayed her secrets to her lair. I who handed her to Gunther on a silver platter. I even kidnapped her sister and that Dwain fellow. You didn’t see it. You failed her. And now you’ll suffer the consequences. You’ll suffer as I suffered.”
Raini sighed. “Oh, for God’s sake, will you just get the fuck on with it? No one cares how smart you think you are or what games you’ve been playing—they’ve kind of got bigger things going on right now.”
Euan’s nostrils flared, but he still didn’t look at her. “You know what this is about, Maddox. You know how many people I lost because of you and your father. Well, now I mean to return the favor. Now you will know how I felt.”
Raini made a bored sound. “Oh, dear Lord, is there no way to shut you up and hurry this along?”
A snarl contorted Euan’s face. She watched his foot, knowing he meant to kick her knee again. Maybe her reaction would be a foolish move, but she didn’t have any other moves to make— none that wouldn’t for certain lead to either her or Carmen being shot in the head, anyway.
Time seemed to slow down as he lifted his foot and kicked out. Before it could connect with her knee, she caught his ankle, twisted it, and yanked hard. He fell on his butt, his arms flailing, and a gunshot cracked the air.
Quick as damn lightning, Maddox teleported to them … but not soon enough to stop Euan from once more pointing the gun at her head.
Castiel took advantage of Maddox’s distraction and began attacking with a fury, hurling orbs of crackling gold energy. But her mate had obviously already anticipated that, because he’d popped up a forcefield the second he landed before her—it encompassed him, her, Carmen, and Euan. The orbs couldn’t pass through it.
Sadly, due to Euan’s closeness to Raini and Carmen, there’d been no way for Maddox to exclude him from the forcefield without also excluding either her or Carmen.
Letting out a nervous chuckle, Euan kept the gun aimed at Raini’s head as he got to his knees and then moved up behind her. He’d seemingly dropped the other weapon, to her utter delight. Using her as a damn shield, he jabbed the gun hard against her temple. But that was good, because she’d finally got what she wanted—he was close.
“That was very foolish, Raini,” he admonished.
She turned her head slightly toward him, her mouth mere inches from his cheek, and said, “But effective.”
“That depends on what way you look at it. Yes, I now only have one gun, but it’s pointed at your head. And Maddox might be here, but that only means he gets an up-close view of the moment you die.”
“Hmm, and then you’ll teleport away, right?” She felt her brow crease. “Oh no, wait … you can’t get out of this forcefield unless he lowers it, which he ain’t gonna. So maybe I will die right here. But so will you. Actually, no, Maddox is more likely to keep you captive and torture you until the end of time.”
