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He nodded towards the shadowy passage. “One of your friends. Draven most likely. Footsteps sound heavy.” He cocked his head. “The children might finish him off before he gets here. I can hear fighting.”
“They’re coming? Here?” I stared at him in disbelief, then felt a smile cross my blood-streaked lips. Oh, Vesper was so fucking dead.
He must have recognized the expression on my face for he shook his head warningly. “Don’t get your hopes up. You don’t think I can actually let him live do you?”
I stared incomprehensibly until he raised the object in his hand and gestured to his throat.
A thin wire.
My mouth fell open. It was a garrotte.
Vesper wasn’t even going to attempt to face Draven with a sword. He would ambush him from behind the pillar, wrap the crude weapon around Draven’s throat, and then squeeze the life out of him as I was forced to watch.
If I wasn’t already dead by then.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I pushed myself up to my knees, then slowly began to struggle to my feet.
Vesper was eyeing me from where he stood. “I’d stay there if I were you.”
“Or what?” I snarled. “You’ll use that thing on me?”
“I don’t want to. But if I have to...” He fingered the wire.
“You didn’thaveto do any of this, Vesper.” I thought of something. “Tell me the truth. Did Arthur really threaten your sister?”
“He knows she exists. That’s threat enough.”
“Do me the courtesy of telling me the fucking truth. You did this for the money, not for her. It was a convenient excuse you gave yourself, so you could feel better about...” I started coughing. When I raised my hand to my mouth, there was red upon it.
Vesper saw it, too. He looked away, his expression uncomfortable.
“Please. Don’t pretend to care,” I said with disdain. “Was killing me always part of the plan? Did Arthur request it?”
Vesper looked away. “He wants the sword. He didn’t care about who came back with it, if that’s what you’re asking. From what I understood, Draven was supposed to do it, but I never asked him and I guess that won’t be happening now.”
The words stunned me but I didn’t let him see it. Either way, it didn’t matter.
“I can’t let you kill him,” I said quietly. “I won’t.”
Vesper smiled. “I’m sure he’d be pleased to know you cared. At least someone does. Something tells me that man doesn’t have many friends.”
“The ones he does have are probably more honest than you,” I spat.
Vesper shrugged. “Maybe. But I doubt it. You think he’s better than me?”
I nodded slowly.
Vesper’s eyes narrowed. “We’re no different. Men like Draven and I. He was probably going to kill you, too. I know it was in his contract, no matter what he told you.”
I gritted my teeth. “That’s... not true.” I had a horrible thought. “Did he know? About you?”
Vesper sniggered. “Not a chance. I told you, I was the back-up plan. And by the time we got here, well... I wasn’t about to take a chance with Draven.”
“You were supposed to tell him Arthur sent you,” I guessed. “But you didn’t. Because you want whatever reward money my brother promised you all for yourself.”
“Draven’s a wild card, isn’t he?” Vesper said thoughtfully. “For a famed assassin, he doesn’t seem keen on fulfilling this contract.”
