Marked by an Assassin (29 page)

Not quite quickly enough.

She grunted as a fist connected with her jaw and the male muttered a curse under his breath.

Harbin.

Dressed head to toe in black combat gear, he was a wraith in the darkness. His eyes caught the dim light, flashing silver at her, and her pulse accelerated as he advanced on her. She sucked down a deep breath and tried to quell the trembling in her body, preparing herself for his next move.

The smell of him, spice and snow, awakened her body and mind, and triggered her training. She blocked his next attack and landed her own. He was faster than he had been in the gym and she struggled to keep up with him and his moves, tripped over a few of the ones they had run through, allowing him to land more blows than she should have. She swiftly blocked the kick he aimed at her head, using both of her forearms to stop his shin, and then shoved against his leg. He lost balance and barely recovered, giving her an opportunity she couldn’t waste.

Aya spun on her heel and brought her own foot up in an arching kick. It connected hard with the side of his head and he staggered sideways, hit the wall and braced himself against it. He growled and shook his head, tossed her a black look that she could easily read.

She was breaking with the fight they had planned together and it was pissing him off, but he really had caught her off guard and her instincts had seized control, her primal side rising in response to the danger he represented. She couldn’t move as swiftly as he could, not when it came to fighting. She hadn’t expected him to crank up the speed this much. It was impossible for her to keep up, so she was going to wing it.

He launched at her and she flipped backwards, landed in a crouch and kicked off. She sailed through the air, effortlessly gliding over his head. He skidded, twisted and pushed off again, running right at her. Her feet hit the tarmac and she sprang right, kicked off the wall and landed behind him again. He snarled and turned on her, his frustration rolling off him in warning waves that she chose to ignore.

She was a female shifter, more agile than the males of her kind. It was more realistic that she would use her speed to defend herself rather than attack someone stronger than her.

The second he neared her, she swept her leg up into another fierce kick. Her boot hit him hard on the jaw, snapped his head to his right, and sent him crashing to the ground.

He pushed himself up on his hands and roared at her, his silver eyes flashing dangerously.

Her primal side responded in an instant, rising to the threat he had issued and refusing to back down. Stupid male. If he wanted a fight, he would have one.

She tore her coat off and was out of her boots before he had even found his feet. The shift was quick to come, her bones aching as they stretched or shrank, distorting to new forms beneath her skin. Fur rippled over her body, sweeping up her legs first as they shortened inside her jeans. She landed on all fours and growled as she kicked her trousers off, freeing herself, and then shuddered and mewled as the change reached her arms, the pain of the shift almost blinding her. She hated calling it quickly and was ridiculously out of practice.

Harbin was faster than her, his shift complete well before her tail had finished growing from the base of her spine and her ears had rounded and moved up her head.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at him, seeing the majestic male he truly was staring back at her through bright silver eyes. He was larger than her in his cat form, a beautiful big male with thick lustrous silver fur dotted with dark crescents and spots. The sight of him in his animal form sent an unexpected response through her, a powerful urge that she struggled to deny.

She wanted to rub against him, wanted to scent him and get his attention. She wanted him to rub her in response, to show her affection and attention, as a mated male would.

Stupid instincts.

He moved in a blur of silver and she grunted as he landed on her, both huge front paws coming down hard on her shoulders. She growled and rose onto her back feet to dislodge him. He only tightened his hold on her and did something she really hadn’t anticipated.

He sank his fangs into the back of her neck, his hold strong but soft enough that he didn’t break the skin. She whined and tried to break free, but he refused to release her. He bore down on her instead, using his heavier weight to send her down onto her paws. If she didn’t break free, he would have her pinned on her stomach.

She snarled and twisted her body, whimpering as pain tore through the back of her neck and the scent of blood bloomed in the cold air. Harbin released her and backed off, his shock rippling through her, surprise that she had hurt herself in order to escape him. It was what any cat shifter in her position would have done. It shouldn’t have come as a shock to him when they were trying to make this fight look real.

Her heart whispered that it hadn’t been shock over the fact she had been willing to hurt herself. It had been surprise that she had allowed his fangs to penetrate her neck in the very place he needed to bite to mark her as his mate. She hadn’t even considered that in the heat of the moment, but she felt sure that it took more than a little scratch to bind them as mates. Every lesson she’d had about mating, the teacher had said the male had to fully penetrate the female’s neck with all four fangs. Harbin had barely scratched her.

She used his momentary distraction against him and leaped at him, splaying her front legs as she sailed through the air. He reacted quickly, rising onto his hind legs to defend against her. His larger paws came at her as she landed just short of him, smashing against her shoulders and the side of her head, but she had won this round.

Aya twisted her head as her front legs wrapped around his chest and bit down on the vulnerable underside of his neck, sinking her fangs into his throat and locking her jaw to stop him from shaking her. His heart pounded wildly in her ears as he went down with her on top of him and struggled against her, kicking his back legs and trying to catch her delicate stomach with his claws.

She held on, refusing to release him.

His movements grew weaker and then suddenly stopped, his body going slack beneath hers. He shifted back and his neck slipped free of her teeth, smaller in his human form. She backed off, her eyes darting over him as she breathed hard, senses locked on him and searching.

Searching.

Her heart hitched, pain pulsing through her as no heartbeat reached her sensitive ears.

No.

Aya shifted back, her t-shirt and deep blue jumper offering her little protection against the frigid night, not as her fur had. She shivered, but not from the cold. The ice in her veins was born of fear.

Had she killed him?

Tears formed in her eyes, hot and stinging, and she shook her head, her short black hair brushing her cheeks as she stared down at Harbin where he lay naked and motionless on the black ground, his throat covered in blood.

No.

She couldn’t have killed him.

He couldn’t be dead.

Her hands shook and she balled them into fists, trembling all over as she kept searching for a sign of life in him. He couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t have killed him. Her throat closed, her heart a timid thing in her chest as her ears rang and she tried to comprehend what was happening. She couldn’t have lost him.

Her animal side cried out and she bellowed in response, unleashing all of her pain in the call. Her knees gave out but she didn’t feel the impact with the tarmac as she fought the need to change and run wild.

The need to kill.

It was too strong.

She clutched at herself, afraid she wouldn’t be able to hold her form, would succumb to the raw emotions running through her, rousing her primal instincts. The pain of losing Harbin was too great though, too powerful for her snow leopard side to handle. It fought for control and she wanted to give in to it, wanted the oblivion she knew awaited her if she allowed it to overwhelm her. She wouldn’t remember the things she did, would no longer feel as she was now, hurting so deeply she couldn’t breathe. Her more human mind would be subdued by her animal one and she would be free.

Fur swept up her bare legs.

A dark-haired male appeared in the alley, morphing out of the shadows, his black robes allowing him to blend into the night and his red eyes cold despite the fire that burned in them as he looked down at Harbin and then at her.

The urge to shift in order to escape her pain became an urge to shift in order to protect herself from this male.

The witch.

The tinny scent of magic was all over him, more potent now, as if he had grown stronger since their last meeting.

She bared her fangs at him and rose onto her feet, quickly taking a few steps back to her clothes. She put her jeans on, not to cover herself from his prying eyes but to restore some control over her animal side, hindering it with the tight clothing. It wanted her to shift and fight, viewed the witch as a threat to her mate, one she had to eliminate in order to protect him.

The male’s red eyes edged towards his left.

Aya looked there.

A woman wrapped in a thick black ankle-length coat, the hood up to throw her face into shadow, walked out of thin air, as if she had teleported.

Or perhaps she had been cloaked by the male.

The female pushed the hood back with gloved hands, revealing a spill of golden hair highlighted with silver and a face Aya would never forget.

The huntress.

She might have been there when Aya had last fought the male, the time when Harbin had intervened. They could have ended this back then if only they had been aware that the woman travelled with the witch, shielded from view by magic.

“Aya,” the huntress said, a soft smile playing on her lips that didn’t fool Aya. She wasn’t about to let her guard down and let the woman play her all over again.

Her smile widened, causing crow’s feet beside her green eyes. Time hadn’t been kind to the huntress, the seventeen years since they had last seen each other taking their toll on the mortal.

“I’m glad to see he didn’t hurt you.” The huntress looked down at Harbin where he lay on the ground between them, sprawled out and hopefully only unconscious.

Not dead.

Please don’t be dead.

Aya looked down at him again, monitoring him with her senses, searching for a sign of life.

The huntress stepped closer to him, triggering a fierce need in Aya, an urge to place herself between him and the woman and protect him. She struggled to tamp down that need and stay where she was, sure that she would only place Harbin in danger if she moved to shield him. She would give away the game they were playing, a trap that had been set and she was ready to spring.

She had to stay where she was and keep her head, no matter what the huntress said or did.

It all came down to this moment.

The woman eyed Harbin, a glimmer of sick satisfaction in her eyes. “Two decades… I’ve spent two decades living in the shadows… fearing for my life… but now I’m free.”

The huntress raised her gaze away from Harbin and pinned it on Aya.

“Can you imagine what that was like?” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion that emanated from her in tangible waves. She looked down at her hands before wrapping her arms around herself, her fingers pressing into her arms through her thick black coat. “Slaughtering my friends… killing everyone I knew. All of us lived in fear, and my own fear grew worse with each letter or phone call I received that told me another was dead. Ten years ago the last call came… I was alone… the sole survivor.”

Aya had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying the woman had brought it all on herself. She might have suffered, but her pain was nothing compared with what Harbin had been through, or what Aya had been through. Aya couldn’t find a single shred of sympathy for the bitch who had used him and had killed so many of her kin, and had subjected her and others to torturous experiments.

She schooled her features, hiding her rising anger from the woman and the witch, afraid that the male would sense it in her if she didn’t master her emotions and keep her head. She couldn’t screw things up now, when they were so close.

“I went into hiding out in the countryside, never leaving my home, afraid he would kill me if I set foot outside it.” The woman looked down at Harbin and sneered, her face twisting into darkness. “I couldn’t continue living that way… so I looked for assistance in securing my freedom. I wanted to live my life again… and now I can.”

The male beside the woman smirked, his red eyes glowing in the low light. There was an air of brimstone about him that was familiar now Aya had been to Hell. He must have come from that dark realm, bringing with him information about Harbin that the woman had used to her advantage. She had taken out a contract on Aya, offering it to Harbin’s guild, knowing he would take it and would expose himself, giving her an opportunity to kill him.

The huntress crouched beside Harbin, her green eyes fixed on him, a strange sombre edge to her expression as she studied him.

“I had wanted the kill. I had wanted to deal with him as I should have back then.” Her voice turned distant, as if her memories had taken hold of her and she was reliving them. “I had been too soft… charmed by him… a foolish young woman who had allowed her emotions to get the better of her.”

She lifted her head and looked over Harbin to Aya.

“You know how that feels though, don’t you?” The cold edge to her green eyes chilled Aya and rang warning bells in her head, her heart screaming that the woman was on to her and knew this was a trap, that any moment now the witch would attack her or Harbin when he was vulnerable.

Aya glared down at Harbin. “I was an idiot once… like so many other females. I fell under his spell and he betrayed me.”

The huntress smiled and then sighed as she looked back down at Harbin. “We both fell under his spell… and we have both regretted it ever since. I should have remained detached and professional, but I failed. I couldn’t bring myself to kill him after drugging him… he had been so handsome… he still is handsome… but I suppose that is a weapon he employs to slay many women.”