It had created Death. This horrifying, gnawing emptiness that never went away. That never eased. The agony never eased, it never went away. It pulsed and echoed through the spirit until insanity would be a relief.
Many would think it was insanity now. It wasn’t. Insanity was the inability to accept that what one did was wrong. Death was very well aware there was nothing right here. It was simply justice. And justice was all that mattered for the lives that had been taken. For the lives that could never be returned.
“You were once a handsome man.” Death turned and stared at the bound, gagged victim who lay at the edge of the water.
His eyes were narrowed and filled with loathing. Filled with fury.
A smile crossed Death’s lips. It was a brutal smile. One that flashed with razor-sharp teeth and intent.
Yes, Cash Winslow, a former CIA agent. He had once been a very handsome man. Tall and fit, his hair dark and silky, his eyes deceptively friendly. Once he had been someone Death had trusted. Trusted and been betrayed by.
“I remember that fishing trip we went on,” Death said quietly, looking at the man Cash Winslow had aged into. “Do you remember?”
There were muffled sounds of rage behind the duct tape that covered his mouth.
“I caught the bigger fish. That big ole catfish. You ate with us, planned with us. We ate that big ole fish, tough as he was.” And they had laughed, planned for Breed freedom and lives that were far different from the danger they had faced then.
Death turned back to Cash then, stared into those eyes. Those deceptive, lying eyes.
“You betrayed us all.”
The chill from the river wrapped around a body that had been far colder than this on many nights. Nights when blankets didn’t ease the chill, when even the memories couldn’t warm the ice growing inside.
Death tapped gloved fingers against Winslow’s forehead. His hair was gray now. He was a little over sixy. Aging. He wasn’t as quick as he used to be, nor was he as intuitive. It had paid to allow time to pass before exacting revenge. The victims weren’t nearly as agile as they used to be.
“I remember how close you were with so many of them,” Death sighed painfully. “All of us.”
Muttered sounds came from beneath the tape as Cash struggled desperately. It was pathetic really. He had once been fit and hard, muscular and rather handsome. He was now just a paunchy, overweight, balding old man. With a fishing line around his neck.
He had been bait once before. He had drawn them to the Coyote Breed that had supposedly escaped and needed help over the mountain.
“You came to us. You swore he was a victim, you argued for his freedom and his safety. And you were our friend, we believed in you.”
Standing straight and tall, Death stared down at Winslow with a heavy, broken soul.
“We believed in you.”
There was no more time to waste. Gripping him beneath the shoulders, it was no hardship to lift him and scoot him the small distance to the edge of the river, to the boulders several feet away.
He struggled, but that was okay. The struggle was preferable. That meant there was still some life left in him. When he went under the water, he would suffer. He would know pain, for a few moments at least.
“The water is very cold. Cold enough that hypothermia will come fairly quickly. Which is really too bad. I was hoping to make you suffer just a while longer. I was hoping to taste your blood, but this is the wrong time for that, isn’t it?”
Blood would have been nice. Ripping his throat out would have been so much better than simply watching him drown. But his death needed to leave a message. Bait. There were many who would know what this meant. Many who would see the significance, but none who would know the answer.
“Loyalty,” Death whispered. “It’s repaid. Just as death is avenged. You killed us all.”
He was struggling, fighting. It wouldn’t do any good. There was only one place on the bank that he could reach safety, and she had that covered. He was going to die, and she was going to watch him die.
“You and Watts.” The hiss was filled with hatred, with the brutal need for blood. “You and Watts planned it. You executed it.”
A strong, hard kick to his back sent him tumbling into the water. The splash wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the sounds of screams when their throats came out, but it was better than watching him breathe. It was better than knowing he lived so much as a moment longer.
Gripping the line looped around Winslow’s neck, it was an easy matter to keep him in the deep pool of water chosen for his deathbed.
Wickedly sharp canines flashed in the night as a smile pulled at chilled, chapped lips. He was struggling, fighting the line, searching for a toehold, a way to draw in air, and there was no way to do so.
Tugging at the line, Death hummed a little melody and stared into the cloud-laden skies. It would snow by morning. The Breeds would find an icy corpse, and no trace of the murderer. That was the best way to kill. Without a trace. No DNA. No evidence, just the body to show the passing of life.
As Winslow’s struggles ceased and his body became a deadweight against the line, Death knelt on a boulder and stared into the murky water at the body below.
“Roses are red. Violets are blue. I remember, mate, and how I miss you.”
There were tears in the voice that whispered the words. Tears and grief. Had it truly been more than two decades since life had turned so dark and bleak? It hurt as though it had happened yesterday. An hour ago. It hurt until the agony was like an open, festering wound that refused to heal.
“I miss both of you.”
Death wiped at a face without tears. They had stopped falling so long ago.
Moving slowly, the fishing line was attached to a sturdy limb of a nearby tree, and on its end a photo was attached.
Let them make of this what they would.
Turning to stare into the well-lit window of the room Cassa Hawkins had taken, bleak eyes narrowed and rage built again.
She had mated that Bengal. Damn her. She had mated a Breed. That made it harder. It shouldn’t have. Death hadn’t thought it would. But it did. There was regret, but so little remorse.
A mate would have to be sacrificed. But so many had already been sacrificed, did another really matter? The end result was what mattered. The end result, and the death of those who had destroyed so much.
“Good-bye, Cash Winslow,” Death whispered with a feeling of relief. “Seven down. Four to go. And one to die again.”
◆ CHAPTER 18 ◆
Because Watts was part of the Dozen, Cassa. He was part of it, and he’s the one the killer wants.
Dog’s statement ran through Cassa’s mind through most of the night. Pacing the floor at the inn, she fought to understand why a rogue Breed would think she should pay for what Douglas had done so long ago.
He had been part of the Deadly Dozen. She pulled up the old, faded picture on her laptop and concentrated on the faces of the twelve men in poor focus. One face in particular had always caused her to pause, though she had never been certain why.