“You’re sure you want to—”
“Yes.” The word came out brittle and harsh.
“I rammed the boat and disabled it. I’ve killed enough Emerald Dragons to take on the ability to swim like they do. I took on your mother first. She fought well, though I now realize it was a mother’s protective instinct that drove her the most. But she was no match for me.” He spoke in a low monotone, now as emotionless as he’d been before.
Parts of Ruby’s heart broke away at the mental picture. “How? Exactly how did you kill her?”
“She lunged at me, getting close enough for me to lock my arms around her neck. She tore at me, but she couldn’t move her head to use her fangs. So she used her tail.”
Ruby felt a glimmer of pride at her mother’s ability to fight someone like Cyn. “Did she hurt you?”
“Yes. Enough to nearly free herself. I broke her tail.”
The blood drained from her face. “Go on.”
“She swam back to the sinking yacht and managed to get onto the part that was still above water. I climbed up, too, and she shot me with her fiery spikes. Nearly blinded me. Something you should know, Ruby. Our eyes are vulnerable, as is the flesh around them.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Noted. Continue.”
“I grabbed her snout, keeping her from Breathing out. Then I pulled her head back and ripped out her throat.”
He’d held back nothing, cold bastard. No, he wanted her to hate him, she realized. Something else occurred to her. “Did you…take her power?”
He nodded. “It’s customary.”
She clutched her stomach, feeling it spasm. He started to reach out, probably an involuntary reaction. She batted his hand away. “What about my father?”
“We can finish this later.”
“No, now. There won’t be a later.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you before. I didn’t want you to stomp off in some rage before you were ready to defend yourself.” He gestured between them. “I never intended for this to happen. I was supposed to be your protector, nothing more. Every time we touch, it becomes harder to pull back. This time I knew I couldn’t stop.”
“So it wasn’t that we were going to have sex that forced your confession.” She reviewed the now painful conversation in her mind. “It was that I was going to give you my heart. And that was too much.” When he didn’t deny that, she shifted her focus back to the dark truth he’d revealed. “Tell me what you did to my father.”
He trained his gaze to some point beyond her. “While your mother kept me preoccupied, he got you into the dinghy. With his last breath, he tried to keep you safe.” He seemed to sink back to that moment. “He said something about them doing something dangerous. That he was just following orders. Then he pleaded with me not to kill his daughter.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I was following orders, too. I cut his throat. Then I looked in the dinghy and saw you.”
She took a step closer, her hands fisted at her sides. “Why didn’t you kill me?”
He met her angry glare. “You were an innocent. For the first time, I purposely failed a mission.” His mouth tightened. “And no, I didn’t get a pat on the back. I quit.”
“Because you lost your killer instinct?”
“No, I lost faith. You have to trust those in control, especially in the kind of work I did. Once I lost that trust, I was done.”
He’d quit over it. Saved her life at great risk to himself.
No, no, no, keep your anger. Think of what he took from you.
It wasn’t only his betrayal that hurt. It was how alone, utterly alone, she was now. She had come to see him as her ally. And more. He’d taken that away, too.
He touched you, kissed you, knowing what he’d done. Bastard!
She hit him in the chest, her tears blurring the stony look on his face. “You wouldn’t have taken an assignment like that if you weren’t a cold, heartless person. And I bet…I bet you enjoyed it, didn’t you? Killing them made you feel something.”
“Yes, it did. The hunt, the kill, is an adrenaline rush.” Even now he wasn’t softening the truth.
“Damn you!” She hit him again, hearing her fist smack against muscle.
“Control your rage, Ruby.” He didn’t flinch or move back, nor did he give away any hint of the pain she was inflicting. Did he have any emotion or regret about what he’d done? Not by the passive expression on his face.
She laughed, tears salty where they gathered at the corners of her mouth. “Control my rage. Yeah, someone as cold and ruthless as you could say that to me.”
“Hit me if you want. But be in control.”
“Even now, being my teacher. How quaint, the man who killed my parents is the man who would teach me. Awaken me.” She spat out those last words because he’d awakened her in more ways than one. The anger took her like a wave, thrusting her up high and out of control. She threw herself at him, her words unintelligible as she pounded at him. She didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. Finally, drained, tired and aching, she slid to the floor. She was that girl again, learning that her parents were dead, that she couldn’t go back home.
He didn’t try to comfort her, which both hurt and relieved her. She would have thrown off any show of solace. Or any apology, as if that would make a difference.
She used the couch to push herself to her feet when she finally got herself together. Her shirt gaped open, and she didn’t even care. She avoided looking at him. “I want Mr. Smith dead.”
“We’ll make him dead.”
“I’ll make him dead.”
Ruby turned to leave, but Cyn grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her to within an inch of him with his iron grip. All she could see was his chest, red where she’d pounded him, streaks where her nails had scratched.
“Ruby, look at me.” His dark eyes, the embers jagged, bore into hers. “You showed your strength when you didn’t give away that a tulpa was standing next to your Mundane friend. Use that strength, that restraint, now. You need me. I know you hate that, but you need me if you want to make these people pay.”
“I don’t need you,” she gritted out.
“Remember what Brom’s visions showed.”
The book. She needed to see if anything new had materialized on the pages. He wouldn’t let her go, proving that he was stronger than she could ever hope to be. “You lost control just now, Ruby. That’s dangerous. I let you go off on me; your enemy will not. He will take advantage of your lack of focus and kill you. Master your emotions.”
He let her go. She stalked outside to the car, seeing him follow in the corner of her eye. She forced herself not to look at him, walking around to the passenger side but stopping short at the sight of the man hunched there, waiting for her.
Brom. With his demon parasite, if Cyn was right.
Out of instinct and fear, she backed away with a yelp. Brom reached for her, his eyes wide in desperation. The demon reached, too, with long spindly fingers.
She backed into a hard body.
“He wants to touch you, to show you,” Cyn said, his hands bracing her shoulders. “I’ve never heard of a parasite transferring to someone else, but I wouldn’t let it grab on to you. It’s there to keep Brom from speaking mostly.”
She shuddered at the sight of its “roots” sinking into Brom’s throat. God, this was sick, crazy sick. “Can’t we kill it?”
“No, because we’ll kill Brom.”
Cyn grabbed her wrist and jerked it toward Brom’s wavering fingers. She struggled, but it was too late. Brom’s hand clamped over both hers and Cyn’s hands. She jerked with the impact of the images that bombarded her mind: people collapsing, gasping for air, writhing in pain. Children crying as they clawed at their parents’ sleeves. Jack, right there at the Yard, stumbling against the Harley. Leo falling to the passenger seat of his car, driving right into the side of a building. Glesenda and others dropping at the dojo. Oh, God, a whole class of kids staggering, falling to their knees as they called for their mommies. The vision panned out, showing people falling all over Miami.