All four of them turned to gawk. It’s not like they’d gagged me, so I wasn’t quite sure why they looked so shocked to hear me speak. “Guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see you up and talkin’.” I recognized the voice as belonging to Pete, the one who actually had a problem with raping an unconscious woman. If I had to guess, I’d say he was the “honorable” one in the group. “The way Sam here smacked you with that chain . . . you should be bruised to hell. Or worse. But there’s not a scratch on your pretty face. Why’s that?”
Well, well. Pete had the honor and the brains. Azriel had told me once that it was important that we keep to ourselves. Most humans didn’t pay enough attention to recognize that part of us that was other. But, every once in a while, a person took the time to really look. It was just my luck that Pete happened to be astute. “Maybe Sam overestimates his strength?” I suggested in an innocent tone.
One of the men stepped forward. He scrubbed a dirty hand over the stubble growing on his face and smiled. His gray-blue eyes narrowed as he looked me over from head to toe. “I’ve got strength enough,” he said and then grabbed at his groin through his pants. “Right here. How ’bout I show you?”
“How about you go to hell?”
That earned a few snickers from my captors. I suppose that I didn’t sound very tough, or threatening. I made a mental note to improve on that. But tough-sounding or not, bound or free, I had to believe that I still had the upper hand on these men. They couldn’t kill me, not without a magic blade, and I doubted any of them had such a thing. And though I was wrapped in chains and bound to my corporeal form, I was still stronger. If they planned to rape me, they’d have to take the chains off. When that happened, I’d kill every last one of them with my bare hands if I had to.
“Look,” Pete said as he held his hands out as if to calm me down. I’d thrown him a good ten feet before his friend had knocked me out, and I sensed that he wasn’t going to take my soft, feminine appearance for granted. “Nobody’s going to hurt you if you don’t give us a reason to. We just want to know who you are, is all.”
I raised my chin up toward the ceiling, hoping I looked defiant. “I don’t see how my identity is any of your business.”
“That’s rich,” Sam scoffed. “What you done was none of your business, but you didn’t seem to have a problem stickin’ your nose where it didn’t belong.”
“You attacked that poor woman,” I said, low.
“Maybe we oughta give you what we were gonna give to her?”
My stomach tightened and my heart threatened to start up its frantic racing once again. That’s what they wanted, though. Wasn’t it? Men like these fed off their victim’s fear. The power they exercised over the helpless was better than any petty sexual thrill. Predators in the truest sense, they hunted their prey with precision, looking out for only the freshest kill.
Well, they weren’t going to get what they wanted from me.
“Try it!” I snapped. “In fact, I dare you.”
I’d listened to Azriel’s tough talk more than once over the years. Just the other night, he’d threatened Lorik’s men as casually as he’d exchange polite conversation on the weather. I mimicked his tone, letting a steeliness settle in to my words so these men would know that I meant business. I lowered my gaze, met each one of them eye to eye and never once demurred.
“She’s somebody’s girl,” Pete said, his voice a terrified whisper. He tugged on Sam’s sleeve while the other two nameless men just stared, jaws slack. “She’s gotta be. Maybe Joe Connolly, or shit, J.P. Chase. Why else would she be dressed like that and talkin’ tough like she is? It’s because she knows what her man is gonna do to us if he catches us with her!”
As Pete’s tone escalated, his face turned a lovely shade of puce. Hands trembling, he didn’t ask for his cronies’ permission before he started working at the fastenings of my chains, desperate to free me. Laughter bubbled up from my throat as he fumbled, not because I’d managed to rattle him, but for some reason I found it ironic that Pete suggested I might be Joe’s girl.
I could have told them that Joe was dead. And I might have mentioned that my lover had done the deed. But why waste my breath? We could play these games throughout the day until the sun set. It wouldn’t change anything. Or save any of their lives. So I sat, biding my time, giving Pete the opportunity to make good with whomever he supposed I belonged to. Sam scrubbed his hands across his face again as he watched Pete uncoil the chain from around me, and I smirked. I could see the doubt, the fear etched in every dirty line of his forehead.
“Worried?” I asked him.
Rather than answer, he turned away.
I shouldn’t have enjoyed watching him squirm. I’d given Sam a dose of his own medicine, and knowing I’d gained the upper hand by preying on his fear should have sickened me. Instead, I felt like I’d dispensed some form of justice. As the coil of chain loosened around me, I armed myself with the only weapon at my disposaclass="underline" namely, the very chain that held me.
Pete really quit paying attention to me the moment he’d had his little epiphany. Sam, on the other hand, pointedly ignored me while he paced back and forth in front of me. As for the other two, they’d slunk away as soon as they realized Sam had actual concerns about my identity. The punishment for their wicked ways should have been divided equally among the four of them, but I would simply have to hope that after I was through with Pete and Sam, they’d stand as examples to their friends.
When the last coil of chain fell to the wooden plank beneath me, I struck. With preternatural speed I jerked a length of the heavy chain around Pete’s neck. I almost felt sorry for the guy. He didn’t see it coming. From my crouched position I spun, flinging Pete out in front of me until we both stood. Sam stopped his incessant pacing and froze in his tracks. I flashed him a cold smile as I constricted the chain around Pete’s throat. Though considerably larger, he didn’t stand a chance against me as he flailed and pulled at the chain, struggling for breath.
“I don’t belong to anyone,” I whispered in his ear. “I told you I was no one to be tangled with. You shouldn’t have messed with that girl last night, Pete.”
“Wh-who a-a-re you?” Pete rasped as I pulled the chain tighter.
Azriel loved dramatics, and I could be dramatic too. “I am Vengeance.” I gave the chain one last, hard jerk, and Pete lost consciousness. His body became limp and heavy in my grasp, and I let him fall to the dock, the chain jangling as it landed with him.
I had no time to contemplate my actions. Sam had shaken himself from his dazed stupor and leveled a revolver at my face. Immortal or not, I couldn’t imagine a bullet to my head at such a close range would be an easy wound to heal from.
“You bitch!” he spat as he pulled back the hammer. “I shoulda stuck my dick in you when you were out cold and then killed you like I wanted to. But it don’t matter now. I’m gonna kill you one way or another.”
Before I could react, he pulled the trigger. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the bullet’s impact. The report of the shot rang out, followed by a thud and then utter silence. I didn’t dare open my eyes. Fear stole my breath. I didn’t feel any pain, but did that matter?
“Darian,” Azriel’s voice caressed my ears. “It’s all right, darling. Open your eyes.”
Sam lay in a heap not two feet from where I stood, blood oozing from his chest and his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Morning sunlight filtered in through a window and cast it’s glow on Azriel’s ethereal face, bathing him in an otherworldly light that made him that much more beautiful. My heart stuttered in my chest, and I exhaled in a rush, my blood coursing through my veins like fire. He’d found me. He’d saved me. Again.