Ciara slipped out of the doorway and sauntered into the room. She adored the sound of fear in her victim’s voice. It played sweeter than the softest aria to her ears. Shrugging her long braid over one shoulder, she smoothed a hand down her hip as she purred, “I am known by many names. But for the purpose of our little meeting, why don’t you just call me ‘Vengeance’?”
With a shaking hand, he fumbled at the receiver of the phone. The man’s face whitened when he held it to his ear.
“What’s wrong, baby? No dial tone?” Ciara stretched across the desk, plucked the receiver out of his hand, and swung it like a pendulum in front of his face. Oh, she loved it when their eyes rolled back in their heads and their faces paled to that lovely shade of pasty gray.
He ripped his cell phone out of his pocket; his eyes widened as the wordsNo Servicelit up across the readout on the screen.
Yanking open the side drawer on his desk, he glanced first at Ciara then looked down. He withdrew a pistol with a shaking hand and pointed it at her chest. “You take one more step and they’ll write any name you want on a toe tag for the morgue.”
Oh, this one played the cat-and-mouse game better than the time she had tortured that serial rapist. Ciara smiled her most wicked smile. She loved it when they got cocky! Tossing her head back, she spread her arms wide, then released her best chilling laughter to echo off the wall to wall windows as she gave a teasing wiggle of her hips. “Take your best shot, baby. Do you think you can hit me from here or do you need me to take a few steps closer?”
Beads of sweat appeared across the man’s face then rolled down his heavy jowls as he shook the muzzle of the gun in her face. “Don’t think I won’t kill you. I own the mayor of this city and every cop in the surrounding precincts. With my money, I don’t have to worry about prison. I can do anything I want.”
With a bored roll of her eyes, Ciara leaned forward and rested her hands on his desk. Wriggling her nose, she brought her face so close she almost touched the tip of his nose and crooned, “Go ahead, sweetheart. Do whatever you like. After all, you should get the most out of your last few moments on earth. Consider it your last wish before your execution. Kind of like having your last meal before you fry.”
The man jerked as though trapped in an uncontrollable seizure. He emptied the chamber of the gun. As he fired the last round, his jaw fell to his chest, and he let the pistol crash to the floor.
Ciara waited, tapping her red, manicured nails atop the computer monitor. With a bored yawn, she stretched and smoothed the dents from the bullets out of her shirt then bestowed a wicked smile upon him. “Okay. My turn! Now let’s figure out the best way to punish you for all your naughty little deeds. Where shall we start this evening? There are so many fun things to choose from.”
Scooting back from his desk, he back-pedaled his chair into the farthest corner against the darkened window. The wild-eyed man stared up into her face, his hands white-knuckled into fists on the chair. “Who the hell are you? What do you want? You want money? I’ve got a ton of cash over in the safe. You want drugs? I can get them too. Just tell me what you want. Whatever you want it’s yours. Just leave me the hell alone!”
Ciara couldn’t resist a sadistic laugh as she circled her way around the desk. Good. The fool finally understood he should fear her. Let the games begin. “I already told you what I want, baby. You really should pay attention when your executioner is speaking. You can call me Vengeance. I am here to administer justice. I want nothing from you but pain and a great deal of suffering. You’ve not only raped the earth with the illegal chemicals you’ve dumped but you’ve robbed and cheated your own kind. You’ve stolen the meager wages your employees have slaved for and you’ve left them in complete ruin and disgrace. Many have suffered pain, starvation, and even death by your hand. Tonight, it’syourturn to pay up.”
She held the shaking man transfixed in her gaze as she rested her hands on the arms of his chair. “Tonight, we’re going to discover your greatest fears and then we’re going to see how wellyouface them.”
The man lunged at her throat. His beefy hands shook as he grabbed her by the neck; his eyes widened as he crashed back against the wall.
Ciara loved it when they looked so surprised. Just another perk of being an immortal Fury. They never realized how powerful she was until it was much too late. Dragging him up from the floor, she settled him back into his chair then took his fleshy chin in her hand. She lifted his face, turned him first one way, then the other, studying him as though she held the jowls of the prize pig at the fair. Her eyes narrowed as she gazed into his watery little eyes. “So, you fear losing your money. Well, no big surprise there. What else? I know a man like you must have many fears.”
Ciara grabbed his tie and wheeled him like a pull toy back to the front of his desk. With a flick of her hand at the computers, she brought up his accounts on all three wide screens. With a laugh, she zeroed them all out.
“Watch this.” She winked at him and brought the screens up again one at a time. She pointed to each of the monitors and yanked his face closer to the desk as she explained, “Pay attention, now. Okay, that account has now transferred all funds to the World Wildlife Fund. This account has transferred all funds to Feed the Children and last but not least, this account has replenished your employees’ 401k’s with an added bonus to a new healthcare package.”
The man sputtered as the tie tightened around his neck, his face turned a reddish purple and a vein in his forehead visibly throbbed.
Ciara grinned and yanked again.
The man clawed at the choking knot at his throat. “Fine. Now just let me go. You’ve paid me back, now just let me go and get the hell out of my life.”
“Oh, I think not.” Ciara clucked her tongue and forced a chiding frown across her face as she spun him back and forth in the chair. She pulled the tie even tighter, perched on the edge of the desk, and crossed her legs in his face. “We’re not done. You see, I discovered one more fear while slumming around in your mind.”
After kissing the tips of her fingers, she slowly traced them down the side of his face. In the wake of her touch, a trail of blistering pustules festered across his skin.
“You see, I discovered your greatest fear next to losing your money is the fact you seem to be deathly afraid of the toxic chemicals your company dumps into the earth. You’re afraid you’re going to end up with cancer and your flesh will rot off your bones.”
The CEO paled even further, to an ashen, unhealthy gray. His breath came in quick, uneven gasps and his eyes whitened as they rolled back in his head. As he fell over limp, the only thing keeping him in his chair was Ciara’s relentless grip on his tie.
“Dammit! Don’t you dare die until I give you permission.” Ciara yanked on the man’s body and pushed him back in the chair. She pounded on his chest. The color drained even further out of his skin. His lifeless body slumped over to one side.
“Ye seem to be losing your touch, Vengeance. Ye used to keep them terrified for hours before ye allowed them to die.” Alec’s sarcasm floated down from the rafters where he sat preening the pinfeathers beneath one of his out-stretched wings.
With a disgruntled huff, Ciara didn’t bother looking up at the raven. Alec always had impeccable timing. “Don’t start with me, Alec. I’m in a black mood since I’ve just been robbed of my night’s entertainment.”
Brushing her hands together, she stared down at the man. He lay twisted in a pitiful lump, hunched over sideways in his chair. Ciara scowled as she circled his body. With a growl, she kicked at his foot. It would take just a twitch of her brow to rip his limbs from his body, just one tiny twitch. But he’d robbed her of any satisfaction in the act since he’d taken the coward’s way out. “Why have they evolved into such piteous creatures, Alec? Why have they become so ruined with greed and cruelty?”
Alec hopped down from his perch on the rafter and onto the desk. He stared at the man slumped over in the chair. “It’s just their nature to be greedy. I can’t believe ye would even bother asking after all these centuries of punishing them for their wicked ways.”
Alec jerked his glossy black head, then cast a nervous glance around the room. He resettled his wings across his back and strutted his way across the desk. “Some of them, I mean. Only some of them are born to be greedy. Ye have also met a good many of them through the years that ye have found to be pure of heart. Remember there were plenty of good ones too.”
