He saw the large pistol in the assassin’s hand too.
With equal speed and reflex, Knox leapt up and sprang for the intruder.
The staccato report of gunfire rang out at the same time—two bullets, squeezed off in rapid succession. Both of them aimed point-blank at Leni’s head.
No.Damn it, no!
Knox’s roar reverberated in his skull. His fear was too immense to be contained. So was his rage.
But even as his body sailed forward in a streak of motion, he watched in stunned amazement as the killer’s rounds hit the shield of Leni’s Breedmate gift and bounced uselessly onto the hardwood.
The assassin recovered from the setback without missing a beat, making a lightning-fast grab for Riley.
His hand collided with the unseen wall of Leni’s ability.
Holy shit. Her protective energy enveloped not only her, but the boy as well.
Knox had no time to process the miraculous change in her gift. At the same instant, he slammed into the bastard who’d come to kill them. The force of his impact knocked the weapon out of the Hunter’s grasp. It clattered to the floor and spun away.
The male was more than his equal match in terms of size and strength. On a bellow, he threw Knox off his back. Fangs bared, eyes on fire with amber rage, he let his fist fly, hammering hard into Knox’s face. Knox went down, the sharp crack of shattering bones echoing in the awful quiet of the large room.
Leni’s horrified scream rang out.
Knox hated that she and Riley were there to witness this side of him. He hated the cold terror this struggle was causing in her as she held on to her crying nephew. Her fear leached into him, adding fuel to the inferno of fury boiling in every fiber of Knox’s body.
As the male came for him again, he planted his bare foot in the center of the bastard’s torso and kicked the vampire back. As his opponent staggered, Knox leapt to his feet. He threw a punishing volley of blows to both sides of the assassin’s face and skull.
Bone and cartilage snapped. Blood gushed from split skin and fractures that protruded out of the savage wounds Knox delivered.
And still the other Hunter kept coming.
Relentless. Unstoppable. A machine programmed for one purpose: Death.
He swung at Knox, both males dodging and striking, both determined to be the last one standing. That was their training. The thing Knox had in common with all of his half-brothers who’d been born and reared in Dragos’s hellish lab.
“Who sent you?” he demanded, even though he didn’t need the Hunter to confirm what he already knew.
His ability to read the male’s sins had awakened the first instant his fists made contact with him.
The Parrishes had hired this killer.
He didn’t want to think how the Breed male had managed to locate them so easily. But as he drove another punch into the assassin’s face, the prickle of misgiving he’d had about Leni confiding in her friend came back to him with bleak certainty.
Like Leni, he hadn’t doubted Carla’s loyalty.
This Hunter would have killed her whether she told him what she knew or not.
And all the assassin would have needed was the woman’s phone in order to trace her call to Leni’s location.
Knox’s boiling rage shifted to cold fury when he thought about the anguish Leni would feel over the senseless loss of her friend. He landed another brutal blow, then grabbed the male’s arm and violently twisted the limb around to the vampire’s back.
The Hunter quickly pivoted, using his disabled arm as a lever to flip around in Knox’s grasp. The move freed him just long enough to throw Knox onto the coffee table in front of the sectional. The heavy wood-and-glass piece shattered beneath him, crashing Knox to the floor.
The Hunter grabbed for the stand of metal fireplace tools near the hearth.
With one of the iron pokers in hand, he came back at Knox, his long fangs dripping with blood and saliva, murder blazing in his fiery eyes.
He brought the sharp end of the tool down like a hammer. Knox rolled out of the way, then back the other way as the vampire tried once more to skewer him.
