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.I couldn’t… I couldn’t kill a child.For the first time, I purposely failed a mission.”His mouth tightened.“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 fistsmackagainst 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.Shedidn’t even know what she was saying anymore.He let her, standing strong against her onslaught.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’llmake 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 onto you.It’s there to keep Brom from speaking mostly.”
She shuddered at the sight of itsrootssinking into Brom’s throat.God, this was sick, crazy sick.“Can’t we kill it?”
