Page 84 of Bond of Passion

The Neethulfucker cleared his throat. “Aw, this is so sweet. Sis, I was really hoping I’d get here and get to watch you deny him sex so he’d die slowly. Once again, you’re a disappointment.”

She rounded on him with a curse. “Why are you still here? No one is going to die, so run along.”

The dude’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl. “You’re wrong.” Tavin barely saw the guy move as he retrieved a small Ramreel crossbow from the pack slung over his back. “Someone is going to die.” He curled his finger around the trigger. “You’re weak, sister. You should have been strangled in the cradle or left in a Neebless colony. But our parents are sentimental fools. They wanted to find you a suitable mate, a male who wouldn’t be too rough with you.” He spat in the grass. “Your kind is an abomination.” The crossbow jerked as his agitation grew, and Tavin slowly, casually, angled his body to shield Deja. “And our father! I should have known when he sent your friend and her family away instead of killing them all.” He grinned, his finger stroking the trigger like a lover. “But I tracked them down and slaughtered the girl.”

“You what? Malifik—”

“Venge knew the truth about you. She wanted you doused in fuel and lit on fire.” He gestured at her with the crossbow. “I was protecting you, sister. I thought she was a liability, but it turned out you were.”

“I was a liability?” she asked, shifting her weight into a subtle fighting stance. She was keeping him talking as she readied for a fight. Good girl. Man, Tavin loved his warrior. “How?”

“People were starting to talk. My friends, their families, they noticed you avoided celebrations and butcher events. They noticed how you got all sad and shit. I had to do something before you ruined our family name. I intend to be king, and I wasn’t about to let you ruin that.”

Deja’s shock vibrated through Tavin’s chest. “You?” she hissed. “You hired an assassin to kill me?”

“You’re smarter than I gave you credit for,” Malifik said. “Imagine my shock at seeing you today. But the way you talked about wanting revenge…it was the first time I was proud of you. I thought maybe you’d toughened up during your time in Sheoul-gra. So, I came to see for myself.” He gestured at Tavin. “If you had just left him to die, I would have let you live.” He bared his fangs at Deja, and Tavin decided right then and there that this fucker wasn’t getting out of this alive. “Know this, you weak fool. It was your mercy that killed you.”

He pulled the trigger.

Deja screamed, but not in pain. It was a battle cry and a warrior’s promise. If her brother thought her weak, he was the fool. With a Neethul burst of speed, she spun out of the way of the projectile as Tavin leaped in front of it.

Straining for distance, he twisted mid-air and caught the dart with the burlap bag. As he landed on his feet, Deja was next to him. She leaped and spun, catching her brother in the head with her bare foot. He stumbled backward but regained his balance in time to land a punch in her breastbone.

She flew into a hedge and bounced to the ground, landing in a heap.

White-hot rage turned Tavin’s vision red. He was gonna pop this guy’s eyes right out of his platinum-haired head. With a roar, he tackled him, but as they rolled, his arm got pinned behind him, and dammit, he needed his right hand—”

A sharp pain stabbed him through the back. Asshole had stabbed him.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” he snarled as he brought the bag full of magic down on Malifik’s head.

The fabric ripped, and hundreds of tiny seeds pelted them both. Smoke and pain erupted from every bit of skin the things landed on, and holy hell, they hurt.

But it was Malifik who got the bulk of them, and he screamed like a fucking girl banshee as the things dissolved the flesh of his head, neck, and face.

Tavin put a knee in Malifik’s throat and flipped to his feet. The Neethul gasped and coughed, and Tavin seized the advantage. He grabbed the bastard by the throat and fired up his gift. He’d burst the guy’s eyes first, and then his evil fucking heart.

“No! Tavin!” Deja ran over as Tavin shifted his focus from exploding to shutting shit down. “Don’t kill him.”

She couldn’t be serious. Malifik sagged in Tavin’s grip as his blood spilled out of arteries Tavin had torn open with his gift. Prime example of hypovolemic shock.

“You sure?”

She nodded. “I’m not Neethul. I don’t need to take this kind of revenge.”

“Yeah, well,” he growled, “I’m not, and I do.”

“Please.” She settled her hand on his shoulder. “I want my parents to deal with him. I have a feeling they’ll be even harsher than you.”

He doubted that, but Deja was his mate, and what she wanted, she got. He reversed the direction of his power and fixed all the holes he’d made. “I’ll take him to UG. They can hold him until your parents get there to pick him up.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a lingering, smoldering kiss that promised lots of things when he returned. “I’ll contact them and wait for you to get back.”

“Deal.”

This was going to be the fastest delivery ever.