Page 9 of Malevolent King

His other hand was on my neck, tracing that same pulse point he’d touched in the garage.

He smiled against my lips. “Are you scared or excited, Sofia? Or is it both? It’s okay if it’s both,” he muttered, bending his head to kiss me again just as a sound rang out above our heads.

Bark pinged off Nikolai’s back, and he cursed, rolling away from me.

I twisted to my side, trying to force reality back into my confused, overheated brain.

Shots. Someone was shooting at us. Someone was shooting at him. He was moving away from me in a crouch, his stolen gun gripped in his hand, He peered around a thick trunk and stared into the woods where the shots had come from.

“Stay down. There’s no way that shooter can see shit,” he muttered.

But I was already up. I wasn’t about to miss my opening to run.“I’ll take my chances,” I said as he turned and looked at me.

He nearly got to his feet and chased, but another round of shots echoed through the woods, sending him back behind the tree. “Don’t run from me, Sofia. If you do, you won’t like it when I catch you,” he warned in a low voice, his eyes shrewd and calculating.

The promise of violence in his eyes was the last I saw of him before I turned and ran.

4

NIKOLAI

The woods were overgrown, and the recent storm had laid plenty of obstacles in the way of seeing who the fuck was shooting. I forced myself to turn from the sight of Sofia running from me. The hunter in me that had only ever hungered after one prey longed to chase her. It counted the steps she took, carrying her further and further from me.She’s getting away,the monster inside snarled, but I couldn’t afford to listen right now.

Someone was trying to put a bullet in my back. I waited. Only the sound of Sofia’s retreating footfalls and my muted breathing broke the silence.

I was patient, as all proficient hunters were. I could wait endless amounts of time to track down and capture my prey. I had learned to wait, dedicated to revenge since that day in the bathroom with my mother.

A crack sounded, a careless foot on a dry twig, and I was up, my gun already firing before I could properly make out my target.

The sound of the shots echoed through the woods. A cry of pain reverberated, and I advanced, keeping low in case it was a trick. When I drew level with the shooter, a man in a black suit lay there. Another faceless security lackey who had failed at his job.

I ended him remorselessly, without Sofia there to plead silently with her huge, dark eyes.

I took off again in the direction I’d seen her fleeing. She couldn’t have gone that far, trussed up as she was.

My wrists stung where I’d cut the zip ties free, and my shoulder ached from popping it in and out of the socket. Worse, the beating I’d taken putting Viktor into his long-awaited hole last night was wearing on me.Regardless, the thought of Sofia, my littlelastochka, hiding in the woods lit my blood on fire. I charged after her, tucking the gun into my waistband.

I’d never felt more alive.

I slowed my run when I came to the end of the trail. Coming to a stop, I calmed my ragged breath and listened. I traced the route, looking for signs of her. As a kid, I’d been good at tracking wildlife around my woodland home. The skills came in useful now as I spied the signs of someone veering off the trail. Bent stalks, and the odd imprint in the mud hidden beneath the low bushes, revealed Sofia’s route. I followed, my ears pricked for the slightest sound of her.

After a few minutes, I caught it.

The sound of water rushing.

A river.

I emerged from the undergrowth just as she reached the middle of the water. It wasn’t a wide river, and it didn’t seem too deep, only coming up to Sofia’s chest in the middle. She twisted around when my feet splashed in the edge.

“Come back here before you slip and drown,” I called to her.

Her eyes were wide. She was terrified, and I was the reason. That made sense. She was smart, and my reputation more than spoke for itself.

“Maybe I’d rather drown than whatever you have in mind for me,” she responded.

I waded farther into the water.

“That hurts my feelings, prom queen. I was so looking forward to spending some quality time together.” Grim amusement filled my voice as I gritted my teeth against the shock of freezing water.

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