Page 59 of Fatal Vengeance

“I’m here!” I yell, sweeping my hands out and clawing at the stone floor, tearing a few nails out as I go. My fingers graze against a heavy rock, and I grab it at the last possible second before it's out of reach.

“Shut the fuck up,” my father snaps as he finally manages to pull me back to him. He flips me over onto my back roughly, glaring down at me while blood pisses out of his nose. “Years of searching for you, years of failure because some crazy bitch managed to outmaneuver us, and I've finally got you under my thumb. You're not getting out of this. Fate has come calling, and the moon wants her defective child returned to the stars."

"You're the crazy one," I spit, rolling the rock in my hand and getting a better grip. He hasn't noticed it yet, but I'm acutely aware of my time running out.

My father chuckles dryly, licking his bloody lips. "When I found out I'd planted a seed in that whore, I knew my chances of raising an heir were alive once more. It was just dumb luck, really. Your mother slipped up just once, a year after she ran from us, and a Celestial elder found the two of you on a CCTV camera. And though we couldn't be sure, the timing and your red hair were enough to tell me I was a father again." He grimaces, glaring down at me. "But then she ran. Kept moving you, kept you in hiding, just like the other useless fucking woman who bore my first child. I've got shit taste in women, it seems."

"Yeah, they don't tend to like it when they've been raped," I hiss before spitting at his face.

He rears back a bit, but keeps his grip on me strong. With a furious scowl, he says, "You’re just as worthless and pathetic as your mother was. So insolent, so ignorant to the glorious ways of the life you could have had… But that’s fine. I’m happy to take you out of this world, and you know what? I’ll smile as you take your last breath, just as I did when your mother took hers. I wish I could say—"

“Fuck you!” I scream, swinging my hand through the air and crashing the rock into the side of his head the second I've got a good grip on it. The crack it makes against my father’s skull resounds through the cavernous hall, and I know the sound will haunt me for the rest of my life.

And then I see the blood. There’s so much of it, it just pours out of his head like a river. He grunts, his wide eyes showing his shock at getting beaten. A second later, all signs of life flee his body as he slumps on top of me.

Hot blood rains down over my chest, invading my senses until I’m gagging and crying, struggling to push my father’s body off. My hands slip with every shove and the longer he’s crushing me, the more I feel like this asshole is going to drag me to the grave with him just to spite me.

“No, no, no,” I cry, panting and gagging, kicking against the ground for any traction.

Just before I can absolutely lose my fucking mind, his body is gone and strong hands are lifting me off the floor. I thrash and buck against their hold, spitting venom and promising a gruesome death to whoever it is.

“Prudence, stop! It’s me, baby, relax,” an all too familiar voice murmurs in my ear.

My entire body locks up like a lead weight and I go limp in his arms, panting and crying, and quite honestly on the verge of a damn breakdown. “Asher?” I croak softly, too scared to say it too loud and have my hopes dashed to pieces. But I know I didn’t make that voice up. It’s him. Somehow, it’s my broody asshole, alive and with me where he belongs.

He kisses my temple and turns me away from the growing puddle under my father's head, whispering, “That’s right, pet. You didn’t think I’d be that easy to kill, did you?”

A manic laugh tumbles from me as he finally sets me back down on my feet. I turn around and lunge at him, squeezing so tight I might burst his lungs, but I don’t care. I could kill him for making me think he was dead. "No, you're like a damn cockroach," I reply.

Asher stumbles back with a grunt from the force of my hug, chuckling weakly as he wraps his right arm tight around me. “Miss me that much?” he croaks.

“I hate you,” I grumble, but there’s no heat in it. And there’s no getting rid of the smile on my face.

“Easy, little flame,” Griffin mutters as he comes up from god knows where, rubbing his big hand up my back and cupping the back of my neck. “He's hurt.”

I grin at the rough sound of Griffin’s voice, so damn pleased to know he’s right here with me too, but then his words sink into my mind. I jerk back from Asher, frowning as I look up into his face. He’s pale and sweaty, and when I sweep my eyes down his body, there’s a dark stain on his left shoulder that looks all too much like blood.

“Oh my god,” I breathe out in shock, my eyes wide. Griffin pulls me into his side like he can’t handle another second without having me close, but I’m too focused on Asher’s oozing gunshot wound to glance up at my rugged giant.

Asher shrugs like it’s no big deal, a cocky smile on his face. “I’ll live. Let’s get Creed and get the hell out of here. The FBI has things handled from here, but I don’t have any plans on getting pulled in for questioning or arrested for the many murders Creed’s committed tonight.”

I bite my tongue against the worried questions I want to spew at Asher, peering down the hall toward the altar room, searching for Creed. Having Asher and Griffin here is setting my heart back together, but there's still a huge missing piece as long as Creed isn't with me.

As if answering my silent call, Creed walks into the hallway like a creature right out of a horror film. He’s absolutely covered in blood from head to toe, his hair wet and plastered to his gorgeously destructive face.

"Prudence," he breathes in relief, and then he's running, and despite my fucked up knee and the million other aches in my body, I run for him too. The final piece of my soul.

36

Prudence

Creed crashes into me so hard that I almost fall on my ass, but then he’s lifting me into his arms and tucking me in tight against his body. His hands are shaking as he cradles me, dropping his forehead to mine and murmuring, "I couldn’t find you. I told you to wait there for me, but then you were gone. I thought—" He cuts himself off with a curse and then seals his lips to mine in a brutal claiming that stitches my heart back together.

When we part, I whisper, “Never leave me like that again.” I look at Asher and Griffin too, adding, “Any of you. I never want to be parted and feel this agony again. To think I lost you guys, it ripped me apart.”

Griffin comes over and wraps his arms around me from behind, so I’m sandwiched between him and Creed. He presses a kiss to my shoulder, and I know it’s his silent vow to never leave my side for as long as he lives. And I will absolutely hold him to that.

Asher joins us last, hugging all of us in his arms and closing his eyes like he’s at peace with his family all close. “We did it,” he breathes, his voice a mixture of exhaustion, pain, and awe. “We survived the night and ended The Celestials. It’s a fucking miracle.”

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