Page 44 of Unholy Bonds

“You can read the pieces I’ve written about him for the magazine.” His voice had gone low, tight. The charm was now completely gone, to be replaced by who he really was. The predator was here now, and he was angry.

“I’ve already read every article in the Detroit Daily Explorer and Art of Murder, but I don’t want a fluff piece. I want your investigation, your report, and your theories. I want the information you didn’t share with the world.”

“I can’t. It wasn’t available to the world for a reason.”

“I have lived with death for so long. I can take it. In return, I’ll give you more about Victor Bane. I’d even let you call my report absurd,” I said with a frown.

He was thinking. I could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. I counted the seconds.

“You drive a hard bargain, Yara West. Send me your location. I’ll see you soon.”

“See you.”

When I looked up, Irene was sitting still, her hands clasped together, her eyes filled with anger. “The Strangler?” Her fingers trembled. I quickly walked to where she was sitting and sat beside her, grabbing her trembling hands in mine.

“I promised you and Kat.”

“I’m scared of this feeling inside me, but I want to see him die. I want to see him scream in pain.”

“No. You don’t have to. I’ll kill him for you. This is my path. You—you’re good like your sister.”

Irene scoffed and shrugged. Her eyes, the brightest of green I had ever seen, filled with pain as she walked to the kitchen.

“I miss her,” Irene said.

“I do, too. So much.”

“How long has it been? Four years? It feels like four centuries, Yara. Some nights, I still dream of her… like that. Pale, lifeless. That thin red line around her throat. I-I dream that he had come for me, and he was…” She shuddered. I pulled her into a hug, and she stopped trembling.

“I could have been… good too, you know. With Kat, I was. I was the best version of myself. The animal in me went away. Or at least, she had the power to soothe it, quiet it…” I bit my lips, my fingers digging into my palms.

“And then he took her. He fucking took her from us.” Long lines of tears traced Irene’s cheek as she met my gaze with watery eyes. “How could he… how could he take her from us? She was… she was my everything.” Irene rubbed her eyes, shaking her head.

“I’d kill him if it’s the last thing I do.”

19

PREDATORS

YARA

Determined, Irene wiped her cheeks and looked at me with bloodshot eyes that made my heart clench. Nothing affected me much, but Irene’s tears always had the power to shatter me. Misery draped its cold, black fingers around my soul—it was a thick blanket over my skin, and I couldn’t remove it no matter how hard I tried.

Every part of me wished Kat was here with us. She always knew how to comfort us, to just be there for us. All I could offer Irene was bloodshed and death. Kat would have given her courage and life.

“I know you will, Yara,” she said, giving me a cursory glance. “Now, go change that old, ratty T-shirt you bought five years ago and wear something good.”

“Do I have to? I look sexy as hell.”

“You are, but that T-shirt belongs at the bottom of a trash can. Go find something perfect, but not too perfect,” she said, pushing me toward my room. “Something that tells him that you’re not working too hard.”

“But I am.” I was working overtime for him. If only he knew!

“Well, he doesn’t have to know that yet,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “He doesn’t have to know you’re also stalking him.” Smirking, she walked away, and I went to change into a simple dress. I grabbed his boxers, wondering if I should wear them for him. Oh, how awesome it’d make me feel. But I knew it would be too much, too soon. If I had to get out of my dress—I was hoping we’d get there—I didn’t want him to lose it.

I’ll wear them for you another time, Ryden. Your boxers, wet with my cum… They were already wet. I used his boxers quite a few times to stop myself from going insane with wanting him.

Smirking, I painted my lips and applied light makeup. When I went back to the kitchen, Irene was making hot chocolate. She poured it into one of her cute thermoses—it had small red polka dots over the yellow background—and whistled when she looked at me.

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