Page 53 of Red Dreams

Kaden turns to face Cassie fully. “There. It's done.”

Cassie applauds, bouncing on her toes like a delighted child.

“Oh, Daddy, that was perfect! The way he just ... went purple. So deliciously brutal.”

She skips over to Kaden, throwing her arms around his neck. Kaden stiffens at her first affectionate display but puts his arms around her. His eyes never leave mine over her shoulder.

“I knew you'd prove yourself,” Cassie purrs, nuzzling into his neck. “Knew you'd show everyone here you could be part of the Morelli family.”

The men surrounding us chuckle and jeer their agreement. They leer at me, still cradling Ethan's lifeless body, like vultures eyeing a fresh carcass.

“So what now, boss?” one of the burlier men asks Cassie. “We still got the broad to deal with.” He jerks his chin at me.

Cassie untangles herself from Kaden, tapping a finger against her lips thoughtfully.

“Hmm, you're right. Can't have any loose ends, can we?” She grins, feral and sharp. “Though it would be a shame not to have a little more fun with her first.”

The men chuckle, a low, menacing rumble that sends icy tendrils of dread down my spine. I clutch Ethan tighter as if his body could somehow shield me.

“No.”

Kaden’s voice is quiet, but it cuts through the room like the crack of a whip. Everyone falls silent, all eyes snapping to him.

Cassie frowns. “No? But, Daddy, she’s a witness. She knows all about the AI and my plans. We can’t just let her?—”

“I said.” Kaden moves, putting himself between the rest of the room and me. “No.”

Confusion flickers across Cassie's face, quickly replaced by petulance. “You don't get to give orders here. This is my show, remember? My empire.”

Kaden smiles. It's a chilling thing, devoid of compassion or humor. “Is it now?”

It happens so fast, my brain can hardly process it.

Kaden moves like smoke made into flesh, there one instant and gone the next. The first guard doesn't even have time to cry out before Kaden's hand locks around his throat, a quick twist snapping his neck with brutal efficiency. He drops without a sound.

The others are slow to react, disbelief warring with rising panic as they realize the Scythe has turned on them. Two men shoot at Kaden, but he flows around their bullets like water and gets to them, striking pressure points and nerve clusters with surgical precision. They crumple to boneless heaps at his feet.

Cassie watches, her expression morphing from confusion to shock to a grudging sort of admiration as Kaden tears through her men like they're made of paper. There's a terrible grace to his movements, a deadly dance honed by years of training and an intimate knowledge of the human body's frailties.

A stolen knife materializes in his hand. He chooses it over the many guns available. He slashes, parries, and thrusts, blood spattering the walls, the floor, himself.

Through it all, Kaden's face remains a mask of icy calm. His eyes blaze like blue lightning, the only outward sign of the life raging within him.

And I can't look away, even as a traitorous heat unfurls low in my belly. Because seeing him like this, unleashed and unfettered, stokes a hidden part of me. A part that craves his darkness and yearns to be consumed by it.

In mere moments, it's over. The last guard falls with a gurgling sigh, Kaden's knife buried to the hilt in his eye socket. Kaden stands amid the carnage, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his hands and face.

Kaden stalks toward me, slow and purposeful, a jaguar approaching a trembling doe. Crimson drips from his fingertips. There is no remorse in his eyes. Only ice and shadow and the promise of exquisite ruin.

He crouches before me. I’m still cradling Ethan's lifeless form, and the dichotomy is jarring—the gentle way I hold my friend juxtaposed against the savagery of Kaden's blood-soaked hands as they reach for me. His fingers, slick and warm, brush my cheek. Paint me in the viscera of his kills.

“Wraithling,” he murmurs, his voice a bleak caress. I shudder, leaning into his touch despite myself. Despite the horror of what those hands just did.

“Resist me,” Kaden commands softly.

Compelled by some base instinct, I don’t obey. I meet his gaze and fall into fathomless depths. Drown in the inky promise of his darkness.

His thumb traces my lower lip, smearing it scarlet. “You watched me tear them apart. Felt their blood spray your skin. And still...” His other hand curls around my nape, pulling me closer. “Your pulse races. Your pupils dilate. I can smell your arousal, sweet and thick.”

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