Page 120 of Vengeful Mates
We were wasting time. Every second counted when the lives of my woman and children were on the line. I had to find them if they were still alive. Choke the life out of Colton. Kill the avatar of Anubis and break the curse binding us.
Some of my power recovered, and I blew death magick on Faline, stilling her muscles and draining her fight. Eventually, she slumped into the chaise lounge.
“Thanks for the fight of my life, toots.” Slade panted as he pinched Faline’s jaw. “Now where the fuck is my mate?”
I relaxed my death hold on her to let her speak. “What makes you think I have any clue, Mr. Vincent?”
Slade pressed his palms on the arm of the lounge and leaned over her. “Because he’s your mate, and you’ve been protecting him.”
Looking back at the evidence, Colton could have sent the armed riders to spray us with bullets in the casino’s parking lot. Cupid warned us he was always watching his mate. Prick had plenty of time to send a team down while we busted our way in there and had a chat with his mate.
“You think that means I know all his hiding places?” Faline snapped.
This wasn’t working. Loyal woman wouldn’t give us a thing to betray her mate. Bitch played us. Protected him.
Slade backed off, standing straight, folding his massive arms over each other. “Level with me here, War god to War goddess. I need to find my woman. She’s pregnant and vulnerable. I’ll let Colton go if he hands her back alive. Let you walk.”
Thebitch, pleaseeyebrow sprang up. “Do you think I’m stupid, Mr. Vincent? I’m a spoil of war. Incapacitated with magick. I’m leverage. You’ll use me as bait to kill Colton.”
Smart. Cunning. Thinking like a true goddess general.
Slade offered a hand to shake and make a pact. “You have my word that if I get my woman back alive, unharmed, my children alive, that I’ll let you go. In exchange, you tell me where to find your mate and promise me that I won’t have any trouble from your family or associates once we go our separate ways.”
A fair deal. One she didn’t look like she’d take.
“I don’t know where he is, Mr. Vincent.” Truth rang from the depth of her soul. “We took his casino with little resistance. He hasn’t launched an offensive to reclaim it. It’s as if he’s laying low until the right moment.” Even she feared retaliation.
Desperation trickled down my spine. Tiring of the useless questions, I moved to Faline. Time to make her talk. Give us anything she knew. The job of the enforcer. I didn’t want to hurt a woman, but I had no choice. It came down to my woman and babies’ lives or hers.
Pushing down my reservations, I jerked the rope from my belt, securing it around her wrist. Let her try to fight with her arms restrained. I dialed back my powers, clutched her wrist, twisting it and letting pain seep into her. Her features sharpened with anger, hate burning in her eyes. Pain she would never admit to.
Visions hit me, stopping me from going further with the torture, regretting it and hating myself later. New abilities brought on by Aaliyah’s power enhancing my own. Thank fuck, too, because without it, I wouldn’t have been privy to this ability.
“Get on with it, Zethan,” Slade growled at me, and I raised a palm to shut him the fuck up.
Surrendering to the silence, I ventured into Faline’s memories.
A terrace shrouded in darkness. Curved moon radiating little light. Scattered clouds. A slight chill in the air. Autumn, if I guessed it.
“No.” She yanked at her bound wrists to pry them from my grip. “Get out of my head.”
Slade and Castor exchanged a surprised look at my new ability.
I dug deeper despite her squirming and protests.
Manicured lawns and gardens below. Fairy lights trailed around tree trunks, branches, up the terrace. Security patrolled the grounds with guns and dogs. Colton and Faline shared a cigarette and smiled at each other. Much younger. Maybe five years ago. Sexual chemistry crackled between them. He held back, and she sensed it but didn’t understand.
Faline whimpered. “Let me go. I don’t want to remember this!” She recalled the memory too. Endured the pain I felt through her. Tried to stuff it down and keep it from me. No one kept secrets of the heart from the King of the Dead.
Determined to dig through her mysteries, I gripped her tighter, skipping over the unnecessary details of the evening until I came to what I wanted.
Faline observed a confrontation from above. Colton below on the ground, shielding a woman from a man with a gun. A terse argument and a gun firing. The bullet pierced Colton and the female. Both of them on the grass, lifeless, bodies cooling by the second.
Faline screamed and hurried down the stairs to him. Leaning over him, administering CPR and performing compressions.
She cried and slapped his face. “Dammit, don’t you die on me!” She thumped his chest with her fists. “Come back to me!”
Her mouth pressed over his, administering rescue breaths, then returned to chest compressions. He coughed and spluttered.
