Page 1 of Shadow Bound

Are we born killers or are we made killers?

I’ve been asking myself this a lot lately, but I think I already know the answer.

I already know what I am, but sometimes I like to picture what I could have been if fate had worked out differently for me. It’s a dangerous thing to imagine what your lifecouldhave been. You fall down a rabbit hole of emotion and I can’t afford to have emotions—emotions make you vulnerable. I’m not allowed to be vulnerable, never have been, never will be. I learned a long time ago that it’s better to bury emotions as deep as possible until you’re numb to everything.

Being numb is what’s saved me, if I hadn’t been able to turn off my emotions, I never would have survived my childhood.

The cool evening wind picks up around me, the strands of hair that hang loosely under my black knit hat fly around my face. I push it back down and refocus on the scope of my rifle. I don’t like using guns, I find them impersonal, but for this job it’s necessary. I can’t risk getting too close to the target. I’m going to need to make a quick escape after this. As always, I’ll melt into the shadows and disappear.

I adjust how I’m lying on the cold earth, the ground damp from the snowfall just last week soaks through the front of my clothes, but I don’t feel it. I’m unfazed by my surroundings, my sole focus on the person I watch intently through the scope.

The family looks happy as they hang out together on the back patio. They sit around in Adirondack chairs surrounding a blazing fire pit. They’re all bundled up in jackets and blankets. I recognize all of them, their faces and names have been drilled into my head; I’ve spent hours learning about them—studying their pictures.

I try to picture what it would be like to be down there with them. To have a family as they do. They all seem genuinely happy, and I have to wonder—have I ever been happy like they are?Try as I might, I can’t even see myself being in the same position they are. I wasn’t created to be part of a family.

That isn’t my fate.

I’ve only met two of them in person and that didn’t end well for them or me. I spot them cuddled up together. She sits on his lap under a blanket, her small frame tucked up against his chest. She smiles at something he whispers in her ear. I must say, he looks pretty good for a guy I witnessed die three months ago.

They didn’t see me there in the parking garage that night. I was there hiding in the shadows like I always am, but I saweverythingthat happened that night. I watched my brother die, and I watched the other man die. The only difference is, one of them was brought back. And it wasn’t Alexandre.

Those two aren’t my targets tonight, though a part of me will always want revenge for what happened to my brother.

I’m here forhertonight.

She looks happy. She laughs and smiles at her family and friends; her bright white grin is infectious to those around her. The tattooed giant next to her wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her close. I watch as she leans up on her tippy-toes and kisses his jaw. Even over a thousand meters away, I can sense the love that’s between them. I can sense the love betweenallof them.

I line up the shot, my finger not yet on the trigger, and my safety still on. I need to be patient if I’m going to hit the target correctly. I can’t mess this up, I won’t get a second chance.

A man that looks a lot like the one I watched die in the parking garage three months ago walks up to the pair. He says something to the blonde that makes her throw her head back and laugh. Even the stoic man at her side cracks a smile. I don’t know what they’re celebrating tonight, but I watched them set up fireworks over an hour ago. New Year’s was last week, so I know it’s not that, but there’s a happy energy around them. They’re excited about something.

I check the time on my watch and sigh.

It’s almost time.

I line up the shot in my scope and take a steady breath. Honestly, I could do this in my sleep. I’ve been a skilled marksman since I was ten. It’s a known fact that I don’t miss, Ialwayshit what I’m aiming for.

The man who’d walked up to them turns around, an easygoing smile on his face. The strands of his dark hair are spiked on his head in disarray, like he’s been tugging on it. Something about him draws my attention, I don’t know what it is, but it makes me pause. He has a laid-back air about him, but I recognize something of myself in him. He’s a hunter. He hides it well, but it’s there, just under the surface of his skin.

My breath catches in my throat because suddenly, his bright blue eyes look directly at me—like he can sense me out here. I know it’s impossible, I’m almost a mile away and I’m at a higher elevation than they are. But as if he can see me here on the mountainside, he looks directly at me.

I know who he is, I know his face. I know almost everything about him.

He’s Ransom Weylyn.

A slight twinge of pain I’ve become more and more familiar with fills my chest. He has no idea what’s coming. None of them do.

I pull my eyes away from the man in my line of sight and focus back on her. None of this is her fault, just like it’s not mine. We’ve both been put in unfortunate situations against our will. Neither of us ever stood a chance—not when Sterling is pulling the strings.

The alarm on my watch sounds. I finally switch off the safety on the rifle and place my finger on the trigger. I wait for her to move a foot away from her mate—he isn’t the intended target and for this to work the way I need it to, I need her to be isolated, not huddled against him.

As if I had planned it myself, she steps out of her mate’s arms and walks across the patio toward the brunette. I have the perfect shot lined up and on my next exhale of breath, I pull the trigger. The sound of the bullet exiting is muffled thanks to the suppressor I have attached. I barely feel the kickback hitting my shoulder, I’ve long since been desensitized to that pain.

Of any pain.

It takes one second for the bullet to travel roughly a thousand yards, but that one second feels like forever as I wait for impact. Everything slows down around me, the birds silence in the trees, and the previously windy night stills. I stop breathing and the blood in my veins stops flowing. For that one second, everything is silent.

In the scope, I watch as the bullet finds its intended target. And as always, it hits right where I want it to.

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