“Baby, I ain’t goin’ to pretend like this’ll be a nice lil’ conversation between me and them,” I interrupted, my hold on him tightening as he tried to pull away. “And I ain’t about to hurt you, so either you go outside on your own, or I’m goin’ to drag that sexy ass of yours out—and it ain’t goin’ to be in a fun way, I can promise you that.”
Note to self: figure out what the fun way would be.
The conflict on his face was clear as day, making it a battle of wills between the two of us. In the end, he caved, whether because he knew I was right or because he knew he wouldn’t win against me.
“You’ll be careful?” he whispered. I kissed him once and smiled against his mouth.
“Please,” I scoffed. “We established this, I’m always careful, baby. It’s my middle name.”
He groaned but said nothing as he left the room. When the door shut behind him, I lit my cigarette.Fuck it. I’d add smoking damage to property damage.There was no salvaging the room at this point.
I inhaled deeply, letting the smoke fill my lungs, as I faced my two problems strapped to the back wall.Yeah, from the looks on their faces, they didn’t have a clue what was coming for them.Probably didn’t help that I was in a pair of jeans and that was it. I didn’t look real intimidating—minus the glow of my activated powers and all.
“Now,” I began gruffly, “I’m callin’ you One and I’m callin’ you Two. Which one of y’all is in charge? One? Or Two?”
My gaze flicked between the two of them. One panicked at the idea of being in charge.Poor fucker.He didn’t have a clue what was coming for him.
“Listen up, Two,” I said, “I want you to watch One over here real damn close, you hear me?”
Two nodded barely around the vines shutting him up.
“And if you close your eyes, I’m goin’ to cut your eyelids off and start all over again. Got it?” The frantic nod was more than enough to tell me that he knew I was serious.
Was I pushing it? Absolutely.
But I didn’t give a fuck.
Dipping into my power, I dropped One to the ground. He hit hard, but before he could scramble, I connected with the air in the room. Every molecule lit up in response and vibrated with my power.
One had only seconds to try screaming before I ripped the breath right out of him. His back bowed against the ground ashe gasped, unable to fight it. The silence torture was brutal—his face turning a horrible shade of red and his body going rigid.
“Nuh-uh, Two.” I snapped my fingers when Two tried to look away from his partner’s suffering. “You pay attention, remember? Don’t make me hurt you more than I want to.”
It had the effect I wanted. He cringed and whimpered from his spot on the wall. I unnecessarily drew out the death of his partner, leaking the tiniest bit of air back into his lungs to give him hope. To make it last longer.To be a fucking dick.
This was for Ryder.
Time ticked slowly as I repeated the process.Once. Twice. Three times.After the fourth, I didn’t pull back. When he was good and dead, I gave my full attention to Two. He let out a satisfying little whine as I stepped closer.
“To answer the only fuckin’ question you get… no, I ain’t human,” I told him. “I kill demons like it’s my fuckin’ job, so a human like you don’t scare me, you hear me?”
Another nod.
“Now, I know Hartford sent you—that much I don’t need you to tell me,” I continued. “But I have questions, and you’re goin’ to answer them. And just know, if you try to scream, I’ll rip the air out of your goddamn lungs before you can. And then I’ll bring your dumbass to the brink of death and drag you right back, you hear me?”
I peeled back the vine from his mouth and watched as he swallowed hard.
“Do you hear me?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” he answered quietly.
“Good. Then we got an understandin’,” I said. “What are you?”
“Bounty hunters.”
“Hartford sent you,” I continued. “Did he pick you lot specifically, or did you randomly pick up the bounty?”
“It was random. Found it on the internet,” he said. “And the money was real damn good so we took it.”
