Page 50 of Destined for Shadows
“On my back over my left shoulder blade and about this big.” He held up his hands to demonstrate the size, which was approximately the size of a paperback book.
They negotiated payment and terms, and then Cori got to work outlining the design so she could stencil it onto his skin before beginning the tattoo itself. It felt good to concentrate on something aside from her dangerous ex-husband. She prepped her work area in the private back room, adjusting the customer’s chair into a flat position and covering it with plastic to protect it from ink and blood splatter. She also laid out the supplies she’d need including ink, a cup of distilled water, and fresh needles with tubes for her coil tattoo machine.
“Where are your other tattoos?” Cori asked as she guided Hayden inside the room and instructed him to lie on his stomach. He’d mentioned on the phone this wouldn’t be his first time.
He settled into position. “Just the one on my calf.”
She glanced down and spotted an eagle on the back of his leg. It had faded enough that it had probably been there for at least five or six years. Cori continued chatting with him as she finished setting up. Even if this wasn’t his first time, it could still be a little unnerving to let a stranger poke needles into his body. Cori preferred for her customers to be as relaxed as possible.
He flinched a little when she first started work, but slowly his tension eased. She kept a close watch on his face, regularly checking his mood as she tattooed the outline of the reaper. Hayden was handling the pain reasonably well. With each customer, their tolerance varied and she tried to always keep that in mind.
Cori finished the outline and went to rinse the needle out when she heard the shop door chime. She glanced at the clock, noting it couldn’t be Asher since he wasn’t supposed to arrive until five. Of course, someone would show up while she was busy. She hoped that someday she’d make enough profit on the place to hire an extra person to work at the front desk full time.
Half turning toward the doorway, she called out, “I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“No need.” A grizzly-looking man wearing faded jeans and a long-sleeve flannel shirt stepped into view.
Hayden lifted his head. “What the…?”
The intruder raised a huge knife with a serrated edge. Murderous intent filled his eyes, and it was all for her. Cori leaped to her feet, knocking over her stool and losing her grip on her tattoo machine. It clattered to the floor. The man glanced down at it for the barest moment before he came barreling toward her.
She jumped out of the way, slamming her hip into the counter where she kept all her supplies. Cori knocked over several bottles as she moved to get farther away. Hitting her back against the far wall, she froze in horror as the attacker slipped on one of the containers rolling across the floor and went flying into Hayden. With his knife still raised, the tip sunk into her customer’s shoulder at the edge of the tattoo outline. Hayden let out a cry of pain and struggled to turn over, but the man’s weight pinned him down. Her heart leaped into her throat. She should have protected him instead of trying to save herself.
Cori frantically searched the room for her purse. She couldn’t remember where she put it, but she had to get her father’s revolver. How could she have relaxed her guard so much that she didn’t have it within arm’s reach? Her gaze finally fell on the leather bag at the end of the counter near the door. While her attacker struggled with Hayden, she dashed over and snatched the weapon from where it lay just inside her purse. With shaking hands, she spun on her heels to aim it at the intruder.
“Stop!” she yelled.
The grizzly man yanked the blade free, his hands sticky with her customer’s blood. Hayden rolled onto his side, eyes wide with shock. He was struggling to get up, but his breathing was ragged as if he could hardly draw in air.
“Run,” he choked out.
Cori developed a whole new respect for him in that moment, but she couldn’t go anywhere. She turned her attention back to her attacker. The man’s eyes were glazed over as he faced her, clutching his blade. “I have to hurt you real bad, but not kill you.”
He said it like a command with no emotion. She’d suspected this wasn’t a random intruder from the start, but now her suspicions were confirmed. Griff had taken control of an innocent person and ordered him to come into her shop to attack her.
She aimed the revolver at his chest, hating that she had to choose between herself and an innocent man caught in a vampire’s revenge. “If you move, I’ll shoot.”
“Must not stop until I’m done,” he replied, unflinching.
Only a few feet separated them. He might have been ordered to only wound her, but he could still make a mistake that would end her life. Cori couldn’t take any chances, especially with Hayden already injured. This had to end as quickly as possible before her customer died from his stab wound.
When the attacker raised his knife and took a step forward, he left her no choice. Cori squeezed the trigger. A loud crack rent the air, piercing her ears. The man let out a cry of pain as he stumbled backward. She’d hit the grizzly man square in the chest, but she didn’t see any signs of blood—only a hole in the flannel with black underneath. Shit! He was wearing a bulletproof vest. She hadn’t even considered Griff would care enough to protect a human he sent after her, but she supposed he did know she had a gun, and he’d want the person he sent to finish the job.
Cori inched toward the doorway. At this point, she had two choices. Shoot the man in the head, an innocent person under compulsion, or try to get away and find help. Before she could decide, the attacker came for her again. She lowered her aim and shot him in the thigh.
He blinked and stumbled on his next step as blood started soaking his jeans. His gaze met hers with the kind of single-minded determination one usually only saw in crazy people or those on hardcore drugs. She took another step back, crossing the door’s threshold, then turned and ran. Loud grunts came from behind her as if a linebacker was on her tail. The next thing she knew, a piercing pain sliced through her side, and she went flying to the floor. Cori crashed into it hard, busting her elbows and knees in the process. She twisted around, and the attacker fell on top of her, pinning her legs in place. He leaned forward with a growl. The knife came down again, plunging into her left shoulder just beneath the collar bone.
Cori screamed as unbelievable pain shot through her. It hurt so badly that she could hardly think, but the man was already pulling the blade back out. The look in his eyes said he wasn’t done yet. She swept her right hand across the floor and came into contact with her fallen revolver. Taking a shaky breath, she lifted it and pressed the business end to the man’s head.
“Last chance to stop,” she said.
No reaction. Except for her attempt on Griff’s life, she’d never killed a human being before. She’d gotten into plenty of fights, and she didn’t have a problem shooting at annoying supernaturals like Kerbasi, but murdering a stranger had never been on her bucket list. So many thoughts ran through her head as she stared into the burly man’s eyes. He was just a pawn, but it was either him or her, and she wasn’t quite ready to die yet.
As the knife came down, she squeezed the trigger. A loud crack pierced her eardrums at the same time as blood and brain matter splattered all over her. The man slumped forward onto her chest, his knife narrowly missing striking her again. Cori couldn’t breathe, though she wanted nothing more than to scream. The weight on top of her felt closer to an elephant than a human being, and one of her arms was too numb to shove him off. Everything was starting to go black when the image of a troll appeared above her.
“Ya bleedin’ idiot,” Bambi said with a scowl. “Ya couldn’t shoot him in the arm instead of killin’ him? He coulda given us a clue!” She grabbed the huge man’s arm and pulled him away as if he weighed nothing.
Cori dragged in several gulps of air before speaking, “Could have used you about two minutes ago. Where were you?”
“Hurryin’ as fast as I could.” Bambi grunted, setting the attacker down a few feet away. “Ya hardly gave me much warnin’, so I didn’t make it here ‘till you were already shootin’ him fer the second time. Text for help next time!”
Yeah, because if she had to choose between grabbing her gun or her cell phone when she had a guy with a knife coming at her, texting would be the obvious choice. Cori wasn’t going to bother responding to that. She could feel her life spilling out on the tile below her, and darkness threatened her vision. “My customer,” she gasped. “He was hurt, too.”
“I’m callin’ for help now. You just wait,” Bambi said.
Cori gasped one final breath before everything went black.
