Page 20 of Breathe
The slight scent of a woodsy cologne wafted through the air. It wasn’t a bad smell, and Azrael wondered briefly about the brand name.
“Hey…looking for a good time?” a masculine voice said from next to him.
A good time? Azrael didn’t even know what that looked like.
Real had been his first kiss beyond those that had been forced on him.
Yeah, and look how that turned out.He tried not to think about that damned kiss and the way he’d wrapped himself around Real, but he couldn’t stop himself.
What he wanted to do was get his dick sucked. Was that too much to ask? Could this stranger give him that?
Possibly, but Azrael couldn’t fathom it. First, the guy was a stranger, and second, he wasn’t the type for casual hookups. And something about doingthatwith someone he didn’t know really didn’t appeal to him. The guys at work called him old-fashioned, but he didn’t care.
“No thanks,” he murmured, not even turning to see what the guy looked like.
“Come on, I’ll give you a good time,” again the voice coaxed.
“Look, I’m not interested…”
Azrael jerked a short glance at the guy, and his voice faded when he found himself staring at a handgun.
The man kept the gun low so that anyone coming out of the club wouldn’t see it, but it was high enough to mean business and the barrel was pointed right at him.
Azrael didn’t have his weapon on him. There was no way to get past security’s metal detectors with one. That meant this guy had come up from outside.
He had first assumed the guy had come from within the club and hadn’t paid attention. Stupid him, damn it.
“Move,” the stranger said.
When the guy gestured with the gun in his hand, Azrael moved. He wasn’t stupid. Plus, he needed to get the guy alone so he could take care of whatever the fuck this was.
The guy was average looking with shaggy, deep red hair and wire-framed glasses. Nothing to really look at, almost nondescript. It was almost like the guy made it a mission to go unnoticed. Even with red hair, somehow the guy had managed it.
Azrael walked; he wasn’t nervous. Did this guy seriously think he was just some skinny kid who could be taken advantage of?
Obviously…but the asshole was in for a very rude awakening.
“What do you want?” Azrael asked as he stepped out from beneath the awning and walked down the side of the building through the pouring rain. “If you’re looking for sex, you’ve got the wrong guy.”
“Keep moving.”
Now the gun barrel was in his back. He felt it through his heavy overcoat.
The alleyway loomed ahead, but Azrael stepped into it without fear. The rain soaked his hair, face, and coat, but they were only minor irritations.
What he was waiting for were the shadows. He craved them. The darkness outside as well as the darkness that cleaved within his soul. It was in the pitch black that he could become what he’d been created for.
A killer.
He wouldn’t die tonight, but someone was going to.
The sound of the music from inside grew louder as the club door was opened. Voices and laughter swept the area as people spilled from the club’s front door.
Stepping into the alley, Azrael waited until the man followed.
That was when Azrael struck. He dropped low and fast, the man cursed and adjusted, but it was too late.
His first hit landed right in the man’s nose; he was aiming to break it. Pain splintered through his hand, but that wasn’t going to faze him. He had to make it hurt, he had to take this fucker out before the guy could shoot him.
