Assassin's Kiss (9 page)

“Even though you know that the life I lead is more dangerous even than yours?”

“That only makes me more certain that my place from now on is at your side.”

Dazed with the force of the longing she felt for him, she stretched up and fisted her hands through his hair as his mouth slammed down onto hers, the awareness of the peril they were so soon to face only heightening the lust now soaring through her veins. It was as if all her senses were sharpened tenfold, and when she felt his hand slip beneath her shirt to dance along the length of her bare spine, a violent shiver ran down its length and she clung to him desperately, willing the kiss never to end. Each forceful caress of his lips on hers bound her to him all the more tightly, and though twenty four hours ago she would have sworn that was the very last thing she needed, now she knew how wrong she was. Seth was everything she needed now, and all she ever would. The duke simply could not be allowed to tear them asunder.

With that grim thought blazing inside her mind, Esther broke the kiss and slumped against Seth’s chest, allowing him to gently stroke her hair back from her flushed face as he let his mouth come to rest against her ear. “I know,” he said simply. “I know, Esther, and if I have my way we will have all the time in the world for this once we have left Oxford behind.”

“But first we have to face the duke’s trap.”

“Yes. Together.”

That one word said far more than it should have been able to. Drawing strength from it, she nodded then crossed the room to furtively steal a glance out of the window. In the distance she saw Martha receding. The time had come.

One look at her face seemed to be all Seth needed to know that. Pausing only to retrieve her cloak, fasten it around her shoulders and pick up the briefcase full of banknotes, he swooped in for one last fierce kiss, then wrenched the door open and led the way out into the hall. “Ready, sweetheart?”

“Always.”

Hand in hand they descended the stairs and stopped in front of the heavy door that barred the path to the outside world they had tried so hard to ignore since they first met. Drawing a deep breath, Esther loaded and cocked her pistol as he reached for the door handle.

“Let me go first to spring the trap,” he said under his breath, his lips barely moving as he spoke. “Follow me once the nature of the threat is clear.”

She nodded, her mouth dry as she watched the assassin’s gleaming blade slip free of its sheath once more. That very blade was what had brought them together. If the fates were willing, it would win them the future they craved; and she simply could not lose him, not now. Squeezing his left hand tightly, she stretched up onto the tips of her toes to kiss him one last time before he squared his shoulders and pulled the door back.

Concealing herself in the shadows, she watched as Seth stepped nonchalantly out onto the street, whistling under his breath in defiance of the adrenalin she knew was pounding through him with every beat of his heart. No more than five seconds passed before a tattered landau carriage ahead of him creaked from side to side, and a man strolling past it shot open the lock securing its door without even looking.

As the man sprinted into the distance, the carriage door burst open and, to Esther’s horror, the victims of the Scarlet Plague who had been trapped inside spilled forth, their target the only living person now before them. The duke had stooped to a low even she would not have thought him capable of until now. The zombies were all around Seth now, and with a fresh thrill of terror she realised that his only weapon was the one that could condemn him to share their fate. Should their blood mingle with his when the blade receded back into its sheath inside his wrist, the contamination would kill him.

“Stand back!” she said urgently. “Seth, stand back – and trust me!”

He had clearly come to the same conclusion. Though he kept his arm stretched out, the vicious blade gleaming in the weak winter sun, he dropped back and allowed her to come to his side. “Have you enough bullets?” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, his eyes fixed all the while on the shuffling zombies drawing ever closer to the two of them.

Esther let her eyes sweep over them in rapid assessment. “If my aim is true.”

“Then make it so, sweetheart. To stand aside and not fight to defend that which I cherish above all else already goes against every one of my instincts!”

To hear Seth’s roundabout confession thrilled her so deeply she could barely think of anything else, but their future now rested about the steadiness of her hand. It would not fail.

Tossing her hair out of her face, Esther lined up a shot at the forehead of the closest zombie and let loose. No sooner had it crumpled to the ground than she turned to the next one, and the next, and the next; until within the space of a minute all of them were on the ground, no longer able to pose a threat to the two of them or anyone else.

Her hand fell back to her side as she drew a deep, shuddering breath, and no sooner had she done so than Seth forcibly snatched her into his arms and fisted one hand through her hair, keeping her mouth open against his as his tongue wrapped around hers. Trembling from head to toe in the wake of the shots she had fired, she gladly allowed him everything he sought. In his arms she found now not only the lust he stirred so effortlessly, but a comfort she had never expected any man to be able to give her. Whatever the zombies she had taken down were now, they were once people, and her bullets were lodged inside their heads. As Seth’s lips coaxed and caressed hers, though, she felt herself begin to relax in his arms and let the tension drain away until once more, there was nothing in the world but the two of them.

When she sighed into his mouth and leaned against his chest, he pulled back and cupped her pale face in the palm of his hand, his eyes locked onto hers. “That was incredible,” he said quietly. “I cannot help but think I owe you my life.”

“Yes, and we should not stay here talking about it,” Esther said breathlessly. “I have no bullets left, and if the duke has left any more surprises lying in wait for you...”

“None of them would reach you, Esther!”

“But I would far rather we get to safety together before any of them can reach
you
.”

Seth tipped her a wink, his taut face relaxing as he caught hold of her hand and guided her away from his lodgings without a backwards glance. “Then to South Street we go, for once we have attained that safety I have something to say to you.”

Whatever it was would have to wait. Every one of her senses painfully alert, Esther held on tightly to his hand as he guided her through the quiet, twisting streets with an ease and skill that was no doubt born of his profession. The fact that he killed for a living did not bother her now, though. They knew far more about each other than the facade of their professions, and she knew without a doubt she would follow this man around the world if he asked her to.

It seemed that the arrogant duke had failed to anticipate that his trap would not succeed. They encountered no one else, living or dead, and as they turned onto South Street they saw the carriage Martha had promised would be waiting for them with a silent coachman waiting at the front of it. He did not even look at them as Seth wrenched open the door and lifted her in before leaping up behind her and slamming the door shut again to finally close them in alone together once more.

Her eyes shining, she twisted towards him as he groaned under his breath and tugged her cloak away, tossing it forgotten to the floor of the carriage as his other hand instantly snaked under the thin shirt she wore. “Damn, Esther, do you have any idea how turned on I got watching you fire that pistol?”

Esther arched into his hand, twisting to guide him towards her breasts as her lust for him spiked in an instant. “Tell me, Seth.”

Seth laughed as the carriage smoothly rolled away down the cobbles, and without bothering to seek her permission lowered her back onto the upholstered seat before wrenching open each button of her shirt with his teeth. “Oh, I intend to do far more than tell you.” 

By the time the carriage arrived at their destination, their clothes had joined the cloak on the floor and Esther was more certain than she had been about anything before that asking Seth to join the society was the right decision. After all, nothing could ever be as right as the assassin’s kiss. Whatever awaited them could do nothing to touch that truth.

##

Watch out for
The Scarlet Plague
, a full-length steampunk adventure featuring Esther and Seth.
The Scarlet Plague
is due for release in eBook and paperback in 2014.

Kate Monroe is an author and editor who lives in a quiet and inspirational corner of southern England. She has penchants for chocolate, horror and loud guitars, and a fatal weakness for red wine. Her interests in writing range from horror to erotica, taking in historical romance and tales of the paranormal on the way; whatever she has dreamed about the night before is liable to find its way onto the page in some form or another.

Her debut full-length novel, The Falcon’s Chase, was released by Pink Pepper Press (an imprint of Sirens Call Publications) in 2012, and she has had short stories published in anthologies by Smart Rhino Publications, Angelic Knight Press, Sirens Call Publications, Rainstorm Press and Cruentus Libri Press. Her first horror novel, Carpe Nectem, was published in October 2013.

All works are available from all good online retailers; visit
http://kateserenmonroe.com
for more information and links to purchase.

@SerenKate