The Unmaking (The Rayne Whitmore Series Book 1) (24 page)

            Good.

            I keep backing up, closer
and closer to the witch. The vampire is standing down, also assuming that they
can handle me on their own. If he would have been paying attention to his instincts,
then he would have heard the calmness in the beat of my heart. Instead he’s
watching my eyes and the fictional fear that I put in them.

            The half demon’s hands
begin to glow even brighter. I allow one more brush against my clothes as he
picks up the speed on his attacks. Still, in reality, his attacks are too slow,
too easy to read. They’re not professionals this bunch. They are a test. I
understand that now. Now, I’m tired of playing the game.

            I pretend to stumble, and
the demon reaches for my throat. I use his momentum to pull him forward by his
arm, straight into the neck of the witch. It takes too long for the half blood
to realize what has happened. By that time, the smell of burning flesh and the
attempted scream of the witch hit him with full force. He turns to me, but I’m
already behind him, snapping his neck, quickly and efficiently. I have no time
to think about my kill. The vamp is enraged and sprinting towards me like a
freight train.

            Before I can react, his
head is removed from his neck and his flesh begins to crumble away like all
vampires that meet their final death. I’m sure my own surprise echoed his. I
never saw it coming, so I know he didn’t either. Just as quickly as it had
happened, the deliverer of the strike is back in the shadows. I stand as if I’m
frozen to the ground, afraid to budge because I don’t know if they are friend
or foe. I don’t even know if they are still there.

            “Hello?” I ask warily,
suddenly feeling like the next victim in a scary movie.

            “He knows what you are.
You will need more than the protection of that wolf. I know who you are as well
and I will give you my protection too. He’s building up an army and you need to
be prepared. I will help you get stronger. This is just the beginning Rayne
Whitmore.” Her voice is determined, prepared, but somehow familiar.

            “Help me how?” I ask, but
there’s no response other than the wind. I turn and walk back out of the alley.
This time I know that I’m alone. No matter what Selene said, I wouldn’t be
going anywhere without Katsu, not when Namen Young knew about me clearly well
before I even knew his name. Anubis was right. He was dangerous. He’d sent
three people to test me. Maybe he’d sent them to watch Anubis, but they figured
out who I was. Maybe I just put him in more danger.

            Shit!

            I run back in the
direction of the music and fling open the door. Jaxson is sitting there with
Selene holding an ice pack against his head.

            “What do you mean you
didn’t see who took her!” she screams at him before looking up at me, relief
evident in her dark green eyes. “Jesus Rayne. I hadn’t even left you for five
minutes. What the hell happened?” she asks frantically.

            “Namen Young happened.
That’s the bastard’s name who took my family. He knew I wasn’t dead Selene.
He’s been waiting for me to show my face,” I tell her.

            Selene and Jaxson both
give me a look. Jaxson stands up and pulls out his cell.

            “I have to call Anubis. He
could be in danger.” Jaxson dials his number then looks at me as he waits for
the call to go through. “I can’t believe he told you. I’m his second, his
enforcer and if his helping you brings any harm to him or my pack. I will hunt
you down.”

            “Well, right now, I’m
under your protection, so don’t ruin our treaty just yet,” I tell him.

            Jaxson walks away and when
he returns he breathes a sigh of relief.

            “You won’t be attacked
this close to the full moon and you know it. Do not threaten my girlfriend
again,” Selene warns calmly, but with a deadly and promising look in her eyes.

            I smile at her
protectiveness and so does Jaxson. Clearly, he appreciates a spirited woman.
“Packs will protect their own. You can’t blame me for doing my job.”

            “And if you lay a finger
on her, I will do mine,” she reiterates.

            “Well, from what I’ve
learned tonight, Anubis is allowing Namen to destroy him with fear. If you
truly cared about your pack, you would do all you could to help me put an end
to this man,” I tell him.

            Jaxson considers my words
for a second, then says, “Come back here tomorrow night and we will talk. If
you can’t make it, then call this number.” He gives me his number and Selene
suggests that we leave now.

            “Did you get what else you
came for?” I ask.

            “No. I think I was
mistaken,” she responds quietly.

            Selene takes me to the
Ducati and waits until I pull off before driving down the street. On the ride
back, I think about how easy it was for me to snap the half-demon’s neck, how I
did it without a moment’s hesitation. Maybe it would always be that easy. I
think about how I felt that day when my father had beat that man. How I was
hurt by how my father handled his business, how I grappled with the morality of
it. Now, I am a killer. Did I think I was wrong? No. Would I do it again? Yes.
Amazing how life can turn.

            We get home and I fill
Selene in on all that Anubis had explained to me. I tell her about the fact
that Namen had said that he knew Anubis was “special” when he was trying to
recruit him and what that meant. I wonder if it is something more to this wolf
than he is letting on. There has to be another reason that Namen has kept him
alive for so long. Anubis probably doesn’t give himself enough credit. Once I
handle this lamia problem, I would find out. I need to find out what Anubis
really is if I’m going to use him.

            Next, I ask Selene if she
knows anything about Namen Young. She tells me that she’s never heard of the
name and that I need to also remember that she hasn’t been here for that many
years, not to mention the fact that she’s kept a low profile, hiding from her
own past. It really doesn’t make any difference though. I have his name now and
I will find him. Even if he attacks first, I’ll be ready.

            “So what happened when
they took you? What did they say to you?” she asks.

            “Well, it happened so
fast. I saw Jaxson go down, and then they had me. Honestly, I don’t know if
they were all in the club or outside the door waiting. They knocked me out for
all of maybe two minutes. As I came to as they were dragging me in an alley,” I
begin.

            “They couldn’t have
followed us. They were probably watching Anubis.” She agreed with me on that.

            “Yeah, then they came
after me. It was like Namen wanted to verify who or what I am. It was three of
them, but they weren’t very strong. They knew how to coordinate their attacks
on a basic level, but they had no real skills. One was a half-fire demon which
is why my lovely jacket looks like I’d been in a barbecue. There was also a
vamp and a witch.”

            “A witch? What did this
witch look like?”

            “Well, he looked dead now.
I tricked the demon into burning his throat.”

            For a second there’s a glimpse
of fear on Selene’s face, I swear it.

            “Are you okay Selene?” I
ask. “Is there something wrong?”

            “No, just tell me what he
looked like.”

            “Shit, I don’t know. He
was average looking. Average height, average build, bald with a brown goatee.
Oh, and none of them had any tongues. It was pretty creepy actually.”

            “No tongues? Interesting.
I wonder what’s the point of that, if it’s forced or whatnot.”

            “Me too. They seemed far
too willing to do his bidding, but that still didn’t mean much. There was something
else,” I say, thinking about the mysterious stranger in the shadows who’d
finished off the vamp with so much skill that I never even realized she was
there.

            “What is it?” Selene asks
as she puts on something more comfortable, obviously hearing my hesitation at
my thoughts.

            “There was someone else in
the alley with us. I don’t know where she came from, if she was there the whole
time or what. Hell, I never even got a look at her,” I admit.

            “Did she try to attack
you? What happened Rayne? Did she do or say anything to you?” Selene clearly
didn’t like the fact that I hadn’t been aware. Shit, I didn’t like it. Maybe it
was because I was still new to this.

            “No, she didn’t try to
hurt me. It was the opposite. She helped me by taking the vamp’s head off. Neither
one of us ever saw it coming, and lucky for me, it was him she was after
because there was no way I’d have been able to stop that attack,” I say
honestly. If she’d been my enemy, I’d be dead right now, period. Suddenly
realizing that, my hands start to tremble slightly. I need to pay more
attention. I had gotten cocky about beating those three that I never even
thought that they could have very well been bait to the true attack. Then, I
know the truth.

            “I knew that it was a test
once I started fighting, but now I understand a little better,” I begin as I
start stripping off my clothes, tired of feeling constricted in them.

            Once I am down to my bra
and panties, I continue. “Namen was learning my weaknesses, and I could have
just given him a big one. He could have had someone much more efficient waiting
for the right moment to strike. That’s basically what those three were teaching
me, that’s what they were doing by the vampire and half breed fighting me and
the witch targeting me from a distance.”

            “Still, that wasn’t the
lesson, the lesson was to pay attention to what had been hiding in the shadows
even farther away. Whomever that stranger was Selene, they may have very well
saved my life tonight,” I explain. It did seem odd to me that she’d intervened
when I obviously had a handle on the battle. Maybe I never did. Maybe she made
her move so that whatever else had been out there would back off. As soon as I
thought it, I knew it to be truth. Damn.

            “You’ll have to be much
more careful then. I know you wanted to find this lamia, but maybe it’s not the
best idea. We don’t even know what we’re up against right now, and this whole
lamia thing could end up being a trap or at least an opportunity to kill you.
From what you’ve told me, Namen apparently doesn’t like loose ends.”

            “I can’t Selene and you
know it, so you might as well drop it. I’m not changing my mind on it. Once I have
the information I need, I’ll end it quickly okay, so don’t trip.”

            “Well, I won’t stop you,
you know that. Did this person say anything to you?”

            “Yeah, she seemed to know
exactly who I was which means that Namen isn’t the only one keeping tabs on me.
She said that he, presumably Namen, knew who I was and that I needed to become
stronger. She also said that I was under her protection too.”

            “She never said who she
was or why? This is not making any damn sense. I don’t like it Rayne. There is
something else going on here. It seems like too much too damn fast. Merda! Eu
não gosto deste.” Great. When Selene started to worry in Portuguese that meant
she was really troubled.

            Maybe I should be too.

            “Ok, well first things
first. We know I can’t handle all these things at once, and it was my decision
to add the lamia to the plate, but I’ll handle it. Having Anubis put me under
his protection won’t help with Namen, but maybe it’d help with other
supernaturals. This woman though, her words carry some weight, I can feel it. I
have time to at least learn more about Anubis, Namen, and kill the lamia before
anything major goes down. That woman will find me, she said she’d help me.”

            “And you will go nowhere
with her alone right?” she asks.

            I pause before I answer,
knowing I couldn’t promise that. If she could help me and Selene wasn’t around,
I’m positive I won’t wait.

            “Really Rayne?” Selene
says, not so much in a question. “It shouldn’t be much to think about on this.
You don’t know her. All I’m asking is that you wait for me, can you do that?”

            “I will try Selene,” I
tell her.

            “That’s not fucking good
enough. This is not a game.”

            “It wasn’t a fucking game
when I was almost taken tonight too, and I handled myself anyway,” I snap,
realizing that I was kind of angry with her for not following me out and not
telling me what was so urgent inside.

            “So, you being mad at me,
blaming me, is going to make it alright for you to run off and train with some
strange cadela? Wow. I can’t believe you right now.”

            “Do you not trust me?” I
ask.

            “This isn’t about trust,
Rayne, are you serious right now? This is about your safety. Where is this
coming from? We don’t argue about things like this. If I wanted to argue with
you about trust, I would have said something when we were with the Immortals
and Diana tried to seduce you every other day, not to mention Lawrence. You are
attracted to her and I never complained, never threw a fit because it’s okay to
appreciate a beautiful woman without acting on it. But, don’t pull this trust
crap on me right now.”