She blinked. “My home?”
The thought of the psychopath Lazarus being at her home made her stomach churn. At the same time, hope drifted up. They were closing in. Soon, Kyden would be safe, and Lazarus would die. That motivation drove her now.
“What’s your plan?” Valor asked.
She considered a moment, knowing they were kinda stuck in a hard place and only two options remained. “As crazy as this is—since it’s the one rule you never break involving dangerous missions—I think its best we split up. The longer we take to find Kyden, the less likely it’ll be that he’s alive.” She glanced to Drake as he pulled his sword from Efren’s lifeless body.
Nexi couldn’t help but feel a wave of despair for the wolf. While they’d been discussing an attack on Lazarus, he’d died without ceremony or solace. Wasn’t it possible that he’d made a mistake? Hadn’t she, herself, made mistakes?
She shook her head, clearing her mind of such thoughts. Mistakes or not, Efren had caused pain, suffering, and death to so many people and she needed to protect herself and those she loved.
“What do you think?” she asked Drake.
“I agree with you,” he replied, sheathing his sword. “It makes the most sense.”
She turned to Valor. “You two can take a trip to Lazarus’s house. If no one is there, head back to the Otherworld and grab the Council, then meet us at my parents’ home. With the portal that should take what…ten minutes tops?” At receiving answering nods, she added, “I think that’s a safe plan. We’ll find Kyden, but we’ll act quickly to get back together and bring the Council to help fight Lazarus.”
Valor nodded. “I’m agreeable.”
“All right. Time’s a wasting.” Turning on her heel, she hurried out of the now-vacant tailor shop with the men at her back. Once outside, the warm air brushed over Nexi’s skin and she exhaled, releasing the adrenaline raging through her veins.
Valor placed a hand on her shoulder, the warmth of his touch comforting her. “I wish you a safe journey.”
“You as well…and be as fast as you can.”
Valor and Briggs both gave her a quick nod and turned, heading toward the portal. Nexi went to follow, but Drake grabbed her hand. “Let them go through first. The portal will remain because we have need of it. Please stay with me a moment.”
Once Valor and Briggs vanished, Nexi turned to Drake again. His eyes were tormented, his voice equally so. “Are you able to handle this?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
When she attempted to walk forward, he tightened his fingers around her hand, forcing her to look at him. “You’re returning to your family’s home. You haven’t been there since your parents’ deaths. And you’ll need to keep your head straight, or you’ll get killed.”
Nexi sighed, understanding his worry. This wouldn’t be easy for her. However, only one thing truly mattered. “If Kyden is there my focus will be on him, and only him. And if Lazarus is there, I will kill him.”
Drake smiled, pride oozing off his expression. “Keep those thoughts on your mind. Stay focused.”
With a smile back at him, as she experienced that rich hunger to hunt and destroy Lazarus, she spun on heel. Trudging her way toward the portal with Drake on her heels, a rustle of the grass sounded next to her, and she slowed to a stop.
One moment there was nothing blocking her way. A second later, a wolf’s muzzle came right in front of her, inches away from ripping her apart. Not two seconds after that she wasn’t standing at all, she was tumbling backward. Landing on the pavement with a loud oomph, she bounced up immediately, then her world froze.
Drake had thrown her behind him and positioned himself directly in the line of the wolf. From there, everything happened in slow motion. He turned to her with a cold fear in his eyes, and Nexi charged forward, trying to get there to help him. He didn’t have time to pull his sword, nor did he have time to act. The wolf was too close to him for a punch to have any effect and only mere centimeters were between Drake’s throat and the wolf’s teeth.
“No,” she shrieked, spotting softness touching Drake’s features as his smile became warm and accepting.
Only another second passed before the wolf slammed into Drake’s chest and pushed him straight to the ground. He tried to get away and fight off the wolf, but the wolf’s teeth on Drake’s neck pinned him. Nexi heard her own screams blasting through the dark, city street, as she begged her body to move faster.
Seconds seemed like a lifetime.
How could fate bring her father back only to rip him away like this?
Before Nexi’s eyes and still too far away, the wolf sank his teeth deep into the side of Drake’s neck and ripped into his throat. In that exact moment, Nexi got a good look at the wolf. He wasn’t a stranger. She’d never forget that black stripe running along his head and over his snout.
The wolf killing Drake was the one who’d gotten away at her parents murder.
Rage so intense and wicked burned her blood, and Nexi finally grabbed the wolf. She reached for her sword, swung her blade to slice lengthwise through the wolf. His blood spread through the air soaking her. She only wished she could’ve made his end more painful, but Drake held her concern.
Sinking to her knees, she pushed her hands against his neck, trying to stop the bleeding. She stared down at her hands, watching his warm blood pouring through her fingers so rapidly. “Don’t leave me,” she gasped.
Drake’s eyes glazed over and blood spewed from his mouth, as he gurgled. Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision. “Stay with me. Don’t leave me. Oh God, this can’t be happening. You have to fight. I can’t lose you.”
Her chest tightened and she couldn’t even find the strength to sob. She only stared in utter dismay. His blood continued to spill over her hands and it didn’t matter if she pressed harder, it only made the blood come out faster.
Nothing she could do would stop this.
He would die.
“No, God, no…” She shook her head, sending tears falling down her cheeks. “Don’t take him.”
Less than a second after that, she recognized her prayers would be ignored, as the life drained from his eyes. She drew in a ragged breath, realizing no matter what she did, she couldn’t stop this, and a surprising wave of calm washed over her as her father faced his death.
Eating back her screams, not wanting the last thing he heard to be the sound of her cries, she accepted her reality. She pressed her forehead against his, and his clammy skin connected with hers. “I’m so glad I met you. No matter how short our time together was. I don’t regret a moment of my life. Not then. Not now. Not ever.”
His gurgling weakened. His force to stay alive slowly exhausted away. She raised her head, searching his eyes, hoping to see some spark declaring he was still with her, but she suspected he only saw darkness now.
“I’m here…with you…I’m right here,” she whispered.
A long gasp sounded from Drake’s mouth before all the air escaped his body. She released his neck, sitting back on her legs, watching his chest. It no longer moved. She explored his eyes, but they were empty. She pressed against his pulse point, she felt no heartbeat, and she sobbed a breath.
Her hands trembled as she looked down at them, completely drenched in his blood. “No.” How could she have lost him? Her stomach tightened as she studied Drake, searching for breath—any trace of movement to confirm this untrue.
He had died.
A pain so intense ripped through her soul. An emptiness that was bottomless and profound filled her so that she couldn’t think, breath, or move. A cold sweat gathered along her skin as reality settled in. She closed her eyes, trying anything to wake up from this horrible nightmare—an endless nightmare that begun the night of her parents’ murder.
Time ceased to exist.
The world escaped her.
Nothing existed around her. Nothing, but the intense, unfathomable agony that broke her heart into pieces. She inhaled the wretched scent of death, which deepened her anguish, yet fueled her need to push on.
As much as she could have given in, wept until her tears ran dry and her suffering emptied away to exhaustion, this wasn’t the time to mourn. She needed to fulfill the reason they set out on this mission, or Drake’s death would be for nothing. She had to save Kyden and end this with Lazarus, once and for all.
Emptiness made her insides ache as she forced her eyes open and stared at her father’s lifeless body. Her stomach clenched with a horror she didn’t think she could survive. She stood, grabbed her sword from the ground with shaky hands, then pressed the tip into Drake’s stomach.
Within seconds, no evidence that Drake ever existed remained. His body vanished. His blood, gone from her hands.
Only she remained.
She, and the score she burned to settle.
Chapter Twenty
The moment Nexi teleported into in the Council’s Foyer, she wrapped her hand around the portal’s door and opened it, thinking of the one place that had always been special and safe. Right before the portal took her, she could’ve sworn she heard the sounds of fighting around her, but maybe she’d imagined that.