Keystone (Crossbreed #1)(87)
Viktor abruptly stood up. “Very well. I have been contemplating our attack, but you have forced my hand with this new information. I have enough evidence to supply motive, but nothing to link him to the crimes. The laws are not going to support a capture without proof, and there is too much red tape. Gather up the team. We’re taking him down. I want you to scout the area and make sure we have a clear exit. And get Niko to heal her.”
“No,” I blurted out.
They both stared at me slack-jawed.
“Are you mad?” Christian said. “Without sunlight, it’ll take weeks before that heals up entirely, and you’re not even sure what your limitations are.”
He was right. Without Mage light, wounds healed naturally. Broken bones usually had to be set to seal together properly. What did it matter? Maybe after all the screwups, this was what I had coming.
“Let me worry about myself,” I said, turning away. “Viktor, call me when you’re ready. I don’t want to face the house just yet.”
I pulled my hood over my head and hurried down the hall. Footsteps closed in from behind, and the next thing I knew, Christian pinned me to a wall.
“What’s wrong with you? Are you a masochist?”
I shoved him. “Go drink your beer and finish celebrating my eviction.”
His lips thinned, and he flattened his palms on the wall behind me, caging me like a bird. His gaze was penetrating and his voice baleful, sending a chill up my spine. “We’ve had our differences, and I don’t particularly care for the way you live your life. That aside, I’m not the kind of man who takes kindly to seeing a woman tortured. You can think whatever you want about me, precious, but I promise you this: I’ll crush the man who did that to your face.”
My blood heated like fire. “Let me take care of my own business.”
“Do that. You can take Darius and stretch him on the rack if you like, but the coward who did this…” Christian moved the hood away from my face, his voice falling to a whisper, his fangs sliding out. “That one’s mine.”
After slithering away from Christian’s grasp, I hurried down the stairs, turning my head away as Shepherd walked toward me, his phone in hand. In a mansion this enormous, it was probably just easier to text everyone a message than yell out.
Why did I have to kiss Christian Poe? Had he not kissed me back, I might have gotten over it. Now I couldn’t even look at him without having childish fantasies about rushing into his arms. So hearing his promise to kill Declan had incited unexpected emotions in me, made me feel protected. I hadn’t felt the shielding comfort of someone looking out for me in a painfully long time. Maybe that was why Keystone was such an attractive proposition. It was security—a place to call home.
After emerging from the back door, I crossed the open grounds and crested a hill. This part of Cognito was magical—a place I never knew existed, as if someone had plucked locations from a fairy tale and placed them in the real world. I fell to my knees, uncertain if I’d made the right decision. What if my going after Darius would cost my father his life?
“What do I do?”
A mystical glow illuminated the landscape when the sun found a breach in the clouds. An orange shower of light descended from the heavens, sliding in my direction until it engulfed me. The grass glistened, and the air grew heavy with the sudden heat. It seemed as though I hadn’t seen the sun in a lifetime. I’d forgotten how pure it felt, how extraordinarily powerful.
I opened my hands, sunlight drenching my fingertips. Without a second thought, I concentrated on opening the channel, fighting the immense energy that was surging against my palms. Too much at once could either kill me or knock me out for days, but if I could extract just enough…
My skin prickled, the energy sifting in and working its way through my body. I closed my eyes when the heat flooded my face, mending the skin and healing the raw burns. It tickled for a brief moment before the pain vanished as if it had never been.
When I opened my eyes, I shut off the connection and gazed down at my hands, tears splashing onto my palms as I wept like a child.
I’d never really accepted my life as an immortal, not since the day I became Breed. No one forced me into this world; I’d chosen it of my own free will. But when things didn’t go as expected from day one, I felt cast aside by my maker, by God or whoever was running the show. I grew resentful of the immortals around me who flaunted their wealth and happiness. I’d contemplated suicide in the darkest times when all hope was lost and my days were filled with sorrow. It took me a long time to redirect that anger and find a purpose, but I still hated what I’d become. Killing made me feel brighter in this world, but in the process, I’d been poisoning myself with dark light and tainted blood.
Now, for the first time, I glimpsed a future with many lifetimes. Healing myself restored something I’d lost years ago—something I hadn’t realized I needed until just now. Hope. I wanted to be excited about what each day brought, and that wasn’t going to happen as long as I was holding on to all that rage and resentment. It wasn’t completely gone, but maybe just enough that I could start over.
The sun moved swiftly behind a cloud, and a blanket of shadows spread across the land, cooling the temperature and dulling the colors.
Nothing good ever lasted in my life—that was why I’d always chosen to live for the moment and not the future.