The Ripple Effect (Rhiannon's Law #3)(79)

This time when he came at me, he held nothing back. Despite my blocks, he kept coming, lashing out, the tips of his fingernails forming into crazy-looking claws. He got two good swipes in—one across my left shoulder and another at my mid-section. I wasn’t surprised at the lack of pain. The amulet blocked those sorts of things, keeping its owner in proper fighting form. When he swung his hand around and aimed for my face, I wrapped my arm around his wrist, pushed my body into his chest, and sent him sailing to the ground. I landed on top of him, staying in position even as he wrapped his fingers around my throat and tried to buck free.

I pulled out Sucker, searched for a decent location to bury the blade, and grinned when I sliced the side of his face and removed his right ear. That arrogance I detested faded away, becoming pure agony as he let me go and reached for his missing appendage.

Excellent.

Now for the other side.


I repeated the motion, the blade sliding through his skin like melted ice cream. Though Sucker drank blood, when I pulled the dagger away red flowed down the back of Anton’s head and to the floor. Incapacitated as he was, he didn’t even try to escape as I moved down his body, until I straddled his thighs. There was only one place I could think of that would cause him the most pain and humble him as he deserved.

I didn’t make any slicing motions this time. Rather I buried the blade in his crotch, using all of the force I could muster. It slid in deep, just as I hoped. The dagger didn’t stop until the hilt slammed against his groin. His hoarse bellow was a symphony, one I never wanted to end. Even if I didn’t kill the f*cker—which I fully intended to—he wouldn’t be able to use his dick to even take a piss.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, turning the hilt, rotating the blade in his flesh. “You were going to love seeing me try to kill you. How’s that working out so far?”

“You f*cking bitch,” he grated, eyes spilling over with red tears.

“No, not a bitch.” I yanked on Sucker, removing it from his man parts. Blood seeped from the wound, staining his pants. “An angel of vengeance, remember? Paine warned you, but you didn’t listen.” I pushed aside my grief, the sharp pain in my chest. “You should have.”

It would have been easiest to end him by severing his head, but I plunged the knife into his chest, directly over his heart. The bone broke and gave way, the blade thrusting inside. He gasped, eyes widening, and went still beneath me. It wasn’t a mortal blow—not yet—but it was about to be.

Leaning over him, I stared him in the eye. I saw what I wanted to see, what every half-demon should feel in order to learn and appreciate humility. He knew his time was up, that he was about to die.

“The despair in your eyes tastes delicious,” I said, repeating his earlier words to me, doing what Paine said I would. “You never should have touched him.” My lip trembled, my anguish rising to the surface, twining with anger. “Do you understand? You never should have put a f*cking hand on him.”

I moved the blade up and down, sawing through Anton’s chest cavity. It didn’t take long, seconds at most. When I’d created a hole big enough to reach inside, I removed Sucker and jammed my hand into his chest. The interior was warm and mushy, but it wasn’t hard to find what I was searching for. His heart, while damaged, was still beating. It only seemed right that it would be, that he would die in the same way he’d killed Paine.

As I lifted out his heart, I watched life drain from his eyes. Only this time, there was no heartache making me crumble, no loss. There was only elation and bliss.

On some level, I knew the small grip I held on my humanity was slipping away, drifting through my fingers like a forgotten imprint of time. Each time I wore the amulet and sought out its power, my empathy disappeared. I didn’t want that—had never wanted that. I’d been forced to become what I was—a human turned vampire familiar, a woman in love with a man who wasn’t really a man at all, a killer who was becoming less and less bothered by the lives she took.

A monster created by monsters.

Just to be sure the job was done right, I tossed Anton’s heart to the side and placed Sucker against his throat. The blade itself was a mystical creation, one that had no problem breaking through his skin and bone until it hit the floor beneath. A quick snap and Anton was finished. His head wobbled and rested on its side as it detached from his body. His eyes continued blinking, and I hoped he could still see, watching as the light slowly faded and went out for good.


Shouts broke my attention and I looked over my shoulder. Perhaps it was witnessing Anton’s death, or knowing he was next in line, but somehow Revenald managed to break free from the vampires holding him to the ground. His face was a bloody mess, but his eyes had started to heal, allowing him to see. He ran when he was free, his speed far greater than the vampires trying to chase him down.

I put Sucker back into the sleeve on my side and jumped from Anton’s body. I followed the vampires rushing into the room with the nude and bound slaves. I could hear Revenald saying something in a language I didn’t understand, though something told me he was speaking in demon tongue. Then I saw the mirrors on the far wall begin to change and smelled the strong stench of sulfur.

Son of a bitch!

I’d seen Hell through a mirror before—when I made a deal with a demon that started this whole mess. My stomach bottomed out when I realized what Revenald was doing. Only half-demons had the power to venture back and forth between earth and Hell as the spawn of both man and demon.