Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(63)

I nodded to Juliet. “Fair enough.”

For a split second, there was only us, my sister and me, and the memories of the night everything had changed for us. And, then time resumed its regular pace, shattering the dark cloud of nostalgia. We were never going to get that back. Those young girls we’d both been, they had died that night. We weren’t the same anymore. That was painfully clear when I blocked Juliet’s first hit.

She was a good fighter. Gone were her days of scratches and hair pulling. She knew how to throw her body around, how to take a hit and to throw one, but after so many years on the mean streets at night, so did I.

I knocked the stake from her hand with a kick. She used the opportunity to grab my ankle and twist. I went down hard on the floor, twisting along with her to avoid a broken ankle. Jerking my foot from her grasp, I threw a psi ball at her to gain the seconds needed to get to my feet. Another shot went off, and an agent dropped, holding his leg and screaming.

Juliet was ready for me with a fist that I narrowly dodged. We danced then, a back and forth game of hits and blocks, trying to catch the other off guard. She was spry and light on her feet. More than once, she caught me by surprise. I wasn’t above using metaphysical assistance to push her back and knock her feet out from under her.

I kept expecting her to come to her senses and call a stop to this madness. What drove her wasn’t simply a desire to do her job. It was having me in front of her after so long, and finally being able to unleash her anger over what Raoul did to us. She wanted me to pay for being his lover.

Seeing fangs on my sister was unnerving. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I wasn’t giving in either. Shots went off, and this time one of my vampires fell, injured but not dead. I couldn’t allow anything to happen to Kale or Shaz. I was going to be forced into admitting defeat.

Juliet rushed me again, and this time she had claws. No deal; I wasn’t willing to kill her, so this had to stop now. I rounded on her with a high kick. It hit her square in the forehead, and she went down. I got on top of her, pinning her with my weight and a push of power.

“Tell them to stop!” I demanded. “Now.”

She stared up at me with angry wolf eyes. I could feel her hesitance. With a hand on her throat, I gave her a shake. “Dammit, Juliet. Can’t you see that our people are going to die over a dead woman who was a goddamn traitor? Stop them.”

Rationale battled passionate, righteous fury behind Juliet’s dark eyes. “Enough!” She shouted, and like magic, every agent took a defensive stance but obeyed her command.

Shaz and the few vampires who had come to our aid dropped back, watching me for direction. Kale wiped blood from the corner of his lip. A dead agent lay at his feet. Well, that was really going to help our case, wasn’t it?

I groaned inwardly before standing up and pulling Juliet to her feet. “You want to watch me suffer. I get that. Really, I do. So you win. Let’s go.”

Juliet pulled away from me, her eyes downcast. “It’s not like that. I have a job to do.”

“Let me save you the family drama.” Kale stepped forward with a confident swagger. Every agent’s gun was trained on him, but he paid them no mind. “You don’t want Alexa. You want me. And, I’ll go with you right now without any further trouble if you leave her out of this.”

Agent Asshole practically threw himself at Juliet in protest. He clutched his broken arm to his chest. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow and his breath came fast. “Hell no. She was at the murder scene.”

Kale set his sights on the agent, and the power just oozed from him. “I acted alone. I killed Abigail Irving, and I loved every damn moment. You only want me.”

The heady allure of vampire power was so strong that I almost believed him. A human like Agent Asshole didn’t stand a chance under that kind of persuasion. He nodded, dumbfounded and silent. Juliet appeared uncertain. I wanted to protest what Kale was doing, but I couldn’t form the words.

“Just you?” Juliet repeated, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Taking in one of us would be better than neither. “You freely admit this?”

“I’ll freely do anything you want me to. As long as Alexa is left alone.” The seductive lilt he spoke with was like a hand sliding down my spine.

It seemed to have a similar effect on Juliet because she nodded and gestured to her men to grab him. I watched in shock and awe as Kale stood quietly, willingly allowing them to cuff him. The restraints they used hummed with magic, and that’s when my internal alarm went off.

“No,” I shouted. “You can’t take him. He hasn’t done anything. Irving was a f**king traitor.” I shoved an agent aside so I could get close to Kale. Placing both hands on his face, I stood on my tiptoes and whispered, “What are you doing?”

“You saved my ass. Now I’m saving yours.” Taking advantage of our close proximity, Kale pressed his lips to mine. The kiss was brief but intoxicating. He tasted like blood and honey, waking my hunger. Draped in his saccharine pull, I ached for him.

I wasn’t content to keep my mouth shut and let him take the fall for me. We had both taken Abigail’s blood. She had been our victim.

“Juliet, be reasonable. You’re a pawn to a political agenda. That’s not the Zelda Fitzgerald I heard you talk nonstop about.” It was desperate; appealing to the girl she’d once been was my last resort. We were both sporting some ugly cuts and bruises. Now that we’d scrapped it out the way siblings do, there was nothing else for us to do.