Free Web NovelChapter 107: Chapter 106: The Assassin
Eve’s eyes snapped open.
For a moment, she was disoriented....the dream still clinging to her thoughts, her mother’s face burned into her memory, knowledge she didn’t have five minutes ago now settled in her mind like it had always been there.
Then she saw the shadow.
Standing in the middle of Silas’s room, perfectly still, was a figure in a dark hooded cloak. The moonlight from the window didn’t quite touch him....like the shadows themselves were bending to keep him concealed.
Eve sat up slowly, every instinct screaming danger. She moved toward the headboard, putting distance between herself and the intruder. "Who are you?" Her voice came out steadier than she felt, cold and commanding. "And how did you get in here?"
The shadow moved slightly.....a shift of weight that somehow conveyed amusement. Then hands came up to lower the hood, revealing a face that made Eve’s breath catch.
He was beautiful. Devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. Sharp features that looked carved from marble, pale skin that seemed to glow faintly in the darkness, eyes that were pure silver.....no iris, no pupil, just liquid mercury that tracked her every movement. His hair was white-blonde, falling to his shoulders in a way that should have looked soft but instead looked predatory.
He smiled, and it was the smile of a snake about to strike.
"Well," he said, his voice smooth as silk and twice as dangerous. "Aren’t you a cute little thing, dear Princess."
Princess.
The word hit Eve like a physical blow. The Seraphim Court. They’d found her. And one of them was standing in her room, looking at her like she was prey.
She tried to reach out through the mate bond....screaming mentally for Damian, Damon, Silas, anyone. But there was... nothing. Not silence exactly, but a void. Like the bonds had been severed, like her mates had never existed at all.
The assassin’s smile widened, reading her panic in her expression. "Are you trying to reach out to your mates?" He tilted his head, mockery clear in his tone. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but they can’t hear you right now."
"What have you done?" Eve’s voice came out as a growl, and her eyes began to glow.....amber shifting to that eerie green that meant her succubus was rising.
The assassin felt it.....the wave of power that rolled off her, thick enough to choke on. For just a moment, his confident smile faltered. Then he steadied himself, though Eve noticed his hand move to something at his belt.
"Nothing," he said, his voice slightly strained now. "I haven’t done anything to them. At least not yet. Your room is simply... isolated. Warded against mental communication. They have no idea I’m here."
Eve stood from the bed, her bare feet silent on the floor as she moved to put more distance between them. The knowledge her mother had given her was already working.....she could see his micro-expressions, read his body language, understand that he was more nervous than he was showing.
"Do not touch them," she said, and her voice resonated with power she’d never wielded before. "Or else I’ll make your life miserable."
The assassin’s eyes narrowed. "Careful, little Princess. Do not threaten me, or I might actually do something to them." He took a step forward. "I can see that you’re growing. And growing fast. But you’re still not a match for me."
He reached into his cloak and pulled out... nothing. Just made a gesture, and suddenly a wicked-looking blade materialized in his hand....cold iron, the only thing that could kill a succubus permanently.
"Well," he continued conversationally, "I am here to finish a job. And that job is to kill you." He smiled again, all false sympathy. "But don’t worry. Don’t be scared. I’ll make it painless. It will be over even before your mates perceive that anything is wrong."
Eve moved back instinctively, her mind racing. The knowledge from her mother was there, showing her options, strategies, possibilities. But knowing techniques and actually executing them were different things.
The assassin raised his free hand, and green light.....sickly, wrong.....began to emanate from his palm. It coalesced into a rope-like whip of pure energy, crackling with lethal intent.
"Goodbye, little Princess," he said, and there was genuine regret in his voice. Like he actually felt bad about this.
Then he struck.
The green energy whip shot toward Eve with impossible speed, wrapping around her throat before she could dodge. She felt it immediately....the drain, the pull, this thing trying to suck out her life force, trying to kill her from the inside out.
The assassin smiled, already turning away. "Sleep well, Princess. May your ancestors...." freeweɓnovel.cѳm
He stopped.
Because Eve had raised her hand and caught the energy whip. Not just blocked it....caught it. Her fingers wrapped around the crackling green light like it was a physical rope, and she held it firm.
The assassin spun back, his silver eyes widening with shock. "No," he breathed. "No, that’s not possible. You shouldn’t be able to...."
But Eve was already pulling.
Not just holding the whip....reversing it. Using it as a conduit to drain him instead. The knowledge her mother had given her guided her instincts, showed her how to turn an attack into a weapon, how to make an enemy’s power their own downfall.
Her eyes began to glow....not just green now, but green and white mixed together, so bright it hurt to look at. The light surrounded her like a second skin, pulsing with power that made the air itself vibrate.
The assassin tried to let go of the whip, tried to sever the connection. But it was too late. Eve had hold of him now, and she wasn’t letting go.
"No!" he shouted, stumbling backward. "No, this isn’t possible! You haven’t even harnessed your powers yet, you can’t...."
But she could.
Eve pulled harder, drawing his life force into herself through the energy whip he’d created. She could feel it flowing into her....his power, his vitality, his very essence being ripped away and consumed by her hungry succubus nature.
The assassin fell to his knees, his beautiful face contorting with terror. "Please," he gasped. "Eve.....Your Majesty.....please, I was just following orders, I didn’t want to...."
"You threatened me," Eve said, and her voice wasn’t her own anymore. It was layered with power, resonating like waves crashing on a shore. "You wanted to hurt my mates. How DARE you!"
"Please, I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I’ll leave, I’ll tell them I failed, I’ll...."
But Eve wasn’t listening anymore. The rage was overwhelming....how dare he come into her home, threaten her mates, try to kill her while she slept? How dare the Seraphim Court send assassins instead of diplomats? How dare they assume she was weak enough to die easily?
She pulled one more time.....hard and vicious and absolute.
The assassin’s eyes went wide. His mouth opened in a silent scream. And then he simply... stopped. Froze in place like a statue, his skin taking on a gray, crystallized appearance as his life force was completely drained.
He fell forward, hitting the floor with a sound like breaking glass. Dead. Completely, utterly dead.
Eve stared at the body, at what she’d done, and felt something crack inside her. She’d killed before.....Cassandra in the dungeon. But that had been execution, punishment for betrayal. This was different. This was self-defense, yes, but also... murder. She’d killed someone in cold blood, drained them dry, and part of her had enjoyed it.
The scream built in her throat before she could stop it.
It tore out of her.....raw and primal and full of power. Light exploded from her body in a shockwave that shattered every window in the room, every mirror, every glass surface within fifty feet. The wave of energy radiated outward, flooding through the estate, so bright it turned night into day for a brief, terrible moment.
Then silence.
Eve stood in the wreckage, breathing hard, her body still glowing faintly with residual power. At her feet lay the assassin’s crystallized corpse, already beginning to crumble into dust.
She’d won.
She’d survived.
But at what cost?
