There was a job to be done, and it didn’t matter the regret now, or the fact that a mate would soon be lost once again. The past refused to die; Death had to help it along. That meant they all had to die. Everyone who had been a part of that massacre so long ago had to be taken from this world.
It didn’t matter that Cassa Hawkins hadn’t been a part of that massacre at the time. Truth was, she had been a part of her husband’s life later, and her husband had been part of that massacre. The husband would come now. He would find a way, he’d slip from his hole and come here once he learned his precious wife had mated a Breed.
Douglas Watts had been so young the night Death had been created, barely eighteen and following in his father’s evil footsteps. But still, it was an evil that refused to die. And Cassa, his precious wife, had helped him later to betray the Breeds—that put the mark of evil on her soul as well.
As far as Death was concerned, Cassa was as much a part of the Deadly Dozen as her husband had been, and she would have to die.
Luring her here had been easy. The pictures, the emails, the threat of framing the Breeds. The world would one day know that Breeds were no more than humans and humans were no more than Breeds. They all had the ability to kill, and they could all die. Proof of that had already begun.
Death hadn’t expected the mating though. That thought flitted through a mind that was torn with the decisions made that now must be followed through. Losing a mate was a horror no creature should have to endure. It was a pain unlike any other. Each breath taken without that mate was a nightmare that never eased.
Death slid slowly back from the cabin, easing along the path that the snow hadn’t yet covered but would soon. It wouldn’t do to leave proof that eyes watched and an enemy waited. The Breeds that chased Death through the silence of the night could never understand the mission that lay ahead. They couldn’t understand why their lives didn’t matter any more than those of the humans.
Cassa’s day would come. It was right around the corner, her blood marked to be spilled if her husband didn’t arrive. But first, another’s blood would soak the valley of Death. Another’s blood would still the demons rising inside Death, tearing at the mind, searing the soul.
The seventh of the Deadly Dozen. It was time for him to die.
Cabal curled around Cassa like a living blanket, keeping her close to his chest, holding her warmth inside each pore that he could press against her.
He was a man that had never relished sleeping with others. He had bedded enough women over the years, but as his brother could attest, the intimacy of sharing a bed with them was something Cabal hadn’t found much pleasure in.
Until Cassa. He had fought it at first. He’d tried not to need it, to need her. Now he would have dared Cassa to find another place to sleep, at any time, after tonight. She would spend her nights here in his arms, no matter what he had to do to achieve it.
He brushed back the long, tangled strands of her hair to stare at her sleeping profile. She slept deep, hard, her slight breathing brushing against his arm where she lay. She had slept the night away with the same deep intensity. But he couldn’t say her sleep had been dreamless. She had shifted about throughout the night, muttering to herself a time or two, a frown working between her brows.
Did she relive the horrors she had seen during her years as an investigative reporter? he wondered. She had been there the night his lab was attacked, and during his rescue. She had seen the slaughter that had taken place in the pit of death; she had seen his wounds and his rage during his rescue.
He stared across the room, fighting those memories himself now. That was a place within his soul that he tried not to revisit too often. Too many of his family had died in that pit. A dozen men and women who had given their lives to ensure that he lived, despite his protests. They had thrown themselves in front of him, blocked him, kept the blades that sliced through the metal walls from impaling him.
So much blood had filled that pit before he had managed to escape. So many lives had been lost. Because a betrayer had been harbored in the midst of the rescuers. Because Cassa’s false husband had betrayed them all.
Damn, Douglas Watts had sowed a hell of a mess. He was still living, albeit a bit miserably, but those whose lives he had touched carried the bitter wounds of his actions.
What would she do if she learned the bastard lived?
He stared down at her, questioning within himself the decision he had made so long ago to allow Watts to continue living.
It had been that cruel streak he harbored within him. To kill Watts would have been too easy. Too merciful. He’d wanted the man to suffer and to suffer hard.
Had Cabal instigated the demise of his own future with that decision though? Would he be the first Breed to lose a mate to a former lover, to a man who had lied even to the point that the judge who had wed them had been false?
Once this assignment was completed and the identity of the Breed killing humans was revealed, then, Cabal promised himself, he would take the time to learn more about his new mate. More than just her stubbornness and her loyalty. He would learn what made her laugh, what made her find joy. He had a feeling that Cassa hadn’t known great joy in her life.
And then perhaps he would know if he had her loyalty over that which she had once given the man she believed was her husband.
Glancing toward the window, he drew in the scent of the snow outside. The late winter air gave the forest a fresh, clean scent as well as a blanket of white to wrap the world outside within.
The fire he had laid just after Cassa went to sleep was still burning, the glowing embers and low flames lighting the bedroom through the open ceiling of the living room.
Moving from the bed, he tucked the blankets carefully around his sleeping mate before pulling on his jeans and easing from the bedroom. He could hear the Breed Raiders easing up the road to the cabin. Jonas would be in one of the vehicles, he knew. The director rarely left anything to chance, especially in a mission as delicate as this one.
A rogue Breed killing humans wasn’t something to ignore. As Cassa had stated the night before, it could show the world the true face of the Breeds, and that was something they weren’t quite ready for.
Moving to the front door, he watched as the two Raiders, the powerful ATVs the Breeds used in mountainous and desert settings, pulled into the drive.
Leaning against the door frame, he watched as Jonas moved from the first vehicle, followed by his bodyguard and driver, a human simply called Jackal. The second vehicle held the two enforcers, Lawe Justice and Rule Breaker. The names rarely failed to cause Cabal’s lips to twitch in amusement.
It wouldn’t do to let either Breed see that amusement though. They were rather proud of the names they had chosen for themselves.