Rogue Descendant (Nikki Glass) - By Jenna Black Page 0,111

one felt like a spectacularly strong possibility to pin my hopes on, but Cyrus shattered hope number one when he ignored me and started up the stairs.

“I’m sorry, Nikki,” he said again, shaking his head.

I let out an incoherent cry of rage and frustration—and not a little fear—as the stairwell swallowed Cyrus. Moments later, I heard the door at the head of the stairs open and close.

And it was time to find out exactly what Konstantin had planned.

TWENTY-SIX

Konstantin stared at the ceiling. Possibly, he was listening to Cyrus’s retreating footsteps, but all I could hear was the rushing of my blood in my ears. My rib still sent daggers of pain through my body with every breath, but I no longer felt blood trickling down the side of my face. All in all, I was in a lot better shape than Anderson was.

To make sure that remained the case, Konstantin shot Anderson yet again.

Anderson’s head was a bloody mess. He was never going to recover unless I could find a way to stop Konstantin from shooting him every couple of minutes. My stomach lurched unhappily. I told myself I had a concussion, because a tough chick like me had no business vomiting at the sight of blood. Never mind that I’d once tossed my cookies looking at crime-scene photos.

“Did you tell Cyrus Anderson’s big secret?” I asked. Not that I actually cared. I was just looking for an opening, some way to distract Konstantin long enough to let Anderson heal.

For one unguarded moment, I saw shock on Konstantin’s face. He hadn’t realized I knew that Anderson was a god. He hid his emotions quickly, but I cursed myself for opening my big mouth. Konstantin didn’t want anyone to know Anderson was a god, because he didn’t want anyone getting the idea that he himself wasn’t the most powerful being in the universe. And I might have just signed my own death warrant by admitting what I knew.

The scary thing was, I would probably be way, way better off if Konstantin killed me than if he kept me alive.

“I didn’t see any reason to burden him with that knowledge,” Konstantin said, giving me a once-over that made my skin crawl. I couldn’t have looked that appealing with my face all bloody and my hair scraggling out of its braid. My flannel shirt was blandly shapeless and buttoned to the top for warmth. And yet Konstantin’s leer told me he liked the way I looked just fine.

Maybe he just liked how a woman looked in chains.

It was hard not to squirm when Konstantin looked at me like that. I knew he was a rapist, and I hoped like hell that Anderson was going to come back to life sooner rather than later, before Konstantin decided he was in the mood to play.

“So what’s your big plan, anyway?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could. “Are you going to stand there and shoot Anderson in the head every couple of minutes for the rest of eternity? Because personally, I think that would get old after a while.”

I was trying to get under Konstantin’s skin, but his smile said he was finding me more entertaining than annoying. On another man, the smile would have looked genuine and disarming. Konstantin wasn’t traditionally handsome, but he knew how to make the most of what he had. His neat black beard disguised what I suspected was a weak chin, and I’d never seen him wearing anything other than designer suits. Today was no exception, though the suit was well on its way toward being ruined. Anderson’s blood spotted his pants legs and the bottom of his jacket.

“Actually, I’ve quite enjoyed it,” Konstantin said, his smile morphing into a phony frown. “Though I’d enjoy it more if he were alive to feel it.”

I shuddered. Cyrus might not enjoy hurting people, but Konstantin sure did. I wished Anderson had listened to me, though truthfully, I’m not sure what kind of plan we could have made to avoid this. We couldn’t have gotten to Konstantin without descending the stairs into the basement, and once we were in the stairway, we were sitting ducks.

Konstantin’s smile returned, and there was now an unpleasant gleam in his eyes to go with it. “But no matter. I’m sure I can find other ways to entertain myself once I’ve removed this thorn from my side.”

He tucked the gun into the waist of his pants. I hoped it would go off and blow his balls to