Page 39 of Vengeance and Vipers

He gives me a narrow-eyed look that chills me, reminds me that even without the gun in his hand, he’s a very dangerous half-fae. He can torture me into telling him anything he wants. I don’t think I can take that again so soon after all the stuff he did in the Mountain.

I try to keep from showing him my fear, wrap a little bravado around me. I give him the same bullshit story I told Maddox.

‘Siggy rescued me before the portal closed.’

‘You bring her back too?’

I don’t say it, but he must see it in my face.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I know she was your friend.’

I clench my jaw, but my lip still quivers at his words that actually sound genuine.

But the gun doesn’t get lowered.

‘How did you find me?’ I choke out.

‘I know Krase’s little tricks,’ is all he says. ‘Where is he? He’s dangerous, Jules. You shouldn’t be anywhere near him. He’ll kill you.’

I can’t help my incredulous look. ‘He hasn’t hurt me.’

Not like you did … well, except for the choking out and the bruised ribs, but I’ve decided to let that go because he let me shower and made me come.

He gestures to my throat, and my hand goes up to the bruises still visible around my neck.

‘I can see that isn’t true, Jules. You don’t have to protect him. He’s rogue, he’s—’

I see movement in the passage, and I stop listening to Iron’s hypocritical diatribe on how evil his clan brother is as Krase moves into the room, silently coming up behind Iron. I don’t let my eyes move to him, not wanting to give him away, but, at the last moment, Iron turns, hitting Krase on the side of the head with the butt of the gun.

Krase staggers to the side with a grunt and a curse but rights himself immediately and barrels into Iron with a snarl.

They fall onto the bed.

‘You’d pull a gun on her?’ he yells at Iron as they grapple in the sheets.

‘Better than what you were going to do!’ Iron retorts.

The gun isn’t in his hand anymore, but it’s not on the floor either. I glimpse it on the bed close to them and move around the bed to grab it, not sure what else to do.

I take it in my hand. It’s big and kind of heavy. It’s not my first time, but this is a little different than the .38 I carried for a while.

‘Freeze!’I always wanted to say that.

They don’t listen, and I raise the gun above my head, yanking back the hammer and pulling the trigger. The blast has them doing what I told them immediately and me exclaiming in pain at the kickback that I wasn’t expecting.

I switch it to my left and shake out my other hand, the top of my thumb and wrist, smarting.

The two demons are still, their hands wrapped around each other’s throats. They’re watching me.

‘Get up,’ I say to them both, and they extract themselves from each other, standing side by side at the end of the bed, looking a little sheepish.

I look at the gun and then at Iron. He looks defiant.

‘Do it,’ he snarls. ‘I know you’re aching for payback for what I did to you in the Mountain.’

Krase growls next to him. ‘You were there too? Payback for what?’ He glances at me. ‘What did you do to her?’

‘We were all there,’ Iron mutters, ‘and I did,’ he looks away, emotions flitting across his face, ‘what I was ordered to do.’