“What are you doing here, Mervan? These men are mine.”
Doctor Mervan tapped the mobile transport beacon stuck to his chest. “You’re too slow, Styx. They’re mine now.”
“Are you trying to play me for a fool?” I took two steps forward, ready to rip his head from his shoulders, but the Prillon at my back raised their weapons. I wouldn’t make it. They’d won.
“Stand down, Styx,” Mervan ordered, not looking at me.
I knew he was right, knew I needed to let him do his job, track the rest of the traitors, discover what their plans were, if they had other cargo ships. Other contacts. More informants scattered throughout the Coalition Fleet.
But that was Mervan’s problem. Not mine.
“You can have the rest, Mervan.” I pointed to the Kronos leader. “He’s mine.”
The doctor shook his head. “I need him alive.”
I glanced around the room, at the eight additional captives Mervan had taken. None enforcers in Kronos, but all Hyperion people I recognized. “You have more than enough prisoners.”
“Gods be damned, Styx, he’s mine.”
Mervan was an ally. He was the only contact I had powerful enough to make sure Harper was removed from the Coalition Fleet’s claws. They owned her. I’d break the law, fight a war to keep her. But that would make my people bleed. Better to sacrifice this one kill. For Harper. For all the people of Rogue 5. For my legion. “Get him out of my fucking sight.”
Mervan nodded at the other Coalition warriors around the room and they affixed mobile transport tags to their prisoners. One by one, they disappeared into thin air as we watched. They would go to a Coalition prison. Stand trial, ultimately be executed for their actions. They would die, but I was denied the blood we wanted. Denied our vengeance.
I met and held Mervan’s gaze. “Promise me he will suffer.”
The curl of Mervan’s lips was cruel. He was supposed to be a healer, like Harper. But his heart was as black as hers was light. In this moment, I was glad. He knew my need, shared it to a certain degree.
“You have my word, Styx.”
Blade’s chest heaved beside me, his hands clenching into fists at his sides as the prisoners around us disappeared, until only the enforcer was left.
The bastard raised his eyes to mine, looked behind me at Blade, Silver, and the others, his gaze flickering as he took inventory of the enforcers who had come to end him. He grinned at Blade, his fangs showing.
“How’s your pretty little mate? She’s quick
on her feet. I missed her three times before that Atlan bastard started firing back.” He tilted his head to the side, as if pondering a philosophical question during a grandmother’s dinner party. “Tell me, did you bite her when you took her ass? Or did you save her for me?”
Blade moved so fast even I didn’t see him.
“No!” I yelled, the one word echoing off the walls.
Mervan didn’t get the chance to protest, his Prillon reflexes too slow for Blade’s rage.
Blade’s hands wrapped around the enforcer’s neck and he twisted. Hard. Fast. Too hard.
He bellowed when the bones snapped, cracked. Kept twisting, rage on his face and in his eyes. There was no thinking man beneath the instincts raging at him.
I realized, as the enforcer’s head was detached from his body, that he was smiling. He’d taunted Blade, known his protective rage would save him weeks or months of torture at Mervan’s hands. He knew he would die and chose his own ending. Chose to fuck with Blade and get exactly what he wanted. Instant death.
Mervan snarled at him, but I moved quickly, stepping between Blade and the Prillon spy. If Blade hadn’t done it, I would have. “You have other prisoners, Mervan.”
“He was their leader,” he shouted, raising his arm in the direction of the headless Kronos. Blade could end up in jail himself for what he’d just done, gone against orders.
“No,” I countered. “He was a Kronos enforcer.”
The Prillon took a moment to calm himself as Blade threw the detached head against the wall with a bellow. The sound of flesh striking metal was thick and heavy, sloppy and wet. Blood streaked down the wall, began to pool on the floor. The scent of it was strong, cloying.
The sound was extremely satisfying. I smiled as Blade walked back to us, covered in blood from the enforcer and the guard he’d ended in the corridor outside. He’d gotten the revenge he wanted. I had gotten mine, although by Blade’s hands. That was good enough for me.