Page 77 of Alluring Darkness
“Don’t bother,” she says, speaking to my brothers but keeping her eyes on me. “By the time you get there, he will already be dead.”
Lightning zings through me at the way she looks right now. Even with Kaden pressing a knife to her throat, there is no mistaking that she is the one in control here.
Her long black hair flutters in the air as a gust washes over her. There is a cruel smirk playing over her luscious lips, and her green eyes are glittering with ruthlessness as she stands above me and watches me choke and spasm on the ground.
She looks like a fucking goddess of death.
Mypersonalgoddess of death, come to exact vengeance on me.
Fire sears through my veins.
Never in my life have I been so furious and so fucking turned on at the same time.
Jace and Rico shoot to their feet at her reply. Panic and fear flash across their faces as they whip their gazes between me and her. I know that I should probably be scared too. If her words are to be believed, I will be dead within the next few minutes. But the only emotion pulsing through me is stunned disbelief that she had the fucking balls to pull something like this. And a tiny bit of admiration too, because damn, I am impressed.
Metal glints in the bright sunlight as Jace yanks up his gun and shoves it against Raina’s temple so hard that her head tilts to the side. “Give him the antidote.”
“Who says there is one?” Raina replies, casting him a nonchalant look.
“You have three seconds to produce an antidote before I shoot you in the head,” Jace growls in a voice so vicious that the grass around him seems to shrink back into the earth. It’s a voice I have rarely heard from him.
“You havetwoseconds before I slit your throat,” Kaden adds.
“Go ahead. Kill me.” A smirk curls Raina’s lips as she nods towards me. “But then he will also be dead.”
As if on cue, my limbs jerk uncontrollably as the poison ripples through me. My throat closes up even more. A flash of primal panic, one that has been engrained into humanity since the dawn of time, flashes through my mind as I suddenly find myself unable to get any air into my lungs. Gurgling noises rip from me as I try to suck in a breath through my swollen throat and constricted lungs.
“What do you want?” Rico screams, his voice almost breaking on that final word. Desperation pulses from his entire being as he throws out his arms helplessly and stares at Raina while repeating, “What do you want?”
“I want you to beg.”
Shock pulses across the field. But I’m starting to have trouble concentrating. I used to be able to smell the grass and soil that the back of my head is resting on, but now I can’t smell anything anymore. My chest shakes as I try to fight a breath into my lungs. There is a terrible coldness in my unresponsive limbs.
“You want me to give him the antidote?” Raina continues. She even sounds like a goddess of death now. Cold. Cruel. Utterly untouchable. “Then get down on your knees and beg me for his life.”
They don’t even hesitate a second.
Kaden and Jace toss their weapons to the ground immediately, and then all three of them drop to their knees before her. They form a short line between her and my shaking body, as if they can protect me from her insanity with their own kneeling forms.
“Please, Raina,” Rico says, his voice pulsing with desperation. “I’m begging you to spare his life. Please, give him the antidote.”
She arches a dark eyebrow and slides her gaze to Kaden and Jace. “I said,beg.”
“Please, we’re begging you,” both of them blurt out in unison.
If anyone else had been the recipient of this massive fucking powerplay that she is executing, I would have been so turned on that I would’ve fucked her into the next century. But unfortunately for her,Iam the recipient. And she has made a huge fucking mistake now.
She has mademy brothersget down on their knees and beg. Humiliated them. Made them plead for my damn life.
I’m going to fucking kill her for this.
31
RAINA
Ijerk awake as hands grab me from all sides. I try to yank my arms away and kick my legs while a scream of surprise builds in my throat. But before it can erupt, duct tape is slapped across my mouth.
It’s pitch black inside my dorm room since it’s the middle of the night, so I can’t see properly where my attackers are. My pulse thrums in my ears as I fight blindly to get free of their grip.