Midnight Poison (The Paranormal Poisons Saga #1)(12)

Daphne said, "Not sir, and it's just-"

"No." Eddie pushed his glasses up his nose. "Sir Edward works."

Daphne snorted, then pulled Kiara into a hug. Kiara stiffened for a moment. She could not remember the last time anyone hugged her. Unless you counted the headlocks Bane put her in when they sparred. But she did not think so. Those did not feel good. Not like this, which sent a warmth spreading through her whole body. Kiara smiled and wrapped her arms around the girl.

Daphne grunted. "Oh, wow. Eddie's right. You are strong."

Kiara let her go and moved toward Eddie with her arms open. He took a quick step back and waved from a wary distance, then both he and Daphne got in the car. As they drove off, Daphne yelled out the window, "Shouldn't you have a gun?"

Kiara waved. "I should totally have a gun. Leontes-"

"No guns."

She started to roll her eyes, but a strong scent suddenly carried over the breeze, causing her to catch breath. Fresh blood. A lot of it. 

"Oh no," Kiara whispered. "He's killing again."





CHAPTER 10





The drizzle continued. Dark clouds dragged across the moon as Kiara raced through the neighborhood and came to a stop in front of a large house set far back from the street behind an electronic security gate. There were no lights on inside or out. The luxury exterior of the home contradicted the perfume of fear, blood, and death wafting from within.

A rising wind fluttered her dress in wet slaps against her legs as Kiara gave Leontes the new address.

"For God's sake," he demanded through the phone. "I am telling you- no, ordering you, for the final time, to stop and wait for me, and do not hang up. You know the rules. You cannot be out, let alone unsupervised."

"But the assassin is inside."

"If there even is an assassin! The house could be full of innocent humans."

Kiara flinched. He thought she was hallucinating. The sting of that realization flushed her cheeks. But Butch had said the killer was real. Where was Butch? A quick glance around revealed he had abandoned her.

Through the phone, Kiara heard the screech of tires as Leontes squealed around a corner on his race to get to her. She said, "You're such a worry wart. I've been out for hours and nothing's gone wrong. What's the worst that could happen?"

Gunshots shattered the silence of the night. Bright flashes of light lit the interior of the house.

"What was that?"

"Good," Kiara said with relief. "You heard it, too."

In one fluid motion, she leapt over the gate and ran for the porch. The splintered front door hung drunkenly on one hinge.

"Automatic gunfire. Inside." Kiara fought to stay calm. She needed to focus. Wet from the rain, she brushed back the dark tendrils tangling across her eyes and took deep breaths, the smell of gunpowder strong.

"No. Kiara, whatever happens, do not go inside the-"

Kiara eased off the clunky, muddied boots and hopped barefoot over the door onto the cold tile. "I'm in the house."

"Goddammit!" His words disintegrated into a groan. "Kiara? Wait for me outside!"

Kiara poked her head into the living room. Through the rain-spattered windows, the hazy glow from streetlights filtered in to chase at shadows crawling the walls. Three lawn chairs and a card table sat empty in a room which was otherwise devoid of furniture. She smelled the ravaged flesh and the coppery scent of spilled blood before she saw the bodies.

Seven well-muscled men, faces frozen in a final grimace, lay crumpled on the floor, limbs at odd angles, blood pooling beneath them. Automatic guns lay scattered a few feet away, the metal bent as if it had been heated and warped.

Or twisted by a tremendous amount of brute force.

The dead bodies did not faze her, but the black flower petals on the ground and the symbol on the wall stole her breath. Two scythes, crisscrossed at the handles, were painted in blood, the crimson lines dripping in a macabre fashion.

"Leontes, it's Oleander. His death crest is drawn in blood above two corpses." Kiara tiptoed to the wall, careful to keep from stepping in the spreading pools of red. She tilted her head and wrinkled her nose. "There's a business card. Stuck on the wall with blood."

Leontes cursed. "Do not look at the card. Leave it alone."

Kiara peeled the card off the wall with a sticky, wet crackle. Oleander's death crest took center stage on the front of the glossy white card. On the back, spiked vines with vibrant red blossoms entwined around a clear glass jar filled with thick scarlet liquid. Thanks to an infusion of magic, the bottle appeared real. Like a 3-D hologram. As Kiara moved the card, the potion inside the container swirled and glowed.