Page 96 of Cruel Revenge
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Isaw the bodies around the building as Heath and I walked to the nice office on the third floor. I remembered it well enough, but most of what had happened was already a blur. I remembered the kills. I didn’t remember the layout. Driven by where people were and the order I killed them, the path was chaotic and devastating. Heath got to see all of it now. All the while, there was nothing from the mate bond that said he found it disturbing or would love me less for it.
“You’re handling this well,” I said, looking over my shoulder at him as we went up the second flight of stairs. “The… carnage.”
“I was talking to Hasan last night, sitting in the Tribunal as Landon and I were realizing we could go home soon. Hasan came to see me, and I asked for advice on your mood with Courtney reaching out to Carey.” Heath stepped around me, putting his hands in his pockets. “It was an informative conversation, telling me the feelings that bubble underneath your surface are something many werecats deal with. He also told me never to argue with a mother werecat when she needs to kill someone for hurting her baby.” Heath looked down at hisshoes, then back up. There was remorse and regret in the mate bond.
“And while I knew you and Carey loved each other as mother and daughter, it hadn’t… become too real yet, being as unspoken as it was.” He looked around. “I didn’t realize it matched the love I have for her as her father. I should have known, should have paid closer attention to the bond you two forged over the years.”
“And now?”
“Jacky, if you wanted to wipe a city off the map for her, I would believe you. And I love you even more for it.” He waved his hand at the bloody destroyed hall at the top of the stairs as I reached him. “And this? Jacky, I had to hold myself back and apart from everything all night because if I lost control, I would take all the werewolves with me until someone could put me down. But you… you don’t have that risk. A dark part of melovesthat you can do this when I’m not allowed.”
That fierce love burned through everything else in my mind. Through the best days and the worst, this man loved me, and I loved him, too.
“A dark part of you loves the dark part of me, then. I guess we really are a good match,” I said, sighing as I took his hand, entwining my fingers with his.
“We’re the best match,” he whispered as he lifted our hands and kissed the back of mine.
I pulled him with me, knowing we were almost at our destination. I stopped at the door, having left it ajar. I couldn’t see the ghost of the witch, but I could still smell magic.
“We’ll wait here,” I decided, wanting my sister and mother with me before I dared cross the threshold.
Hasan, Subira, and Zuri were there next, coming up the stairs after us.
“Daughter, we really need to talk about how to make clean kills,” Subira said, stepping over a loose limb.
“They deserved this,” Hasan growled.
“I’m with Father this time,” Zuri said, raising her nose at a corpse. “They deserved every second of it.” Zuri reached me first as Subira stopped further away. Zuri, though, as she approached the room, looked at the door I stood next to, her eyes going wide.
Hasan refused to move from the top of the stairs, his expression growing more feral and furious by the second.
“I killed the male witch who had two voices,” I explained. “And then I met a ghost. We should probably have Dirk pull all the security footage to review later. There are cameras. The ghost didn’t follow me far from the room, though.” I pointed up to the three in just this hallway alone.
“A ghost,” Hasan whispered.
“Mother and I don’t know how to deal with the dead, Jacky,” Zuri reminded me. “And if she’s capable of possession… I’m not sure Mother and I can… go anywhere near it.” Zuri took a few steps back, and Subira reached out, pulling her back further.
“I wanted your permission to reenter the room. With Heath as my backup.” I looked past them to Hasan. “And you if you’d like.”
“It’s probably safe if you enter, and we can handle any of you if one of you is possessed.” Subira’s unsaid words were clear.
None of us could handle her, and Zuri would be a problem as well.
“Thank you.” I went in, leaving them all in the hallway. Heath followed quickly. I heard slow footsteps from down the hall. Hasan was thinking about it.
I saw the body and could smell thick magic.
“Heath, will you help me examine the body?” I asked, leaning down stiffly to try rolling it over. He did it for me and started searching the pockets. Eventually, he had them emptied, and a pile was ready for me to look through. I finally found an ID on the man, with a name. His credit cards and everything matchedit. Whether it was his real name or just a well put-together alias was something we could only determine later. Nothing else really mattered. As he and I looked at the body, Hasan hovered in the doorway, his feral fury mixing with his cautious fear.
Whatever this witch had done to my father, it had left one hell of a mark to still make him wary so many years later. It made his hate for witches and magic he wasn’t related to all the more reasonable. He had been deeply traumatized.
I was very much beginning to understand that trauma.
“Look at this,” Heath said softly. He revealed a tattoo on the man. It was on the bicep and wouldn’t be visible if he was wearing a shirt with his arms at his side. It wasn’t a design I recognized at all.
