Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel by Becca Blake (english novels to improve english .txt) 📕

“Riley?”

The familiar male voice that called my name pulled me right out of the moment, and a sense of dread froze the flame inside me.

Chapter Six

Orion ran toward me like something out of a dream I couldn’t quite comprehend. He had his sword out, and he wore the blank expression that came with blocking his emotions to use magic.

What was he doing at the warehouse? It wasn’t like he could stop by quickly to check on us on his way to his next meeting. Omaha was more than a little out of the way.

Before I could put my questions into words, he placed his hand firmly on my shoulder. “Move, Riley.”

My mind reeled as I stepped aside. How much of the fight had he seen? If he’d been standing there for all of it, he would have stepped in to help sooner, wouldn’t he?

Had he seen how I stopped Casey? I still wasn’t even sure what that was.

Or maybe I knew exactly what it was and just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

Orion pushed the toe of his boot into Casey’s side and nudged her. She rolled onto her back with a pained groan.

“The lady asked you a question,” Orion said, his voice a low growl. “Who are you, and what do you want?”

Casey let out a broken, pathetic noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “I just want you to kill me.”

He stepped on her left shoulder, pushing the fresh wound into the dirty floor, then repeated his questions.

Casey’s shriek interrupted my attempts to regain control over my mind. I had to rebuild the mental barriers that would steady my racing heart.

Her cries turned into a choking laughter. Despite the excruciating pain she appeared to be in, and her hopeless position, she spat at Orion’s feet. “Nothing you can do to me can compare to what Raxael would have done if I hadn’t tried to stop it.”

“Stop what?” I asked. “And who is Raxael?”

It sounded like he was their boss—and probably a demon. That meant he was our next target.

Orion cut off her reply with a blade across her throat. Her head drooped to the side as blood poured from the wound.

The mental barriers I’d been rebuilding in my mind crumbled. My fingertips warmed as I watched Orion with something between anger and disbelief. “That’s it? You just killed her? She was about to talk!”

“She wasn’t going to talk. She was just going to continue spewing useless garbage at us. Besides, she told me everything I needed to know.” He pulled out a cloth from his pocket and wiped his sword clean before returning it to its sheath.

This was nothing more than business for him—just another day at the office for a demon hunter. Hell, I’d been ready to kill her myself. Still, something about the way he killed her felt wrong.

“So, do you know who Raxael is?” I asked. “You didn’t give her a chance to finish talking.”

“Are you hurt?” he asked, ignoring my question.

Thanks to the rush of adrenaline and power during the fight, I hadn’t noticed my injuries. The reminder brought the pain back with a fierce intensity that made my entire torso feel like it had been set alight. I looked down at my waist and peeled my shirt away from my skin. The top had been shredded in multiple places, and what was left of it was now soaked with my blood.

“A bit,” I said.

“We need to take care of those.” He moved toward me with his hands held out, as though he wanted to show me he wasn’t a threat. “Let me have a look.”

I turned to the side. “Those claws hurt like hell.”

Orion lifted the shreds of my shirt and examined the slashes that marred my torso. “She didn’t get you very badly. Nothing too deep, anyway. Looks like you got lucky.”

“Lucky. Sure.”

“Well, you’re not dead.” He retrieved a small glass jar from his bag. After dipping two fingers into the gooey green mixture, he spread it over my skin.

I hissed at the sting from the healing herbs.

“Stay still, dammit,” Orion said.

I tried to stop myself from moving, but I couldn’t help the way I flinched away from his touch. My skin burned from the healing solution. The pain always got worse before it got better as the skin knitted itself back together.

It sucked, but it was better than the pain of waiting for injuries to heal naturally.

When he finished applying the magical herbs, he tore his shirt off and wrapped it around my waist as a bandage. “That should work until we get back home to Haygrove and can have someone look at you.”

“Wait. Why are you here?” I blurted out. “Were you following us?”

“We got more intel that there might be something more going on here. I thought this was a false alarm, but I guess with all the demonic activity in the area, we should have known better.”

“It really didn’t sound like anything serious. You couldn’t have known.”

“As soon as I found out there was more to it, I tried calling to get you to turn around, but you didn’t answer your phone.”

I patted the pouches strapped to my thigh. “I must have left it in the car.”

“What exactly happened here?”

“Tell me who Raxael is first.”

“I’m your commanding officer, Riley. Maybe show at least a little respect?” He wasn’t angry. He just sounded tired.

“You sent us in here blind,” I said. “And you killed our only lead without letting her talk. An explanation is the least you can do.”

If I was talking to anyone other than Orion, I wouldn’t even dream of speaking that way to my superior. But after the night I’d had, I was exhausted, and I wanted answers.

“I’m sorry, Ry. I didn’t intend for this to be a real mission. I was just trying to get you and Jacob to spend some time together before throwing you into something life-threatening. The two of you had some issues