15 Targeted by Evangeline Anderson Read Free Book Online

trash.
    Grayson gave a moan of protest and struggled in the huge Kindred’s grip.
    “Be still you fucking slime,” the Kindred snarled shaking Grayson so hard his teeth clicked together. “I know what you are and I know what you did—you deserve death many times over.” He looked at Emily. “How shall I dispose of him, Khalla?”
    “My name is Emily, not Khalla,” she protested, crossing her arms nervously over her chest. “And what do you mean ‘dispose’ of him?”
    “I mean kill him, of course.” He looked surprised that he even had to explain to her. “He deserves death for wounding you so grievously and while I cannot allow you to kill him yourself, I will be more than happy to kill him for you. In fact, it will be my very great pleasure.” He glared at Grayson, his golden eyes fierce with anger.
    “Hey, now wait a minute—” Grayson began to protest but the Kindred shook him again.
    “Silence, dhag and let your betters speak.”
    Emily didn’t know what a dhag was anymore than she knew what Khalla or a Tenrah or any of the other strange, foreign words the Kindred was spouting meant. But she could tell by looking into his eyes that he meant business.
    “You’d really kill him?” she asked him.
    He nodded shortly. “In any way you see fit. I have a sonic rifle for a quick kill but that wouldn’t be my pick.”
    “It…it wouldn’t?” Emily couldn’t stop staring at him.
    He shook his head.
    “For what he has done, a quick death is too merciful. I also do excellent knife work.” A long, curving silver blade suddenly appeared in one large hand. “But we would need a private location or something to gag him with.”
    “A gag? You’re asking me if I have a gag?”
    The Kindred nodded and looked speculatively at Grayson who was still hanging from his fist, in his rumpled and bloodied suit.
    “There is apt to be a lot of screaming. Would you like to watch me skin him? Or perhaps carve his organs out one by one while he still lives? I can save the heart for last and be certain he feels intense pain to the very end.”
    “Oh my God,” Emily whispered faintly. “You…you’re serious, aren’t you?”
    Grayson seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
    “Please!” He wriggled like a hooked fish in the immense Kindred’s grip. “Please don’t—don’t let him, Emily. I never would have hurt you—I was just playing a joke.”
    Emily glared at him. “Some joke. Following me to my house to…to…” But she found she couldn’t get the words out with the big Kindred standing right there. “It was no joke,” she finished angrily.
    “Tell me how to kill him—what end would best meet your thirst for vengeance?” the huge Kindred rumbled, looking down at her. “Tell me Khalla and it shall be done.”
    For a moment Emily was severely tempted. How many times had she fantasized about a moment like this when she was trying to heal from Grayson’s attack? Well, not a moment exactly like this, she acknowledged to herself. She’d never in her wildest dreams imagined a huge avenging Kindred coming to her rescue and offering to carve up Grayson’s liver and save his heart for last. But still—she’d wished her rapist dead more times than she could count. And yet, now when it came down to it, she found she couldn’t do it. Couldn’t kill him or have him killed in cold blood.
    A moment ago when the other had taken over she could have done it easily—could have ripped out his throat and bathed in the fountain of crimson that pulsed from the ragged hole in his neck. But now that she was herself again and sanity had reasserted itself, a thousand questions came crowding into her mind.
    If they killed Grayson, where could they hide the body? Even if they could find a good place, she was certain the death would eventually come back to haunt her—both literally and figuratively. And how could she explain it when they found his corpse in a shallow grave and some hair or fiber evidence or the