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Tobias
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AS HER EYES WIDENED, panic spread across her delicate features. Nostrils flaring, her sensuous lips parted, but not a single sound of breath emerged from her.
She went for his dick with her knee, surprising him by the girly assault. Tobias barely managed to twist out of the way in time, taking the impact to his hip.
Curling a hand around her throat, he blew hot air in her face. Her hair flew back from his burst of air and he gave her a slight shake. His other hand cupped her ass and hauled her against him, reminding her he was a dragon, which usually resolved all effort of violence by another. In her case, it was the wrong move.
She throat-punched him.
Hard.
He couldn’t fucking breathe! Tobias’s throat seized up and he choked with his effort to breathe.
The brutality of the strike surprised him, and he released her. The tiny siren assassin executed a jump-spin, round kick to his cheek and his head snapped to the side, bones cracking in his neck. No time wasted, a front kick came toward his chin, but luckily he shifted to dragon before the impact, with his scales taking the brunt of the hit.
In dragon form, air filled his lungs. She hit the ground, wincing when her kicking foot touched the surface. Injured by the hardness of his dragon skin, she hopped a little as she lifted her arms and settled her hands in front of her face, in a fighting stance.
He changed back to his human form. “You’re injured and can’t expect to defeat me.” He indicated those behind her with a motion of his hand. “Or my brothers. Four to one, doll.”
“Doll? Doll?” Her tone elevated the second time she uttered the word. “Fuck you and your condescending doll bullshit.”
“That’s not how—”
Defending himself against her sudden side kick aimed at his gut, he grabbed her ankle with a talon as he shifted and flew straight up into the air. She shrieked at the sudden liftoff. Headed toward his home, he pushed his wings to pump hard and fast. He’d deal with her under the cover of imprisonment.
A bullet went through his wing. The sudden sting upset his balance and he pitched to the right on a direct path to earth. Surprised to see her holding a small pistol, he wasted little time in wondering where she’d hidden it, but instead banked left and rolled in a spin until she dropped the weapon.
“Fast fucker,” he heard her mumble and he jerked upward again. She jolted against his talon at the sudden change in direction.
That should’ve been the end of it. Any sane person who couldn’t fly would’ve admitted defeat and given up, but not the delectable siren in his grasp. She executed an upside down sit-up and was not just kicking with her free foot at his underbelly but using her nails to scrape at his tough hide.
Oh, yeah, he was totally keeping the spitfire. Anyone fighting back like this was worth keeping. Since he wasn’t into slavery, he’d seduce her into wanting to stay.
To stop her attack, he went into a fast spinning spiral roll like before, but a more tighter helix pattern than before. It typically left his victims tossing up their stomachs. Not many could withstand the intensity of the ‘death roll’ as his twin called it. The ache in his wing from the bullet wound slowed him a bit, but his speed was only minimally reduced.
For once she did the predictable thing and ceased to attack. Almost disappointed by her diminished spunk, he was satisfied she was no longer tearing his flesh off. Marks that would remain in his human form for at least twenty-four hours.
Tossing her into the air, he caught her with an arm as he landed onto the roof of the Drakki Estate, located in the most paranormal town in America, Black Hollow. The shoulder of his other arm burned from the bullet hole in the wing attached there. Now that he was back in his human flesh his injury would heal faster.
With her front flattened against his chest, the softness of her tits pressed against him heated his blood, which was fucked up since she’d attempted to kill him. Warm curves snuggled against him and the scent of the woman’s heat altered his dick from soft to semi-hard.
Great. Now his men would get a private view of his hard-on.
Their gazes collided, and her upper lip curled in feigned disgust. The arousal he scented from her testified to her interest, so he knew she pretended revulsion.
She pushed against his chest. “That better be a gun you—”
Before she could utter another word, he tossed her over his shoulder. If they’d met another time, in a different scenario, he’d have treated her with kindness like all his women. But she’d tried to kill him multiple times in a matter of minutes. He couldn’t let that go unpunished. If he showed her mercy, it would encourage his enemies to take potshots at him.
He strode toward the door and his man, Mega, on the roof.
“Sir, that’s a pretty ass.” Mega tipped his head, eyeing the siren. “Need any help with it?”
He flashed his cousin and bodyguard a grin. All his family worked for Drakki Diamonds in some way or another. Mega’s fists preferred to do most of the talking.
“I’ve got this pretty ass well under control.” He smacked her butt cheek, knowing the words and action would get a rise out of her.
Even though she hung upside down, the assassin managed to execute a vicious snarl that resulted in Mega stepping backward. “You sure about that, Tobias?”
She dug her fingernails into his ass hard enough she drew blood, the wet slide of it oozing down his thighs. “If I had a knife right now—”
To shut her up, he shifted her against his shoulder, and added a little pep in his step. She oomphed at the brunt to her belly and muttered beneath her breath. Under no misconceptions of her intention, he knew if she had a blade, she’d have severed his spine with it.
That’s freakishly hot.
“I’m positive. Got her right where I want her,” he replied to Mega, who laughed. Tobias controlled his urge to caress her ass. “Dom, Craig, and Deacon are coming in hot behind me.”
“Understood.” Mega’s job was to watch the roof and guard it against anyone not permitted inside. Any would-be invader that attempted to breach Drakki Estate without an invite explained to Mega’s fists why they deserved access.
Tobias stomped down the stairs and he was pretty sure he heard her say, ‘I’m going to enjoy killing this motherfucker.’
He gained the second floor and Keg—a second cousin who acquired his nickname thanks to his ability to down a keg in a single swallow—halted at the sight of Tobias. “Um... Tobias, do you know you have a woman attached to your shoulder?”
“Nope, had no idea she was there,” he drawled.
“If this is the way you’re reduced to acquiring companionship nowadays, then I really should take over the day-to-day operations.” His other cousin, Josiah, provoked him with his sarcasm.
Tobias lifted his other hand and flipped off Josiah. Scowling at Keg, he snarled, “Who the hell let the douchebag enter?”
Keg punched Josiah in the arm, his silent chuckles mocking Tobias as he stomped down the second flight of stairs. He’d grown up in this house with his parents, his twin, Hitchcock, Josiah and Victoria. Josiah and Vic were siblings and their parents had died in a car accident when they were two and six months, so they were more like Tobias’s siblings than cousins. Since Tobias’s dad’s death ten years ago, the four of them had inherited Drakki International, a diamond empire. Over the last decade, Tobias had learned to create the ice blue diamonds no one else could perfect and the company had tripled in worth.
His brother met him at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer. Hitchcock’s eyes widened and drawled, “What’s new, bro?”
“I’ll be right back.” He dropped his aspiring killer off in the vault that’d once held their diamonds but now functioned as a cage when enemies knocked. There’d been too many adversaries lately. Every motherfucker wanted a piece of his mine. None realized without him, the rare diamonds wouldn’t exist.
The moment her feet hit the floor, she flew toward him. He smiled as he slammed the door in her face and imagined her screeching when he threw the lock. Part of the beauty of the vault was that no sound exited the reinforced steel crypt. Any idea of horror could play out inside the four walls and none the wiser to what occurred within.
Turning to locate his brother, he halted a step later to discover his twin leaning a shoulder against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “Since when are women on our torture regimen?”
“She tried to blow my head off with a sniper rifle.”
Hitchcock came away from the wall with that news.
“If I hadn’t caught the flash of her scope, she’d have gotten me. She was at least two miles out, too far for me to catch her scent.” Tobias pinched the bridge of his nose, unnerved at how close he’d come to dying. That her scent inspired him to protect her bothered him though. If he didn’t know better he’d think she was his mate.
“She’s smart to execute the hit so far out,” Hitchcock mused, running a finger along his bottom lip.
“Yeah.” Tobias ran his palm across his face. “Dom thinks she’s Asherah Stone.”
Josiah joined them and threw a set of clothes at Tobias. “Cover that shit up.”
“Thanks.” Tobias drew on the jeans, careful to tuck his erection into the denim and zip up without nicking the family jewels. The light blue T-shirt he drew on fit him snug, but his cock protested the confinement by throbbing.
“What’s the chick drama about?” Josiah’s appearance was similar to his and Hitchcock’s. Black hair and olive complexion was a trademark Drakki appearance. Most people mistook the three of them for brothers and Vic as their sister.
Hitchcock caught Josiah up to date on their prisoner.
His cousin whistled low at the news. “That little thing might be Asherah Stone? Shit, no wonder her success rate was one-hundred percent. Everyone’s too busy staring at her ass to notice the bullet coming between their eyes.”
“Two miles out is a hell of a shot.” Hitchcock’s expression darkened. “Means someone wants one of us dead real bad if they’ve hired the legendary supernatural killer.”
Yeah, Tobias had theorized the bullet could’ve been for Hitchcock also. “That’s what I want to find out. Who hired her and who they wanted dead. Pretend to be me, Hitch, while I hang back and watch her expression.”
“I’m in on this interrogation.” Josiah cracked his knuckles. “No one fucks with my family without getting fucked back.”
“We’re not hurting her.” Hitchcock shook his head. “We don’t torture women.”
“She brought this shit down on her own head, man,” Josiah argued. “That bitch tried to pop your head off—”
“She tried to stab him too,” Dom added as he approached from behind Josiah and Hitchcock.
“Fuck.” Josiah glowered at Hitchcock, silent words passing between them. Tobias knew them well enough to know they were united against the chick.
“Sprayed off a round of bullets at him. Had it been me she was shooting at, she’d have gotten me.” Tobias glared at Dom, hoping he’d take the hint and stop sharing shit that escalated Josiah and Hitchcock’s tempers. Didn’t work because Dom ended with, “Thanks to Tobias’s speed, it’s the only way he managed to escape his death.”
“Okay,” Hitchcock amended. “We don’t brutalize children. That chick,” he inclined his head toward the vault door, “is on my torture list.”
“Yep,” Josiah agreed. “The bitch is getting some payback Drakki style.”
Grinding his molars together, Tobias grit out, “Follow my lead, godsdamnit.” Just because Tobias was in charge of the Drakki diamond syndicate did not mean his family followed his directions without dispute. Sometimes he felt like he micromanaged a bunch of five-year-olds. “Let’s focus on getting information before we start pulling the nails off her hands.”