“You heard her,” Rose practically snarled. “Kiyo, do it.”
“Are you sure?” Kiyo narrowed his eyes on Niamh. “I’m not convinced she’s seeing things your way.”
“Niamh Farren is the sweetest soul I’ve ever met, Kiyo, and you are so lucky I am not in that room to eviscerate you for hurting her.”
Rose’s words eased the burn somewhat in Niamh’s chest. Guilt replaced the irritation.
Kiyo glared at his phone. “I think I might have the wrong Niamh Farren, then.”
Ugh, very nice. She gave him a dark look.
“Just do it.”
“Fine.”
“And let us know when you’re on the move. We don’t need to know where … we just need to know she’s okay.”
“Fine.” He hung up.
Kiyo stood slowly and Niamh drank in his powerful body. Beneath his T-shirt and jeans were very broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs.
“You don’t like her very much, do you?” she asked.
He walked toward the mattress. “I thought you’d have mixed feelings about her, considering it was her coven who killed—”
“That wasn’t Rose’s fault.”
Thankfully, Kiyo said no more. Instead he lowered to his haunches and reached out to take hold of the leather cuffs. A small key appeared in his hand as if from nowhere and he unlocked them.
“Throw them away, please,” she begged, feeling tears of relief sting her eyes.
He frowned but did as she asked, sending them soaring to the other side of the room.
The deep lethargy began to fade from her body, although the iron walls meant it wouldn’t alleviate itself completely.
“So, what’s the decision. Really?” Kiyo asked.
They stared at one another a second, and Niamh had the alarming feeling she could drown in his big dark eyes. They should have been soulless and dull considering he had all the warmth of an icebox. But they weren’t. His eyes glittered with intelligence and determination.
Her gaze dropped to his lips. He had the most prominent cupid’s bow she’d ever seen on a man. His mouth was beautiful and tempting as hell.
Pity, really, they’d met under these circumstances.
It took every inch of strength Niamh possessed, gathering it like a cyclone in the center of her being.
Kiyo’s eyes widened as he sensed her energy building.
But he was too late.
Niamh sent her magic out like two hands gripping his head and she snapped his neck without even touching him.
“Fair play and all that,” she muttered wearily as she crawled along the mattress past his now-unconscious body.
It took Niamh much longer than she’d ever have thought to crawl to the apartment door. Her body was soaked with sweat by the time she reached it, all the while worried the wolf would awaken and stop her.
But finally, her hand grasped the lock and the doorknob and it swung open. She fell out of the doorway and scrambled to shut it behind her.
Though still tired and weak, the heaviness left her limbs and she managed to push herself up to standing. She had to move at the speed of a human, but Niamh hurried as fast as she could out of there and used what energy she had left to start the engine of a car out in the lot.
She breathed a very real sigh of relief as the car pulled away from the apartment building.
Because Niamh didn’t care what Rose and Fionn wanted. They didn’t have the visions like she did. And if she didn’t follow her visions, then what was the point in this long, bloody awful eternal life? If the visions led to her eventual death, then at least she would have died for something and not been killed in a pointless act that had led to nothing.
3
An aching burn of pain woke Kiyo. His eyes flew open and he stared up at the cracked ceiling, frowning at the hurt in his neck and spine as he tried to orient himself.
Niamh.
The memory of her hit with the same force of a sucker punch. Fury filled him as he flew to his feet and swayed. His body wasn’t quite done healing itself.
The fae woman had broken his neck without even touching him.
He growled as he marched toward the door of the apartment, following the faint traces of her scent out into the hallway. Kiyo knew he shouldn’t have listened to Rose. Behind Niamh’s blasé but iron-weakened attitude had been a hard glint of determination in her eyes.
Either she didn’t give a damn she was putting the gate in danger or she was so blinded by her own mission, she couldn’t see what she was jeopardizing.
Thankfully, her scent still lingered, which meant it hadn’t been long since she’d escaped. She’d underestimated how quickly Kiyo would heal. Not as fast as a fae, maybe, but faster than the other wolves.
Her scent led out to the parking lot and beyond, so Kiyo jumped in the stolen car he’d parked out there and rolled down the window. Niamh’s caramel essence tickled his nose and he drove in the direction she’d taken off in.
The whole time he drove, he tried to contain his anger. Playing nice wasn’t second nature to Kiyo, but his fury at her would definitely push her further away.
He’d never regretted taking on a job more.
She hadn’t escaped from the apartment for more than five minutes when the two cars appeared behind her.
Niamh’s pulse jumped. It wasn’t the wolf following her. Wolves didn’t heal that fast. But her knowledge of her pursuers’ identity came from more than that.
Fae could sense when they or others were in danger. The hair on Niamh’s body rose, her pulse rate increased, and a feeling akin to dread swam over her. That hadn’t happened with Kiyo and now she knew why. Rose and Fionn had sent him to protect her.
So the three cars behind her … nothing to do with Kiyo.
It was either The Garm or the Blackwoods.
The bloody wolf had led them right to her. She scoffed in irritation at his interference.
And because of his interference, she was too weak to travel!
Niamh had been heading back into the city to collect her things from the hotel, but even if it was the early hours of the morning and there were only a few cars on the road, she couldn’t lead them into a fight where innocents might get hurt.
She was currently on the motorway and as she passed the buildings on her left, she caught glimpses of thick, dark forestation in the distance. One of Moscow’s national parks, maybe? She knew there were areas of natural beauty scattered throughout Moscow that could make folks forget they were even in a city.
Niamh could head into the park and lose them in there. Her strength might even come back in a place like that and she’d be able to travel.
Mind made up, and seeing no way off the motorway but to cross it, she swerved the car onto the opposite side of the quiet road and shot across and off it. She hit the grass as she took a road on the left, past a Burger King, down a tree-lined street toward the wooded area she’d seen in the distance. Plowed snow sat piled along the edges of the sidewalks in graying, icy borders.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw the two cars were still following her.
Clingy buggers, aren’t they? she thought in aggravation as she approached a glowing-red traffic light perched beneath a railway bridge.
Niamh took a breath and flew under the tight bridge, thankfully not meeting any oncoming traffic. As soon as she came out of it, her headlights lit up a path leading into the park.