Immortal Vengeance (Flames 0f The Sea Book 3) Read online

  Perhaps she was just making excuses in hindsight, but Lisette was sure she was right. If she hadn’t spent so much time trying to hide from her own waning feelings, maybe she would have come to these conclusions sooner.

  Lisette’s eyes were aching from crying, and she garbled out a spell, getting it wrong the first time because she was too busy sobbing to pronounce it correctly. Her eyes burned even worse, and on the second try, she cast it correctly.

  The redness and puffiness of her eyes disappeared, though that didn’t do anything to stop the tears. Lisette considered calling for one of her sisters. They would come, and they would comfort her… but she still wasn’t keen on facing them. They had been right all along, and even if they didn’t make her sit through an ‘I told you so’ speech, they all knew the facts, and the facts made her face sting with embarrassment.

  It took a long time for Lisette to cry herself out. The sun crept along in the sky, and finally her eyes dried. She sniffed and sat up, done crying, but not ready to leave yet. The wedding dress wasn’t exactly comfortable wear while she was lying on the ground, so she shifted a bit, trying to find a better position.

  Giving up on comfort, Lisette flopped onto her back and stared up at the sky. Music had always eased her mind, so that’s what she turned to as she gazed at the stars. She sang an old ballad about a maiden looking for love but never finding it. She identified with the woman in the song, despite the fact that Lisette had found love many times.

  Was there any point in finding it if it never lasted? Wouldn’t it be less painful never to know love at all? The song was mournful but beautiful. With no one around to hear it, Lisette put her soul into it, allowing the music to lift away the shards of pain that lingered. It would take her a long time to recover fully from this mess, but here and now, at least this was a start.

  The wind picked up slightly, and Lisette shivered, but didn’t pause to cast a warming spell. She just kept singing. When she sang like this, giving herself entirely over to the song, it often felt like she was the only one in the world – just her and the music. By all rights, it should be a lonely feeling, but that was never really Lisette’s impression of it. She simply felt at peace.

  She closed her eyes, listening to the waves crashing far below her. The salt water was too far away to hurt her, and she could enjoy the sound in peace. It was a beautiful spot – a romantic spot, even.

  No.

  No way was she going there, not again, at least not yet. This disaster with Teo was fresh in her mind, and Lisette needed a break. She’d barely gone more than a couple of months between falling for one guy or the other since she was fifteen. Enough was enough. She was going to give her poor heart a rest. No more falling in love, at least not for a while.

  Lisette kept singing, and the song took on a hopeful note. Maybe this was exactly what she needed – time to focus on herself without the distraction of a man in her life.

  3

  Nobu crept forward through the trees. This was the correct house, and if his information was correct, the target was inside. Nobu didn’t know what the man had done to offend his employer, but it wasn’t his job to ask questions. It was his job to kill the target, collect his money and move on.

  He’d scoped the area out beforehand on Google maps, and knew the perfect place to make the shot. That involved him getting around to the other side of the house without being seen, which would be complicated, given that the house was mostly made of glass.

  It was well within his abilities, though. Nobu had been an assassin for almost ten years, and he was good at his job. Taking out high level CEOs who had pissed off their competitors was child’s play for him. More challenging were the mob bosses who had layers and layers of security.

  Gregory Hannon, though, would be an easy kill. He thought himself immune to all aggression, or so his estate spoke. No security guards, and only a simple alarm system that was easily disarmed. There were also a number of convenient trees nearby that made creeping around the edges of the property easy.

  Patience was the first thing Nobu had learned in his line of work. Sometimes, he had to sit perfectly still for hours, waiting for the right opportunity to come. He had a scar at the base of his throat to prove the dangers of hasty action. Whenever he was tempted to rush, Nobu touched the puckered skin lightly, reminding himself how very lucky he was even to be alive, given some of his past mistakes.

  Finally, he edged his way into view of the bedroom. Nobu lay almost flat behind a large rock, large enough for Google maps to show in a standard view. It had a dip that was the perfect place to rest a rifle and aim.

  Nobu grabbed his binoculars and looked into the bedroom. Sure enough, Gregory was just waking up from his Saturday afternoon nap. He would go to the bathroom, then stand in front of his mirror as he got dressed. This would put him in perfect position for a clean shot to the head.

  Now that he was positioned, Nobu wasted no time in getting out his gun. He started positioning it on the rock, but paused, cocking his head to the side. What was that sound?

  A voice was being carried toward him on the wind. Someone was singing – a woman. He should ignore it. Nobu knew all too well how voices carried in open areas like this on a breeze. The woman probably wasn’t anywhere near him. He could make the kill and be gone before she even knew he was here.

  Though it was his job, Nobu never killed any more than he had to. He took out his targets with minimal collateral damage. He didn’t want to have to hurt this unknown woman who sang so beautifully and so sadly.

  Normally, he would have gone straight back to work, but something about her voice was shattering Nobu’s concentration. He tried to get his gun set up properly, but found himself fumbling with simple actions he’d performed a thousand times.

  No, this wasn’t working. He was going to have to get rid of her. Not kill her, but make her leave the area, or at least get her to stop singing her distractingly wonderful song. He’d done things like this before. He could tell her there was a wild bear in the area and she had to leave for her own safety. It would be easy enough to shepherd her around the house in a way where she would never come into Gregory’s line of sight.

  Completely forgetting to crouch of sneak, Nobu got up and hurried toward the sound of the voice. It took a few steps for him to realize what he was doing, and he dropped to the ground in horror. If he was seen now, it would ruin everything. Not only would he fail to complete the job, but with Gregory on his guard, it would be that much harder to get right the next time.

  Nobu made it a habit never to leave a job unfinished. It was bad for business. Navigating this area may be easy now, but put in a few hired guards, and it would become a nightmare. After laying flat for several seconds, he glanced around for the nearest cover. There, that bush would do. He quickly crawled behind it before taking stock.

  There was a small cluster of trees not far from him. He was still in plain sight of the bedroom window, but if his data was correct, Gregory should be in the bathroom now anyway. Nobu should be safe, but he hadn’t become as successful as he had by taking stupid risks.

  He glanced through the branches, looking for any sign of movement in the bedroom. The angle of the sun on the windows was blinding, though, and he couldn’t tell. He was already more than half way to the trees; going the rest of the distance would be just as risky as trying to make it back.

  With a quick decision, Nobu made a mad dash for the trees. He gained their shade in seconds and quickly melted in between the trunks. The voice was louder now, still singing, unaware that someone was approaching. How did anyone human have a voice that beautiful? It was utterly enchanting.

  As he listened to the woman singing, Nobu made a mistake he hadn’t made since the early days of his training. He completely forgot about his mission. The only thought in his mind was creeping closer and seeing who was singing.

  He did just that, moving quietly through the trees until he had a clear view of the flat grassy space that ended in a cliff out ov
er the ocean. The woman was lying on her back in the grass, wearing a spectacular wedding gown. Her face was wet, but she was no longer crying. The song took on a hopeful note, which made it all the more beautiful.

  Nobu found that his feet were moving forward. He didn’t know what he was going to do when he stepped into view. He wasn’t thinking properly, which could be deadly, but he didn’t get a sense of danger from this woman like he did from so many others in his line of work.

  He’d learned over the years to read people at a glance, at least to some extent. If his assessment was correct, this woman wasn’t malicious. She would defend herself, but she wouldn’t attack unprovoked, just because a stranger happened upon her in a private moment. Nobu’s judgement was seldom wrong.

  Just before he stepped out of the trees, he finally got control of his feet. He would scare her if he just burst out of nowhere. That was the last thing he wanted. She wasn’t so close to the edge of the cliff that she was in danger of rolling off, but if she became frightened and ran, she could go right over the edge before she managed to stop herself.

  Nobu knew how high the cliff was, and knew he could survive a fall from it, but he would likely break at least a few bones. He did thorough research before accepting any job, and that included all possible risks and opportunities the surrounding landscape offered.

  If the woman fell, and he jumped after her, he might save her, or he might doom them both. He didn’t want to hurt her, he thought to himself. Best not to let it come to that.

  He was sure she hadn’t seen him, but evidently he was wrong, because a moment later, she stopped singing. “Are you going to come out and greet me, or do you intend to spend the day there?”

  How had she known he was here? She couldn’t see him, not unless she had X-ray vision that went through solid tree trunks, and she couldn’t possibly have heard him, not above the noise of the ocean below, the wind and her own voice. He was being so careful.

  Nobu hesitated out of habit. He knew he’d been made, even if it wasn’t by someone who intended him harm, and he automatically tried to find a way to save the situation. Maybe she just thought someone was there, and he could sneak away…

  All at once, his mission came back to him. He couldn’t sneak away, he needed to get her out of here. What was he doing, watching a woman sing while his window of opportunity was rapidly shrinking? It didn’t matter how beautiful she was, he couldn’t afford to let himself get distracted.

  He stepped out from behind the tree, keeping his hands open at his sides, glad that he’d left his gun at the rock. Of course, he still had his pistol in his boot, but she couldn’t see that.

  “Hello.” He appraised her, and was surprised at what he saw. She didn’t look afraid at all, which went counter to all his expectations for a woman found alone by a strange man. “I don’t mean you any harm.”

  The woman snorted, as if the very idea was funny. “Thanks. Do you live here?” She gestured to the glass house, once more reminding Nobu of his mission.

  “No, I’m with the local rangers. There’s a bear loose in the area. You need to clear out – I can show you a safe route.”

  Nobu had done this kind of thing dozens of times, and the prospect of imminent danger always had people leaving as quickly as they could. Apparently, this woman was different.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “A bear. Here. This isn’t the right habitat for a bear.”

  “It must have wandered from its real home. Trust me, it’s here, and you don’t want to run into an angry bear.”

  “I think I can handle myself.”

  Nobu found himself at a loss. This had never happened before. Why wasn’t she afraid? “Who are you?”

  “Lisette.”

  “I’m Nobu, and I need you to trust me, Lisette.”

  “Why would I trust you, when the first thing you ever said to me was a lie?”

  “Look, I’m trying to protect you, that’s not a lie.” If she got in his way, he’d have to kill her too, and Nobu desperately didn’t want to do that.

  His time was running out, and he didn’t want to threaten her, but he couldn’t have her so close and potentially mess up his mission.

  Before he could decide what to do, Lisette’s expression sharpened in alarm. She threw out her hands and shouted something in a language he didn’t know. A purple ball of light blasted toward him, sizzling lethally. Nobu knew a deadly weapon when he saw it.

  He didn’t even have time to scream.

  4

  Nobu had lost track of the number of times he’d fully expected to die, and he never really got used to it. People always say that your life flashes before your eyes, but that never happened to him. Instead, he simply blanked out for a moment.

  One second, the ball of light was inches away… and in the next, it was gone. Nobu spun around in time to see that it had sailed right past him and was heading straight for someone behind him – Gregory.

  Gregory threw himself to the side just in time. The ball hit a tree and exploded, leaving a mass of charred bark behind, but surprisingly, no fire.

  Blanking out in the face of imminent death was a major disadvantage for someone in his line of work, and Nobu had learned to work around it by reacting with lightning speed the moment he came back to himself.

  One look let him appraise the situation. Gregory had a gun in his hand and was currently getting to his feet. Nobu’s gun was in his boot and he didn’t have time to draw it. He also had Lisette to think of. He didn’t want her getting killed in his place.

  There was only a split second to decide what to do, and Nobu made his choice without hesitation. He turned and grabbed Lisette’s wrist, dragging her along behind him. She came willingly, and the two of them dashed sideways into the trees. A bang told him that Gregory had fired the gun, and Nobu tensed himself, waiting for a blinding flash of pain.

  Nothing came, and he would have sighed in relief had he not been out of breath from sprinting as fast as he could. He glanced over at Lisette, but her stride was steady; it didn’t look like she’d been hit.

  Nobu ran from memory. For every job, he had an escape route planned in case something went wrong. This particular one was through the trees to a path down the small mountain Gregory’s house was on.

  Lisette’s hand was dragging on his; she was struggling to keep up. Nobu slowed his pace slightly, letting go of her hand so that they could both run unencumbered. Lisette showed no signs of slowing, though she stumbled a few times on the uneven ground. Nobu reached to steady her when she did. He was used to running in all kinds of terrain.

  He looked over his shoulder as they got to the path and could see no sign of Gregory. Perhaps the man had elected to make for the safety of his house. That would be more in character for him, from what research Nobu had done, than pursuing two dangerous fugitives through the wilderness.

  Still, he couldn’t count on that. They needed to get somewhere safe and regroup. He slowed their pace slightly as they started careening down the mountain, but not much. Nobu only pulled back to a walk when Lisette nearly went tumbling right off the mountainside. He grabbed her arm and steadied her, holding on until he was sure she had her feet under her.

  Lisette didn’t comment as they slowed to a fast walk. Nobu looked over his shoulder every few seconds. If Gregory followed them, he’d have the high ground for any attack, and they needed to be ready to dive out of the path of bullets at any moment.

  He was impressed with her. Any other woman would be a screaming, weeping mess by now, but Lisette simply kept up a good pace, focusing on placing her feet on the path and not once looking back.

  Neither of them spoke until they stumbled onto the beach below. Nobu led her to a large cluster of boulders. Behind them on a spread out towel was, a bottle of water, some energy bars and a basic medical kit. He’d placed them here before starting to job, just as he always did when going in. At least the medical kit wouldn’t be needed this time.

  Lisette flopped down onto the towel,
fixing him with a beady eye. “You want to tell me what that was about, ranger?”

  Nobu winced. There was no way she’d believe he was a ranger after that. His gut was telling him that he could trust her, but years of experience told him otherwise, and he decided to play it safe.

  “A guy was shooting at us. It seemed wise to get out of the general area.”

  Lisette snorted. “Yeah, ok, I’ll give you that, but you knew exactly where you were going. You even have a picnic set up for us.”

  “I like to be prepared.”

  It was clear she didn’t believe him, and Nobu changed the subject. “What was that back there? You weren’t even holding a weapon. How did you manage to… do whatever you did?” It must be technology he’d never even heard of before – and Nobu kept tabs on all new weaponry that came out.

  Lisette broke his gaze, falling silent.

  It seemed that neither of them was eager to trust the other. Nobu got up and checked the area, looking in all directions, including the way they’d came. Still no sign of Gregory. He was probably calling his private security company – he wouldn’t want the publicity that would come with involving the police.

  Nobu was confident that the security wouldn’t find them here. No one thought to look at the bottom of the cliff, not if they were looking for living people.

  When he was finished his check, he sat back down, opening the water bottle and taking a sip. “We’re going to be here for a few hours – the area is too hot to move until security has finished searching for us. We may as well talk to each other.”

  “You first.”

  “Not a chance. Come on, you can tell me. Whatever that weapon is, you could fry me in an instant with it. It’s not like I’m a threat to you.”

  “It’s not a weapon,” Lisette admitted.

  “Sure looked like one.”

  “It’s magic. I’m a witch.”