Chapter 45: Alluring Darkness: Chapter 45

The moment Gabriel has finished speaking those damning words, a strange sense of calm spreads through my body. Without a single shred of hesitation, I raise the gun. And point it at my own head.

Surprise and stunned disbelief, that are mirrored in Connor’s eyes, pulse through me as we blink at each other from across the cave floor.

He has also raised his gun and pointed it at his own head.

An absolutely ridiculous urge to laugh bubbles in my chest. We’re so different, in almost every way, but in this one thing we are completely the same. Apparently, both of us are willing to die for each other without hesitation.

“No,” Gabriel snaps from behind me. My head jerks forward slightly as he shoves his gun harder against the back of my skull. “If you shoot yourself, I’ll just shoot your brother too. Same goes for you, Connor. The only way one of you gets to walk out of here is if you kill the other. So drop your guns from your own temples before I decide to shoot you both.”

I slowly lower my gun. Connor, whose wrists are still handcuffed in front of him, has to twist his hands while doing the same. With our weapons pointed at the ground, we just stare at each other in silence. I already know that I am not going to shoot him, so I make no move to do anything else. Neither does Connor.

From behind my back, Gabriel lets out a low growl. “What are you waiting for?”

We only continue watching each other. It strikes me then that I might have been wrong. I’ve always kind of assumed that Connor was only protective of me because he had to. Because that’s what siblings do. But when I study the expression on his face and the emotions swirling in his eyes, I realize that he does actually love me just as much as I love him.

I’ve always thought that he found me kind of annoying since I’ve always been unhinged and unpredictable while he has always been stable and hardworking. That he secretly resented me because I did nothing to help restore our family’s position while he spent every day pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into it.

But it looks like I was wrong. Apparently, I don’t know my own brother nearly as well as I should. Unfortunately, though, it seems as if it’s too late to change that now.

“You have twenty seconds,” Gabriel grinds out. “Then I shoot both of you.”

“Do it,” I say, giving Connor a tired smile.

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Con, we both know that you are the one who needs to survive. I can’t restore our family’s name. I can’t help Mom. But you can.”

“I don’t care.”

“Ten seconds,” Gabriel says.

Terror floods my system. I flick my gaze desperately around the cave, but there is nothing there to help us. No other way out. If I can’t convince my brother to shoot me in the next ten seconds, he is going to die too. My heart pounds so hard that it makes my ears ring. I suck in shallow breaths as fear spreads like poison through my veins.

“You have to!” I protest, my voice almost breaking.

“No.”

“Con—”

“You’re my little sister and I will always protect you.” His gray eyes are brimming with emotions as he holds my gaze and gives me a soft smile. “Now raise that gun and shoot me in the head, or I will never forgive you.”

“Five,” Gabriel says.

“Connor!” I call.

“Now,” he snaps. “Do it now, Raina. I love you.”

“No, Connor, I—”

A gunshot tears through the air.

I gasp.

For a moment, it feels as if the entire world is suspended in time. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I can’t feel anything.

Then reality comes crashing back around me.

Noise and movement and color explodes around me like a violent storm. After that moment of complete stillness, it shocks me enough that I flinch.

Everything is happening all at once.

Across the cave, four men in black clothes have entered the space like a sweeping wind of pure death. Guns raised, they advance across the stone floor behind my brother’s back.

Panic pulses across Shelley’s face as she finds herself with four killers behind her unprotected back, one of whom has already fired a gun into the ceiling. She yanks her weapon away from Connor’s head and starts to whirl around, but before she can turn, the butt of a gun cracks into the side of her head. She stumbles sideways, blood trickling down her temple.

Straightening, she finds herself face to face with Eli, Rico, Kaden, and Jace.

All color drains from her face in a flash.

With fear washing over her features, she immediately tosses her gun down on the ground and raises her hands. “Wait… Look, I—”

“Raina,” Eli says, cutting her off.

Lethal fury descends on his features like a death mask when he takes in the bruises and blood on my face and the gun that Gabriel is still pressing against my skull. The expression on Eli’s face could have frozen hell itself and set a glacier on fire at the same time. It’s the most terrifyingly beautiful thing I have ever seen.

His dark golden eyes shift to Gabriel. “You.”

Next to him, Shelley is trying to back away as Jace advances on her.

But Connor shoves his gun against the back of her head now that she has turned her back to him instead. “Keys.”

Metallic clinking fills the deadly silence as she fumbles to pull out the keys to his handcuffs. Kaden snatches them from her fingers the moment she holds them out. Moving over to Connor, he takes the gun from my brother’s hands and deftly unlocks the handcuffs.

“You, on your knees and face the wall,” Rico orders.

Connor gives Kaden a nod while Shelley hurries to obey Rico’s orders. While she’s dropping to her knees in front of the wall, Kaden hands my brother his gun back.

Then all five of them turn to face us. Except for Eli, who never took his eyes from me in the first place.

I can feel the violence pulsing from his entire body, and sense the death swirling in his eyes. Blood will be spilled here today.

As if he can feel it too, Gabriel locks his hand harder around the back of my neck and uses it to hold me firmly in front of him as a shield while he declares, “Take one step closer, and I’ll paint the walls of this cave with her brains.”

Across the stone ground, Connor, Eli, Jace, and Rico stand side by side with guns leveled at him. Or rather, at us, since I’m standing in front of him. Kaden is holding a pair of throwing knives while his cold eyes shift over us, as if calculating angles.

“Did he put those marks on your face?” Eli asks with barely restrained anger, his eyes locked on the patchwork of bruises on my face and the dried blood caking my skin.

“One single sound out of your mouth, and I’ll pull the trigger,” Gabriel warns.

I slowly close my mouth again without replying.

“Yes,” Shelley says from her place by the wall. Her gaze is still on the stone before her, and she stays on her knees and keeps her hands behind her head. “When I arrived with Connor, I walked in on him beating her up.”

A humorless laugh threatens to spill from my lips. So, she has quickly switched sides now that she has realized what a huge fucking mistake she has made? Does she really think that anything she says or does now will save her from my wrath once this is all over? Oh, she signed her death warrant the moment she put a gun to my brother’s head.

Jace and Rico glance towards her, but Eli’s gaze stays on me. I dip my chin in a barely perceptible nod, confirming that what Shelley said is true.

Lightning flickers behind Eli’s eyes, and a muscle ticks in his jaw as he tightens his grip on the gun.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” Gabriel says.

“You’re trapped in a cave with four guns pointed at you,” Eli interrupts in a voice that could have made mountains tremble. “Do you really think you’re the one in control here?”

“It doesn’t matter how many guns you have,” Gabriel replies, and I can hear the vicious smirk in his voice. “As long as mine is pointed at her. How the fuck are you top of your class if you don’t even realize that the guy with the hostage is the one in control of the situation?”

I wince as he digs his fingers even harder into the sides of my neck.

Eli’s finger twitches on the trigger. “I will break every one of your fingers and rip your fucking tongue out unless you—”

“No, here’s what you’re going to do,” Gabriel cuts him off. “All five of you are going to put your weapons on the ground. That includes those knives that your psychopath of a brother is holding. And then, all of you are going to back out of this cave. I will follow with Raina. Then you will tie each other to trees outside. And then I will leave. Once I’m safe, I will send Raina back to you.”

“Like hell—”

“Or I shoot her in the head right now and take my chances. Your choice.”

Connor’s eyes meet mine, and we share a look that requires no words. We both know that if Gabriel leaves with me, I will not make it back. His plan to get us to kill each other failed, but he is still going to try to take his revenge in any way he can. If he disappears with me, he is not going to honor his word and let me go once he’s safe. He’s going to torture me to death for our father’s crimes.

While keeping his eyes on me, Connor says something to Eli in such a quiet voice that we can’t hear it from over here.

“No whispering,” Gabriel barks.

He shoves his gun against my skull, forcing me to bow my head slightly, as if to make a point, before he pulls it back to its previous position. His fingers keep digging into my neck with enough force that I know they will leave bruises.

“Put your weapons on the ground and back out of here,” he demands. “I won’t ask you again.”

Desperation flickers in Eli’s eyes. My brother has no doubt told him what will happen if they let Gabriel leave with me. But they can’t just shoot him either, because I’m in the way.

Right now, there are only three possible outcomes. One, Gabriel shoots me in the head and they shoot him afterwards. Two, they shoot through me to kill Gabriel. Three, they let Gabriel, who will kill me as soon as we’re alone again, leave with me. Which means that there is no way out of this that doesn’t involve me dying in some way.

What a fucking inconvenience.

I blink as a sudden idea hits me like a lightning bolt. It’s risky and ridiculous and absolutely insane. But insanity is a dear friend of mine so it might just work.

My brother and all four of the Hunters notice the sudden expression on my face. But they thankfully keep their features blank so as to not give anything away. While Rico takes it upon himself to distract Gabriel by asking questions about how this retreat he’s demanding should work, I lock eyes with Eli. He’s the best shot out of all of them, and I trust him to get this right.

While holding his gaze, I tap my finger against the side of the gun I’m still holding. It’s pointed down at the ground, so Gabriel hasn’t deemed it a threat. Once I’m certain that Eli has seen the discreet gesture, I covertly tap my foot a few times. His expression doesn’t change, but I’m sure he understands. He has to.

Then I use my other hand that I have been holding pressed over my aching ribs to tap one finger against my body and then point to the right. Since Gabriel is standing behind me, he can’t see what my fingers are doing. And besides, Rico is keeping him busy with questions about the retreat.

Eli’s chin lowers in a nod so shallow it’s barely a movement at all.

My heart leaps into my throat. He understood. And we need to do this now, because Rico is running out of excuses to keep him talking.

With my pulse thrumming in my ears, I shift my right hand discreetly. The gun is still pointed at the ground, but now it’s in a slightly different position from before.

I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m not a good shot. But even I can’t miss from two feet away. Right?

If I miss, this is going to turn into a blood bath. I don’t fear my own looming death, but I’m not the only one who would die here if bullets start flying.

Swallowing, I try to push down the flare of nervousness rippling through me.

Rico casts me a look.

We’re out of time.

I resist the urge to close my eyes.

Instead, I clench my jaw.

And fire.

The sound of the gunshot is so loud inside the cave that it seems to tear the very air apart.

One moment, Gabriel is telling Rico to shut up and put their fucking weapons down. The next, my bullet slams into his right foot.

A cry rips from his lungs, and he loosens his grip on my neck just enough for me to yank my head to the right.

It takes Gabriel a second to realize what I have just done. But it’s a second too much.

Another bang echoes between the stone walls as Eli pulls the trigger.

Gabriel’s head snaps back as the bullet hits him straight in the forehead.

I rip myself from his grip and scramble to the side. Every bone in my body aches from the beating I took, but I can’t even feel it anymore because there is so much adrenaline thrumming through my veins right now.

Eli rushes forward while Gabriel’s body hits the ground with a dull thud. The gun in his hand clatters as it falls from his fingers and bounces across the stone.

Then Eli’s arms are around me.

“You’re okay,” he presses out. And I swear I can feel his heart pounding against his ribs and all the way into my own chest as he holds me tightly. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” Then he draws back and locks wild eyes on me. “Are you okay?”

I draw my fingers down his cheek as I smile up at him. “Yes.”

I’m sure my body will be aching all over tomorrow, but right now I feel fucking invincible. Like I could breathe fire or toss a mountain across a chasm. It’s probably because of all the adrenaline pumping through me, but I love the feeling nonetheless.

An insane laugh bubbles from my throat, and I wiggle my eyebrows at Eli. “Good shot.”

Eli lets out a whooshing breath and shakes his head at me. “Fuck, that plan was insane.”

Before I can reply, Connor appears next to me. His gray eyes search my face. They don’t possess the same wild intensity as Eli’s, but I can still read the emotions swirling in them clear as day.

“Are you really okay?” he asks.

“Yes.” I flash both of them a grin. Then I narrow my eyes as I turn towards the woman still kneeling by the wall. She has hunched forward a little after those shots were fired. “And I’m going to feel even better after I kill her.”

Shelley whips her head around.

Smug satisfaction blows through my soul when I notice the fear in her eyes as she looks at me.

Eli lets out a dark chuckle and sweeps his hand towards Shelley. “Knock yourself out.”

“No, wait!” Panic flashes across her face as she scrambles around so that she’s facing us instead. Still on her knees, she holds up her hands while the six of us stalk forward and form a semi-circle before her, cornering her against the wall. “Look, things got out of hand and—”

“Shut up,” I snap as I come to a halt in front of her. “You put a gun to my brother’s head.”

Eli and Connor flank me, with Kaden on Connor’s other side and Rico and Jace on Eli’s.

“Do you have any idea what I do to people who threaten my family?” I demand.

Shelley opens and closes her mouth a couple of times, but no sound makes it out. Her desperate eyes flick back and forth across all six of us.

With a cruel smile on my lips, I pull out a small vial from one of my pockets. “When you swallow this, you’re going to wish that you had died from the first poison I gave you.” With my eyes locked on her panicked ones, I jerk my chin. “Hold her.”

“No, wait!” she blurts out. “Please, I’m begging you. I can help. I can tell the instructors what happened here. That you killed him in self-defense.”

“Give me one reason to care.”

“Killing someone is strictly against the rules. You’ll get expelled for it.”

“Again, why should I care about that?” I take a step towards her.

Panic crackles across her features again, and she drops down, pressing her forehead to the ground. “Please, please, I’m begging you.”

“She has a point,” Connor says.

Stopping my advance, I glance at him and arch an eyebrow in silent question.

He shrugs. “The Hunters will be fine because they’re, well… them. But you and I play by different rules. If we can’t convince the university that this was in fact self-defense, we will likely be expelled.”

The words hang in the air between us, filling in the parts that Connor doesn’t speak out loud. If he gets expelled for this, he won’t be able to restore our family name.

I blow out a breath.

“Fine.” I slide the vial of poison back into my pocket and drag a hand through my hair. “You get to live so that you can tell everyone that this was self-defense.”

Shelley snaps her head up. Relief floods her eyes as she nods frantically. “I will. I will.”

“Good.” I flash her such a savage smile that she actually flinches.

And in that moment, when she is kneeling before me like that and looking up at me with that delicious fear in her eyes, I realize that I quite like playing God.