Felix Read online

“I’m still sorry.”

  She rolled over to face him. “You really do continue to surprise me, you know.”

  “Oh? How so?”

  “You show too much weakness,” she said. “If the whole Tribunal is like this, maybe my father has a chance after all.”

  Felix shook his head. “No. He has absolutely no chance against them, and there are packs that would take him out if they found out his intentions, just to get on the Tribunal’s good side.”

  “If that were true, why would you warn us?”

  He sat for a second, wondering why indeed. But his answer was there in her small form hidden under a blanket that didn’t fully disguise her curves.

  He’d been unable to stop thinking about her from the moment she’d pulled a knife on him.

  “I guess it’s… I don’t want to see anyone get hurt if they don’t have to. Tell your father to just let the pack move on with their lives. They’ll only lose more to this vendetta.”

  “Easy for you to say. Families were destroyed. Life doesn’t just go on. Not for us.”

  “Well, not everyone died. Which may not be the case if the Tribunal catches wind of you.”

  She sighed. “Weird thing for an assassin to care about.”

  “As I said, you don’t know anything about me.”

  “No, I don’t.” Her blanket rustled. “And I don’t need to. Good night, Tribunal dog.”

  “Good night, Diana.”

  She let out a huff, as if she were offended at him speaking her name, but then went silent, though Felix was almost painfully aware of her breathing.

  He sat there watching the moon create shadows on the wall in front of him as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

  Though he was tied to a chair, he felt like he was protecting her. The thought made him feel warm. A much better mission than killing.

  He relaxed against the ropes and was about to let sleep claim him when he heard the creak of footsteps coming up the stairs, as if someone were trying to sneak into the cabin.

  He slumped his head to the side, feigning sleep, as he heard someone let themselves into the cabin.

  Through one narrowed eye, he saw that it was Bernard, just barely visible in the dark.

  And he was creeping over to the place where Diana was sleeping, something glinting in his hand.

  Chapter 6

  The Present

  If someone had told Diana that the notorious Tribunal assassin Darkness would be spending his spare time feeding a family of ducks, she would have punched them for their obvious lie.

  That was until she saw him doing it.

  She’d decided that the best route would be to follow him at a distance, see where he went on an average day when he wasn’t at the club.

  He’d gotten up early and gone to a coffee shop, where he’d flirted with the clerk and ordered coffee with muffins.

  He looked handsome, as always, and was wearing a simple trench coat over a tee shirt and jeans.

  His white-blond hair curled messily around his face and ears, clearly in need of a cut, though it did nothing to hide his still-ethereal beauty.

  Diana had thought the clerk was going to faint when Felix had smiled at her with those perfect dimples and violet eyes.

  He looked like a model from another dimension. So tall. Not a flaw to be seen.

  Diana decided she hated him all the more for it. For having not changed at all, when she was ruined for good.

  Well, maybe he’d changed just a little. He moved a little slower, seemed a little more fatigued when he thought no one was watching while she’d followed him to the grocery store, which had been his next destination.

  He’d bought two loaves of bread, once again smiling at the clerk who flirted with him, and then walked outside with his bag over his arm and his hands in his pockets.

  And then he’d come here to sit on an old-looking park bench and throw bits of bread to the ducks.

  It wasn’t what she had expected from the shifter world’s most notorious assassin.

  Especially since he called all the ducks by name and seemed to take great pleasure in dividing the bread among them.

  Her heart twinged, and she placed a hand over it, rubbing it as she sat on a bench twenty feet away, glad he couldn’t see her since she was invisible.

  He’d worked for the most powerful wolves in the world. Surely, he was rich. He could be rolling in piles of money or dating the most beautiful alpha females. Things she’d always imagined him doing once he’d abandoned her and gone back to his life.

  But if his life had been so happy, why did he look so miserable, like it was a struggle to keep up a smile even for the ducks?

  When he was done with one loaf of bread, he tucked the other beneath his bench and leaned back with his hands behind his head, tilting his face up like he was enjoying the sun.

  It was a slightly windy day, and the pond was rippling and creating rhythmic splashing noises against the shore.

  She felt the sudden urge to go sit by him. To just be with him, feel his presence again, as if nothing had changed. As if she could just let go and forgive him.

  But she couldn’t.

  She heard rustling in the bushes a few yards away from her and only just kept herself from letting out a scream as a large, burly man jumped out of them and started heading straight for Felix.

  “I knew you would let your guard down,” the man growled, pulling a knife out of his pocket. “You’re not getting all the Tribunal benefits, so I won’t even have to shift to kill you, you washed-up has-been.”

  Felix looked over, raising an eyebrow at him, squinting because of the sun. “Ah. I was wondering when you would come out.”

  Diana’s heart began to beat faster. Had Felix come out here because he knew he was being followed? Did he know she was there as well? She hoped not.

  She was a bit embarrassed she hadn’t noticed the other wolf sneak up because she’d been so busy watching Felix.

  Then again, her sense of smell wasn’t the same anymore with what she now was.

  The man moved forward, holding out the knife. “It’s time for you to pay for killing my father.”

  Felix sighed. “Ah. Father, is it? It’s always something. Mother, daughter, sister, brother, son.” He rolled his neck, and even from her distance, Diana could hear the cracking noise. “Still, I tried to be judicious with my kills. Tell me what your father did.”

  “He did nothing wrong,” the man spat. “Except for wanting some of the privileges the Tribunal was already enjoying.”

  Felix narrowed his eyes at the man as if trying to call a memory back. “Hm. Let me look at you for a moment.”

  “You can look at me while you die!” The man lunged forward with the knife, and Felix raised a hand, waving it slightly before the man keeled over, unconscious before he hit the grass.

  Felix crouched, rolling him over, and stared down with a pensive look on his face. “It’s on the tip of my tongue. Trying to remember…”

  “Tribunal dog!” Another voice rang out as two men stepped into the clearing, climbing over a guardrail a dozen yards away.

  Had they been hiding as well? How many people were after Felix?

  Diana fought back a protective urge that surged through her. It was probably only that Felix was hers to kill. Nothing more.

  Besides, watching these fights would probably give her a clue as to how to take him down or how carefully she would have to proceed.

  Felix rolled his eyes as he turned to them, hands on his hips as he pushed back his trench coat. “Please don’t make me knock you out first. Just calmly explain why you hate me, and I’ll decide if I need to kill you.”

  One of the men’s eyes went murderously dark, and before Diana could do anything, he pulled out a fairly large gun, aimed it at Felix, and pulled the trigger.

  The loud bang resounded through the clearing, making Diana’s ears ring for a few seconds. As the man with the gun stepped forward triumphantly, Felix dropped to one knee, cursing vio
lently.

  “That hurts,” he said irritably, pushing his coat out of his way and putting his hand over the red stain blossoming on his tee shirt. “And it doesn’t help your case at all, pulling out a gun like that where humans could be involved. Negative three points.”

  The man looked confused, eyeing the gun in his hand and then sending a panicked look at the man next to him.

  “So who was it?” Felix asked, advancing on them as his hand reached under his shirt, presumably digging in the wound they’d made.

  He withdrew something and tossed it to the side, and as it glinted in the sand, Diana could see it was the bullet, still wet with his blood.

  She put a hand over her mouth as he continued to approach the now trembling men.

  “We can’t shift here, so there’s no way to do an alpha challenge. And besides, what would be gained?” Felix circled them as they both tried to come up with a new plan.

  The one with the gun raised it again, and Felix put his hand over the barrel, bending it down before it could fire.

  Then he tossed it away into the sand and caught the man who’d been holding it by the neck. “You’re already three points down, and you haven’t explained why you want to kill me. I would if I were you, before I decide that leaving you around to frighten my duck friends isn’t worth sparing your lives.”

  “Wait,” the other man said. “Hold on. You killed his sister.”

  “I what?”

  “The Tribunal did,” the man said. “You’re their dog.”

  Diana couldn’t help feeling a bit odd, hearing other people use the same words she had when she first met Felix.

  Then again, the Tribunal had done a lot of harm.

  Felix used his free hand to reach behind his neck as if pulling something out from behind his back that had been hidden by his jacket.

  Diana gasped. He was still carrying the sword.

  Just seeing it made a chill go up her back.

  He pointed it at the man he was holding up by the neck and glared at his companion. “Your hate is misguided, though I don’t blame you for your rage. What was his sister to you?”

  The man’s eyes shuttered. “Everything.”

  Felix slowly lowered the man he’d been holding, letting his feet touch the ground.

  The man took in a gasp, trying to struggle away from Felix, but he pointed the sword at his throat. The blade was long and curved, blackened on the edges as if very old.

  “I’m sorry about your sister,” Felix said. “But I’m afraid we have two choices. Either I kill you here so you don’t come after me or people I care about, or you give me your pack’s promise that you will let things lie. I won’t have you coming here to disturb me or anyone I care about again.”

  The man looked at the sword, then at his friend, and then nodded.

  But the other one, the one who hadn’t fired a gun, was blinking back tears, and his hands were curled in tight fists as he stepped forward.

  “No,” he said. “I’d rather die than not avenge her.” Claws shot out of his hands. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done.”

  Felix’s eyes widened in alarm for the first time, and he looked around as if checking for humans. “Dear God, you can’t shift here. Look, I feel for you. You’ve suffered at the hands of the Tribunal. I come out here during the day so that those who want to confront me can do it without causing a scene around my friends and family. I’ve killed a lot of people, and I hear your pain. But I did not kill your friend’s sister, and fighting me pointlessly won’t bring her back.”

  “It’ll make me feel better,” the man said, his eyes going bright yellow as gray fur began to sprout from his forearms.

  His friend took one look at him and began to run.

  Chapter 7

  Felix let out a sigh of impatience, putting both hands on his hips, though it brought his sword dangerously close to his thighs. He shook his head impatiently, and his white-blond hair swayed with the breeze, looking so soft to the touch.

  “Maybe you could punch me. Just once. Would that make you feel better?”

  The man shook his head, prowling forward as the shift continued to take hold.

  “Think about this,” Felix said. “You can’t shift in public in broad daylight. And even if you could, it would be pointless. I’d take you out before your paws could hit the ground.”

  “No,” the man said. “I’m going to kill you. I have to kill you.”

  “But then you would be me,” Felix said. “And I assure you, you don’t want to be. Killing is vastly overrated. Besides, even if you could accomplish it, which you can’t, you would just have my family coming after you to avenge me. And on and on. It’s never ending. Instead, tell me how I can help you.”

  Diana gaped at the words because they were so obviously genuine.

  Was he trying to… atone or something? Why was he letting these attackers even have their say? She’d realized a long time ago that Felix had nothing to do with the Tribunal releasing the serum that had killed her mother.

  She hated him for his other crimes, but not that.

  She’d thought he’d be having a cozy life outside the Tribunal, with no duties but all the benefits.

  Apparently, she wasn’t the only one from his old life determined not to let him ever settle down.

  The man approaching Felix hesitated, but Felix let out a little curse and pulled a knife out of his coat.

  “One second,” he said, throwing it easily forward so it shot past his attacker and went flying straight down the beach.

  The half-shifted man flinched, and Diana thought Felix had missed until they heard a muffled scream and a thud and turned to see the man who’d been running away drop to the ground.

  Felix smiled. “Couldn’t let him just disappear without a pack’s promise.”

  Diana’s heart was racing. Good God, he’d just knocked that guy down out of nowhere while calmly talking down another attacker.

  “Think about it,” Felix said, pointing the sword at the half-shifted man’s throat, making him swallow. “You could just promise me not to come back, tell a few people that it’s not smart to come for me, and go on with your life.”

  The man’s eyes were pained. “There’s no life without her.”

  Felix was quiet, then slowly lowered his sword. “Then you never deserved her at all.”

  The man cursed and rushed forward, but Felix caught him, stabbing him lightly in the chest with his sword and bringing him to an abrupt halt.

  “This isn’t going to fix anything,” Felix said. “And people are going to be hurt after you die. When they come for me after and I kill them as well.”

  “Why can’t you be decent?” The man stuttered, practically spitting with rage. “Why can’t you just die for what you did?”

  Felix twisted the blade slightly. “Because I’m not bad enough to do everything I’m accused of, but I’m not good enough to give you my life either. Besides…” Diana could swear he flicked his eyes in her direction. “Some interesting things have happened lately, and I find I’m motivated to stay alive and figure them out.”

  Diana shivered, knowing he probably was aware she was there, even if he couldn’t see her. Damn, he was still far too good for her to take him on.

  She’d have to come up with something more subtle. A longer-term plan, as she’d told her boss.

  The man Felix was threatening looked down at the blood on his shirt, the sword there, and then up at Felix.

  “I don’t want to die.” Then he sagged suddenly, his fur and claws retreated, and he sat back onto the ground.

  Felix crouched in front of him, elbows on his knees, sword pointing harmlessly to the side. “So we have a pack’s promise, then?”

  The man nodded. Diana could see the defeat in his face at not being able to take out his target.

  But perhaps he had seen what she had all those years ago.

  Felix was both incredibly reasonable and dangerous, and both made him a hard person to kill.


  “Pack’s promise,” he said dully.

  Felix took something out of his pocket and put it in the other man’s hand. The man looked up at him, shocked, as Felix forced him to take it. As the man scrambled back, Felix got to his feet and went down the shore to talk to the other man.

  He pulled out the knife that was pinning the man to the ground by his shirt and talked to him for a moment, though Diana was too far away to hear.

  He was probably getting another pack’s promise, and when he seemed satisfied, he nodded, handing the man something as well before he scrambled to his feet and ran off.

  His friend joined him, and the two disappeared into a car parked on the other side of the road.

  Felix walked back toward the bench where he’d originally been sitting but then passed it as he approached the first man who’d attacked, who was still sleeping soundly in the waving grass.

  Felix raised his sword and slammed it down into the man’s chest, making blood arc up in a violent spray.

  The man didn’t move as he twisted the blade, watching the blood spill until it didn’t come anymore.

  When it was done, Felix yanked his blade back with a sickening noise, pulled out a white cloth to wipe the blood away, and tossed it to the side.

  Then he sat on the bench, running his hands through his overgrown hair.

  Diana was still trying to recover from the brutality of what she’d just witnessed.

  She’d thought he was soft, watching him bargain with the other men trying to kill him. But he’d just turned the first man into a geyser without a second thought.

  He was quiet as he ran his hands through his hair for a moment. Then he exhaled slowly and reached under his bench for the bread.

  He broke it into pieces and began to throw it toward the ducks who were just recovering enough from the gunshot to come close once again.

  She stepped out into the open, dropping her invisibility.

  “Wondered when you would join me,” Felix said casually, confirming her suspicion that he had known she was there the whole time.

  She took another step forward. “You going to kill me as well?”