Chapter 3 Three

The world outside the car narrowed to flashing beams of headlights and the crunch of gravel under heavy boots. The blacked-out SUV sat in the shadows, engine still running low and steady, its predator's purr drowned by the shouts of Dante's men.

Seraphina's breath misted against the window, her pulse a war drum in her ears. She wasn't cowering, though. Fear had lived inside her long enough that it no longer hollowed her out-it sharpened her, honed her, like steel kissed by flame. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to bolt, but she forced herself still, spine pressed against the seat as the figure beside her moved.

Kael. The Viper. The assassin.

His presence filled the car like smoke, cold and lethal. One gloved hand rested casually on the wheel, the other shifting ever so slightly to the weapon holstered beneath his jacket. His eyes, pale as frost, cut through the tinted glass to the silhouettes moving outside. His jaw was stone, unreadable, but there was something in the curve of his mouth-a kind of grim amusement, as though he'd been waiting for this exact moment.

The first fist slammed against the hood, threatening to shatter the glass.

"Get out!" a voice barked in Italian, rough with adrenaline. "Search it! She's in here somewhere!"

The second came at her door, jerking the handle. Locked. The whole car rocked with their weight. Seraphina's fingers clenched against her dress, nails biting into her palm.

"They'll drag us out," she whispered, her voice tight but even. "They won't stop until they-"

Kael's head tilted, just slightly, cutting her off without words. His gaze slid to her. The air between them was heavy, taut, but she didn't flinch away from his eyes. She'd been beaten, broken, threatened, caged-but she'd learned long ago never to drop her gaze, never to look small. Small things were crushed.

"You're not afraid of them," Kael said at last, his voice low and measured, like a blade sliding from its sheath. It wasn't a question.

"I've had five years of practice," she replied.

His lip curved, the faintest ghost of a smirk. And then the first gunshot cracked the night.

Glass splintered-the back window exploded in a hail of shards. Seraphina ducked on instinct, her hands flying to shield her head. But Kael didn't so much as blink. The moment the bullet tore through, his body came alive.

A switch thrown.

One second he was sitting still; the next he was a storm. The door on his side flew open, his body moving with surgical precision. His pistol was in his hand before Seraphina could even register the gleam of steel.

The night erupted.

Muzzle flashes lit up the dark like lightning, each one punctuated by the staccato thunder of shots. Kael didn't fire wildly-every squeeze of the trigger was measured, deliberate, final. A man screamed, cut short by the sickening crack of bone as another fell.

Seraphina's heart slammed in her chest, her throat tight, but her eyes stayed locked on him. She couldn't look away.

He didn't move like a man-he moved like inevitability, like death itself had been poured into muscle and sinew. He flowed between the car door and the shadows, his shots landing with merciless accuracy. One man dropped at the front of the hood, another spun backwards clutching his throat, blood spraying the gravel.

The smell of gunpowder bled into the air, acrid and sharp.

Seraphina forced herself up from her crouch, her hand gripping the leather of the seat as though it anchored her to this world. She had lived in Dante's shadow long enough to see blood before-she'd seen punishments carried out in his name, executions whispered behind locked doors. But this-this was different.

This wasn't chaos. This wasn't anything lke Dante's cruelty for show. No. This was precision. Ruthlessness. Finality.

Kael pivoted, crouched low, and fired beneath the open door, his bullet finding the knee of a man creeping closer. The scream that followed was raw, guttural, but Kael didn't hesitate. One more shot silenced it.

Her mouth was dry, her body taut with terror and awe all at once. She pressed her back harder against the seat, but she refused to shrink.

The assault lasted less than a minute. Then... silence.

A heavy, suffocating silence broken only by the soft drip of blood onto gravel. The night air felt heavier now, thick with iron.

Kael rose from his crouch, stepping around the front of the car. His boots crunched over the fallen like they were nothing more than debris. His gun remained raised, his gaze flicking with that same predatory calm to make sure no shadows still moved.

When at last he slid back into the driver's seat, the world outside was littered with bodies.

The engine still purred, steady and calm, as if mocking the carnage left in its wake.

Seraphina sat frozen, not with fear, but with the weight of what she had just witnessed. The image burned behind her eyes-this man, this assassin, standing amidst death like a god carved from violence.

He holstered his weapon with the same ease one might hang a coat. Then he turned his head, eyes green as a storm catching the faint glow from the dashboard lights. Cold. Intrigued. Hungry.

Her lips parted, her voice rough but steady. "You could've handed me over. Let them take me back."

His hand tightened once around the wheel, a subtle flex of sinew. "I could've."

"Why didn't you?"

The pause that followed was longer than the gunfight. His gaze raked over her-not in the way Dante's men used to, with hunger or malice-but with calculation. With something colder, sharper, as though he were dissecting her without a scalpel.

When he spoke, his voice was low enough to crawl along her skin like a phantom.

"Because I might have use for you yet. But first tell me one thing... lie, and I'll make you wish I'd let those men take you." his voice dropped lower, "Why, is Dante's wife running from him?"