Fatal Sight (Harbingers Of Death Book 2) by LeAnn Mason (universal ebook reader txt) 📗

downcast eyes did not look at her fallen teammate. Tears dripped from the tip of her nose into the dirt before her.

Jessica’s attention passed across them all and skipped over to Ember’s quiet form, exposed now that the fighters were being pressed up against the chain-link fence around the yard, finally subdued… too late.

Her fleeting focus returned to Seke’s. He did her the courtesy of keeping his gaze directly on hers.

“No,” Seke replied to her earlier statement in a strained voice. He swallowed hard. “Thank you, Jessica.” They were only a few words, but so much more was inferred.

For a moment, Jessica felt betrayed. But he couldn’t have known. He hadn’t. She could see the surprise and grief in his eyes, carefully tempered by his mask. He still had a mission to complete.

The god of death held out his hand.

Jessica looked down at the familiar palm. The long, unshaking fingers extended as they had been when he first welcomed her to the HDPU he led.

“Come,” Seke said gently. “I will assist you across as you have done for so many others.”

4

I still couldn’t register what had happened. How it had gone wrong. How Jessica had…

I rubbed at my aching jaw where Raven’s wicked right hook had connected when reality had slapped us in the face there in the yard, when Seke had delivered judgment to our sultry siren. Just when the remaining teammates would have completely devolved into chaos, Seke had stepped in, physically pulling the convergence away and forcing us to complete the mission, escape the prison, and hash out grievances once safely away.

Fast forward, and the shit was truly hitting the fan.

“We should have left her in the yard to face the consequences!”

“Brenna, you know that was not an option. We do not leave our teammates behind,” Seke returned, attempting to smooth the waters. He’d taken on that role often in the last few months.

The look Raven shot him would make lesser men crumble, but the god returned the stare with stoic calm, at least, outwardly.

He was trying to keep his emotions from his face, his body, his tone… from his words. But even though I’d only been in his company for a few short months, I could see the tightness in his features, the furrow between his brows, the downturn of his lips.

It wasn’t just him I could read; I’d studied them all.

Cole and Ember were grieving quietly where they sat next to each other on the floor. His legs were bent, arms laid straight across their respective knees, head bowed. Ember, having finished an entire pint of ice cream, was now curled into his side, arms wrapped around one of his large biceps. Her head rested against a broad shoulder. Raven… well, wanted to kill me. Not that such thoughts were anything new.

“You need to understand that what happened was preordained—”

“Forgive me, Cap, but I call bullshit! We worked together seamlessly for years, and then along comes the fucking warning system from hell, and all of a sudden, Jess gets overwhelmed? I’m not betting on that as coincidence. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on her that she needed to be avoided. And no offense, but if you hadn’t taken her in like some stray puppy who wagged her tail in your direction, we’d still be whole.” Raven’s eyes had turned completely black during her rant, fingers curled tightly into her fleshy palms. Rivulets of blood streamed from the hidden wounds her talon-like fingernails must have made and dripped to the golden-threaded rug beneath her feet, but the irate shifter didn’t even notice.

That drip, that blood had my full attention. Was it my hands that were steeped in it? Had I been the variable that had gotten Jessica killed?

Wetness leaked from my eyes to stream down my face in rivers, but I couldn’t care. I was a mess. But we all were. I didn’t want to hide my grief. I would mourn Jessica. I would miss her. I could only imagine what the others felt. My pain was a drop in the bucket compared to theirs. Like Raven had said, they’d been together for years.

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” the words pushed out of me, inadequate to say the least.

“Sorry?” Raven strode around Seke to come at me like a freight train. “You’re sorry? That’s precious. The big-mouth feels bad that she got our friend killed.” Her face contorted into a parody of remorse as she feigned sorrow on my behalf.

After a second of the act, she returned to her natural, pissed-off state to lunge at me where I sat. Lucky for me, there was a wooden dining table between the two of us, the lacquered obstruction allowing Seke to wrap around the little viper before she clawed my eyes out. “It was your job to tell us the targets. Your job to give us warning. You were supposed to be an asset! All I see is a liability.”

She turned her wrath back on Seke. Her long glossy black hair fell in a sheet down her back, which was ramrod straight as she looked up into his concerned face. Her open and continued hostility appeared to be working its way beneath his calm facade. If she wasn’t careful, she’d stir up the hornet’s nest, and I sincerely doubted any of us wanted that, especially now. “I want her gone. We’re better without her.”

I was torn. Part of me agreed. I should get out of here. I was a liability, and now that they perceived me as the object of their destruction, my safety was compromised. I hadn’t considered this a permanent arrangement, after all, had I?

“I do not believe that. And Jessica’s departure—”

“She’s dead, Seke. She didn’t just leave. It wasn’t by choice,” Cole lamented cooly from his spot on the floor. He hadn’t moved except to lift his head and address their leader, his illuminated eyes seeking the god’s. “Don’t try to downplay what happened. Jessica was family. Aria is