Destroy Me (The Last Vocari #4) - Elena Lawson Page 0,3
and for the smallest heartbeat, I thought I was wrong. I thought it was Rafe. That he’d already found us. That he’d come to kill me himself.
When Azrael took a step forward and I flinched, hand edging down toward the stake strapped to my thigh, he stopped. “You don’t have to do that,” he said in a low whisper, gaze darting to the closed-door beside me. He was speaking quietly so as not to alert the guys to his presence.
“Do what?” I asked, more certain by the second it was Azrael. There was a menace in his ancient gaze, but not the same darkness as his brother.
His lips pursed slightly, as though tasting something sour. “Pretend you can stand the sight of me. I know what my brother did.”
A vein in his neck pulsed, growing in thickness as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his designer denim, trying to conceal how his hands were stiff with rage. Fingers curving slightly into talons.
“But you aren’t him,” I ventured, unsure if I spoke the words more for my own benefit or more for his.
Resolved, I lifted my chin and bit the inside of my cheek, striding to him with purpose. My heart a jackhammer beneath the cage of my ribs.
I wouldn’t let Rafe do this to me. I wouldn’t let that fucking bastard win. There was fear within though, I was loathe to admit that fact, there was something else, too. Something I could use.
Rage.
Rage beyond anything I’d ever felt for another being in my entire life.
Fear was all but useless. But rage…
We were old friends.
As I neared him, I noticed something had been changed. As my vision adjusted to the shadows and Azrael took a minuscule step toward me, I saw that he looked different.
“What did you do?” I asked, falling back a step to get a better look.
Azrael lifted his hand to run his fingers through his freshly cut hair. His near shoulder-length russet brown locks had been cut to stand several inches from his scalp on top, cut shorter on the sides. He wore it pushed back on top and the natural wave of it made it look somehow like it was both styled and effortlessly undone.
I didn’t realize I was grinning until Azrael’s own lips twitched up at one corner into a curious smirk. “Do you like it?”
I faltered for a response.
“I thought it might be easier if I…” he trailed off, gaze shifting as he thought through what to say. “If we didn’t look so...similar.”
Something in my chest ached at his admission.
He’d done this...for me?
So, I would be more comfortable?
“It is,” I admitted, taking in the whole picture of him. It was a minute change. They still had the same face. The same body shape. The same eyes. But it did make it easier somehow and I wanted to cry at the ridiculousness of it.
Tentatively, I closed the gap between us. Azrael stiffened as I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him, taking in his scent of African violets and musk, so distinctly not Rafe. I tensed when he wrapped his arms around me in return, but after a second, I began to relax.
“I’ll kill him for what he did to you,” Azrael whispered in my ear, his breath feathering over my neck, making me shudder. “And this time, I will not hesitate.”
He kissed the top of my head and pulled back, eyes gazing into mine, gauging something. Perhaps whether or not I believed him.
I wished I could.
But the truth was he had the opportunity to kill his brother once and he didn’t take it. There was a chance he would squander it a second time. It was no matter, though. If Azrael failed a second time, I would succeed. I’d already decided. If an opening presented itself; I’d take him out, even if it meant I didn’t walk away from the fight.
Azrael’s eyes hardened and I looked away.
“It will not come to that,” he said roughly, answering my thoughts.
I turned to leave, a little perturbed that he was inside of my head. He knew how much I hated that. But he caught me by the arm, halting me for another second. “We have much to do.”
I nodded, tugging my arm from his grip, unable to stop the thought before it raced through my mind. Not before I do my guys.
Azrael’s lips parted. I thought I saw hurt cross his features for a split second before his face was back to an expressionless mask.