Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Straight, Nancy (book club reads .TXT) 📖

Chapter 22

Two nights later I was ready. I had spent five full days with Samael, and I was finally able to ascertain his pattern. I knew where he would be tonight.

It was damp, the air was wet, and the chill in my body felt like it would shake me to the bone. I concentrated on my mission, willing my teeth not to chatter. Looking into the sky through the breaks in the clouds, I could see Orion’s belt. I felt strength drawn from the stories of Orion’s exploits.

Orion was the greatest hunter of all time, blinded once and then given his sight before he was killed and cast into the heavens. I looked to Peanut, “Look boy, I can see Orion and Sirius. You think they can help us? If we were Greeks hundreds of years ago, I’d say they’re watching over us through the clouds to see our hunt.” I scratched his ears, reveling at the absurdity of my statement. “We’ll make our mark tonight and get our lives back. We just have to sit through this crappy weather until the Beast comes home.”

My mind wandered a bit, to the night I had found Max and Ski in Afghanistan waiting to be rescued. Orion had been shining high that night, too. The constellation did something to calm my nerves, to ease the damp chill.

Peanut watched me. He didn’t flinch, he didn’t bark or growl. My good sense told me I should have left him at the house, but as I tried to drive away and leave him, something in my gut said I needed him with me. I stared at Orion and Sirius. No kill they ever made could have been as crucial as the one I’d make tonight.

The Beast, Samael, always arrived around nine p.m. at whatever house he stayed in. I glanced at my watch. We had been huddled here in the drizzle for two hours, with only ten minutes to go. I could see every entrance into the house: the ornate front door off the main porch, the servant entrance on the side of the house, and a back door leading to a second floor entry. I wished to myself that I had bought a sniper rifle. The Beast would not know who dealt the fatal wound if I were a little further away, he would only know that he died. Instead, I stayed crouched in the darkness with my Glock, knowing that he’d not only see who’d killed him, he’d see the hatred in my eyes and feel my rage when he took his final breath.

I had never considered myself a predator, but everything this thing had put me through brought out my most primal side. I knew I could never again hold Max in my arms, see my family at the holidays, or even walk into a grocery store without looking over my shoulder if he were permitted to live. Tonight I would get my life back, get back in the driver’s seat, and try to unscrew everything this thing had managed to screw up.

I thought of Max that first morning with his unexpected arrival at the nursing home. Before he walked into my room, I knew he was alive but believed him to be on the other side of the world. What sheer and utter complete joy I felt at seeing him. No joy could ever be more than that moment. As I looked into myself, I felt the emptiness, knowing that when tonight was over that gaping hole in my chest would be closed and I would be with Max again. A tunnel appeared in my vision as if my subconscious wanted me to see Max in this moment. I willed the tunnel to go away. I needed my focus. I couldn’t afford to see what anyone else was doing.

My focus was rewarded only seconds after I willed the tunnel away. Headlights pulled into the driveway. A sleek Mercedes sedan pulled in, half way to the garage. When it did, the lights nearly blinded me as they were pointed directly at the bushes I had taken for cover. Peanut released a low rumbling growl deep within his diaphragm, but he didn’t twitch a muscle. I slowly put my hand over his eyes to shield them from the headlight’s beams to keep the reflection on his eyes from giving away our position. He must have understood because he didn’t move, or bark, or increase his rumbling growl.

The headlights finally cut off, and I was momentarily night blinded. I saw the driver’s side door open and someone step out. I was no further than forty feet, significantly closer than the targets I had opened fire on in Marvin’s shooting range. My breath was steady, the safety was off, and I began to squeeze the trigger when my night vision fully returned, but it wasn’t Samael that I was aimed in on. It was someone I’d not seen before. I looked at Peanut and whispered, “Who is it, boy?”

Peanut’s throaty growl continued, I hesitated. Making a mistake and killing someone that wasn’t our target would be murder. I aimed at the person’s head but began to doubt the legitimacy of the target. I came here to get my life back; I didn’t come here to be a murderer. I lowered the weapon and Peanut’s growl intensified, he believed this person to be worthy of a kill. I was cold and wet and wanted nothing more than this Beast to take his last breath, but killing the wrong target would only send him deep into hiding.

The person must have heard Peanut because in a strange, almost pre-pubescent voice I heard, “Is someone there? Hello?”

Peanut had to have sensed my hesitation because he charged out of the bushes straight for the man. In three strides he was over half the distance and the man with the boy’s voice changed in front of my eyes - to a bear.