Page 47 of Obey

Hell, I’d been stupid.

It turned out that letting someone in was the most wonderful, soul-expanding thing in the world. And I never would have known that if it wasn’t for this tiny woman in my arms. I loved her. I knew it as sure as I knew the sky was blue and the grass was green.

I brought my mouth down over hers, reveling in the taste and feel of her as she opened up to me, her mouth pliant and begging for more under mine. I moved over her, my tongue bobbing and weaving with hers as if we were doing a dance that only we knew about. And my body, tired and beat up only moments before, filled with joy and adrenaline.

Sure, we were in the middle of a war and fighting a fight that I didn’t know whether we’d survive. But this woman was everything I’d ever wanted, and more. And I could die right now knowing that I’d experienced the best the world had to offer, thanks to Saraya.

Not that I wanted to die right now. Hell, I wanted to live a good, long life so I could take advantage of every ounce of her.

I pulled away and ran the pad of my thumb over her cheek, feeling so tender toward her that it almost hurt.

Then Devil screamed my name and the moment was over. I put her down and shoved her behind the car we’d been standing next to, then turned to face the man who was trying to take her away from me.

I was moving before Devil had even noticed that I was facing him, which meant I tackled him before he could get out of the way. I went for his middle, knowing that he’d never had good balance, and flew at him, wrapping my arms around his waist when I hit him and carried him to the street with me. Devil grunted in pain as I landed on him and I took advantage of his momentary shock to knock the gun from his hand, sending it sliding across the asphalt and under the car Saraya was hiding behind.

If I had any good karma left, she’d be able to grab the gun and use it on Devil at some opportune moment. If she didn’t manage it, I was going to finish him with my own two hands.

He’d had it coming for years. And now that he’d killed my friends—many of them—and threatened Saraya, the time had come to make him pay.

Devil came up swinging, as I figured he would, and I ducked the first and second punches he threw my way. I yanked him up by the front of his shirt and brought my forehead sharply against his, hoping I could knock him out with one blow, but it just enraged him further. He had blood dripping from his forehead now and several cuts across one cheekbone, but his eyes were glowing with rage and his teeth looked like they’d suddenly grown sharper. He got his legs between us, his feet planted on my chest, and used the leverage of the ground at his back to throw me off him.

I curled into a ball to roll out of the flight and came to my feet the moment I stopped rolling, facing the man that I wanted to kill with every ounce of my being.

Devil was on his feet now too, his hands curling into fists and held up in front of him like we were in some sort of old-fashioned boxing match. I almost laughed at the thought of it, the adrenaline making me feel almost giddy, but stopped myself.

Devil and I were finally facing each other, man to man. This was no time or place for laughter.

Devil, however, had noticed the twitch of my lips, and the lunacy in his eyes grew. “You laughing?” he snarled. “What’s so funny here, Knight?”

He was rushing toward me before the question was finished, his arms pumping at his sides and his head lowered like he was some sort of bull. He hit me in the stomach like a battering ram and sent me flying back again, this time into the side of a car. I felt the metal give underneath my back, felt my head break the glass of the window, and then, for just a moment, everything went black.

When I came back to myself, I was on the ground and Devil was raining down blow after blow on my face. Everything hurt. My head felt like it was going to explode, my back was screaming, and I was pretty sure my nose was broken. But I was also larger than Devil, and stronger, and there was no way he could keep me down here. I gathered all my strength and exploded off the ground, sending him in the other direction, and ran to where he’d landed.

Now, I thought grimly, it was my turn.

I kicked him once, twice, three times, aiming right for where his kidneys were, and then dove onto him, using my knees to hold him down as my fists went to work pounding into his face. Devil surged, though, like his wounds had somehow made him stronger, and skittered out from underneath me, moving sideways.

The man was like a freaking crab, as I was throwing myself out of the way of his booted feet. Wild and unpredictable. I wasn’t having trouble figuring out where he was going to go or what he was going to do, and that made it nearly impossible to get the upper hand.

I felt like I was fighting some kind of rabid monkey who was dead set on killing me. Devil had always ridden the edge of insanity, but this was beyond anything I’d experienced.

I felt him jump onto my back while I was down, and a moment later his teeth sank into the space between my neck and my shoulder.

I screamed, half in shock and half in pain, and threw him over my shoulder and to the ground. He was up again before I could take advantage of it, though, and used his smaller size and speed to get around the car next to us and run up on my back once again. I felt the sting of a blade as it sliced across my lower back and threw myself to the ground, trying to get out of the way before he could hit anything vital.

I hadn’t thought we were bringing knives to this particular fist-fight, but trust Devil to always try to find a way to cheat.

Luckily, I had a blade shoved into the loop sewn into the inside of one of my boots and I yanked it out, palming the handle and holding the knife pointing upward rather than downward. Downward and I’d be able to bring it down into the space where his neck met his trunk. It would kill him instantly. But that was a tricky spot to hit, especially on a moving target.

Thrusting upward, though, could cause enough pain to take him out of the fight and if I was lucky, I’d hit something vital enough to kill him. It also wasn’t going to matter so much if I could be precise or not.

In short, I had a better chance of taking him down this way, and right now, taking him down was all that mattered.

We stood several paces away from each other, our knives up and our gazes glued together. The world around us was absolutely still, all the noise faded into silence, and it felt like we were in a world of our own. A world that only included us, and where the only thing that existed was the fight between the two of us.

I charged at him and took him down, landing on top of him and pinning him to the ground with my entire weight. One move and the tip of my blade was pressed to his neck, drawing blood.

This was it. This was the moment. I hated that we were here, hated that it had come to this, but I was ready to end it. Ready to see the finish of what Devil had started.