Page 53 of Don't Bite the Botanist
“If you’re so evolved, you wouldn’t be murdering in cold blood,” Tressa grumbled, absently rubbing at her face as her increased healing quickly numbed the pain.
Renata waved a hand. “Think what you will. It matters little to me.The reality is that I’m doing what is necessary for the preservation of our kind. Surely you can’t argue with that?”
“I can if it means you’re killing innocent humans.”
“Innocent?” The laugh Renata let out chilled Tressa to the bone. “Oh, my sweet Loloma. You more than most know what they’re capable of. There’s no such thing as an innocent human. They’re corrupted from birth. Just like the first one was. Always determined to ruin things for our kind. And that one”—she pointed a finger at Ethan—“has proven to be quite problematic.”
“Why?” Tressa demanded. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Renata arched a single eyebrow. “Oh dear. You don’t know, do you? Today is simply full of surprises.”
Tressa frowned, then glanced back at Ethan who was cautiously climbing to his feet. “Know what?”
“What your precious human has been cooking up in his little lab.”
Tressa stiffened before slowly rotating to face Ethan, briefly forgetting the bigger threat was now at her back. “Ethan?” she asked.
His face was hard as he wiped his bloody palms on his track pants. “Not that I owe you anything, but I’ve already told you all about my work.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Renata cooed as she flashed to Ethan’s side and laid a hand on his shoulder.
Tressa jolted forward but halted when Renata’s fingers dug into Ethan’s skin and he cried out in pain.
She relaxed her grip and slid her hand up his neck, playing with the long ends of his hair. “I don’t think Loloma would be quite so protective of you if she knew. But I’ll save you the tough relationship conversation.” Her hand tightened on his hair, and she yanked him closer to her chest, her eyes locking on Tressa. “Either you let me kill him without fuss, and trust me when I say that is the smart decision,or I kill you both. I would rather you not select that option, but it is your choice. Either way, I cannot suffer him to live with the knowledge in his head.”
“I’d like to suggest a third option if you don’t mind,” a deep male voice shouted from above them, and they all glanced up to see Saiden and Derrick crouched on the eaves of the church.
In a flash, they both leapt from the roof to land beside Tressa. Ethan’s eyes flared even wider as they darted between her two cousins, and any joy she felt at their arrival was smothered by the level of betrayal that bloomed across his face.
“Ah, The Enforcer,” Renata cooed. “We meet again. I wondered which little mouse it was that I heard scurrying over the roof. And you brought The Playboy this time.” Her gaze slid over to Derrick. “Come to join the party?”
Derrick scoffed and cracked his knuckles. “Bitch, we are the party. And you’re ruining the vibe.”
She sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you? You won’t just let me remove this one tiny, insignificant human and be on my way?”
“Never,” Saiden snarled.
“In that case…” She tossed Ethan to the ground and blurred forward. In a single fluid motion, her right hand slammed into Derrick’s balls with enough force to lift his feet several inches off the ground, while at the same time her left leg flew out and swept Saiden’s feet out from underneath him.
Derrick gave a strangled groan and crashed to his knees, clutching his sack, but Saiden popped back up in an instant and drew two gleaming daggers from his belt. “Going for the balls? Low blow.”
Renata shrugged. “I use whatever is available. That’s your problem. All of you. So sentimental. You let emotion guide you. You let it stopyou from making the tough choices. I have no such qualms.” She flew forward and raked her claws at Saiden’s face, but he blurred to the side at the last second.
Back and forth they fought, her attacking and Saiden dodging just fast enough to avoid her lethal strikes, taking little more than glancing blows and minor scratches.
Renata flipped away from Saiden and landed on the roof of the McLaren. “Ah yes, I forgot about your pesky ability.”
“So give it up,” Saiden shot back, wiping a thin smear of red off his cheek. “You know you can’t beat me.”
“I could, actually, if I was using the full extent of my power,” she replied casually, absently cleaning a bit of Saiden’s blood from beneath one manicured fingernail. “But as I said, I have no strong desire to eliminate Loloma’s family. Besides, I don’t need to beat you. I just need to exploit your weakness.” Renata leapt off the car, her body shimmering in midair, and Cora landed in front of Saiden.
“Hi, baby,” she said, blowing him a kiss.
Saiden took a step back, clearly shocked by his mate’s sudden appearance.
Renata seized his moment of hesitation and latched her claws around his neck, digging her talons into his flesh deep enough to send rivulets of blood down the front of his white shirt.
“See, emotions are your weakness.”
