“And had to switch to Tony when that one wouldn’t do his fucking job.” She sneered at him from his right and he turned to face her.
For the slightest moment, he didn’t recognize her. In the dark, her eyes appeared large and black, her teeth looked like they had been sharpened to points behind her narrow lips. “You never thought I was dumb.”
He stared at her until his eyes adjusted and her features seemed to melt into the face he was familiar with.
“You were dumb enough not to embrace your destiny.” She sighed heavily and slid closer. Simon stiffened slightly when her hands caressed his chest. “You and I were supposed to be together forever, Simon. Don’t you remember? You said I was yours.” She pressed against his back and he felt the heat from her body as she wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m guessing you didn’t like that idea too much. You stepped out on me with Big Tony.”
She gave a throaty laugh and tightened her arms around him. “There’s nothing ‘big’ about Tony, believe me.” She extended her legs and wrapped them slowly around his middle. “It was supposed to be me and you forever,” she sighed in his ear. “I was going to be empress, remember?”
Simon lowered his head and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Lana. I couldn’t give you what you wanted.” He lifted his head and tried to turn to look at her. “I’m sorry I let you down.”
She shot him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes and he felt a chill run up his spine. “It’s okay, lover.” She leaned forward and kissed his neck. “I got this.”
Simon stiffened when the blade entered his side. She expertly slid it between his ribs and when the hilt was pressed firmly to his flesh, she twisted the blade before jerking it out.
He swung wildly, trying to shove her away as his entire body spasmed. He fell to the side with her legs still wrapped around his middle. His body jerked uncontrollably as he tried to roll over to suck air into his lungs as the burn shot from his groin to his throat.
She giggled as she rolled off of him, kicking him away. She spun the knife in her grip. “Time to cut the head from the snake, lover.”
Simon pulled the pistol from his belt and fired wildly, praying that at least one of the bullets hit home. He rolled to his ruined side and sucked violently for air, his pistol still firing in her general direction.
Simon felt his throat constrict and he coughed a spray of blood into the night air, his hand still instinctively squeezing the trigger on the now empty pistol.
He heard footsteps stomping through the woods, breaking limbs and snapping twigs as they ran. He felt his hand drop beside him, the pistol hitting the soft, moist earth.
His body continued to jerk and spasm as he stared up through the canopy of trees. Pinpricks of light began to swim in his vision, swirling into a van Gogh painting.
His last coherent thought before the world went dark was, What a beautiful night to die.
From the desk of Heath Stallcup
A personal note-
Thank you so much for investing your time in reading my story. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment and leave a review. I realize that it may be an inconvenience, but reviews mean the world to authors…
Also, I love hearing from my readers. You can reach me at my blog: http://heathstallcup.com/ or via email at [email protected]
Feel free to check out my Facebook page for information on upcoming releases: https://www.facebook.com/heathstallcup find me on Twitter at @HeathStallcup, Goodreads or via my Author Page at Amazon.
About the Author
Heath Stallcup was born in Salinas, California and relocated to Tupelo, Oklahoma in his tween years. He joined the US Navy and was stationed in Charleston, SC and Bangor, WA shortly after junior college. After his second tour he attended East Central University where he obtained BS degrees in Biology and Chemistry. He then served ten years with the State of Oklahoma as a Compliance and Enforcement Officer while moonlighting nights and weekends with his local Sheriff's Office. He still lives in the small township of Tupelo, Oklahoma with his wife. He steals time to write between household duties, going to ballgames, being a grandfather and the pet of numerous animals that have taken over his home. Visit him at heathstallcup.com or Facebook.com for news of his upcoming releases.
Also by Heath Stallcup
The Monster Squad Series
Mankind always suspected that he wasn’t alone at the top of the food chain. Since time immemorial, he has had an innate fear of the dark, a fear of the unfamiliar, a fear that something evil lurked just outside his field of vision. Once the sun set and the moon lit the sky, an unfamiliar snap of a twig or rustling of a bush could make the deadliest of men’s blood run cold. Something was out there.
Humanity had spent its time enjoying a peace that can only be had through blissful ignorance. For centuries, stories of things that go bump in the night had been told. When creatures of the night proved to be real, the best of America’s military came together to form an elite band of rapid response teams. Their mission: to keep the civilian populace safe from those threats and hide all evidence of their existence.
Caldera
For years, the biggest threat Yellowstone was thought to offer was in the form of its semi-dormant super volcano. Little did anyone realize the threat was real and slowly working its way to the surface, but not in the form of magma. Lying deep within the bowels of the earth itself, an ancient virus waited.
Recently credited with wiping out the Neanderthals, the virus is released within the park and quickly spreads. Can mankind prevent a second mass extinction? Can
