Earth Bound by Christine Feehan Page B

life hurting others. I don’t think they should be allowed to survive.”
    How was she supposed to respond to that? His world had been one of violence. His job was to find and eliminate targets. She doubted if he knew and liked a single family. He wasn’t in one place long enough to get to actually know real people. Good people. In his world, everyone was violent and depraved and greedy.
    â€œStill.” How did she put so much denial into one word without it sounding preachy? Or holier-than-thou? “Taking a life should be difficult, Gavriil.”
    â€œI’m not going to tell you the things I’ve seen in my life, but I’ve looked at pure evil and known there was no way to redeem or save them. Caine was a man like that.”
    â€œYes, he was. But we don’t get to judge who lives and who dies,” Lexi said.
    He smiled at her and brought her palm to his mouth. Her heart jumped and began to beat a little wildly. She wasn’t certain if her response was to his smile or to the feel of the gentle, featherlight brush of his mouth on her palm.
    He was physically beautiful. His face was carved from stone, a masterpiece in masculinity. His eyes were absolutely gorgeous, a dark midnight blue, heavily fringed with black lashes. His hair was glorious, an unruly, thick glossy mop of black waves streaked with silver she was tempted to try to tame.
    Looking into Lexi’s eyes, Gavriil realized for the first time that there was a chink in his armor. He’d worn armor his entire life; it had been forged in hell. No one could get to him. No one could get inside of him. Or touch him. He knew more ways to hurt or kill than most men could conceive of, and he could disappear in the blink of an eye. But not here. Not with her.
    Lexi saw him. She saw into him. Hell. She probably knew every secret he had. If he had a brain in his head, he’d kill her and be done with it, but she kept looking at him with those big green eyes filled with compassion and invitation. She was far too innocent and naïve to realize what that look could do to a man like him.
    â€œI might be one of those monsters, Lexi, the kind that shouldn’t live. I’ve asked myself that a few times,” he confessed, telling the strict truth, making a half-hearted attempt to save her. “I judge who lives and who dies all the time. The people I go after aren’t human. But then, I doubt I am either.”
    She did the most unexpected thing. She brushed back his hair, her fingers moving along his scalp with a whisper of a caress. Gentle. Soothing. She ripped his heart out with the small gesture. He felt the actual pain and couldn’t help himself. He pressed the hand he was holding hard over his heart, to try to keep the dried-out organ inside his body. It was too late. She had it. It belonged to her.
    One small act of kindness and he was gone. Shredded. Taken over. He wanted to curse. Weep. Fight. There was a part of him that coiled tight, ready to attack. He’d been shot, beaten, tortured and stabbed numerous times. This was far worse. With one touch she had disarmed him. She’d destroyed him. Utterly destroyed him.
    â€œYou’re just tired, Gavriil. Like me, everything that mattered to you was ripped away from you and with it, your heart. Maybe even your soul.”
    He winced. She was striking far too close to the truth, and she’d already gotten under his skin, taken his heart and now she was looking into him. No one did that. No one. He protected himself at all times, yet her green eyes saw right through his armor and now she’d turned the spotlight on him.
    His hand slid up her arm to her throat, his fingers sliding around her neck. She was so small. So vulnerable. He felt her pulse fluttering in his palm. One movement and she would be dead. It was that simple. To save himself he simply had to crush her throat. It would be so easy. So simple. He could be back in the shadows, in the wind