Copyrighted Kristen Banet All rights reserved.
*Before you read this: This can POSSIBLY contain SPOILERS on the character, Axel. *
This is in a completely unedited, first draft state. Expect typos/errors by the butt-load.
Reupload from the original post on Facebook
Mistakes.
Axel had always prided himself that he never made them.
He knew how to play the game to the hilt. He knew how to corner his enemies into losing situations. He knew how to position his allies in the best way to maximize their efficiency and potential.
He had never made a mistake. That fact had propelled him into one of the most powerful men in the world.
Other criminals feared him. The WMC let him chisel away at their power, letting children trying to catch him but not giving them the funding or time to truly have a chance. Vinny was never going to out play him, so Axel let his brother have his game.
Then he got a message from one of his spies, a picture, and a name.
Axel had never been so angry than the moment he caught himself looking at a dead woman. He’d killed the man who brought him the news.
“A temporary loss of temper,” he reminded himself quietly. His hands twitched, and he resisted the urge to curl them into fists. “That’s all. He was replaceable.”
She had always been good at making him angry.
Axel hated LA. A dirty city. Too much smog, and the people had no respect for the world around them or those who were better than them. Arrogant, gang bangers flooded the streets and Axel was better than all of them.
He hated being here, but he had to clean up this mess. She would be here soon, in the little server room. He’d set this ‘job’ up just for her. Something easy that she could do quickly but paid enough to catch her interest.
He was almost impressed.
Four years since he watched her body thrown into the ocean, bleeding out.
Yet she would be here any minute to earn a few million dollars and continue her life. He had no idea where she was hiding between jobs, but it didn’t matter. He was going to clean this up tonight.
I don’t make mistakes.
He repeated it to himself several times.
He knew he was wrong. A mistake with his temper had started this. He’d cultivated the perfect assassin, formed her with rage and pain, blackmailed her into the job with her love for the things that couldn’t defend themselves. She had been dangerous and efficient. Darkly beautiful.
Then he’d lost his temper and killed the one very important thing that kept her on the leash and in his bed.
Mistakes.
Axel had made a terrible one that night.
Something about her always made him lose his temper. He never understood it, but he knew it was her fault.
His biggest mistake must have been her fault. He would have never had done it if it weren’t for her.
“She’s in the building.” Missy’s voice whispered in his ear.
Missy. Axel curled a lip. The people he surrounded himself with were useful and powerful but none were ones he particularly liked. The Doppler had wanted to be with him for years, even when he had her but Axel wasn’t interested in a woman who could also be a man. Once the Doppler had tried to look like her.
Axel had made it very clear that he would never accept Missy’s cheap imitation of her. Plus, the scar she gave the Doppler would always remind them both of her, dead or alive.
Axel shook his head. The room was too hot, but he didn’t care use his magic. She would feel it and run. She was good at slipping out of difficult situations thanks to her abilities. Those abilities were why he originally recruited her, first as a thief, then molded her into a being of death. He had to be careful or she would get spooked.
He heard the soft thump of her falling in the room. She wasn’t looking at him. He slid shields out and around them as she realized she wasn’t alone. He closed it with force, his temper spiking just seeing her.
His only living mistake.
She was still beautiful, even covered in a mask and all black to protect her identity. He wondered how she had gotten in so much better shape than she had been with him. He’d never needed a tough woman, just one who could slip a dagger between a man’s ribs.
Seeing her made him so angry.
He did make mistakes.
They were always her fault.
As long as she walked around, he would continue to make mistakes.
He used the name his mistake had earned, not the one she had been given at birth. The one that would remind her why she was about to die. The one that reminded her that he owned her, in life and in death.
“My Shadow, it’s been too long.”