Marked by an Assassin by Felicity Heaton

mission, but now a need to fulfil it ruled him, had him in its grip again. This time, he wouldn’t set it aside for anything. This time, he would complete it and the huntress would die.
    It ended now.
    He shoved onto his feet and began pacing, taking swift agitated strides across his cell as the thought of finding the bitch who had betrayed him and killed his kin spawned a thousand more thoughts, an account of all the knowledge he had gained during his search for her across all of the continents of the mortal realm. Somewhere in that knowledge was the seed that would bear fruit and give him her location. He just had to find it.
    His fingers flexed, twitching with the need to sink his claws into her.
    Escape. Fuck the mission. Get revenge. That was all that mattered now. Escape and revenge.
    It was time she paid for her sins.
    He sharply turned towards the wall separating him and the dragon and banged on it. Time to sow some seeds of his own, ones that might just get him out of this white-washed Hell.
    “That the woman you were looking for?” he said.
    “Yes.”
    Harbin snorted. “They sent a woman to trick you, too?”
    Silence greeted that question and he could almost hear the dragon’s thoughts, could almost taste his freedom. He was close. He just had to push the male a little more. He had to play on his feelings, both the good and the bad.
    “Did she sleep with you and then betray you?” He pressed his palms to the wall and waited.
    The dragon growled. “Yes.”
    Harbin spat out a foul curse. “They did the same thing to me… and then they attacked my pride. They killed my sister and mother.”
    Silence again, and this time Harbin knew the reason. The dragon was thinking about his clan and the danger it was in now. Dragons valued their clan above everything. Well, everything except their treasure.
    A low snarl rumbled through the wall, the sense of power Harbin got from him increased tenfold, and then the dull sound of fists slamming against glass sounded. The dragon was pissed. Just how Harbin needed him.
    The banging ceased and he felt the dragon move closer.
    “What is your name?” Those words were laboured, spoken between hard breaths if he had to guess.
    “Harbin.”
    “My name is Loke. You heard my conversation with the huntress. I cannot be here. I must escape these fiends… and therefore I need your help. I need your knowledge of this facility.”
    Bingo. He had just secured his ticket out of here. Now he just had to give the male what he knew, and escape and revenge would be his.
    Escape. Revenge.
    He hadn’t realised he had relapsed into chanting about those two things until the damned dragon was roaring down the house and pummelling the glass again. Fuck.
    “Bad move,” Harbin called, but he knew it was already too late. “They don’t like it when we’re rowdy.”
    Loke stopped the banging but the deathly silence in the other cell told Harbin that they were already releasing the gas. He didn’t have much time if he was going to convince the dragon to break him out.
    He growled as he gave the dragon the information he needed, his voice deeper and more vicious than he had ever heard it as thoughts of finally achieving his revenge rolled through him.
    Atonement.
    It would finally be his.
    “Two scientists. Bonds are weak. Shatter them. Scalpels are weapons. Four guards. Two observers. Eight throats to cut. Kill the fuckers and come get me.”
    Harbin grinned and sealed the deal by placing a cherry on the top.
    “I know a portal back to Hell.”
     
     

CHAPTER 7
    Harbin couldn’t wait to see what the scientists had in store for him this time. He had expected the two male hunters at his back to escort him into the same cramped medical room as before, but they had continued along the stark white corridor, leading him deeper into the facility. The shackles they had placed on him were cold against his bare lower back, irritating him. He flexed his fingers, fighting the itch to stroke the