Page 85 of Reforging Onyx

Kill all of them.

Someone was going to die, one way or another; it was only a matter of who and when.

If he tried to kill Dominic and failed, their truce would come to an end. If he succeeded, he’d be free. Free. But the risk was so high. After this, he wouldn’t even have the opportunity to come back to the warehouse for an attack on his own terms, and that pissed him off.

He was striding in the direction of Ambrose’s car before he even realized he’d made his decision.

“Call off your pets,” he called out. “I’m coming.”

He ignored the constructs even as his instincts told him to take them seriously; still, if Ambrose wanted him, he wouldn’t let the constructs hurt him. And Ambrose had no reason to think that Onyx would actually be loyal to Dominic.

Because he wasn’t.

This was self-serving, pure and simple, and that was that.

He stopped several feet away from Ambrose, who was flanked by a wolf and another witch. He’d have to take them all out at once, or he’d have a big problem on his hands.

Good thing he’d been playing with projectiles back at the warehouse.

He smiled at Ambrose. “I’ve been waiting for someone to rescue me,” he said, though his tone was frosty even to his own ears. “I thought everyone who might was dead.”

“The human rebels, you mean?” Ambrose asked.

Onyx’s eyes narrowed when he noted the look of disdain on Ambrose’s face. “Yeah. Them.”

“We’re far more effective than any human rebels could hope to be,” Ambrose replied.

Onyx glanced at the other two. “I see.”

He wasn’t wrong, Onyx knew. Supes could do more than humans. But hearing it laid out like that… No.

He didn’t know when he’d made this decision, either; he called three of the little balls of fire before Ambrose could so much as blink, and he willed them through the three men in front of him.

Burning flesh filled his nostrils, but Onyx wasn’t finished. He followed those attacks up with more, stopping the werewolf dead in his tracks and ensuring that the other witch took another fireball to the face when he tried to utter the words to a spell.

But Onyx was primarily focused on Ambrose, whose shields had stopped Onyx’s attack from landing. He didn’t give the witch a chance to gather himself, though, instantly forcing him onto the defensive instead. He attacked as he’d been taught, with a physical barrage to shatter Ambrose’s shields before following that up with flames.

Ambrose fought to re-summon more shields, but it was too late; Onyx had stepped into his guard, and he smiled with grim satisfaction as he took the witch down. The werewolf had recovered some and was going for Onyx, but Onyx had trained with a werewolf much faster and more skilled than this one could ever hope to be.

Still, it took him time to dispatch the wolf, too, then he stepped on the neck of the other witch just for good measure to make sure he wasn’t going to get back up. The constructs had vanished, leaving him with three bodies on the ground, and Onyx stepped back before setting them on fire with a few licks of a flame on clothing.

He watched for several moments as the flames began to consume them, then turned his back and returned to Dominic and Shane.

His eyes remained cold and distant as they locked onto Dominic’s. “Don’t move,” he warned quietly.

“Onyx.” Dominic met Onyx’s eyes without flinching, without fear. The suppression collar dangled from his fingers. His words held only admiration as he murmured, “Beautifully done.”

Onyx inhaled slowly, the scent of scorched flesh still in his nostrils, and watched Dominic dispassionately. His eyes flicked briefly to Shane but ultimately returned to rest on Dominic, whose life hung in the balance.

What should he do?

He was a warrior, not a general; he was a killer, not a strategist.

He knew what Paul Franklin and Marcos Sandoval would’ve told him to do. They’d tell him to kill Dominic without a second thought, and Onyx considered it. Even mostly depleted, he was sure he could battle past Dominic’s defenses and set him ablaze, too.

If he chose not to, it would be a choice he’d have to live with.

There would be no walking away from Dominic. Dominic would hunt Onyx to the ends of the earth to reclaim him. There was only this — life and death — and he had every reason to kill Dominic, didn’t he? If he didn’t, he’d return to being his slave, his toy, his pet.