The Protector: Hakan & Nisan

Chapter 14

Nisan was leaning over Zeynep as they struggled on the floor in the hostel's dining room, the dagger in Nisan's hand an inch from Zeynep's heart when Hakan flew in. He pulled Nisan off Zeynep, choking her as he wrapped his arm around her neck and dragged her up and backwards.

"We've been waiting for you Protector," Nisan sneered with a cold, knowing smile, clawing at his arm. "Or should I say lover?"

Hakan shoved Nisan to the side, away from Zeynep, and stood between the two women. "Nisan," his voice was ragged with desperation, "don't. Please." He was begging her once again, as always just a slave to her strength and power. "Don't make me do this. Don't make me choose." He felt sickened and terrified of the inevitable collision that they were once again speeding toward at a hundred miles an hour.  Everything was once again out of his fucking control and he wanted to scream in utter frustration and fear.  Why did they always end up back right fucking here, pitted against one another despite the very real love between them?  "Don't make me fight you," he begged gruffly.

Nisan lunged at him with the dagger then, yelling out in a primal rage that took centuries to build and harden. "Fight me, goddamn you, so that I can finally kill you and be rid of you!"

He grabbed her wrist and suspended the dagger mid-air as it pointed straight at his heart, still helplessly begging her in vain, "Nisan, it's Hakan.  Look at me. I didn't betray you. I didn't drive that dagger into your heart. That wasn't me."

But her eyes were wild and unfocused and she was struggling like a rabid wildcat who couldn't, wouldn't, see what was right before her very eyes.

Suddenly she honed in on Zeynep over his shoulder and, without warning, she pivoted away and spun around him, going back for the stupid girl who was still struggling to get up off the floor as she uselessly pulled a small hand gun out from the waistband of her jeans. 

Nisan kicked Zeynep hard in the ribs, knocking her back down, easily wrestling the gun from her hands.  Now Nisan had the enchanted dagger in one hand and the gun in the other.  She was as always the lethal, unstoppable Vizier.  Power and purpose coursed through her veins.  In the blink of an eye, she had the end of the gun flush to Zeynep's forehead as the weak little human came to her knees in front of her and stilled. 

"Nisan, no!" Hakan thundered louder than she'd ever heard him yell and, surprisingly, she paused as she stared unblinkingly at her next victim. 

His heart in his throat he commanded tightly, "Don't you dare pull that trigger!" He reached a beseeching hand out to her and it was trembling as her gun rested against his best friend's forehead.  He came slightly closer, all that he dared, pleading, "Nisan, look at me. Please."  When he still didn't illicit a reaction from her he roared desperately, "Look at me, goddamn it!" 

She slid her dark chocolate eyes sideways to meet his.

He stilled then, becoming quiet and gentle as if trying to corner a rabid, feral animal. "Please.  Goddamn it, Nisan," it was practically a whisper. "Please don't do this. Don't you dare. If you do this we can never be together again. If you do this, you will have to kill me or I will have to kill you once and for all." His whole body was shaking then, the slightest of tremors as the massive weight of the moment settled into his bones and almost buckled his knees.  His amber eyes glowed with intensity as he all but whispered, "Nisan, if you ever loved me, please don't do this."

It was the longest moment of his life, as the gun pressed against Zeynep's forehead and Nisan studied him with eyes that were still wide and wild. But there was something else now in the black depths of her pupils. There was a flicker of understanding and acknowledgement.