Heaven's Crime (gxg) ✓

thirty. i want morning sex, but japanese samurais try to murder us

"Tell them to go away," I groan. "I can't deal with gun-toting hooligans before 12 p.m."

Veah, standing at the edge of the bed, is wearing a leather jacket, pants, and an unbuttoned shirt.

She must have been just in the middle of getting dressed.

It's a really good look on her.

Not as good a look as her without any clothes, but―

The Japanese ninjas. Right. I should probably be paying attention to that and not my girlfriend―

                      Shit. Why do I keep thinking of her as my girlfriend?

Just because we fucked like rabbits yesterday doesn't mean we're dating.

                     And just because she said she likes you, and you like her, and she won't kiss any other girls for you because you told her you didn't want her to, it doesn't mean that―

"Kaya?"

Right. Japanese ninjas.

"I thought Okami said no one would interrupt us!"

Veah unsheathes a sword from under her pillow. "She's testing me."

"What kind of test is this? If you fail this, we die!"

"Oh, I won't fail," Veah says grimly.

Before I can ask about the fact that she sleeps with a sword under her pillow, she attacks.

And I understand exactly why it is she is so confident she won't fail.

Silver cleaves through the air, and Veah is a blur. Dancing around each of the three men until she is shadow and storm, blood and fury. The first man collapses to his knees, impaled.

They don't wait their turn to attack her, like in the movies. The remaining two lunge for her at the same time.

My hands clap over my mouth. "Veah!" I scream.

But she kicks the other one between his legs without looking back, and he grunts, falling backwards.

The opponent in front of her has a thick, jagged blade. The clash of steel against steel makes my ears ring.

And then they are fighting, so quickly I can barely tell where one meets and the other ends.

Their strikes are precise. Lethal. As swift as the movement of a viper, as certain as a killing blow.

Veah moves like lightning, but he is a serpent, a cobra, and each of his hits are meticulous―

Behind Veah, I see the man she kicked begin to stand.

There is a small, sharp dagger in his hand.

Veah is still fighting, wild and ferocious, an untamed hurricane. She doesn't notice.

The man's face splits into a depraved grin as he pounces―

I am moving before I know it.

I am moving before I even know why.

I am moving because that small, sly dagger is aimed right for her back, a wound that will pierce her spine―an injury that will kill her instantly―