AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Banner, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? You think I don’t bring party favors on the off chance things get fun?” I scoffed and shook my head, looking at my vampire soldiers standing in the tech room. “Don’t worry. We’re ready. Make sure your boys are. I want this shit done and over with already.”
I turned and left then, my mind feeling heavy and wired, like my brain was filled with static. I didn’t realize I was already in the house until the front door slammed against the wall.
For a second I just stood there. Everything was still, silent. My mind and body were a labyrinth of conflict, so it was hard to concentrate and sift through sights and smells, sounds and changes all around me.
I looked up the stairs and at first didn’t see jack shit, but as I forced myself to calm, I smelled it then. Blood. And a hell of a lot of it.
I sensed the others coming up behind me, but I didn’t give two fucks about anything but getting to Kayla.
I used my speed to go up the steps, my body on fire, my muscles shaking with the force of trying to keep my shit together. And as I scanned the upper landing, I spied the source of the scent of blood thick in the air.
Mikhail lay twenty feet from the stairs, his eyes on me, his mouth open and closing as he tried to make words. Blood gurgled from his mouth and pulsated out of the open, massive wound on his neck.
Where the fuck is Kane?
I was crouched beside him a second later, aware of the others rushing up the stairs, the shouting and cursing, the sound of weapons being drawn. Hell, we didn’t need the latter, but at this point I wanted anything and everything at my disposal where my female was concerned.
Mikhail kept gurgling, spraying blood, and trying to lift his arm, pointing a finger at something down the hall. I was about to say fuck him and go to Kayla—because she was all that mattered—when Mikhail started gasping words out in a sickly, wet voice.
“James,” he said and coughed, blood spraying out. “Assembly.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Gone. Her. Gone.”
I looked at his neck, saw that it wasn’t just a wound, but his head had damn near been taken clean off. Not even a vampire could survive that.
I could piece together the broken words Mikhail said clearly enough. The only thing I didn’t know was whether James was a victim of the Assembly, or if the bastard was working for them and that motherfucker was soon-to-be dead.
I was up and heading toward my room, toward Kayla, my heartbeat a rush in my ears.
I saw Kane’s booted feet sprawled out beside the door, smelled the thick scent of his blood coating the air. I couldn’t stop to see if he was all right, had to get to my female, make sure she was okay. But before I reached the room, Kane roused, instantly cursing up a storm.
Growling, scratching, and something heavy being slammed against one of the bedroom doors echoed down the hallway. Before I could bark out orders, one of my soldiers was opening it, Bear hurtling out of the room, snarling, snapping, and darting toward Kayla’s room. Blood covered his muzzle and the thick mane around his head and chest, but he looked otherwise unharmed.
“I’m sorry, Adryan.” I focused back on Kane. “I shouldn’t have let him catch me unaware.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “That dead motherfucker,” he groused. “I’m gonna beat the living shit out of him before I tear his dick off with my bare hands and put it through a blender in front of him.”
I saw the hammer lying on the floor beside Kane, the tool used to crack him hard enough on the back of the head that I was surprised there wasn’t more damage done and he was even waking up this soon. But I didn’t give a shit where James had gotten it, and didn’t care that Kane was hurt or Mikhail was dead. Kayla is all that matters.
I wanted to rage at Kane for not protecting my female, to kill Mikhail all over again for failing orders. but this one was on me. Fuck, this was all on me. My fucking fault. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight.
“I got him good upside his fucking face before he coldcocked me.” He waved to the door impatiently. “Go to her,” Kane growled, and I smelled Sebastian in the hall, saw him crouch beside his brother.
I kicked in the bedroom door, the wood splintering, the door hanging on its hinges. I froze and took in the scene of the room, my breath stalling, my entire body seizing.
Blood was splattered on the floor. A mixture of Mikhail and Kayla’s.
The top sheet was missing from the bed.
The curtain was hanging from the rod.
I stepped in farther, and then another, smelling Kayla’s fear lingering in the air. It was fading, which meant it had been a while since she’d been here.
Whoever took her must have done it shortly after I left the house.
“I’m going to eviscerate him. I’m going to rip his bowels out from his throat, shove them back down, and make him eat them.” My head pounded, my hands shaking. I’d never felt so out of control, where everything in me was unthreading, spiraling haphazardly until it would stain everything it touched.
I felt all my sanity vanish. Using all my strength, I was by the bed and tossed that piece of fucking furniture across the room until it crashed into the opposite wall. I did the same with the dresser, then tore the large mirror from the wall and dropped it on the floor as hard as I could, letting the shards of glass spray along the floor. I slammed my fist into the plaster over and over again until I felt the skin of my knuckles break.
The pain felt good. I needed more.
When the room was in pieces all around me, I stood there panting, taking in the destruction… wanting more. I felt the blood from my busted-up hands dripping onto the floor.
