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Sire’s eyes flashed with lethal blue fire before he turned his head slowly and pinned the stranger with his gaze. “At least I’m not a coward, boy.” He released Jenna’s throat and straightened to his full height. “If you’re tucking tail and running, I suggest you go now. Before I show you just howsoftI’ve gotten in myold ageand slice you from crotch to Adam’s apple. The wildlife would feast well.”
Jenna heard the whisper of a knife sliding free from its sheath, the bladeshushingwith deadly delight. She closed her eyes against the sight of blood and gore she knew would come, wished she could close her ears as easily.
Instead, there were two small puffs of sound before she fell forward, crashing face-first into the planks as her arms dropped like stones beside her. Whimpers escaped cracked lips as rough hands tugged the wires from around her bloated, purple hands.
Her torso seemed to implode at the jolt of impact.
“Good luck, Sire.” The door opened and cool air blew in before it closed again, leaving her once again on her own with the monster.
He reached down and snagged her short locks, dragging into her into an almost sitting position. Murderous sky-blue eyes drilling into her brain. “Why is it whenever I take the time toteach, toeducate, it gets thrown back in my face? Do you know, Twenty-Two? Can you tell me why people toss my fucking generosity back in my face as though it’s nothing?”
Because you’re a psychopath in a man’s bodydidn’t seem to be an answer that guaranteed she’d still be breathing in thirty seconds’ time. So she held her tongue and waited for his ego to take over again.
“I’ll tell you why. Because I’m tooniceabout it. I let people walk all over me. I could wipe them off the face of the fucking earth and no one would be the wiser.” He flung her back with a flick of his wrist, careless as a child with an unwanted toy. “Eighteen years I’ve been teaching that boy everything I know. Turned him into a master trainer almost on a par with myself. Then what does he go and do? What does hego and do?”
She assumed it was something bad but couldn’t bring herself to care. Pain had returned tenfold, leaving her trapped in an eternal circle of suffering.
“He breaks every rule in the goddam handbook is what he does. Uses his own fucking truck to ram an official government vehicle, no doubt leaving evidence all over the FBI’s fucking lap.” Ranting in full swing, he paced in a circle. “Then,then, the stupid asshole decides disabling the FBI agent in charge and the two hospital attendants wasn’t enough. No, no, he makes an executive decision and shoots all three of them. I should have killed him. Shouldn’t have let him walk away,” Sire muttered and swung out with his boot, smashing the hard toe into her hip.
Jenna clenched her teeth together hard enough she felt one crack under the strain.
“He’ll be back. He always comes back. When he does, I’ll make sure he pays for bringing the goddamn feds down on my doorstep.” Sire looked down at her. “Now, you. You’re a different matter altogether. Such a disappointment of another kind. I want to take days punishing you but look at the state of what he brought to me. Are you even going to last the night?”
By all the powers at her disposal, she hoped not. If night was falling, her odds at surviving the temperatures on top of her injuries and the shock…peace filtered into her system. By the time the moon rose high in the sky, she would just…fall asleep. Fall into a deep and dreamless sleep she’d never wake up from. Painless and quick.
“You won’t bleed to death,” he said conversationally as his eyes roamed over her broken body. “You might suffocate if your lung punctures. The concussion isn’t particularly a worry.” He crouched and poked one long finger at a swelling in her stomach. “Possible internal injuries. Not much I can do about that.”
Just leave me here to die in the cold and the silence, she thought.
“I think we’ll stick with the original plan, Twenty-Two, but just move up the schedule. I’ve waited two years to complete your training and this,” he swept a hand over her, “won’t alter the execution of said plan. But that means you can’t stay out here, doesn’t it? Can’t have you freezing to death before the big finale in the morning.”
Sire tsked and wrapped his fingers around her ankle. “Lucky you, Twenty-Two. The only number to spend her last night in the warmth and comfort of the house.”
He dragged her out of the shed into the dwindling light like a kid pulling a little red wagon down the street. By herankle. Ice hit her back, scraped like fingernails over bare skin, littered her flesh with tiny frozen cuts. The cold stole what breath she had left, giving her nothing to live on, nothing to scream with. Her arms dragged above her head, completely useless.
Snow gathered in her hair, burned into her scalp.
Sire whistled as he plodded steadily across what was a sprawling acreage of green lawn in the summer, heading for the house through the last dribbles of falling flakes.
Jenna choked on a cry as he bounced her up the three porch steps, then started to lose consciousness as her head smacked off the edge of all three. She slipped under into the darkness as the first welcome touch of heat caressed her skin.
*
To Connor’s confusion, the parking lot of O’Malley’s was conspicuously empty. It had been shoveled recently—Cain would have made sure it was clear for his customers—and Connor knew snow brought the brave and unwise flocking to the bar, looking for company, alcohol, and a night away from their other halves.
But tonight, the only other vehicle present was Cain’s.
The outside lights of the bar were switched off aside from the security lights over the doors, and there were no signs of life in the windows downstairs. A single lamp glowed in what was Cain’s living room on the floor above.
Before he could turn the engine off, Luna growled, staring out of the side window with predatory accuracy. Hackles pricked the fur down her neck, her back.
The rear passenger door swung open and a duffel bag launched onto the backseat, followed by two hefty torches and a rucksack. The door slammed shut, and Luna’s door wrenched open to Cain’s ugly mug.
“Took your sweet fucking time, bro. What did you do, drive to Idaho?” Cain jerked his head at Luna. “In the back, sweetheart. Clock’s ticking and your daddy can’t drive for shit in the snow.”
Connor blinked as the ferocious guard dog danced on the seat, licking at Cain’s face, then bounded into the back and made herself comfortable amongst the bags. “Cain? The fuck are you doing?”
“Iam riding to big brother’s rescue. Sarah called me earlier, frantic because you’d driven off on a suicide mission. Now if you’d told me you were heading out to the accident, I’d have told you it was a stupid idea.” His gaze slid sideways to Connor. “Sarah told me everything, Con. I’m sorry this happened. We’re gonna get your girl back come hell or high water.”
