Page 135 of The Code of You

The pliers closed around one of my canines. I shut my eyes. A whimper crawled out of my throat.

Then a thunderous crash tore through the silence. The metal door of the warehouse flew off its hinges and slammed into the wall with a deafening bang.

"You’re all dead.” Neo’s voice filled the room. His silhouette in the doorway didn’t look human anymore. His eyes glowed in the dark. The air around him vibrated.

My heart raced as relief flooded through me so hard it made me dizzy. Neo. He’d come. He’d found me.

Nathan stepped back, then caught himself. He put on a smile that didn’t quite land. His shaking knees gave him away. "Our guest of honor has arrived.”

The other two men lunged for their weapons, but before they got close Neo was on them. His hands closed around their throats. They went down screaming, convulsing, writhing. I blinked through sweat and tears. What had he done to them?

He didn’t move like a human. He moved in stuttering jumps, like a video with missing frames. One moment he was with the two men, then suddenly three meters away, then directly in front of Nathan. He grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground without effort.

"You made a mistake,” he said. "You touched the one thing that belongs to me.”

The words hit me deep. Possessiveness. Raw, primitive possessiveness.

He pressed his hand to Nathan’s forehead. Nathan screamed as if his skull were on fire.

"Feel that?” Neo murmured. "Those are your synapses. I’m rewriting them. Your mind—I’m breaking it.” Then he dropped him like a sack of nothing.

I should have been horrified. Instead, I felt a dark satisfaction settle in me. Good. Let him suffer.

Nathan sank to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Please . . . stop . . .”

Neo stood over him like a dark angel. The weak light of the warehouse threw shadows across his face, carving his cheekbones sharper, rendering his eyes darker. A god of wrath—beautiful and lethal.

Overwhelming gratitude surged through me. He was going to make them pay for what they’d done. Suddenly, I wanted only one thing: to be in his arms. "Neo,” I whispered.

He froze. His head snapped toward me, and for a moment I saw the man behind the monster’s mask.

"Pandora.” My name came off his lips, rough and desperate.

He crossed to me and tore the chains apart like paper. With trembling hands, he touched my face, fingertips moving across my cheek as if he was afraid I might shatter. His eyes were wet, the corners of his mouth pulled tight.

"I’m sorry,” he breathed. "I’m so sorry. I should never have let you out of my sight.” His voice broke. He examined my face, his thumbs moving over the marks the restraints had left on my wrists.

Then he saw my finger, swollen, bent at the wrong angle. His whole body went still. He took my injured hand with infinite care. His lips brushed the swollen joint.

Then his expression darkened. The lights in the warehouse flickered wildly. "Who did this to you?”

The memory of the pain rolled over me. The burning. The sound my bone had made when it broke. My eyes moved to the bigger one. He was still twitching on the floor. His eyes went wide as he understood what was coming.

Neo was on him before I could track the movement. He crouched beside him. The man tried to crawl away. His body wouldn’t obey him anymore.

"You broke her bone.” Neo placed his hand on the man’s arm. "I’m going to show you what that feels like. And then something much worse.”

A crack. The sound made me flinch. My heart beat faster. New energy moved through my battered body. A smile pulled at my lips. God help me. I liked it.

The man screamed.

Neo leaned forward, his voice almost gentle. "Who sent you?”

"P . . . please . . . I don’t know anything.” He sobbed, trying to shake his head.

"Wrong,” Neo said. "Try again.”

"I . . . I swear . . . just a job . . . no names . . .”