AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bone and tendons crunched, severing instantly. Rune dropped the corpse and wheeled back on his bare feet.
Oh, God . . . he looked so battered and weary. His breath heaved out of him, fatigue in every powerful muscle.
He lifted his head to look up at the catwalk and his blazing amber gaze lit on her.
The roar he let out when he saw her shook the stone walls and the rafters high above.
Carys’s hand flew to her mouth, tears stinging her eyes. “Rune!”
“Carys? No!” His outraged eyes went to his father. “How did you get her? Goddamn it, let her go!”
Ennis Riordan chuckled as he sent a sidelong glance at Rune’s father. “I told you the bitch we saw in Boston was more than just a fuck to our boy, Aedan.”
“Obviously something more than he wanted us to believe. But what was she doing in Fielding’s house tonight?”
“She hasn’t told me anything so far. Said she wanted to see him first.” He smirked at her. “I think we can persuade her to talk now.”
“Let her go,” Rune growled from in the pit. He ground out a low curse. “Don’t hurt her. You sick fuck!”
His father’s brows rose. “You haven’t seen sick yet. When we’re done with you, boyo? Oh, what fun we’re gonna have with her.”
And then, it all happened so fast.
Riordan glanced at his guard. In response, the male reached over to pull a lever mounted on the stone wall at the end of the catwalk. Down below, one of the iron-grated portals built into the wall of the fighting pit began to open.
Another feral Breed male sprang out like a lion set loose in a gladiator’s arena. Bigger than the last one, his massive body was unmarked and fresh for combat. And, like the other, he seemed too unhinged to be fully sane. Bloodthirsty and vicious, he circled Rune, prepared to lunge.
“Now, let’s make it more interesting.” Riordan nodded to his brother.
In a flash of motion, the other male drew his pistol and shot Rune in the shoulder.
Carys screamed.
The sound started out high-pitched and anguished, but quickly changed to something powerful and otherworldly. Her transformation from woman to Breed female was sudden, and unstoppable.
Her fangs punched out of her gums in an instant. Her vision burned red as her Breed nature took over and her pupils narrowed to vertical slits within her amber irises. She leapt at Riordan’s brother, seizing hold of him. Her body slammed against his, lifting him off his feet.
Her immense forward momentum sent them both airborne.
“Holy shit!” Rune’s father jumped back against his guard on a curse.
His brother shrieked in abject terror in Carys’s grasp, his eyes wide.
It took less than a second for Carys to understand why. As they sailed over the railing of the catwalk, into open air, sparks exploded as if they’d crashed into something.
The blast of light was blinding, filling her vision like the blast of a thousand suns.
Then her nostrils filled with the smoky stench of burning skin and hair.
What the hell?
The Breed male she’d held fast in her fists was gone. Disintegrated in her fingers.
Suddenly, she wasn’t holding anything anymore. The ashes of Ennis Riordan’s body rained down around her like snowflakes as she plummeted to the floor of the fighting pit.
CHAPTER 34
Nova’s sketches of Riordan’s castle lay spread out on a work table in the rear of the Order’s private jet. Chase and the other warriors had been gathered around the diagrams for the past hour or so, reviewing entry points and running through possible infiltration plans.
