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Holly didn’t back up. She didn’t flinch. All she did was breathe, deep and easy. More resolve.
He saw her strength, another surprise. She’d acted on what she believed was right in the middle of a dangerous situation. But, he didn’t care. He’d lost a critical opportunity to save his daughter. Holly had robbed him of that.
He was about to tell her so, when she said, “You have one job to do right now. Figure out where Cruce’s cavern is and have Stone mobilize his army. I have my own path to follow from this moment forward. I can’t help you anymore.”
“What the hell do you mean by –” Before the words left his mouth, he felt her time-pathing vibration light up then she was gone.
“Holly!” His voice echoed around the room. “Come back here. We’re not finished!”
He was shouting into empty air.
One thought began looping through his head. Holly had prevented him from saving Isobel.
Holly had betrayed him and he’d made love to her.
His mind flooded with rage. A red haze covered his vision. His heart pounded hard in his chest. His hands made fists. He couldn’t think. He took breaths in deep, bull-like snorts.
He had to get out of the house or he’d start smashing things.
He flew down the hall by the kitchen and out the back door. He’d taken Holly’s blood, so he was full of power as he shot toward the hills to the north. He passed above his orchard, over the sheep and horses grazing in the pasture.
He saw the infamous oak and headed for it. He might have made love to Holly there for the first time, but it had always been a place that claimed him.
He set down on the twig littered grasses and began to pace. The April air was cool on his face, but he was burning up with fury.
He could have saved his daughter. The only surviving member of his family. He could have saved her.
Damn Holly to hell for doing this to him.
He shouted his rage and heard his voice echo against the hills.
He turned in a circle, hands in fists, arms stiff.
He recalled the auction cavern, the glittering wealthy, the smell of perversion.
His daughter had been in one of the glass enclosures, a caged animal.
The thought of it sent an even louder roar into the heavens.
“You about done?”
He turned around. “Oregis? What are you doing here?”
“Davido dropped me off. He said you needed a voice of reason. I’m here to see you don’t stroke out. Sweet Goddess, I’ve never seen your face so red and the veins in your neck are bulging. Wait, is that a love-bite on your neck?” He gasped as he drew close. “Does your woman have fangs? You lucky son-of-a-bitch!”
Rez lifted both hands in strange response to the disruption of his rage-state. “You’d better get out of here.”
“Not a chance. You’re being a dick and not seeing any of the important things you need to see right now.”
“Like what?”
“I saw Isobel, too.”
Nothing Oregis could have said would have stopped Rez in his tracks except these words. The top levels of his fury evaporated. “You saw my daughter? But you said nothing?”
Oregis nodded. He sighed heavily. “You would have lost it, boss, and the three of us would have died then and there. You know we would have.”
“Have you talked to Holly?”
