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The sightofblood pouring from the Brooklyn division lead’s shoulder sent a buzz surging through Jace’s veins, and he smiled. He didn’t give a flying shit that he’d stabbed the leader of an entire Execution Underground division or that he was getting a little too much satisfaction from the pain of his newest enemy. Beating Eli into a pile of quivering flesh would be a sweet, addicting high. Fuck him for believing Chet’s bullshit.
For seeking him out like there was a damn bounty on his head.
With a low grunt, the bastard dislodged the blade from his shoulder and dropped it onto the floor. “You’re going to pay for that, you worthless mutt.”
Eli lunged toward Jace, hitting him right in the belly and knocking him clean off his feet. His breath flew out of him as he hit the ground. Jace felt his jaw pop out of place as Eli’s fist collided with his face, his uninjured arm swinging like a massive club as blood from his shoulder soaked Jace’s clothes.
Jace maneuvered his legs onto Eli’s chest and thrust forward, flipping his fellow hunter to the ground. He straddled Eli’s stomach and pounded his fist into the dickhead’s nose, treating him to the same blows the bastard had just dished out. Anger pumped through him.
Eli bucked in a fruitless attempt to throw Jace off. His blood pooled on the floor, filling in the cracks between the boards. The more Eli fought, the more blood gushed from his stab wound and Jace could feel him weakening with each hit.
Eli was the best fighter in his division, or so he’d thought. Jace had never unleashed his full strength in front of the other hunters for fear of revealing his identity—his unfair advantage, or disadvantage—until now. Until Chet. Now he wasn’t holding back. The combination of his bloodline, natural strength and the serum all the members of the E.U. received made him a force to be reckoned with.
The bastard squirmed beneath Jace’s grip until he’d positioned himself just right, then brought his knee up hard in a low blow to the crotch, a move Eli would never normally make, a sign of how close he knew he was to passing out. Jace groaned but kept on pounding Eli’s face. Black and purple bruises were already forming across the hunter’s cheeks and around one eye.
“That was a cheap shot, you fucking cocksucker.” Jace slammed his knuckles into Eli’s jaw and felt the crack of bone beneath his hand. He grabbed Eli by the front of his shirt to hold him down. “You hit like a bitch,” he growled.
“Like your bitch?” Eli said through a mouthful of blood.
In one quick twist, Jace snatched his blade from the floor and held the sharp metal against the skin of Eli’s throat, then leaned into his face, each word sending his warm breath over his enemy’s skin. “If youevercall her a bitch again, your smile will run from ear to ear.” He lifted the blade and traced it across Eli’s mouth up to his cheekbone. “You and Chet both.”
Eli didn’t even flinch. Instead, he spat a glob of bloody spit into Jace’s face. Jace threw down a punch at Eli’s temple so hard he swore he felt the bone soften beneath the hit. He delivered the final blow, knocking the asshole out cold. But that wasn’t enough. He wanted to kill the bastard. God, how he wanted to end this.
His fist collided with the mauled flesh of Eli’s face again, and he couldn’t stop swinging.
A large hand clutched hold of Jace’s arm and wrenched him back. “Jace, man. Stop! We’ve gotta get out of here.”
Jace’s arm kept swinging with the force of a pendulum. But David hooked him under the arms and hauled him off Eli’s limp body.
“Get a grip and let’s go. If I’m going to be a fugitive because of you, I’m at least gonna be smart about it.” He shoved Jace between the shoulder blades. “Move it. We’re wasting time.”
Hands shaking from the adrenaline rush, Jace placed one foot in front of the other. He stepped past Rich, who lay like a dead man—though on closer inspection he was still breathing—on the floor, presumably courtesy of David.
A high-pitched and angry scream echoed from the hallway, and Jace snapped to attention.Francesca. He bolted into the hall. Brent was standing at the edge of the stairs with four bloody claw marks slashed clear across his face as he blocked Francesca’s access to the only exit.
She must have shifted, because she was stark naked, her hair in total disarray. Blood trickled from her collarbone, where her skin was raw. Brent had used enhanced silver on her.
Jace snarled.
Francesca growled, an animal sound from her human throat. “Move out of my way, asshole.” Throwing herself against Brent, she knocked him down.
Despite how small she was in comparison to him, she held his throat between her thighs and beat his face with her fists. He gasped for air as she cut off his breathing. She snarled and drew her hand back. The air bent and quivered with energy as her hand shifted into a wolf’s paw while all the rest of her remained human.
At the sight of her claws, Brent managed to throw her off. She flew back into the wall. Her head hit the plaster with a loud thump, and Jace shot forward, but David beat him to the punch with those long-ass legs of his.
David pulled his .40 from his jacket and aimed it straight for Brent’s head. “Get out of here.”
Brent didn’t move. He stared David directly in the eye.
“I said, get the fuck out.” David fired a shot right past Brent’s ear. Brent stumbled to his feet and down the stairs as he clutched at the side of his head to cover his throbbing eardrum. David gave a satisfied smile and slipped his gun back inside his jacket.
Francesca groaned, and Jace turned to see her getting to her feet. “Thanks for coming to my rescue, guys. My head? Oh, it’s fine. No concussion at all.” She stared at the floor and rubbed her palm across her forehead.
Jace scowled. “You didn’t give me time to ask.”
“If I had, would you?”
“What kind of question is that?” Jace snapped.
