AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck, she blew the hinges right off.
Both hands still gripped to the bagged knife hilt, she cages her emotions and levels me with a tapered gaze, and I swear I’ve never been punched harder by a fucking look.
If she removes the knife, evidence is lost—myevidence. My fingerprints and DNA on the weapon.
It only lasts a moment, but her doubt detonates inside every single one of my cells, the destruction catastrophic.
“I can’t loathe you, Kallum,” she says. “There are more emotions on the spectrum than lust and anger. I’m hurt. I’m…heartbroken.” She swallows hard, and the pain in her eyes impales me. “Leave him alive. I can’t help you otherwise.”
The guy beneath me is fading, his struggle all but forgotten as I watch Halen lower the knife. She avoids my eyes as she tosses the weapon on the ground, her decision made.
Without a backward glance, she pushes her hair out of her face and starts in the agent’s direction. A white-hot coal of rage burns in the pit of my stomach.
My muse might have a death wish, but I won’t let her so much as break a nail for Hernandez.
The guy falls unconscious beneath my arm, and I lower my mouth near his ear. “You’re lucky I have some groveling to do.” Then I send my fist into his face. The wet smack of his blood is satisfying as his head drops sideways.
Once I’m on my feet, I prop the heel of my boot on his shoulder and give him a hard shove, sending him toppling down the sloped ridge. Unconscious, he settles near the totaled SUV.
Then my entire focus is on Halen. She stands at the edge of the fray between Hernandez and his attacker, where the agent is losing his fight.
I could let Hernandez die right now. A more selfish,smarterversion of myself would do exactly that. Whatever he suspects of me would die with him, and while Halen would mourn his loss, it would be one less obstacle.
But my obstinate muse strips me of my free will once again when she launches herself onto the guy’s back.
“Fucking hell.” I shrug off my suit jacket and toss it to the ground. My muscles band painfully tight around my bones as fire gathers between my sinew and flesh.
Teeth gnashed together so hard my jaw aches, I watch as Halen grabs hold of one of his spiked antlers. For a suspended heartbeat, anticipation for the kill collars my throat in an arousing chokehold. The marshy air crackles with her volatile shift. She’s a fierce, unstable element that holds me breathless.
With a desperate cry, she flings the skull away, her fucking logic derailing her course once again. Halen digs her nails into the guy’s eyes and succeeds in diverting him away from Hernandez. He drops the syringe, but only so he can latch on to her forearms. He groans and slings her off his back.
Halen hits the ground hard, and the pain that explodes across her face covers my vision in a pulsing haze of red.
My gaze narrows down to a pinhole on hoodie guy. Fury seethes from my pores, my nostrils flared and teeth bared as I stalk toward him like a predator scenting its prey.
A growl tears free as I deliver a ruthless punch to his face, relishing in thecrackI hear as his nose shatters, and the resulting blood that stains my knuckles. I drop another hit, and another, intent to demolish his features.
The harder we deny our nature, the more painful our existence.
I stopped resisting my demon the moment my muse entered my world. I surrendered to the primal violence that wanted to dominate my atoms when she called out for me, when sheneededme. Hell, I became the villain for her. And I owned the bloodthirsty monster who fed on chaos and carnage, like I own that monster now.
No longer able to stand, the guy chokes on his own blood as he crumples to the ground, my fists following him down as I submit to the wrath. Balance is lost under my unhinged blows, and we slip farther down the embankment.
Only when I glimpse Halen on the edge of my vision do I slow my assault.
“Kallum—” She’s breathy as she comes to a halt at the bottom of the ridge. “He has answers.”
In the same way Halen needs me to harbor her darkness, I need her to offset the violence that wants to consume. Without her, I’d be utterly lost to it. My muscles aflame, I hold back the next strike that wants to annihilate the last remaining shred of this fucker.
I haul him up by his hoodie collar and glare down into his ruined face. Deciding he’s coherent enough, I step in behind him. As he’s unable to hold his head up, I dig my bloody fingers into his hair and wrench his head back, forcing him to look at Halen.
One arm braced around her midsection, she stares at me with that cute, worried divot between her brows. In her other hand, she wields the carving knife. She won’t let it out of her sight.
I spit the taste of copper from my mouth, unsure if the blood is mine or his. I crane his head back farther, earning a lethargic groan. “Get your answers,” I grit out.
Anxious, she paces a few steps, then turns my way. “Did Devyn send you after us?” she demands. “Where is she?”
He refuses to talk in his thrashed state. I lower my voice into a menacing rumble just for him. “If you have no use for your voice, I will tear your throat out.”
