Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
I knew before my brain could make sense of pictograms and pixels.
Vision could come in many forms.
Knowing could strike even the lowliest of creatures.
And this…it bypassed my paltry eyes, and I saw.
I saw with my fucking heart.
And I ran.
With a roar, I charged toward them.
They had her.
They hurt her.
They’ll die.
The storm was my friend as I threw myself into whatever entity existed within me.
The diabolical.
The despicable.
The immoral and unhinged.
The strange sensations of my youth returned, but I didn’t shut them down this time or convince myself they weren’t real.
Familiar black hunger poured through every vein.
My hearing sharpened until the splashing of every raindrop ricocheted in my ears.
My nose became acute, scenting the musk of sex in the gloom.
And my teeth ached as if they lengthened, ready to tear flesh from bone and lap at hot marrow.
I ran faster.
The two men standing with their pants off saw me first.
Their greedy grins fell as I hurtled toward them.
With a snarl, I threw the stupid gem and hit one of them squarely in the forehead.
He stumbled backward, rubbing the mark only for the one on the ground to wrap his hand around a girl’s throat and shift his hips.
Time seemed to slow as I looked at the jewel beneath him.
Black hair.
Thunder-dark skin.
Unparalleled beauty that fucking obliterated me.
Sickness gushed.
Possession flared.
And when I noticed her slack and empty face…
I
snapped.
I wasn’t human.
I was death.
Everything became a hologram as if I’d stepped through the fabric of time and space.
I became one with everything.
My hands snatched at bodies. My fists punched against bone.
The feral shouts of men were drowned out by thunder as I hit and hit and hit.
I punched over and over.
I kicked. I killed. I shed off the restrictions of gravity and physics and was free.
Screams sounded. Curses bellowed.
The snap of feeble bodies and the satisfying delivery of my punishment.
I snatched at the animal on the ground and threw him straight through the air. I caught him before he landed and slammed him with inhuman strength into the ground.
He grunted.
He was naked.
I grabbed his cock and tore.
He screamed.
Fingers snatched me as I choked him.
Eyes locked on mine as I killed him.
But I wasn’t aware.
Not really.
I was there but elsewhere.
I was floating and furious, violent and vicious.
No pain as men struck me from behind.
No awareness as my fist closed around someone’s windpipe and twisted.
He went limp.
I went rogue.
I kicked the bastards trying to hurt me.
I attacked with every atom.
I lost all sense of time as I became carnage itself.
A man sobbed as I broke him.
Another bellowed as I tore him apart.
I relished in midnight-black blood.
I fed on their pleas.
Dined on their agony.
I siphoned down and down into darkness until I didn’t remember why I fought.
I didn’t know why I lost myself so completely.
Or how I’d ever stop.
All I knew was they had to die.
Die.
All of them.
Every single one—
Garish sunshine suddenly blinded me.
I hissed and raised a hand as another sun snapped on and another, trapping me in a triangle of blazing light.
“Stop. Immediately!” A voice boomed through the slapping rain, ringing in my teeth.
The only bastard still alive instantly dropped to his knees. Blood smeared his bare chest, his hands trembling as he raised them. “T-This man attacked us. Shoot him! He killed Dax and Roger!”
“Stay still. All of you!”
I stepped toward my final nemesis.
I licked my lips at the thought of feasting—
“You move, and we shoot!” Another spotlight, another holler. “We gave you an order! Obey it!”
Words.
I spoke those once upon a time.
They wriggled through my desperation to destroy...bringing with them memories of why.
The darkness in my mind receded.
The creature within me paused.
My hands flexed, feeling the tug of torn skin and the hot throb of bruises.
I looked at the carnage by my feet.
Two men.
One with his neck at an unnatural angle and another with a massive contusion where his mangled cock hung.
Both unconscious.
W-Where is she?
“The Master Jeweler is on his way,” crackled the loudhailer. “Do. Not. Move.”
Shielding my eyes, I looked up at the fortress walls. Massive spotlights angled toward my little massacre, and vague silhouettes of guards aimed sniper weapons in my direction.
The urge to keep killing bubbled in my gut.
I wanted everyone in motherfucking pieces.
But…
Her.
Spinning in the slushy grass, I searched the ground for—
“Ilyana.” Her full name fell from my lips as I darted to her side and fell to one knee. She sat up in the rain, her head down and blue-black hair sticking to shock-washed cheeks.
I wasn’t prepared for the slap of emotion.
The fist of feeling.
The godawful punch of home.
My heart stopped, then restarted, syncing to hers, always to hers.
“Ily…”
She didn’t react as I gently touched her shoulder.
I splayed my hand on her icy skin and grunted as two polarising, primordial forces collided within me.
The beast inside me raged with the primal urge to fuck her as my right as conqueror.
I despised that another had put his hands on her.