“I’ve always loved you on your back,” Kai purrs, standing there with a smug expression on his face.
My teeth bare. “What the shit?! Why’d you jump and not one of your shadows?!”
He shrugs, extending his hand, and I take it, letting him help me up. Our chests press together, and as he pulls me in, he grabs the back of my head, offering me a smile.
“I love seeing how worried you get for me. It makes my dick hard.”
I groan and roll my eyes so far into the back of my head, I cause myself brain damage.
Swatting my ass, he releases me. “Let’s go, I can hear feet above us, and we’ve still got quite a climb.”
I release a heavy breath, nodding in agreement as we begin our ascent. We face resistance along the way, but it’s nothing we can’t handle in seconds. It’s as if Lars—or maybe even my mother—had no idea what we were capable of. Or perhaps they just never imagined we’d be brazen enough to try and risk a direct attack.
I wish I’d done this the moment Kai found me, but this sort of attack takes time, and I wasn’t ready. I had to find a way to win, because we only get one shot at this. There’s no going back—no putting the people I love in harm’s way after tonight. It ends here, one way or another. Whether it’s with my death or hers, I’ll get the peace I’ve so desperately deserved.
The moment we make it to the top floor, I am completely out of breath. Kai, of course, isn’t—asshole, Vampire.
My throat tightens as I try to swallow, and I move to bend at the waist, but he stops me. “Here,” he says, placing a hand on my back and the other on my stomach, steadying me. “Bending over doesn’t help.”
I want to punch him, but equally kiss him. Damn him.
I pop my head back and forth, releasing a shaky breath. He’s right, I know he is, because now I can actually feel the air flowing properly to my lungs.
“Inside, there’s just one hall. We turn left, and that’s the room. It’s massive. I expect we’ll encounter more people, but Lars is the target. I’llhandle the rest;youtake care of that piece of shit.”
We already discussed this, but a lot has happened in the span of the last half hour, so while I don’t know if I needed it, I’m appreciative of the direction.
“Alive,” I remind him. “I’m taking him alive. I want to torture him until he dies of old age.” My words come between breaths, the weight of the climb catching up to me. We’ve killed at least forty people on our way up, so I’m not entirely surprised by the need for a moment to relax.
“Is there another way down other than the elevator?
“No, other than up to the rooftop.
“Helicopter?” I ask absentmindedly.
“Kayn was instructed to take down any airborne vehicle if it came anywhere near the tower. He’s still here, little demon.”
Lars deserves the worst kind of pain for the things he did to me. From the torture and rape in the shipping container, to burying me alive, to nearly killing Sydni and Kai, to the things he did to me in that van as he took me away from Kairhyse.
He will suffer, and I will get that justice.
A sharp pinch in my chest forces me to stand straighter. Kai places his hands on my shoulders, rubbing them before moving up the sides of my neck. His thumbs trace gentle circles behind my ears.
I release a heavy sigh, nodding, and he lets me go. I push through the doors, and what awaits us is silence. The hall is empty, but we don’t pause to exchange a glance. We rush through, turning the corner, and before I can even blink, my shoulder slams into the ornate doorway, and we’re greeted by a large, white room.
I barely register anything—the paintings on the walls, a few scattered pieces of furniture, the high ceilings—because it’s then I see him.
Lars.
A dozen or so guards stand in the room, but everything before this moment, the world around me, feels like it falls into the Beyond. I’m free—no one controls me anymore. Lars is just a Shifter, powerless to stop me now. It’s like my Amoro senses him, knows exactly who he is and what he did to me.
A sharp slice at my temple has blood trickling down my cheek, I think someone shot at me. My hands twitch at my sides, and as the filth before me takes a step back, I move toward him, feeling fucking unstoppable.
I’ve lost myself, and I don’t care, because this is the person I am. The one I’m meant to be. TheDemonthey all were so adamant about waking that day in the container.
The corner of my lip twitches, and a wave of darkness washes over myvision. The world around me morphs into shades of black and white, blending into a liberating gray.
“You’ve never truly lost control,”Mister says through our bond.“When you do, your world falls into a state of blight. All of your senses will be heightened, and all you’ll see is your end goal.”
