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where they were holding his heart. His soul.
Fangs grew as man after man collapsed to the ground.
Some died of asphyxiation. Others died of aneurysms. Diego
did not care. They all had a part in her abduction.
He paused in the last hallway, tapping the man on the
shoulder. When he turned, Diego silenced him, claiming his
mind with a thrusting force. The man stilled, aware but
unable to stop him, tilting to let Diego feed. Hunger raged
through him, the red haze of death clouding Diego's thoughts.
The man's heart pounded fear-laced adrenaline through his
blood. Diego drank deeper. It would be so easy to take every
drop. He deserved to die.
Titania. Her whispered name reached him through the
killing frenzy. Diego stopped abruptly, the man falling to the
ground unceremoniously, letting him wither and die from
blood loss. He strode over the prone body, waving a hand at
the concealed hallway door. It blew apart at his command.
Shouts were beginning to echo throughout the house. The
fallen men were being discovered.
A snarl lifted his lips as he deliberately moved through the
angled corridor toward the lab where they had chained her.
Like an animal. The door before him exploded without his
stride breaking. The two men guarding the front room leaped
from their chairs, reached for guns.
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Diego paused in the shattered doorway and watched
dispassionately as the two men flew backward, slamming with
paralyzing force against the wall. He stalked up to them, slit
the throat of one with a long claw, then captured the gaze of
the other.
"You will die a horrible death. You dared harm the one I
love." Diego's voice was unemotional, but an ice cold wind
seemed to fill the room with amazing speed, seeping into the
dying man's skin. Immediately the man began to cough, to
gasp for air. The entire time Diego held his gaze, letting the
man know he was dying. And he could do nothing to stop it.
The man's gaze widened as air became short. He began to
claw at his throat, ripping at the shirt he wore. Nothing
helped. Diego kept his gaze locked. The man's lips turned
blue, his eyes glazing over.
Without warning, an auxiliary door slid closed behind him,
the lock snicking into place from an outside command. Diego
looked over his shoulder and growled at the camera tucked
into the corner, letting his rage eclipse everything. The
camera shattered, electrical sparks filling the room. Papers
ignited.
Diego left the dying man on the floor, reaching for the
metal door that Titania had seen. The lock gave way easily
under his hand, and he pushed it inward.
His heart slammed to an absolute standstill. Fury. Hatred.
It consumed him. A violent roar of rage, animalistic and
endless, poured from his lungs, echoed off the lower walls
and reached the men above. Several men crossed
themselves. One fell to his knees and began to pray. He had
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found more than six of his comrades already dead within the
house. And no security alarm had been sounded. Not a slip of
warning to tell the habitants of the intruder.
Diego was at the door then he was at her side. He touched
each manacle, and they fell away, smoldering. His gaze took
in her state of undress, and whirling, he spotted the two
cameras. They disintegrated instantly. Sparks fell from the
electrical wiring. Several sheets began to smoke, flares
leaping to life.
He yanked off his jacket to tenderly pull her into his arms
and wrap her in it. "Cara," he whispered, emotions so
strong anger, fear, pain making his voice hoarse.
He cursed again when he saw the needle track on her arm.
Her head lolled back. Her heart staggered weakly. Realization
happened quickly. He sniffed her arm and snarled again. She
moaned as he cradled her in his arms. "You are safe, honey,"
he told her. She didn't respond, and his heart clenched.
Sounds were invading his anger, reaching him from the
exterior hallway. Several men, the heavy rush of adrenaline
preceding them. He knew their thoughts. Knew Tenorio's
plans. Knew many of the men had already fantasized about
the woman in his hold, only waiting for Tenorio to finish with
her before he handed her over for the men's enjoyment.
Cold fury coiled around him as he bypassed the charging
men, confused when they found the lab deserted when they
knew he had been there just seconds before. The door
slammed behind him with an echoing death knell, and he
locked it securely.
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They would suffer in death as they had wanted her to
suffer in life.
Diego scanned the floors overhead, found more men in the
rooms. He took a few precious seconds to concentrate on one
room in particular. The computer room, where all the
research and security information was processed and stored.
Screams echoed as explosion after explosion sounded,
rocking the house to the foundation. Fires erupted as he
passed by furnishings. Drapes, carpeting, wood bookcases, it
was all ablaze in a matter of seconds.
The front door bowed out then shattered into the front
yard. Diego passed through it without a backward glance.
Faintly, he heard shouts to the rear of the house, and a
malicious smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Not five seconds later, fireballs mushroomed over the roof
of the house in a succession. Cars and the few storage tanks
of fuel. Confusion reigned as men lost their way, unable to
breathe in the thick, toxic smoke. Beams cracked and fell,
pinning several. Not one would find his way to the clear air of
the grounds.
When the fire department unearthed the lab, they would
find a slaughter. Six men roasted rotisserie style. Panicked,
the men had tried to fight their way out of the secured lab.
The explosions had created long, dangerous fingers of metal
from the steel walls. Not a single man would escape their
jagged ends in the dark, smoke-filled interior.
Diego buried his nose into her hair and just drank in her
scent. Slowly, the killing frenzy left him. He called her name,
a repeated litany, as much to find her voice and bring her
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back to him, as to calm his own furious rage. Silence was his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]