Page 142 of Burn It Down

“You made a grave mistake thinking you could overpower me. You won’t yield, won’t remember your place, then you’ve left me no choice. I’m gonna fucking well bury you. You’ll die in your torture chamber. It’ll be like you never left.”

A growl escaped me as the beast rose, transcending the pain and the unsettling memories he was trying to spark in me with the reference to those fucked-up times in this hellscape. Furor ignited in my veins, coursing through me like livewires.

I wanted blood.

I wanted pain.

I wanted him fucking well ended.

With a snarl, I pushed off the wall and spun around—

Right into a bullet plunging into my chest.

Fuck.

His sadistic grin filled my vision just before it blew me onto my back with a jarring thud.

As shock tried to take me, I fought back with the beast, and forced myself to react, patting at my chest where it had hit.

No blood.

It was a blunt sort of pain too.

The bullet hadn’t penetrated.

My vest had absorbed it.

But the impact had cost me.

And I realized the full force of it a moment later when he was there, jerking me onto my stomach, then wrenching a choke chain around my throat and yanking, making me splutter and gag as he stole my breath, and the metal bit into my flesh.

“I’m the fucking king!” he bellowed. “Do you hear me, boy? You’ll never fucking beat me!”

As he shifted his weight to sit on me, I took advantage of the movement, hooking my leg around his, then yanking hard to jerk his weight to the side. Using the momentum, I twisted and forced his grip around so that I was on my back. It loosened his grip enough for me to rear up and smash my skull into his face.

He fell back and a kick to his gut had him breaking his grip on the leash and falling back.

I ripped it from around my throat and jumped to my feet, pushing down the lightheadedness from him choking me out by calling on my bloodlust.

As he staggered back to his feet, I threw the lead across the room, then launched myself at him.

He tried to meet me blow for blow, but I was too fucking fast, too fucking unleashed. A goddamn whirlwind of movement and intensity, blocking all his attempts with my shins and elbows as I dealt out so much damage until he was reeling.

A spinning kick sent him crashing into the bench.

As I stormed toward him, he snatched up a whip and whirled around, then struck me across the cheek. My head snapped to the side and I brought my hand up to the bloodied slice he’d inflicted.

I licked my fingers clean and his eyes widened.

And then I saw it.

Terror.

I was a fucking machine. I kept coming. I took and transcended whatever he dealt out.

He couldn’t fucking stop me.

And, finally, he’d just realized how outmatched he was when it came to me.

---