Page 63 of Visions of Darkness

A thud, thud, thud racing in time with the battering of my heart.

Aria’s terror rode a sharp edge, cutting through the suffocating atmosphere like razors dragging across my flesh.

Footsteps clattered behind me.

“Hey, you can’t go in there! Stop!”

Fuck.

The security guard had gotten to his feet, footfalls slamming against linoleum as he began to chase me.

Energy screamed.

Dark and alive.

Frantic, I pushed myself as hard as I could go, skidding around a corner as I hooked a left down a second hall, intuitively knowing she was in that direction.

My heart thrashed. A violent battering against my ribs. Fear and determination clotted out all other senses.

Up ahead, a man stumbled out from a door on the left.

“You bitch whore,” he wheezed as he clutched his face. He was bent in half, hissing at the presence that glowed from inside the room.

In the bare light, I could see he wore blue scrubs, was short and thick, his blond hair buzzed.

Recognition slammed me.

I’d seen him before. Through Aria’s eyes when I’d found her in the Ghorl’s vile, nefarious mind. I had seen her huddled in fear, witnessing it through this bastard’s eyes.

I didn’t hesitate.

I pulled out my gun.

As much as I wanted to scatter his brains across the floor, there were a few too many witnesses for that, so I clocked him with the butt of it on the back of his head instead.

A roar of agony and rage tore from him, the bastard caught unaware, so held in his depravity he didn’t have the first clue what was coming for him.

It flattened him on the floor, the piece of shit writhing where he moaned.

Orders rained from behind: “Get down! On your knees! I’m warning you, young man, if you don’t get to the floor, you will suffer the consequences.”

The security guard shouted it through chattering teeth.

In my periphery, I could see he had his Taser out.

I was only vaguely aware of his voice.

A voice that grew louder with the commands he kept issuing.

Because I was held.

Caught in the shattered gasp that rode on the thrumming atmosphere.

Volatile.

Flammable.

Explosive.

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