Shifting the gun in my hands, I sparked with fire and surged with power.
All that pain Victor had given me. All that pain my father had made me deliver.
It twisted and mutated, and that phenomenon where a human being became something elsegushedthrough me.
Hysterical strength poured free.
Adrenaline and stress fired every muscle and made me lucid, rabid,unhinged.
Leaping through the smoky sky, I swung the gun like a baseball bat.
Roland looked up, his hips pressed to the sobbing jewel’s, his face twisted into something heinous. His arm flew up to block my swing.
Too late.
The heavy weapon clunked against his skull, sending him tumbling sideways. The blonde grabbed the other jewel, dragging her out of the way.
I barely noticed.
I only had eyes for this sick fuck who deserved to die a hideously long death.
Roland blinked and fumbled with his trousers. His gaze narrowed as he recognised me. “You! How the fuck did you…!?” With a gasp, he reached for the remote in his pocket.
The remote to shock my collar, to incapacitate me—
“Goodbye, Roland.” I swung again.
The beast inside me forgot the purpose of a gun with a trigger and bullets and used it as a bludgeon instead.
I trembled with hate.
I snarled with fury.
And I beat that motherfucker to a pulp.
Swing after swing, crunch after crunch.
I was ruthless.
Merciless.
Reborn.
I lost track of time, turning Roland into something gelatinous and boneless. The partially healed fracture in my arm went pop, delivering another wash of burning pain.
I didn’t care.
All I cared about was death and murder and—
Someone clutched my lashed and stinging shoulder.
I whirled on whoever dared fucking touch me—
Ben ripped his fingers away and held up his hands. “Just me. It’s just me.” Cocking his chin at the gooey mess left of Roland’s face, he shrugged. “He’s, eh…he’s dead, Mercer. Perhaps save some of your hate for—”
A loud crack of gunfire.
“Guh.” I staggered backward as a blazing hot poker arrowed through my side.