Page 76 of Love's Ace

And when I drew an arrow before I kicked open the door, it was different.

New.

It bled black and spiked violently at the end—it wasn’t made for a clean shot.

It was made to rend.

To tear.

To cause pain.

Good.

At the stirring of someone on the couch, I loosed the arrow and heard a man scream. It rippled through the darkness, sliding across my skin, making the heat I felt spread—his pain tore a groan of satisfaction from my chest, then a growl when the man stood up, trying to yank the arrow from his stomach with a cry.

My eyes flared in delight when the barbed tip ripped him open and something thicker than blood fell to the ground as he dropped the arrow.

He followed shortly after, his knees hitting first, the loud crash an alarm to let everyone else know that something was here.

Something was coming for them.

Something was going to make sure they finally paid for the sins they’d committed in their past.

I opened my mouth and felt it—aroartearing from my chest as I gave myself over to the fury scalding inside me.

For Theo, I was ready to burn.

Chapter 26

Theo

Ifeltcold. I woke up shivering, and I instantly knew something was wrong. I didn’t have to glance to Wren’s side of the bed to know he wasn’t there, but I did glance in that direction to see the red line trailing to the door…

And all along the string were tendrils of black, spilling from my chest and stretching out.

Out.

Out toward the darkness.

To the street.

To the place Iknewdeep in my heart Wren had gone.

Inevershould have told him about Erin.

And I never should have gone to sleep while he was still awake and thinking about it. I knew he was, because I’d felt his fingers stroking my shoulders, my back, my sides. Anywhere he could touch me, anywhere he could try to take the pain away.

And it seemed in my weakness, in my need to finally let someone comfort me, I’d never considered that he was taking that pain himself.

That he could actuallyfeelit.

My eyes glanced at the thread, to our connection and the darkness spilling from me along that line.

I knew it was leading straight to his chest.

And I didn’t have to ask where that fury would send him when he stepped into the night. It was the place I’d wanted to go a thousand times, the place I was too afraid to ever go again.

Fuck, if he got shot, would it hurt him?

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