Page 70 of Elven Shadow

Now that she’d given them a chance, she was entirely justified in taking whatever she wanted after the fact.

More than that, Rebecca could finally unleash all her pent-up frustration on this ignorant little crew of asshats without fearing what it might do to her reputation and the continued secrecy of who and what she really was.

After this, it wouldn’t matter anyway.

She didn’t plan on giving any of them a chance to spread the tale of the Bloodshadow Elf starting back-alley brawls in Burnside because Rebecca didn’t plan on leaving any of them alive after this.

She also failed to consider the fact that anyone else might have been watching her from the shadows of the alley, just beyond her reach.

17

An inhuman, blood-curdling shriek rent the air as the last of the mini-gang’s members fell to his knees in front of Rebecca five minutes later.

She hardly heard it as she stomped toward him, fueled by the raging fire of her own magic and the dark, surging ecstasy of finally being able to use it the way she’d been born to use it.

Breathing heavily through a grinning snarl, she followed up her final attack with a single burst of sizzling, hissing red battle magic that caught Boyd in the center of his chest and sent him sprawling backward onto the asphalt with a violent thump.

An enormous, charred hole had seared itself through his shirt and into the flesh beneath, hissing and sparking as thick black smoke rose like steam from his body where he lay.

He gasped like a landed fish, drawing in ragged breaths. The rasping sound of it was punctuated by the slow staccato click of Rebecca’s heels striking the asphalt as she approached him.

The same charred black smoke rose from the four other bodies of his equally screwed buddies scattered about the parking lot. None of them moved as Rebecca headed for their leader. None of them would ever move again.

Gasping and groaning, Boyd tried to push himself up off his back to face her with a little dignity, but the Cruorcian couldn’t hold himself up longer than a second before flopping back down to the asphalt.

In this moment, the only thing Rebecca saw was her intended target. A wrong that needed to be set right.

An enemy that needed to be eradicated simply for the fact that he and his guys had refused her generous offer to let them leave with their lives. Not to mention the fact that they’d attacked first.

The power of that damn artifact she still hadn’t identified in the guy’s hand called to her louder now than it had before all the fighting began. She’d been curious about it from the start, but now, the need to get her hands on that new magical thing, whatever it was, was impossible to ignore.

In this moment of lasting bloodlust and need, only one objective fueled her now.

Total eradication. Total vindication. The sweet, unmatched release of using her magic as freely and without concern as she’d been trained to use it so long ago.

The hiss and snap of still-burning flesh mixed with the clack of her heels, Boyd’s ragged breath, and the whispering song of Rebecca’s Bloodshadow spear swinging down through the air, glinting in its own hungry light before she settled its staggeringly sharp point beneath the Cruorcian’s chin.

He grunted as she lifted his chin toward her with the point of that spear and finally met her gaze for the first time since the rest of his little goons had fallen. He gazed up at her now, uncertainty in his eyes, and swallowed thickly.

Though Rebecca held her weapon perfectly still with the honed precision of control, the small movement of the guy’s Adam’s apple twitching against the tip of her spear sliced open the soft flesh at his throat anyway.

A dark bead of blood welled instantly before trickling down his throat and soaking into the collar of his ripped and charred t-shirt stained with blood and soot from their short-lived battle.

“Careful,” she growled, her voice ringing out in a multitude of different tones that did and didn’t belong to her under the battle rage and bloodlust to which she’d let herself succumb tonight. “Wouldn’t want you skewering yourself prematurely.”

He tried to deliver a low, incredulous chuckle, but it cut short. Even that small amount of movement opened another life-threatening cut in the flesh of his throat.

Not yet returned from the ecstasy of doing what she’d been born and bred, trained and molded and created to do, Rebecca fought for some last sliver of control over herself.

In these few seconds of tense silence between this moment and her enemy’s final end, all her senses had sharpened, her awareness honed to a keen point, taking in everything around her.

The scent of charred flesh cutting through the bitter, coppery tang of spilled blood. The rushing whir of her enemy’s haggard breath seeping in and out of his lungs. The frantic, pounding thud of his pulse racing at top speed now as he prepared himself for the worst.

Within this moment that stretched itself out into an eternity, Rebecca let herself stay here just a little longer. It had been far too long since she’d allowed herself this necessary pleasure. Far too long since she’d set herself free like this.

Yes, she’d caused more than enough damage here tonight, but By the Blood, had it been worth it.

She could have stopped there. Shewouldhave stopped there, allowing this final enemy to surrender willingly to her, to beg for his life, to recognize the error of his ways before he turned a new leaf and perhaps even gave her exactly what she wanted.

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