Page 154 of Body and Soul

I shrugged, tossing the keys up and catching them. “Haven't found them yet. Been a bit busy redecorating the walls. I like the red better.”

River snorted, stretching out his shoulders. “Surprised you had time for interior design with how long it took you to find us.”

I flashed him a blood-stained grin. “I stopped for lunch.”

Warrick cut in before our banter could escalate further. “As much as I'd love to watch you two compare dick sizes all day, maybe we should focus on finding the others and getting the hell out of here?”

I nodded and pushed off the door frame. “Try to keep up.”

Warrick grimaced as we stepped over the bodies littering the hallway, carefully avoiding the spreading pools of blood.“Couldn't you have been a little neater about this, Keres? It's like a Tarantino movie out here.”

River deliberately stomped through a particularly large puddle, sending droplets of blood splattering across the pristine white walls.

Warrick shuddered, his face paling. “That's disgusting. God, I can’t wait to get out of here and take a shower.”

River snorted, yanking a semi-automatic rifle from the slack grip of a fallen guard. He checked the magazine with deft movements. “Jesus, Warrick, it's just a little blood. You’re a fucking surgeon.”

“I get to wear PPE during surgery.” Warrick gestured at the gore-streaked corridor, his voice pitching higher. “Do you see any nitrile gloves around? Any disposable surgical gowns?”

I rolled my eyes at Warrick's bitching. He'd always been the squeamish one, more at home in a sterile operating theater than a blood-soaked battlefield. But we didn't have time for his delicate sensibilities. Eli was waiting for me, trapped and alone, and I would carve a path of destruction through this whole godforsaken complex to reach him.

“Suck it up, Princess,” River growled, and shoved a gun at him.

We stalked down the hallway with renewed purpose. The itch beneath my skin grew with every step, the beast inside me howling for more blood, more violence. It wouldn't be satisfied until I held my precious little rabbit safe in my arms once more and painted the walls with the entrails of those who took him from me.

We turned a corner and found ourselves facing another phalanx of guards, their armored bodies bristling with weapons. They fanned out in formation, assault rifles trained on our chests. “Put down your weapons or we will open fire!”

River hefted his stolen rifle, a wicked gleam in his dark eyes. “Looks like they sent out the welcome wagon. Dibs on the big one.”

“I saw him first,” I snarled.

“Children, please,” Warrick sighed, but there was an edge of tension beneath his exasperated tone.

As if on cue, the lead guard raised a fist, his voice crackling over his helmet's speaker. “Fire at will!”

The hallway exploded into deafening chaos as the guards unleashed a hail of bullets. Chunks of plaster exploded from the walls as rounds buried themselves into the drywall. I dove into an open doorway as bullets whizzed past, embedding themselves in the wall with puffs of powdered concrete. The acrid stench of cordite burned my nostrils. River and Warrick took cover behind the thick metal frame, returning fire in controlled bursts.

When the firing slowed, I surged from cover, opening fire as I advanced. Behind me, Warrick cursed, but I didn’t have time to worry about their positioning. My brothers could take care of themselves. My gun suddenly clicked, out of bullets, but I was practically on top of the nearest enemy, so I swung it down on him like a club, beating him bloody.

Weapons turned on me, but no one got the chance to fire before Warrick and River threw themselves into the crowd of gunmen, shooting, punching, kicking, doing whatever they could to subdue the enemy.

I wrenched my makeshift club free from the guard's ruined face with a vicious twist, reveling in the wet squelch of shattered bone and pulped flesh. Blood splattered across my skin, hot and slick, igniting the raging inferno inside me.

Gunfire stuttered, then fell silent. The last of the guards crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap, his helmet skittering across the concrete. I spun, chest heaving, a savage grin onmy blood-smeared face. River and Warrick stood amongst the carnage, their own faces splashed with gore.

“That all you got, you coward?” I roared, my voice echoing down the empty hallway. “Come on, send me more! I'll rip out their fucking throats and paint the walls with their blood!”

River wiped at his face, only succeeding in smearing the blood further. “Jesus, Keres, calm down. I think we got them all.”

Warrick kicked a dead guard over with the toe of his boot, his face a stoic mask. “For now. There'll be more coming soon enough. We need to keep moving.”

I was about to storm off down the hallway, hunger for blood still raging through my veins, when a new scent hit me, one that froze me in my tracks. Beneath the cloying stench of death, I caught the unmistakable scent of my mate.

I whirled around, nostrils flaring as I sought the source of that tantalizing scent. There, at the end of the gore-spattered hallway, stood a familiar figure. Tall and dark-haired, with cold, calculating eyes and a cruel twist to his lips. Algerone, and he’d brought his pet, Agent Valentine, as back up.

And there, clutched tight to his chest with a gun to his head... Eli. My Eli. His blue eyes were wide and frightened above the hand clamped over his mouth, white-blond hair disheveled. The sight hit me like a punch to the gut, white-hot rage surging through my veins.

A low, menacing growl rumbled up from my chest as I took a step forward, lips peeling back from my bloodstained teeth. River and Warrick tensed beside me, their own faces hardening into masks of cold fury.

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