Page 264 of Golden Eagle

Handler– that’s what Dante had called them earlier this morning, at the apartment, his lip curling in distaste. And that’s what they were: not teachers, not mentors, not friends. Handlers. People put in charge of making him do what they wanted him to do.

He could burn them. Dr. Hastings would go up like Dr. Severin had: clothes and hair first, catching with bright, leaping orange flames; and the skin would roast red, blistering, blackening, bursting and peeling, until their bodies bent double and wilted, black all over and crumbling like used matchsticks.

She said, “Seven, there you are! Oh, we’re so glad you’ve come home! We were worried!” Her voice too bright, too loud; her eyes too wide, and too wild. She was terrified.

She was a distraction.

He wiggled his fingers, and the sparks leapt from tip-to-tip, ready.

Her smile was a demented rictus; it looked like it pained her. “Your brothers are so worried, too!”

His brothers.

The flames receded, drawing back down into his bones, where they slept.

A glance through the window revealed that Gustav’s lackies had cuffed both unconscious vampires with silver and were lifting them up beneath the armpits, dragging them away while their heads lolled. Gustav lifted his head, and met Severin’s gaze, briefly; smiled tightly – smugly.

Severin could get to him – to them – but it would take a moment for his fire to get through the door, and at that point he’d be weaker. Shaking, in need of a rest. And his brothers would still be trapped inside; he’d have to go hunting for them when he wasn’t at his strongest.

He watched Alexei’s boots disappear back through the swinging doors into the kitchen, and his stomach cramped so badly he thought he might he sick. But he swallowed a few times, and turned to Dr. Hastings just as she reached him. Tried to make his voice appropriately pathetic. “Dr. Hastings, I’m afraid.” He’d never been a liar, and technically, he wasn’t lying now: hewasafraid, for his friends, for his siblings. “I want to see my brothers.”

Relief eased her awful smile a fraction. “Yes, of course. We’ve moved them to a secure location. Come with me.”

He went.

~*~

They were moving too easily through the building. The thought pounded like a second pulse in Nikita’s temples.

Too easy, too easy, too easy…

They’d encountered a few more groups, some human, some vampire, and they’d cut them down. Not all were left for dead – at least not the vampires; they would recover eventually, if someone didn’t happen along and relieve them of their hearts.

His own thrill had worn off – his adrenaline dropping back to a sustainable level.

But Val…

The prince was enjoying this. Perhaps a little too much.

He was in the lead now, and brought his sword up before they rounded the next corner; brought it down just as a vampire stepped into view, and cleaved him from the join of his neck nearly to his navel with an ugly sequence of sounds and blood spray. He had to put a foot on the vampire’s twitching body and lean back to pull the sword free, while the rest of them dealt with the vampire’s two cohorts. A quick, messy, but effective fight, and then it was onward again.

They reached the central office, the hub of the whole building, with only a few scratches between them. Unsurprisingly, at this point, they found the room empty. All the monitors and screens were lit up, though.

Will went straight for one of the computers, while Nikita shut and locked the door; it never hurt to be careful, even if this felt more and more like either a trap, or like a waste of time.

When the lock had clicked into place, Sasha shifted back to two legs. He swayed a moment, and Nikita reached for him – but he could feel that Sasha was fine, only a bit dizzy from the shift in forms. He shook himself all over, tossed his hair back, and then grinned at Nik. “I’m okay,” he said, unnecessarily. The words were nice, though.

His lips, and chin, and cheeks were smeared with drying blood that cracked when he smiled; blood between his teeth, a smudge on the end of his nose.

Nikita wanted badly, suddenly, to kiss him, bloody teeth and all. Knew a hot urge to lick inside his mouth and taste all that blood, the violence his mate had wrought.

His face heated, because this wasn’t the time, and also because it was astrangeurge.

But Sasha huffed a laugh like knew exactly what he was thinking, and swiped his nose with his sleeve.

“Come on.” Nik cupped the back of his mate’s neck as they joined the others peering at the monitors, the need to touch too strong to ignore. Sasha made a low, glad little chuffing sound of contentment.

“Shit,” Will swore, quietly. “That’s Severin.”

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