Page 69 of Darling Wildfire
I’d been a phantom in the field, a sniper sent to be invisible—there to deal out death and then disappear like it never happened. My call sign reflected that—Phantom. I wondered if that was what I would become once all of this was over—a ghost—nothing more than an apparition of shadows and regret that would eventually just…disappear.
34
THERON
THREE MONTHS CAPTIVE
I knew that wasn’t the last issue we’d have with Yuri and a few weeks later things came to a head in the showers. Atlas and Nyx were drying off across the room and I was still in the shower area about to step out when everything happened in seconds.
Yuri appeared around the corner of the shower stall and shoved me into the wall, landing a solid punch to my jaw. His two men attempted to grab my arms, but I’d been waiting for this moment ever since I threatened him—and I was ready. Murderous thoughts were running through my head and for the last few weeks, I’d been itching to hurt someone. The nightmares were especially bad lately and with them came the desire to let out all of my pent up rage against Vetticus. It had to go somewhere.
I ripped one man’s arm nearly clean out of its socket, rewarded by a sharp cry of distress before I kneed him in the face. Yuri wrapped his arm around my neck. I shoved him back against the wall with my body and used Yuri as leverage to kick out at the second man after he landed a punch to my stomach.
I hardly felt the hits, and I quickly lost my control. I slammed Yuri backwards against the wall again and elbowed him in the side before launching myself forward and dislodging him over my shoulder. I straddled him and landed blow after blow to his face as the shower water rained down on us. My fury was unstoppable—it was no longer Yuri underneath me but Vetticus.
I heard a crunch and saw red as blood sprayed over me. The body underneath me went limp, but I was past stopping. I was past the point where I was in control. The rage, the adrenaline, the absolute rush of release was intoxicating. I vaguely heard yelling and hands tried to grab me. I lashedout at them and they receded until an arm snaked around my neck and bodily pulled me away.
“North—North, it’s over, man.”
Nyx was in my ear, his arm tight around my neck as my chest heaved for air. As my vision cleared, I saw the destruction before me. Yuri was a bleeding mess on the tile. His blood ran in rivers down the drain as the shower continued raining down. Atlas was crouched over him, his fingers on what was left of his neck, his face unrecognizable.
“Dead—” Atlas said rather unnecessarily.
He looked over at me with an unreadable expression on his face.
I tapped Nyx’s arm. “I’m fine.”
He hesitated briefly before letting me go and just as I gained my feet; the guards stormed in and shoved me against the tile wall, dragging my wrists behind my back and cuffing them. The shower room went silent as the men lingered near the walls. I was pushed to the center of the room and knocked to my knees.
Vetticus walked through the door smoking a cigar. He stopped in front of me and took in the scene, his eyes trailing over Yuri’s body before they landed on mine.
“Killed a man already,” his eyes trailed over my naked body. “With your bare hands no less.”
I glared at him. “Come a little closer, I’ll show you how I did it.”
“You’d enjoy that,” he said dryly.
He took a puff of the cigar and exhaled, purposely sending it down into my face.
“There is a time and place for killing people around here and unfortunately in the showers is not one of them,” he continued.
He stepped to my shoulder and pressed the lit end of his cigar into my collarbone. The moment it touched my skin, I turned and rotated my legs out, catching him behind the knees and sending him to the ground. I rolled and landed a kick to his jaw before the guards were on top of me, pinning me face down onto the cold tile. I watched Vetticus get to his feet as the guards hauled me back to my knees. He swiped at the blood on his lip from where he’d scraped it across the floor.
“You just never learn,” he growled through clenched teeth.
I saw the glint of brass knuckles before they connected with my face. I breathed in the pain, the adrenaline still potent in my blood and lifted my face to sneer at him. His hair was out of place and there was passionate anger in his eyes. He hit me again, and I tasted blood. The next hit had me seeing red, my ears ringing as I slumped down onto the tile supporting myself on an elbow. Vetticus stopped and waited for me to look up at him. He was panting,teeth bared in contempt. I spit blood at his feet, enjoying every second of seeing him out of control.
His eyes took on an evil glint then. “Do you know how much I enjoyed your wife’s screams while I watched my men rape her?”
I froze, and my eyes narrowed. Rage, hot and overwhelming, flooded me violently. He grabbed my hair and jerked my head up towards him as I growled low in my throat.
“Pussy isn’t really my thing,” he said, raking his eyes over me hungrily. “But blood certainly is. She looked stunning, covered in blood and my men’s come—right before I burned the whole house down around her.”
I tried to get to my feet to attack him, how and with what, I didn’t have a clue, but he shoved me away and when I straightened, he hit me hard in the jaw, sending me back to the ground.
“And you know what else?” He rasped out. “I found your secret—the one you tried to hide in the woods. To your credit, she put up a fight. For a child, it was pretty impressive. Was that your knife she was carrying?”
My blood ran cold then hot, and I got back to my knees.
