Page 100 of Griffin Undone
The transformed jaw mangled his words, but I got the picture. A shudder shot through me, though I fought not to show it.
“Bring it, psycho.” I let a smile tug at my lips, just enough for that red to flare brighter. “You might hurt me, but you will no longer hurt my mate.”
Maddox’s eyes went wide with shock, his gaze shifting to Arik, now being held back by the warriors on each side of him. He let the shift dissolve. “Mate? This feisty psych is your mate?” His laughter grated along my nerves, sent chills down my spine. “That’s even better. Now I get to kill the Archai prince, his elite warriors, and one lovely psych bitch, but I promise to save you for last, Arik.”
Maddox didn’t turn his head, his gaze riveted on me, but his message was clearly intended to inspire fear.
It worked. I was scared spitless.
“You must watch,” Maddox was saying to Arik as he edged closer to me, seeming unconcerned with the sparks beginning to fly around my hands. “I insist. All that lovely pain…” Closer. Closer. Then to me, “You know, I always thought it was killing him that would bring me the most fun I’ve ever had.” With every word the red glow of his eyes flamed brighter, his disgusting pleasure wrapping around me like a straitjacket until I thought I might suffocate. “Don’t get me wrong; doing his parents was fun, especially Anna, the self-righteous bitch. But his mate? Oh, killing his mate will be a true pleasure.”
Arik roared. My heart lurched at the pain in my mate’s voice. Everything inside me screamed to retreat, to run. To take refuge with Arik, but not now. I channeled that terror into my gut, letting it churn ever higher, breathing through the agony. Instead of retreating, I stepped toward the Anigma leader, now no more than five yards away. “I won’t be that easy to kill, asshole.”
“You will taste so good, Kat,” Maddox taunted, his voice turned to gravel as his animal stared out of his devil-red eyes. “Your blood will be ambrosia on my tongue. The defiant ones always are. The gift that keeps on giving.” His gaze skimmed my quivering body. “Psychs can take quite a bit of punishment—I know; I’ve tested more than a few.”
Sweat breaking out on my skin as I thought about the females we’d rescued, the tiny girl whose body was broken. The power building inside me surged, nearly intolerable. I struggled to focus while the pressure squeezed my head like a vise; I couldn’t hold it anymore. “I would kill myself before I ever let you touch me, but I won’t have to. I plan to kill you first.”
Maddox lifted a lip, flashing gleaming fangs. “And just how do you plan to do that, bitch?”
“Guess.”
“Kat, damn it!”
Out of one corner of my eye, I saw Arik break free of Sun’s restraining grip. And he wasn’t the only one. Azrael, the shifter who scared me more than any other, crouched suddenly, ready to spring in my direction. I slid my eyes closed, letting my power coalesce into a massive fire behind my ribs, a fire searing me from the inside out. And then I opened them.
Flung my hands toward Maddox.
Screamed. And fired.
Breath-taking agony ripped through me. I flew backward as an enormous ball of glowing energy shot toward the enemy. I caught no more than a glimpse of Maddox diving out of the way, of the Anigma officers simply dissolving into nothing, some thrown yards away as the building behind them exploded like it had been hit by a massive bomb. And then my back hit the ground so hard I knew my spine was broken.
The sounds of weapons clashing, soldiers fighting filled my ears. My eyes opened.
Maddox, in full werewolf form, bounded toward me.
So maybe my spine could function a little longer.
Rolling to my knees, I managed a small pulse of energy, a slash that struck the werewolf’s nose. I watched half of his snout fall away as Maddox backpedaled to avoid my strike, and then I was running back in the direction from which I’d come, toward the warehouse.
“Arik, Arik, Arik…”My mate’s name was a litany chanted with every step, the reward at the end of this nightmarish rainbow—if I could keep myself alive. I doubted I’d bought more than a few seconds, and the ones in front of me stretched like mud I could barely move through. But Maddox hadn’t landed on my back by the time I reached the glass entry to the warehouse. Snatching open the door, I dared one glimpse behind me—Maddox feet away, dodging Archai and Anigma fighting everywhere, throwing off the grip of a black-clad warrior, leaping through flaming debris, all with his rabid eyes locked on me. And then I slammed through the door and flipped the lock.
I wanted to stop, wanted to breathe, but no. Maddox would be here any second. Even though that was what I’d hoped for, it didn’t make the fear of facing him any less. I was mere feet down the first hallway when the sound of glass splintering reached me. Turn, turn, straight, right—had it taken this long to get through the maze of offices before? But even as the question entered my mind, I recognized the double doors looming just ahead. I also recognized the chuffing sound so loud I’d swear it was actually on my neck. I stumbled as a cough seized my lungs, a fraction of a second, and then I hit the doors right at the join, my shoulder taking the brunt of the blow, and thanked God when they gave way with little resistance.
My momentum threw me forward. Rolling out of the fall, I twisted around and shot a blast of power at the door, collapsing the frame and wall above it. Rubble and dust rained in every direction.
A wolf howled on the other side. Scratching. Banging. Glancing around frantically, already up and stumbling, I searched for a place to make my stand. The dust and darkness wouldn’t hide me long.
I made it farther than I’d thought I could, floundering my way to the left side of the warehouse and a small row of windows that allowed me to see. Coughs racked me, the pain in my lungs and the crushing agony in my head almost taking me to my knees, but I couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop. Arik had to be safe once and for all. That was the only thing that mattered. I’d hit the open space close to the back doors when I heard the click of nails matching the frantic beat of my heart. I jerked around.
Maddox was there.
The werewolf was in full shift, crouched between two pallets, red eyes lighting the dirty expanse of concrete separating us. Blood gushed from his mutilated nose. One step, two. I tried to breathe, to summon my power. I choked instead. Coughed again. In the red glow from Maddox’s eyes, the spatter that shot from my mouth looked black, but I knew it wasn’t—it was red. Blood.
Weakness flooded me. I swore the damn werewolf smiled as he watched, waited, and then the animal was melting away until Maddox stood, naked and obscenely aroused and far too close for me to run any farther. He’d be on me in a second, even in human form.
“What’s the matter, little Kat?” Maddox’s gaze poured over me like dirty water. “Run out of juice?” He cupped his groin. “I’ve got some I can share.”
I fought the urge to gag. Still, I wouldn’t give up without a fight. Staring Maddox down, I went still inside myself, locking out the ragged sound of my heart and struggling lungs, the tics jerking my head as my brain misfired, the blood pouring down my throat. With determination born partly of fear and partly of yearning—for Arik, for his arms and his strength and his love—I gathered the power once more in my center.
