His knee came up, jabbing into my side.
I buckled sideways.
He scrambled away.
I went after him.
Grabbing his ankles, I yanked him back, throwing strike after strike against his back, shoving him from his knees to his face.
He didn’t have time to talk, doing his best not to die.
I relished in that.
I made him afraid.
I hit wherever I could.
He wasn’t human.
I wasn’t human.
He was every evil I had to eradicate.
There was no room for him here.
No room for him, period.
He has to die.
I struck harder.
My knuckles split. My healing arm bellowed. I couldn’t catch a proper breath as my opponent stopped trying to get away and threw himself into meeting me in war.
I grunted as his own fists found new places to injure me.
We rolled and fought.
Two bears fighting over scraps.
I found hair and yanked so hard, a handful came away in my fist.
I punched his stomach and listened to the sweet sounds of him gasping for air.
I didn’t stop.
I kept hitting.
It was rhythmical.
Poetic almost.
Entirely justified after a lifetime of running from what I truly was.
This was what I was.
This...thing.
This hatred that’d been building and billowing for decades. These memories I’d never had the guts to face. These ghosts of a family who ringed us in the dark and watched me massacre one of the men who’d abused us.
I would protect them all.
I would do whatever it took to kill.
Another burst of fury flowed through me.
Speed made my fists blur and his grunts sound weaker.
Soon.
Soon it would be over, and he would be dead.
Something soft tugged on my shoulder. A voice I couldn’t place tried to wriggle its way through the carnage of memories and mayhem.
“Kas, stop. You have to stop.”
Quell?
No, this voice wasn’t as timid.
Sarez?
No, this one begged me to stop not to keep going.
“Kas, please!”
I threw another strike.
The man jerked as if his body couldn’t take much more.
Triumph blazed through me.
He was close.
Just a little more and he’d be dealt with.
“Kas, you’re killing him!”
I grinned. Good. That was the point.
I struck again and again.
I lost sensation and welcomed numbness instead.
“KAS!” Hands scratched at my neck, trying to pull me away. The scent of papaya and woodsmoke filled my head.
Gemma!
My soul recognized her.
My entire purpose was to protect and cherish her.
I loved her.
I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
Fury struck a match on my hatred and anger, renewing my need to kill this trespasser. He’d had his hands on her. He’d. Hurt. Her. He’d made her cry out. He’d put bruises on her skin and fear in her heart.
No.
Never fucking again.
I drove my fist into his motherfucking jaw.
He yelled something.
Gemma screamed something.
I ignored it all.
I was done with this.
He would die.
Immediately.
Rocking onto my knees, I wrenched my arm back, ready to deliver the final blow. I blinked back ghosts and memories. I focused on the forest where we fought and not the dorm where we’d hidden as slaves.
I bared my teeth and swung.
Gemma threw herself on top of the crumpled, bloody man beneath me. “Don’t!” She curled up over his head, putting herself in harm’s way, forcing me to roll to the side so I didn’t hit her.
Shoving upright, I roared, “Get the fuck away, Gemma! Let me finish this.”
“You can’t.” She cradled his head, sending violent jealousy through me. “It’s Jareth!”
Jareth?
The kid who’d endured two weeks of punishment and returned to us soulless.
The brother who scared me even while I’d done my best to protect him.
The family I’d killed to set free.
Gemma sat up, revealing the man she’d protected.
One blue eye, one brown eye.
Awfully familiar and horribly real.
Drenched in blood from my fists.
Jareth.
I choked.
The world ceased existing.
My headache returned in full crippling force. My vision stuttered. Vertigo slammed into me. I wobbled on my knees as I gasped for breath.
How?
Where?
I don’t understand.
And then, whiteness.
Nothing but fucking whiteness as my mind folded in on itself.
All the memories I’d let loose.
All the hatred I’d set free.
The bittersweet freedom and sanity I’d felt all sucked back inside me.
A vortex of pain, history, and disease.
It ricocheted back on me.
It cracked my mind apart.
I blacked out.
CHAPTER THREE
I WENT FROM PROTECTING one man to caring for another.
Scrambling away from Jareth’s blood-covered body, I crawled as fast as I could to Kas as he toppled sideways onto the ground. He landed with a heavy thud, loose and unconscious.
“Shit.” I cradled his head on my lap, pushing away his long dark hair while pulling a few leaves from his strands. “It’s okay, Kas. Just breathe.”
I didn’t know if he could hear me.
I didn’t know what to do.
What made him black out?
Would he have any memory of this when he woke?
He lay prone and lifeless in my arms while Jareth slowly pushed himself onto his ass and breathed hard. He slumped forward over his knees, doing his best to shake off the beating he’d just received.
A few moments passed before he groaned, sucked in a tattered breath, and gingerly raised both arms to run though his bloody hair. He winced and groaned again, rolling his shoulders, slowly assessing his damage.