As cold as the vengeance he intended to visit on Wilhelm Roth and all those associated with him.
Reichen paused outside on the moonlit grass. He faced the mansion and, for a moment, simply watched it in its perfect, eerie quietude. Then he whispered a prayer, old words that felt rusty on his tongue for their neglect.
Not that prayers would do him any good now. He was forsaken, now more than ever. Truly alone.
Reichen dipped his head to his chest, summoning his terrible talent. It swelled within him, a heat that swiftly intensified, balling into a molten, churning orb in his gut.
He let it grow. He let it turn and gain strength until his insides felt seared by its fury. And still he held it back.
He kept it inside him until the fireball banged against his rib cage, smoke and cinder drifting up to burn the back of his throat. Until the fireball consumed him, illuminating his entire body with a white-hot glow. He staggered on his heels, fighting to keep it building until he knew it would wreak total, instant destruction.
Finally, with a grief-filled roar, Reichen turned loose the power within him.
Heat shot out of his body, tumbling and spinning as it sped forward, a sphere of pure explosive energy. Like a missile deployed on a laser-sighted target, the orb rocketed into the open door of the Darkhaven mansion. A second later, it detonated, a thing of awesome, hellish beauty.
Reichen was knocked back with the sonic blast of the explosion.
He lay in the grass, watching with detached satisfaction as the flames and sparks and smoke devoured even the tiniest pieces of what had been his life.
Chapter Twenty-eight
We're loaded up and ready to roll, Renata. Do you need more time before we head out?"
Standing in the gravel drive in front of the lodge, Renata turned as Nikolai approached her from behind. "No. I don't need any more time here. I'm ready to leave this place."
He wrapped his arms around her, cocooning her in his strength. "I just talked with Gideon. Tegan, Rio, and the others are making good progress. They should be at our rendezvous point within the hour."
"Okay. Good."
Renata leaned into his embrace, glad for his sheltering warmth...and his love. Nikolai had kept her near him in their vine haven until the sun had set, soothing her fears with his body, transporting her away from the ugly reality of what had originally brought them together - and what might lay in wait for them tonight, when they finally had the opportunity to confront Edgar Fabien. The truth was, she was worried about what they might find. Bone-deep worried, and even though Nikolai hadn't said anything to suggest that he had his doubts too, she could tell that his mind was heavy with thoughts he seemed determined to hide from her.
"You can tell me, you know." She drew out of his arms and faced him. "If you have a bad feeling about tonight...you can tell me."
Something flickered across his expression, but he didn't speak it. He shook his head. Placed a chaste kiss to her brow. "I don't know what we might be walking into with Fabien. But I can tell you that no matter what, I'm going to be right there with you, okay? We're gonna get through this."
"And once we have Fabien, we're going to go get Mira," she said, searching his eyes. "Right?"
"Yeah," he said, his unflinching, steely gaze holding her steady. "Yes, I promise. I gave you my word on that. I'm not going to let you down."
He brought her to him once more, catching her in a grasp that seemed unwilling to let go. Renata held him too, listening to the strong, rhythmic pound of his heartbeat beneath her ear...and wondering why her own pulse seemed to be clanging a warning in her veins like a death knell.
In a remote hundred-acre parcel of no-man's land a couple hours north of Montreal, the woodland evening shuddered with the buzzsaw whine of an outboard motor speeding a boat across a mostly uninhabited lake. The land and lake, like the transportation provided for Dragos to reach this place, belonged to Edgar Fabien.>Nikolai made love to her as slowly as he could - as slowly as his fevered body would permit him. She came again, clenching around him and wringing a furious release from him as well. It hardly slowed him down. He was still hard inside her, still hungry for this woman...his woman.
With a trembling hand, Nikolai smoothed the stray ebony locks from the side of Renata's beautiful throat. "Are you sure?" he asked her, his voice hardly recognizable to himself, it was so raw and desperate. "Renata...I want you to be certain."
"Yes." She arched up to greet his thrust, her steady gaze beseeching. "Yes."
With a feral snarl curling up from his throat, Nikolai bared his fangs and descended on her.
The sweet taste of Renata's blood surging into his mouth leveled him as totally as a roundhouse kick to the gut. Ah, Christ... now he knew. How many times had he busted the other warriors' asses about being mated and finding one female who would make them blind to any other? Easily hundreds of times. Thousands, probably.
What a clueless ass he'd been.
Now he knew. Renata owned him, even before he'd given himself to her with his bite. He was on his knees before this female, and he'd gladly stay there for the rest of his life.
Niko drank deeper, drowning in the pleasure of the bond they were forging through their mingled blood and through the heated rhythm of their joined bodies. His teeth still holding her beneath him as he took his last taste of her, Nikolai came again, harder this time, a staggering release that slammed into him like a freight train. He held on to her, shuddering with intense satisfaction. Although he could have sipped from her vein all night, Nikolai forced himself to move away, sealing her wounds with a loving sweep of his tongue.
He stared down at her, his gaze brigt on her skin. "I love you," he rasped, needing her to hear it and to believe it. He wanted her to remember it later tonight, after they reached Fabien's location up north and Nikolai explained to her why he'd felt the need to lie to her today. He kissed her chin, her cheek, her brow. "I love you, Renata."