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The male’s head whipped around, and he paled, jaw hanging.

“Let. Him. Go.”

* * *

Alex snappedthe command with an instinctive flash of fangs. Static prickled her skin, and shocks of electricity stroked herglyph. After the car explosion, she’d been weakened, her ability muted. Now, every cell of her aching body seemed connected to a psychic livewire. The weight of her hair lifted from her shoulders. Crimson strands swirled in her vision.

“I said, let. Him. Go.” With each word, she sank her claws deeper into the vampire’s wrist.

His wild eyes darted as though he were trying to look away and failing. Muscles quivered in his cheeks, and blood trickled from his nose. Keeping his gaze locked on her face, he lowered the rogue’s head to the ground.

“What the fuck are you waiting for, Ryder? Take her out already,” said a panicked voice. The metallic slide of a racking pistol sounded behind her.

Alex turned and threw out her hand.

Stop!The command resonated inside of her, though it never formed on her lips.

The male froze, and the gun pointed at her chest failed to fire.

Her hand shook, and her knees weakened. So much power. Dark, ruthless—it poured through her veins like lava, melting her grip on reality.

With her senses trained on the two men, foreign thoughts ran rampant through her conscience. The spinning vortex battered her defenses with the destructive force of a tornado. Devastating images flickered in her mind, all the horrible things they had planned.

Sharp breaths pinched her ribs, and a hammering heartbeat pounded her temples.

They planned to cut me up. No. Don’t want to see this.

Emotions, tainted and oily, slithered over her nerve endings—the emotions of two blackened souls.

Theirs was the kind of evil that slaughtered fathers. The kind that shot innocent men in bars. The kind that would attack a mother and her daughter in a deserted alley.

Monsters.

Lightning bolts of static fired through her system. Hot and vibrant, they lit up her nerve endings, sending furious jolts of energy crackling down her spine.

“I won’t let you do this. I won’t let you harm him—or anyone else. Never again.”

The man on his knees stared into her eyes, unable to turn away.

This one. He’d struck the rogue, hurt him, made him bleed. This vampire wanted to take what was hers. An inferno of anger and hate twisted inside of her, swirling, gathering strength. No more holding back.

Instead, she let it build.

“You’ll never hurt anybody again,” she growled—then set the power free.

The man convulsed, letting out a strangled scream. Blood tracked from his nose and ears. His eyes flared wide before they rolled back in his head.

He crumpled, face frozen in a mask of eternal pain.

Alex watched his suffering through a veil of indifference. Fiery strands of hair drifted around her head, billowing as if blown by the wind. The arm she held out remained steady.

Her gaze shifted to the gun pointed at her chest. Sweat beaded the vampire’s forehead, and the muscle in his forearm strained.

The foul burn of his emotions assaulted her senses. Dark, twisted, rotting with evil. Her death flickered in his mind.

She canted her head. “You want to pull that trigger? I can grant you that wish.”

Energy coursed through her veins, wild, untamed. It strained to break free. Why hold it back?