Page 15 of Jagged Souls

And still I keep squeezing.

“What the fuck, Varius?” Leno shouts from further down the hall, having just entered the scene, alongside Krypto and Ezriel. My senses push out in half a second, clocking where the rest of my brothers are through the beat of their hearts.

Enoch is in his bed upstairs, half-dead but stable. Rudy is in a chair beside him, and Khalid isn’t back yet, having left with Mother and Aleric some time ago.

But they might be back at any moment, and once they are, I’ll be too greatly outnumbered. A trapped animal with no way to save my wife. I need to end thisnow.

Baring my teeth, I yank Maddox forward only to slam him back into the wall. His headcracks. His eyes roll.

“Fuck! Ez, get him off!” Leno shouts.

“I can’t! His entire makeup has chang–”

Pivoting, I throw Maddox at Ezriel. I can’t let him get a lock on me. His telekinesis can stop me in my tracks.

And I cannot stop until I find her. Save her. Apologize for having failed to protect her and our daughter, who still lies protected in my left hand. I will never leave her again.

Ezriel ducks to avoid being hit by Maddox even as Leno’s vines shoot forward to catch him. Hidden by Maddox’s bulk, I dart forward, then drop into a slide halfway there. Ez’s eyes widen at the sight of me barreling towards him.

“Oh, shit!”

As he dodges to the side, I twist to my right to follow him. Placing all my weight on that hand, I swing my left leg up and kick him in the face. His head snaps to the side. My foot sets down beside my hip, and I kick out like a donkey with my other. He flies back with a groan.

Shifting my attention, I lunge for Leno.

He opens his mouth, words forming in their infancy, but I tackle him around the torso. My shoulder slams into his solar plexus, and all that leaves his lips is a painful gasp. The back of his head hits the groundhard. Maddox falls to the floor behind me as Leno loses control of his vines.

Raising a fist, I go to slam it into his face for a knock-out blow, but a large furry body barrels into me first. Teeth latch around my forearm. Krypto snarls and growls as he drags me away. He shakes his head. He bites me deeper, but I can barely feel the pain over my bloodlust.

He releases me and moves back as one of Leno’s vines wraps around my right arm and yanks it across my chest. As he starts to drag me away, I twist on the ground and hook my legs around Ezriel’s. He was just starting to regain his feet, and as I jerk mine, he topples towards me.

He reaches out instinctively to catch himself. His hands land on both sides of my head. I twist towards the right and bite down hard on his wrist, tearing through his tendon. Blood spurts into my mouth, filling me with an explosion of magical power and ecstasy.

But with a feral growl, I refuse to swallow. Despite every part of me urging me to feed on him until he’s dry, to sate the Craving setting fire to my veins, I refuse. He is not my wife, and I will not feed from anyone but her.

So as Ezriel screams, I keep rolling, forcing his arm to collapse. As he starts to fall fully on top of me, I strike out twice with my left elbow, moving with hybrid speed. The first strike to his ribs breaks a bone. The second one impales it into his lung. Fuck! It just missed his heart.

He gasps as I finish rolling him beneath me, his flesh still between my teeth, his blood still pouring down my lips. But just as I’m about to rip Ezriel’s radial artery apart with my teeth, I catch the scent of an angel.

And everything fades – quieting, pinpointing until all that’s left is the smell ofher.

My wife.

Not just her blood, which already paints this hall.

Buther.

Her raspberry-and-cream body wash.

The mix of mint ice-cream and pickles, a craving she’s taken to in her pregnancy.

The particular scent of sweat that covers her pillow.

All the little smells that make up Micha fucking Shadow.

My wife is home.

Tears burning my eyes, I release Ezriel and stagger to my feet. I turn, chasing her scent, and find her stumbling into the house through a hole in the hallway wall.