Page 56 of Jagged Souls

“Don’t!” Ezriel shouts my name from outside the garage. My phone jerks out of my hand, pulled by his telekinesis, but I dart forward and grab it again before it can go out the door. My muscles strain as I fight against his magic. I hit the play button.

“Fuck, look how hard her nipples are,” the man behind the camera says as he reaches forward to touch my wife. “All that adrenaline has got her wet.”

I’m going to kill him first. Skin off every piece of flesh that touches her. My blood boils as Antonio raises his free hand and shifts his forefinger into the claw of his werewolf form.

The phone starts to be pulled from my grip, Enoch now helping his brother steal it from me.

Snarling, I wrap my other hand around it, my eyes glued to the screen. Antonio starts to carve into her flesh. Intomyflesh. My fucking heart.

As she raises a hand to cover her face, my brothers race towards me, eating up the yard in long strides. Stormie is running with them, and the air crackles with magic.

With rage.

I’m going to kill him.

I’m going to kill everyone in that fucking town.

Khalid said there were kids, but I don’t care.

Antonio took my baby from me.

My wife.

Anyone who stands with him deserves to die.

Micha is shaking as he cuts into her. I’m shaking right along with her, my body vibrating with an energy I need to release. I can’t stand still. Can’t fucking wait for my Mother to get back. For Zita to get into position.

I want so badly to gather my wife in my arms, to bring her home before the rest of this video happens.

But I can’t.

It’s already passed.

Four hours. Thirty-eight minutes.

She suffered all of that because of me.

I fuckingfailedher.

Antonio pulls back his hand as he finishes carving into her belly. I drag my attention from my wife’s face, her pain and drop it to what he’s taken so much care to write.

Screaming, I drop to my knees as an explosion of energy rips its way out of me. Shadows pour out from under me, crawling across the ground like fingers of death. I’ve wanted magic all my life, devoted hours of every day for years as a kid, trying to trigger my ascension or bond with a wand. But all I can focus on right now are the words he carved into her.

Property of Antonio Garcia

The phone moves in closer. “Look at that, Varius. Your whore has a new master.” It swivels around, letting me look from every angle. “If you wanted to keep your toy,” the man chuckles, “you should’ve kept a better eye on it.”

Antonio releases Micha’s neck. Then he lines his claw up with the tattoo on her pussy. On my mark. My vow of love and dedication. My ring before we married. Before I could even admit to myself that I wanted her regardless of her ability to carry to term. Micha Shadow isn’t a fucking toy. She’s my wife.

And now Antonio is trying to take her from me.

He slices a line across my name, ripping out my heart.

Micha’s mouth opens as she tries to scream. Her throat is so damaged, she can barely make a sound. Yet, still she tries, her grief too great to keep in, and seeing that level of pain on the woman I love destroys the last of my control.

My magic explodes.

My shadows shoot through the entirety of the garage, then race down the stairs, billowing out like fog from my feet. Screams ricochet up from the cells. My brothers reach the door, only to backpedal quickly as my shadows climb up off the floor. The Craving hits me just as strongly as when I was starving, but it’s darker now. It isn’t after blood. It’s after –