as he began to laugh. His laughter filled the warehouse—the cackling of a madman.
“A pathetic excuse for a human?” He walked toward the cage. “That’s where you’re wrong, you filthy mutt. You see, I’m not human. Not in the slightest.” He knelt in front of the cage and pointed his blade toward her face. He lowered his voice to a near whisper. “I’m more powerful than any man will ever be.”
He stood and backed away from her, but his eyes never left hers. “And now, courtesy of your little outburst, I’ve become very angry, and believe me, you
He turned away, and Frankie heard him unbuckle his belt before he unzipped his pants.
Allsun screamed and struggled against the chains holding her. “No, please. Frankie, help!”
Frankie pulled against the bars so hard the metal bent several inches and the cage actually toppled over. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
Robert chuckled. He pushed his body flush against Allsun’s, and she cringed at his touch. “Don’t worry. I won’t rape her.” He ground the bulge in his pants against her small hips. Allsun whimpered, and he placed the knife against her throat. “At least, not while she’s alive.”
SHOTS ECHOED THROUGH the warehouse as Jace fired three rounds from his Mateba straight into Robert’s back. The bastard staggered, falling forward and sending Allsun, who was shackled and hanging from a chain, swinging in the air.
Jace’s eyes darted around the room. Frankie was struggling with the metal bars of a large cage that had tipped onto its side, her attention trained on him.
Tears poured down her face and blood covered her chest. “Jace!” she yelled.
Jace placed a single finger over his mouth to silence her and pointed to the rear exit door where David was even then slipping inside the building. As Jace watched, David limped toward the cage, making sure Robert didn’t spot him.
Slowly Robert rose to his feet, still much too close to Allsun. The bullets pushed their way out of his back as the skin stitched itself back together, visible through his torn shirt. He turned to face Jace, the desire of a murderer burning in his eyes.
“Haven’t you learned? Your silly little bullets can’t kill me, Jace.” Robert smirked.
Jace held his gun steady, pointed straight at Robert’s head. “Maybe. But they can sure as hell cause you a lot of pain.”
Robert stepped forward, arms wide in a welcoming gesture. “Why bother fighting, Jace? Give yourself up now and I’ll let them both go. Untouched.”
Jace shook his head. “You really think I’m that stupid?”
A wide grin spread across Robert’s face. “That’s debatable. But considering your bloodline, for my own sake, I hope your lineage alone makes your intelligence above par.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jace focused his eyes on Robert, trying hard not to glance in Frankie’s direction as David quietly picked the lock on the cage. If only Robert would move toward him, David could get to Allsun, too.
Robert stepped toward Allsun and ran his hand down the length of her thigh. She writhed in a fruitless attempt to avoid his touch. “You still haven’t figured it out yet, have you?” he said, then turned to leer at Allsun.
While Robert wasn’t looking, Jace inched forward. One step. Two.
Turning to face Jace again, Robert wiped the blood off his knife with the edge of his shirt. He eyed Jace up and down. “You never once questioned why? Why your name was carved into the arms of my masterpieces? Why that werewolf bitch was attacked just after you fucked her like the whore she is?”
Jace let out a low growl. “I don’t try to understand the logic of psychopaths. If you wanted to kill me, you should have just done it that night at the park. Enough with the theatrical games.”
Robert frowned. “Killing you then would have been too easy and entirely lacking in emotional satisfaction. I wanted you to know exactly why I chose you as my sacrifice. We have so much more in common than you realize.”
“I am absolutely nothing like you.” Jace’s jaw clenched into a tight line, and he ground his teeth together. If he didn’t fight back his rage, he would charge Robert right then, and that would be a mistake. He needed to wait for the opportune moment.
“We’re both a rare breed. Skinwalkers destined to follow the Berserker bloodline.” Robert laughed mockingly. “To think that you were convinced you were half-werewolf. Self-righteously killing for years to atone for your absent-daddy issues. No reason to cry in fear now, Jace. He’s long dead.”
Jace stepped forward. He couldn’t let this creep get into his head, under his skin. But how...?
“How do you know about my father?”
Robert shook his head and clicked his tongue as if he were disappointed in a small child. “I thought you would have been smarter than this, Jace McCannon.”
Anger pulsed through Jace’s veins. “You heard me, asshole. How do you know about my father?”
A twisted look twinkled behind Robert’s eyes. Jace had seen that look before. His breath caught.
Robert grinned in triumph. “Because Thomas McCannon was
JACE STOOD FROZEN in a vacuum of his own thoughts as he processed the words Robert had just spoken. His stomach churned.
Robert was his brother?
No, there was no way. He didn’t have any brothers. He had been his parents’ only child.
Jace shook his head. “You’re bluffing—another one of your sick mind games. Are you so desperate that you have to fuck with my head? Be a man and just fight me already.”
Robert wagged his index finger at Jace. “Now, now, don’t throw a hissy fit because you’re no longer the only child, big brother.”
A snarl tore from Jace’s throat before he could stop himself.
Robert took a step toward him. “Don’t try to kid yourself, Jace. You know it’s true. I know you can see the resemblance.”
Jace stepped back. “I don’t give a shit whether we look similar or not, you’re not my damn brother. It’s not possible.” Jace couldn’t hear this. He couldn’t. Not another damn word of it.
Robert made a tsking noise, then sighed. “Explain to me how it’s not possible, brother. How many times did our father stumble home drunk after he’d spent the night fucking countless whores? Tell me. Tell me how many times he tossed your mother aside to sheath himself inside some nameless slu—”
“Shut up!” Jace roared. Was it really true? And if it was, how the hell had Shane missed that bit of information? He fired another round into Robert’s torso.
Robert’s body jerked with the hit, but he didn’t fall. Laughing hysterically, he stared Jace down with the same fucked-up look Tom had always given him. “When our father finally left you, he shacked up with my whore of a mother. But unlike you, dad took me under his wing. He told me all about you. How you were weak, not man enough to follow in his footsteps. But I was stronger. So much stronger.”
He gestured to his chest and pulled his shirt open to show the bullet emerging from his body and the skin healing over, as if to demonstrate his superiority. “He taught me how to kill, how to live. I knew I was a Skinwalker. I
Jace’s breath caught. “You killed him so you could become a Berserker.”
Robert smiled. “Unfortunately, no. By the time I spirit-walked and learned I needed to kill our father to become a true Berserker, he was long dead. After all that time, can you believe the lucky old bastard died in his sleep? A heart attack from old age. Such a normal, boring way to go, don’t you think? Especially for someone who spent a hundred and fifty years on this earth.”
