“You know, I was going to go and give you two some privacy. But just for that, I think I’m going to stay and watch.” She grinned at Jason. “You don’t mind, do you big guy?”
“Hell, no,” Jason grunted. “I like having an audience. Makes me fucking hot, baby.”
“Then I’ll stay.” Amanda put her hands on her hips and leered down at Melli. “Does it feel good, Melli-the-belly? Let me know when he puts it in, okay?”
“No. No!”
But though she was trying to shout, Melli’s voice came out so low even she could barely hear it. She wanted to say more—wanted to fight and scream and kick—but her body seemed very far away from her now. In fact, she almost seemed to be floating above herself and looking down. Dimly she could tell that Jason Sykes was trying to pull down her shorts but the fact that she was so completely limp was giving him some trouble.
“Damn it, don’t just lay there,” he grunted at Melli as he yanked. “Come on, Melli-baby—scream for me! I’ll never forget how you screamed in high school—best fuck I ever had.”
“And this will be the last breath you ever draw,” a deep, growling voice said from behind him and Melli saw a pair of red, glowing eyes in the shadows. “Because when I am finished with you, you’ll be fucking dead.”
Thirty-Five
Liosh had never gone into Rage before. But of course, he had never been in love before, until he’d met Melinda, either.
He had heard other warriors describe the feeling of going into the berserker-type state when a much-loved female was threatened. He had heard them speak of how a red curtain dropped over their vision and the overwhelming, burning fury that filled their entire body as the instinct to protect turned into the undeniable urge to kill and maim and rend and destroy until nothing, nothing was left of the attacker and the beloved was either safe or avenged.
Nothing he had heard could compare with the actual experience.
He rushed at the male who had Melinda on the ground, knocking him off her and locking his arms around the other male in a punishing grip as they rolled in the cold grass together.
“Hey…hey, let me go!” The other male was struggling but there was no hope of escape. From what Liosh had heard, not only had this male been the one who had raped Melinda so many years ago he had also been intent on repeating the crime.
Such a male did not deserve to live and Liosh fully intended to make sure that he didn’t see the sun rise tomorrow.
The other male was big and strong but he was no match for a Kindred in Rage. In short order, Liosh had him flat on his back on the ground with both hands locked around his throat.
“Hey…man…let go,” the male who must be Jason Sykes gasped, his eyes bulging from their sockets.
“Yeah, let him go!” Amanda Brannigan called, from a safe distance. “You big creep! I’ll call the police—I swear I will!” She held up a cell phone in warning.
Liosh was past caring about any of that. Melinda was still lying limp on the ground, her shorts half-way pulled down and a vacant look in her lovely blue eyes. She had been hurt—maybe hurt so badly that she might never return to him.
Liosh would kill to avenge her.
“Wasn’t…gonna hurt her,” Jason Sykes rasped. He was pawing at Liosh’s hands, which were still fixed firmly around his throat.
“No, you were only going to rape her…again.” Liosh’s voice was very cold, which surprised him, since he was so angry he could barely even see the male beneath him. His fangs felt long and sharp and brutal in his mouth and his whole body was flooded with the Rage—a fury so deep nothing but blood could end it.
“Wasn’t…gonna…” Jason Sykes denied. “Hands…off, man!”
“All right,” Liosh agreed equably. He removed his hands…
And promptly leaned down to rip the male’s throat out.
Thirty-Six
The spray of arterial blood looked black in the shadows. Some of it fell on Melli’s face and somehow that brought her back to her body. She didn’t want anything of Jason Sykes on her—not even his blood.
Her hand came up to wipe at her forehead and she realized she could move again. Not only that, but there was chaos going on around her.
Not far away from her, Liosh was bent over something on the ground and ripping at it like some kind of animal. The side of his face was bloody and for a moment, he reminded Melli of those nature documentaries you see about lions on the African savanna. Liosh looked like they did when they pulled down an antelope and ripped it open to feed on it.
The startling thought seemed to bring her back to herself a little more. The numb feeling she’d had began to fade, though Melli wished it wouldn’t. Being numb was so much more comfortable—so much less scary.
She became aware that a girl was screaming someplace close by. At first she thought it was her, but then she realized it couldn’t be, because she still couldn’t seem to speak. Looking to her left, she saw Amanda Brannigan on the phone—screaming and shouting that this was an emergency, that a man had been attacked for no reason, that the big bastard was killing him and there was blood everywhere!
Blood everywhere, Melli thought. Even on me.
Looking down at herself, she saw that the blood had indeed sprayed on her. It had made a pattern of dark droplets on the skin of her upper thighs which were exposed because her shorts were halfway pulled down.
Melli pulled them back up reflexively. She had a vague memory of Jason Sykes fumbling with them while she floated above her body looking down, but she didn’t think anything had come of it. Mainly she thought that, because he still had his jeans on—they weren’t even unzipped. She could see that
