Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (74 page)

Sal raised Tyr’s knife, trying to look as threatening as she could while still holding love in her heart. “Just leave. Go back to your time.”

The beast’s lips pulled back into something akin to a cruel smile. “Not until I bleed Tyr to his last drop.”

“
Why? He’s no threat to you.”

The beast took a step closer. “Did he not tell you?”

His human eyes bored into her. Sal tried searching them for some clue, but she could find only hatred.

“
Tyr is my brother.”

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CHAPTER 103

“
Brother?” She whispered as she fell back a step. How could that be?

“
A dead blood can have no sibling.”

The beast’s lips stretched into a feral grin, exposing his four-inch-long fangs. “None after. But I am his elder.”

Why hadn’t Tyr told her? As her mind faltered, the fire licked at her feet. Sensing her conflict, it sought a way past her Praxis. She firmed her resolve. “It doesn’t matter,” Sal said, hoping that the words made it true.

He strode forward a step. “I wish him to live long enough to know that I violated his woman.”

Her instinct was to push him back away, to gain ground between them.

Then something in his braid caught her eye. Something pink. Something Hello Kitty.

Maria
. Her stomach knotted to know that the beast had taken her best friend’s blood, and then ripped the choker from her neck. Revulsion weakened her shield, and the flames lapped at her toes. Gaining confidence.

Then love of her best friend welled from somewhere deep in her heart. As tears threatened, Sal feared that the fire would get the upper hand. Instead, the inferno rolled back. It was only an inch, but it rolled back.

As the beast snarled, she knew what she needed to do. She didn’t want him to back away, but come closer. Really close.

“
I thought you said you were going to take me?” Sal baited.

The beast’s head cocked, not certain of her change in tone.

She raised the knife. “What’s wrong? Afraid? Your brother would have had me on my back by now.”

He launched at her even faster than she had imagined possible, but her blade was at the ready. In his leap, the beast deftly defended his body against the knife, when she really aimed for his mane.

Throwing herself to the side, Sal cut the dreadlock off, then clutched it to her chest as she fell to the floor.

The beast roared in triumph as he turned on her, only at the last second realizing what she held in her hand. Just as he leapt, Sal raised the Hello Kitty choker and Maria’s vial of blood.

“
Let’s try this again,” she said as she smashed the vial against the concrete floor.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 104

Thinking of the look on Maria’s face when she opened the sparkling Hello Kitty choker, Sal felt a gust of wind swirl around her. She might love Tyr, but Maria? Maria she cherished beyond words. If hate fueled the flames around her, could love quench them?

A white flame shot up from the shattered vial, singeing the beast as he charged. He threw himself back as his scream merged with the crackling laughter of tortured souls. The stark light burnt up his leg and singed away half of his mane. Under the charred hair, Sal could make out a small and very human ear.

The light spread outward, cooling the room a good twenty degrees. While the glittering flame had burnt the beast, it served to only embrace Sal.

All was not well, though. The tortured wails shrieked as the white light engulfed the red flames. Worse, the struggle between the burning hatred and fierce love threatened the stability of the prison.

The building rocked underfoot as the third floor collapsed onto the second, and the second story swayed as if floating on water.

Sal turned to rush back to the tunnel as dripping-hot chunks of concrete fell from above, all around. The white light of Maria’s love might be extinguishing the hate, but the loathing still fought to claim her.

Protecting her head, Sal backed away from the tumbling concrete, which now steamed under the white light’s cooling effect. Her plan had exceeded her hopes. Maria’s love bathed her and quenched the fire. Things should be so much better, only as she ducked and dodged the collapsing building’s debris, being forced farther and farther from the tunnel and Tyr, they were more dire than ever.

How could she have come so far, only to fail now? As the disintegrating building crashed down around her, blocking any exit, Sal knew that she was done. She could only pray that the tunnel held and that she had saved Tyr.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 105

Darting under a pile of rubble that seemed more stable than the buckling walls, Sal closed her eyes. The tormented screams had joined with the screeching of metal and the shattering of concrete. Alone, she waited for the world to cave in on her.

Then she heard a tinkling of laughter. More dementia. Only it didn’t sound tortured or crazy. It sounded happy. Delighted, even. Were the damned souls finding another way to be cruel? To laugh as she died?

But she recognized that laugh. It was too delightful and too infectious to be mean. Sal peeked out from her unstable shelter to find the torn choker at the center of the white light.

Maria’s choker.

Maria’s laughter.

Tears sprang to Sal’s eyes. She wasn’t alone, after all. Maria was here to comfort her.

Another huge portion of the roof collapsed, shaking the rubble around her. It wouldn’t be long. She looked back at the choker and embraced the laughter that surrounded her. Best friends would be rejoined.

Then she noticed that the white light didn’t spread out in a pool, but rather followed the angle of the choker. Across the stacked debris, Sal noted a large defect in the wall. Beyond the white light shone the stars.

An escape route.

“
Thank you, Maria,” she whispered as she dashed between falling boulders of cement. Sal snatched up the choker as she fled the prison.

Stumbling onto the rocky terrain outside the prison, Sal felt the white light explode behind her. Maria had held back, waiting until she was to safety before releasing the full power of their bond.

The prison looked like a house of cards blown by a stiff wind. The red flames fled upward, trying to escape into the sky, but couldn’t outrun the searing white. The light entangled the red. It seemed as if the white strangled the red out, and then Sal realized that Maria’s spirit wasn’t out to destroy the hatred, but to embrace those lost souls.

Tears spilled over. Typical Maria, bringing them to her bosom. Her laughter joined her best friend’s as the red finally gave out, giving itself over to love.

In a single moment, the prison that had held such pain collapsed completely, leaving only an enormous pile of rubble, the hatred burned out forever.

Sniffling as the laughter faded as well, Sal felt wonder leach away as reality set in. If she and Maria could do that with just a little blood, what could the beast do with Lionel’s gel?

Tyr’s words eclipsed the joy she felt at feeling her best friend’s loving spirit again. “He could split the world.” Looking at a national landmark leveled in a matter of minutes, Sal knew that Tyr hadn’t been exaggerating.

Worse, the hunter was trapped under there.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 106

Could the tunnel have survived? Why hadn’t she placed a protection Praxis over Tyr before she left? If he died, and she lived …

Sal wouldn’t think about that. She had to get back in there. Find him. Following the line of the wall, Sal tried to find another entry point. The one she had escaped from was closed off by about a ton of debris.

If Sal knew Maria—and right now, still hearing her friend’s laughter ringing in her ears—she felt supremely confident that she did, Maria would have protected Tyr as best she could. If there was any way, she would have left Sal a path to him.

Going around a huge chunk of toppled roof, Sal tripped. Figuring it was just more rebar, she untangled her legs from a steel contraption. It wasn’t until Sal freed herself that she realized her error. This was no stray metal.

This machine had purpose. The four-barreled mechanism was the fireworks launcher. But it looked modified.

The Crusader’s work. He and the beast had quadrupled the payload, from the looks of it. The tubes were crammed with explosives—the weapon they intended to murder Tyr with.

Sal gained her feet. They needn’t have bothered. She was doing a fine job all by herself. Shaking off any doubt that Tyr was nothing but alive and healing, Sal went to move on, then noticed a small defect about halfway up the pile. Was that a way in?

About to climb the debris, Sal froze. The white light had died, leaving only a subliminal glow that was now tainted red. Not from the fire, but the beast. Not only had he survived the collapse, but he was near.

Reluctantly raising her eyes, she found him cresting the pile of rubble. He was now the sight of a new horror. No longer majestic, the beast had been burnt nearly to the bone. Red, oozing wounds stood out starkly against his black, charred skin.

With no fur, the beast’s face took on an eerie human quality. His tender pink ear looked not unlike her own. But those glistening fangs didn’t resemble anything remotely human.

No matter his injuries, rage kept his tail lashing violently side to side. Although one eye was swollen shut, there was no doubt that the beast knew her location exactly.

Then why hadn’t he launched at her? He’d made a leap even greater back at the de Young. Had he also consumed all of his healing elixir? Did he now have to fear death as she did? Could she use it to her advantage?

“
Go home.”

A low growl rumbled from his throat. “Not without your thoughts.”

Panic welded her feet in place. She knew what happened when the beast sought anyone’s thoughts. She’d seen the autopsy reports. And what did she have to fight him with? The knife was lost in the rubble. She had no more blood for Praxis. How could she survive against even an injured beast?

A strange thumping filled the air. Was that a rotor wash she heard?

Were the helicopters on their way? Carefully, she backed up a step.

“
More men come with weapons. Can you survive another assault?”

His tail swished. His growl was so deep it masked whatever words he meant to speak. The beast’s muscles bunched, rippling. She’d seen it too many times before. The helicopter would never make it in time.

Sal took another stride back, though. Maybe there was another way.

“
You’ve got the heartbroken blood from the statue. Just go home.”

As the beast roared so loudly that the sound obliterated all else, Sal didn’t bother to mask her goal any longer as she bolted for the fireworks launcher.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 107

Sal placed her hands on the cool steel of the launcher. The beast leapt. Her mind whirled. To use foul intent to protect herself would result in nothing more than her own descent.

She had to think of another way. She needed to think like Tyr.

What was the fireworks’ intent? Not fear or harm, but beauty.

What did the fireworks want more than anything?

As the beast’s bulk fell toward her, Sal closed her eyes.

“
Release,” she whispered.

Not until she felt the vibration of the steel as the wicks lighted did she aim the launcher into the beast’s path. The four rockets blasted from their base, loaded with enough gunpowder to level the island.

The beast flailed, trying to avoid the collision, but the entire complement of the explosives hit him in the gut, propelling him up into the sky, far above the island.

The brilliant explosion forced Sal to shield her eyes. When she opened them again, the sky was filled with fireworks.

Glittering, twinkling sparkles, but all red.

No matter how hard she searched, though, there was no sign of the beast.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 108

The dazzling display of scarlet fireworks was scattered as a helicopter swept in from the west. Sal waved as she watched the skies for any remnant of the beast.