Laura Wright - Eternal Hunger

Nicholas jogged after him. “The ‘eyes’ have thirty minutes to collect. Maybe they’ll drop another piece of the puzzle.”

Maybe . Alexander stared out at his city, his mind working at hyperspeed. “Dare has a boss.”

“What? Who?”

Alexander shrugged. “Don’t know. Trainer didn’t know either.”

Nicholas lifted his brows. “Well, if that’s true, it explains the extraordinary power of a mere Impure. But how would the power transfer? Through blood?”

“We will ask, Duro .” He pulled Nicholas into his side, ready to flash. “Right before we kill him.”

Sara stood naked in front of the mirror in Alexander’s bedroom, her skin still damp from the shower. Tipping her chin up, she inspected the bruises on her neck, ran her hand over them, and swallowed. The throbbing pain had her gritting her teeth. No more fear, Dr. Donohue. Trainer’s dead—the threat of him gone for good.

And yet she remained here, in this house, his house.

“Cruel, cruel girl.”

“You’re back,” Sara said, the pleasure in her tone blatant.

Alexander came up behind her, dressed in black combat gear and looking like something the U.S. military would keep a secret from their enemies.

Grinning, he looked in the mirror at her. “How are you?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she said honestly.

“Your brother . . . ?”

“Is sleeping. He still won’t talk to me.”

“You’ll try again.”

“And again.” She smiled weakly. “What about you? How are you? What do you need?”

Wrapping his coat around her naked flesh, he breathed her in, then shook his head. “For now, I need your excessively brilliant brain. Some ideas, profiling.”

She liked that. “Okay.”

“After running from his previous residence, Ethan Dare continues to elude me. Trainer’s memories gave me little. I see room after room of simplicity, but it’s not an apartment or condo, and I can’t tell if he’s remained in the city or not.”

Sara let this information sink into her brain for a moment, then said, “Well, I think that after leaving his home—or feeling as though he was forced out of his home—he’d find somewhere completely opposite, somewhere he feels no positive connection to. In fact, he may have run to somewhere he could do real damage and not care.”

“Damage ...” Alexander nodded, his eyes heavy and thoughtful. “I’ll think on that, run it by my brothers.”

“Hey, Alex?”

His gaze lifted to hers, his expression surprised at what she’d called him. “Yes?”

Sara turned in his arms, looked up into his beautifully fearsome face. “I want you to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Take the memory from Gray.”

“But you—”

“ I ,” she interrupted passionately, “am a fake.”

With a soft growl of reproach, Alexander cupped her face. “No, Sara.”

“And a phony,” she continued, nodding. “You were right—back at the hotel. I am worried about the risks to Gray’s mind, but honestly I’m more worried about myself. Half of my life was paying for the accident I caused, the other half was spent trying to fix it. It’s like, what am I without the pain, you know? The guilt? What am I without the constant cause?”

“You are the woman I love.”

The woman . Not the veana . She’d never be his veana . Her heart stilled with momentary sadness, but she asked again, “Will you do it?”

He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Yes.”

A loud rap on the door startled them both.

“The ‘eyes’ have come through, Alex,” Nicholas called through the wood. “We have a location.”

Alexander nodded at Sara. “We will talk of this more later.”

She didn’t want him to go, but she released him. “Be careful.”

“Of course.”

“No, I mean really careful. As in, don’t give Bronwyn anything that needs to be healed, okay?”

“Bronwyn has gone home.”

It was as though the sun had risen in her chest and she nearly squealed with happiness. “She has?”

He nodded, grinning. “She knew, as I always did, that we were not true mates.” He took her in his arms then and kissed her, hard and sweet, his tongue grazing her teeth. But when he broke away, his smile was gone, and his eyes registered concern.

“What is it?” she asked him.

“Nothing.” He frowned, backed up. “You will wait for me.”

She nodded. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Turning, he strode to the door, but when his hand reached for the handle, he froze. “Room after room,” he muttered. “A place he would hate, would want to destroy.” Then he suddenly roared, “That’s what I saw—the credenti !”

From the other side of the wood, Nicholas yelled, “Yes! How the hell did you know?”

Alexander flashed to the front gates of the Manhattan credenti , taking Lucian and Nicholas with him. Grazing his fangs against his wrist, he waited for the blood to flow. When it leaked red and strong from the puncture wounds, he ran it along the iron lock. As the gates disengaged and swung slowly back, Alexander readied himself, weapons drawn. His attempt to keep Sara out of his thoughts kept failing. Even as he ran, quietly and stealthily through the parklike setting inside the credenti grounds, he thought about his mouth on her, his tongue. He’d lapped at the tips of her teeth and had felt something . . . something disturbing, yet something that had made his body roar with lust.

A loose canine.

How was that possible? Had she told him the truth about ingesting his blood—

“Two recruits at ten feet,” hissed Lucian as they headed away from the guards and past a small field of snow-dotted crops. “Shadows everywhere. Watch yourselves.”

Alexander resumed his course around the field.

Snaking to the right, Nicholas gestured with the barrel of his gun. “The Barracks.”

Alexander’s gaze shot to the long stretch of housing in the distance. Shit. That’s what he’d seen in Trainer’s mind. Row upon row of rooms . . .

“He’s holding members in there,” Alexander said. “Let’s go.”

Alexander took off at top speed, the brothers following him across the field, over a small rise before stopping short just a few feet from the Barracks doors. A line of at least ten recruits blocked their way—ready and waiting, weapons drawn.

“Kill or be killed, duros ,” Alexander called as he ran straight at them, flying, firing, dodging knives and bullets, taking down two recruits before he was even on the ground again.

He leaped at a recruit, slamming them both to the icy grass, narrowly missing being skewered by the ten-inch blade in the Impure’s fist. He rolled them both until he was on top, then smashed his elbow into the male’s face, grabbed the knife, and plunged it into his heart. Flashes of gunfire echoed to Alexander’s left and he jumped to his feet, taking a quick assessment of his brothers and the damage done. Nicholas was firing on a cluster of three recruits who circled him, while Lucian was pounding his fist into an Impure’s side.

With four recruits dead, Alexander knew his brothers could handle the remaining six. He signaled to them, letting them know he was going in, going to find Dare, end this fucking nightmare once and for all. He stalked toward the Barracks, firing on one Impure who got in his path. But another bastard came from behind and ran his knife straight into the back of Alexander’s leg, grinding it all the way down to his calf. Hissing, Alexander reached back with his gun and took the Impure out with one shot to the head. Undeterred, limping slightly, he slammed the doors of the Barracks open and stalked inside.