Touch

Chapter 21| Vengeance

I don't think I've ever been this angry, no I was beyond anger, I was wrathful and I wanted them to feel it.

Fire rushed through me, took over me, threatening to burn me from within at the sight of Cirini trying to take what was mine.

They would feel this fire, this pain that coursed through me tenfold.

I could barely speak; opting for short responses was wisest seeing as I could hardly keep Maverick in check. I saw crimson, and if I let him loose, there was no telling what I would do, who I would hurt.

We wanted blood, Cirini's blood, and I wanted her penitence, but that would happen on my terms.

You will watch as I give your mate pleasure like she's never known. If you leave, I will bind her to me as my pet.

I swear my vision blurred before it refocused on him hovering over Amina. I took one step and then another, each filled with the intent to kill.

I'd make quick work of him with one fatal blow, I'd figure out another way to help Amina. I was more powerful than him despite the age difference, surely my venom would wo-

"You don't know that," Maverick interrupted, "You know we can't risk her, " he warned, but with a roll of my shoulders, I shook off his warning, only heeding the need to kill, to eliminate.

I felt his panic grow with each step I took, but I shook it off, pushing him back to the recesses of my mind as he fought to take over.

"Malachai, no!" Maverick shouted as I approached the vermin sitting at the end of Amina's bed with a smirk adorning his face.

I wrapped my hand around his neck, raising him off the bed so that he could look at me directly in the face.

Slowly I could feel my claws protruding from my nailbed, piercing his neck, "My venom," he whispered maniacally with a smile on his face.

"I. Don't. Care."

Slowly blood trickled through the slits of my fingers, running down my arm, staining my shirt, but I held his gaze, waiting for the moment he realized that it was over, that I would detach his head from his body.

"We need to help Amina!" Maverick screamed, hoping to pull me out of the murderous trance I was in, but I blocked him out, silencing him from my mind. There was only one heartbeat I wanted to hear racing in terror.

His hand shot over my wrist that had him suspended in the air, "She will not survive it," he said in between barely-there breaths, but I didn't respond. Instead, I brought him closer so that he could get a better look, and sure enough, the moment of recognition came.

When he realized he was looking into the eyes of a man unhinged, his heart rate took off into a gallop. When he looked into eyes colder than his soul, his eyes widened with fear, pupils dilating as the adrenaline rushed through his system.

"Fight or flight, Cirini?" I asked with a wicked grin.

He struggled against me, and my grip tightened, causing blood to gush in between my fingers. "This will...mean war...Malachai!"

"You forget you can't walk in the sun," I whispered, "I kill you now, and I and my pack will descend on your filthy coven when the sun comes up and I promise you, I will annihilate every last one of you, then I'll take your territory."

His claws slashed at my arm, but I couldn't feel it. The anger coursing through me had numbed every sensation save one, rage, and he would feel it, all of it.

"Malachai," Amina called to me, her voice heavy with tears, "Maverick told me you can't do this."

How the hell was she able to speak to him?