Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(28)

The devil who wore his face tossed the tiny, lifeless body aside with a thud and turned to pick up another as the woman’s muffled and horrified cries rang in Tighe’s ears.

“We don’t know where he is. Wait.” As the clone fed on the second child, his gaze turned toward the window. “Capitol Springs Apartments are across the street.”

“Capitol Springs. I know that area.” A thread of excitement laced her voice. “It’s on East Capitol. Around 6th or 7th.”

He released Delaney long enough to pull out his cell phone and give the address to Hawke. Second by second, he felt her body tensing as her pain burned across his tongue. He snapped the phone closed, tossed it onto the dash, and covered her forehead again with his palm.

Her pained sigh tore at him. Somehow he had to free her from these things. For her, now, more than himself.

“Are your friends going to meet us there?”

“Yes, but you won’t see them.” Hawke would probably shift and go by air. They’d both beat him there. He’d wandered far afield in his driving.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to get in touch with Hawke. Once the Feral shifted, neither he nor Kougar would be able to communicate with him until they got closer. And out of the car. The magic shielding that kept the draden from penetrating the car windows kept the Ferals from communicating telepathically when one of them was in his animal form. Which was the only time they could communicate that way.

The woman’s cries increased exponentially as the clone picked up the last child, a small boy. Tighe knew instinctively, the boy was the only one who was hers. Even through the gag, he recognized the unique sound of a parent’s pain.

As he was forced to stop behind a line of traffic caught at the light, the clone tossed the third small body onto the floor and turned to the grief-stricken mother. This is why he had to get his soul back! Not only to stop this creature from killing, but to help find that Daemon blade so this scene didn’t play out a thousand times a day. Every day. All over the world, as it would if the Daemons were ever freed again.

Thunder. He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. The Ferals didn’t have the power to defeat the Daemons a second time. They’d sacrificed too much to imprison them the first time.

Delaney turned her head to look up at him, and he met her pained gaze, feeling his soul sink into her dark eyes and, for a moment, heal. “Is he still killing children?”

“No. They’re dead. He’s turning on the mother now.”

Abruptly, the clone stopped.

“How far are we?” Delaney asked, still watching him.

“Ten minutes. Maybe less.”

The clone turned away from the woman and moved to kneel beside the lifeless body of the last child. Tighe’s stomach rolled as he realized what the clone was doing. With a lighter, he set fire to the boy’s dinosaur tee shirt. Then with an even, purposeful stride, he walked to the apartment door and opened it.

“Three thirty-one. He was in apartment 331, but he’s leaving. Dammit. I’ve got to tell Kougar.”

Tighe reached for his phone, where he’d tossed it onto the dash, but couldn’t get it without crushing Delaney against the steering wheel. “Brown eyes, I need my phone. Can you reach it for me?”

As she rose slowly, he kept his palm against her forehead. “Where? Oh, I see it.” She pulled it off the dash.

Delaney held the phone in front of him, but to take it he had to release her.

“Speed dial five for me. When a man answers, tell him apartment three three one.”

“Tighe says apartment three three one.” A moment later she snapped, “Go to hell,” and closed the phone.

Damn Kougar. “What did he say?”

“He said he told you to kill me.”

Tighe sighed. “He figured it was the easiest way to free you from the visions.”

The sound that came from her throat was half laugh, half moan. “If this keeps up much longer, I may ask for that cure.”

“Hang on, brown eyes. No one’s ending your life.”

“That assurance would have made me happier before the little guys with the jackhammers set up the construction zone in my brain.”

The vision faded.

Delaney sighed, the tension easing from her tightly strung body. “Is it over?”

“Apparently. At least for now. I have a feeling he set that fire for a reason.”

“He set a fire?”

“Yes.” He didn’t see any need to burden her with where.

“We’ve got to call the fire department.”

She pushed herself up and he released her, sorry to have to let her go. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Thanks to you.” She picked up his phone and pressed 911. “Is there a return policy on these visions I accidentally stole from you because I would happily give them back?”

“I may be able to free you of them. That’s what I was trying to do when I inadvertently started to control you.”

She threw him a wary look that said she didn’t understand what he was talking about and wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

But her sigh was one of exhaustion. “As soon as we get back to your place, you have my permission to muck around in my head all you want. Just get me free of these things.”

“You got it.”