Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(65)

“Goddess knows. The three of you are connected, that’s all I can tell you. If he were feeding from her, I think you’d be seeing it. But you may not see him feeding from anyone else. Delaney’s probably still seeing those.”

“The shitbag’s probably setting another fire,” Jag drawled.

“I agree. Pull over, Jag.” Hawke turned to look at them all. “I think he has Delaney nearby, and he’s going to set those fires the same. I’ll take to the air. Wulfe, shift and try to pick up her scent. Jag, call Lyon, tell him what we know, get him or Kougar to get on the emergency bandwidths and listen for a fire to be called in, then drive through the neighborhoods looking yourselves. And keep Tighe in his skin.”

“Aye-aye, Admiral,” Jag drawled.

Hawke opened the door, shifted, and flew out while Wulfe leaped from his own door on all fours.

“Get the doors, Stripes. Looks like it’s just you and me, now, Wigout. Keep your eyes peeled for smoke.”

Tighe pulled the two doors closed, then collapsed against the seat back as Jag called Feral House and filled them in. His body ached. Delaney. What have I done? If only I’d bound myself to you. If only.

I see the fires. Hawke’s voice sounded in his head. He’s got three houses on Birch Terrace circled with flames.

I’m on my way. Tighe opened the door of the moving car and leaped out, shifting into his tiger in midair. Behind him he could hear Jag’s, “Shit!”, but he never slowed. He could get there faster on foot than Jag could in the car, and all that mattered was finding Delaney.

Delaney lay alone and shivering on the hardwood floor, a grandfather clock somewhere in the deserted house chiming the quarter hour. Fifteen minutes, the clone had been gone. Maybe twenty. And she knew exactly what he’d been up to.

Three fires, three houses in a row, as if he wanted to get the biggest feed for his match. The pain of the vision was finally beginning to recede from her head.

“I’m not dead yet!” Her voice rang into the empty room as she jerked her head, jarring the stupid flies loose from her face. Her nostrils were so fried from the stench, she almost couldn’t smell it any longer.

Is he just going to leave me here?

Cold sweat slicked her skin. Terror snaked in and out of her heart, slithering and gnawing as it went. So cold.

Tighe, please. Please find me. Use your superpowers. Find me.

A door clicked and opened. She lifted her head, for one desperate moment thinking Tighe had heard her. But the man who walked into the kitchen had eyes of pure evil.

Delaney shuddered, her shivers becoming violent as terror joined the cold. What would he do to her this time?

Despair nearly stole her will. How badly would he hurt her before he finally put his mouth to her neck again, as he had the first time, and took her life?

Tears burned in her eyes, but she fought them back. Tighe would come. He’d come for her. She had to believe that.

The clone stood over her, looking down at her body, his gaze crawling across her br**sts.

“Did you feed?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice even. He could probably sense her emotions better than Tighe since he actually drank them. But not hearing the fear in her own voice helped her keep the rank hysteria at bay.

“I did.” Squatting at her hip, he reached between her legs, his cold, awful touch stroking her, circling her opening.

Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she fought to scramble away mentally from the feel of that cold, inhuman finger.

“I feed on pain, but I think you know that. And I know a thousand ways to cause it. A thousand ways without killing you.”

“You’re only a few weeks old. How could you possibly know a thousand ways?”

“Daemon memories, thanks to my draden host. Ways to torture a human.”

His finger slid across the tight, dry opening to her womb. “Imagine the steel hilt of a knife, heated over an open fire until it glows red, then shoved…”

He pressed his finger inside her. She gasped at the sharp tug of pain, her mind screaming against the invasion as much as the horror of his words.

“Can you imagine it?”

Oh, God. “Yes.” Her heart thudded. She had to stop reacting. She had to get control of her fear. Get her mind on something else before he turned her into a trembling wreck.

“Why did you take me? What do you want with me other than my fear?”

His finger left her, his cold hand closing around her breast, stroking it with frightening gentleness. “I’ve never forgotten you. From the moment I first put my mouth on you, I’ve thought of you.”

He swung his long leg over her and straddled her waist, bracing his arms on either side of her head as he stared into her eyes. Slowly, his eyes changed, the coldness pushed aside by a warmth, a depth of emotion that made her skin crawl.

“I love you.”

Staring at him, she could almost believe he thought he did. “Then why do you want to hurt me? If you loved me, you’d let me go.”

He grinned at her, flashing Tighe’s dimples, intelligence gleaming in his eyes. “Nice try. But, no, I’m not going to let you go.” He shrugged. “I may have feelings for you, but at heart I’m a Daemon. I need someone to help me get the other half of the soul I need to survive. And when I saw you with him, when I realized he was the one touching you, I decided to take you from him. You’ll be the one to help me.”