Chapter 2

Sebastian

Not once did it ever occur to me that I was making a big fucking mistake letting the Assembly take me as their prisoner.

Yeah, I'd gladly taken up forces with the Lycans and vampires to take these fuckers out and rescuemy psychotic cousin Adryan's fated mate.

Although I didn't have the emotion to feel happy or worried about getting Adryan's female back, I was loyal to him above all else. And hell… bloodshed was always a good time.

My plan was to take out as many humans as possible. And I had been hungry for that, thirsty for their deaths to be new tally marks that marked my black soul.

Time seemed to meld together into one rolling, monotonous reel in this pit of hell. The only thing I'd been aware of after they took me was a dank cell, drugged-out vision and hearing, and zero strength.

And although they captured me, the recon had been successful. We'd taken down a hell of a lot of humans. And I was about to do that again, about to take lives and add tallies.

For the last week, they'd been pumping me full of sedatives and other drugs that weakened me. It allowed them to torture me, to cart me around so I didn't put up a fight so they could poke and prod at me, cut me open and torture me for the amusement and entertainment of rich fucking humans.

But damn was I ready for a fight, ready to end this once and for all, and that time was now.

They thought I was too weak to be a threat… something I allowed them to think. I let my tolerance grow every time their drugs coursed through my veins.

I watched. I listened. And I planned on infiltrating this piece of shit from the inside out.

"He's a big bastard," said one of the guards carting me down the sterile hallway.

"Let's just hurry this up," the other guard, curling his hand harder into my arm.

I would have laughed at the fact that he thought he was hurting me. Weak fucking human.

"Shit, how much did you give him this time? He's dead-fucking-weight."

"Would you rather he attack us like he did last time and take out all the soldiers?"

The other guard grunted, and they picked up their pace, their heart rates beating faster from exertion.

I was deadweight, but I was totally conscious, ready to fucking bathe in blood.

And then all of a sudden they stopped, and one of them muttered, "The hell?"

I smelled the female before I heard her suck in a sharp breath.

The manacles around my wrists were heavy, the magic swirling around them and burning my skin, the scent of my flesh cooking filling my nose. It might be currently impossible to break them before I snapped their necks, but it was fucking coming.

I slowly lifted my head, the human guards too focused on the female in front of them to notice the shift in my movement. I locked my gaze on hers, and although I felt the drugs marginally, my body weakened by the magic, I was so ready for this.

She tore her focus from mine and glanced at the guards. The humans were stunned speechless, frozen as the three of them stared at each other, the Otherworld female having a wide, terrified expression.

I knew of her, had heard about her enough from Odhran, one of the Scottish Lycans who'd been searching for his kidnapped mate for decades. Creatures could be heard roaring and screaming, fights breaking out all around us and in different corridors. The Otherworld was now taking back the power.

The female took a step back, but the wall stopped her from retreating any farther. One of the guards cursed, and that's when I let the beast out.

I grinned at her, my mouth watering for what was about to play out.

Despite the manacles, I let all that savagery rip out of me, drawing out the last remnants of drugs running through my veins. I let all my sociopathic brutality explode from me.

The first guard to taste death was the one who'd enjoyed torturing me. I roared and ripped out his throat with my teeth, tearing his flesh away, blood spraying along my face and chest. I couldn't think straight, couldn't concentrate on anything but tearing his limbs off, arms and legs flying in every direction.

I tossed his trachea aside before going to the next fucker.

He had his weapon trained on me, and I grinned, his buddy's blood dripping from my mouth in what was no doubt a grisly display.

He pulled the trigger, but I dodged the bullet and snapped his neck. I'd wanted to make this last, draw out their suffering, but I was mindful of Odhran's female, and this damn place was imploding from the inside out.

When I was done with the massacre, I turned and faced the female. She was utterly terrified, the scent of her fear like gasoline in my nose. She made a frightened noise in the back of her throat.

I bent down, ripped the key card off one of the humans, and ran it over the manacles. The mirage surrounding it dissipated, and the lock opened a second before falling unceremoniously to the ground. I hissed through gritted teeth and glanced down at my raw and charred, blistered wrists.

I was stalking forward, only stopping when I was a foot from the female.

"Come, female."

She didn't move, her eyes still big, her fear growing.

I didn't have fucking time for this. "Female," I growled, "if you want to get out of here with your mate, let's go."

Her mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out as her fear bled away to confusion, then… hope.

I didn't have those emotions that got in the way with knowing shit had to be done in order to stay alive and on top. I didn't allow love or sadness, happiness or yearning to cloud my judgment. There was no pleasure in my life.

I only had loyalty and the need for bloodshed.

"My mate?"

I could see the hope filling her face, and I felt like a bastard for feeling indifference mixed with impatience.

"I overheard the guards talking about you, saying your name and your mate's as I was taken out of one of their torture rooms." I tried to keep the harsh growl from my voice, but even thinking about the shit they put me through made me a grouchy asshole. "If you want to get to him, I know where he's at."

Feigning like I was damn near comatose from the drugs had led these pricks to have loose lips around me.

"I don't know where the other guards are, and I don't know how long we have before they swarm in. We have to go now." I didn't wait for her to follow. She'd either come with me or take her chances alone. A part of me didn't want to throw her to the wolves, but I didn't have the time or patience to coddle a female who wasn't even mine.

I heard her following only a moment later, and I felt the tightness in my chest wane.

Despite the corridors looking all the same, I'd been taken from my cell more times than I could count while being here. I had memorized the labyrinth of hallways well enough to find my way to where I knew Odhran was being held.

"Who are you?" she whispered behind me, but I kept moving.

I made sure to scan every available space in front of me, to the sides, and extended my senses outward so I didn't miss an ambush. We'd only been walking for another minute before I held out my hand to stop her.

I could smell the stink of human depravity.

I pressed my forearm to her chest and shoved the female back against the wall so suddenly I heard the air give out from her lungs. I instantly felt her disgust from my close proximity, and knew because I wasn't her fated mate, touching her would cause her physical discomfort. I lowered my arm from her and focused ahead as the humans came closer.

I looked down at her and lifted my hand to place a finger to my lips, making sure she knew she had to be silent. A moment later the sound of low voices came through.

I stared at Odhran's mate, keeping my composure calm and easy because that's exactly how I felt. But I wanted to physically portray that to her in the hopes it would ease her. I could see she had seen a lot of shit, and knew from her Lycan mate that she'd been trapped with the Assembly for decades.

I inhaled deeply, scenting the Assembly humans coming closer. I felt my eyes flashing red intermittently, unable to hide the thrill and high I got with the thought of taking their lives.

Two human males walked by from the opposite direction, their backs toward us, their conversation low. I held in my growl, kept still, and didn't attack… yet.

I wanted to go to them, to break their necks and drain their bodies of blood. But I stayed back because it wasn't just me to think of right now. I'd get Odhran's mate to him if it fucking killed me.

When the humans were gone and we could no longer hear their voices, I gestured for her to follow me again. We went in the opposite direction, taking a left, then a right, my memorization of this fucking place leading us to where I knew the Lycan was being held.

I stopped when we arrived at a large metal door, the small, wired window in the center showing a slice of the interior.

There were cells on either side of the room and a human stationed at the end of each point of the walkway. I glanced at the nymph and grinned before using the key card I'd swiped from the now dead humans to open the door, and stepped inside.

Right away I grabbed the guard closest to me and snapped his neck, then ripped the throat out of the other. The noise within the cell block grew tenfold as the Otherworld creatures caged inside went berserk at the violence and bloodshed.

"In here," I called out to Odhran's mate, and saw her glance around the corner before hesitantly stepping inside.

Corpses littered the ground, and blood was splattered across the concrete. The nymph stood there and watched as I went from cell to cell and used the key card to unlock each one.

The doors slid open, and the huge Otherworld males stepped free.

"Over here, female," I called out, then walked down the length of the cell block and stopped at the last prison. After using the key card, the door slid open. I moved back just as Odhran stepped out.

The big Lycan had his head tilted to the side as he stared at me, and when I tipped my chin in the nymph's direction, Odhran slowly turned his head and looked at her.

I cocked my head to the side as I watched Odhran and his mate lock eyes and just stare at each other for long moments. And then she was running toward him.

I turned to give them privacy as I went and released the rest of the Otherworld creatures. Only after the beasts were free did I turn back to Odhran. He held his mate tightly, murmuring words to her in Gaelic.

"I hate to break up the happy reunion, but you two need to get the fuck out of here before shit hits the fan," I said in a low, gruff tone. "Go, take your female. Get far away from here."

"Sebastian, come with us." Odhran's voice was firm and strong.

I shook my head. "I'm burning this motherfucker to the ground, bathing in its ashes, and cleaning my teeth with the bones of the one named Tore." I grinned as I thought about the head of this demented operation, the human who was responsible for taking Adryan's mate and creating so much suffering within my kind.

"Go, follow the carnage and bodies. They'll lead you outside." I tipped my head toward the hall.

Odhran stayed silent for only a second before nodding once. "Good luck. Destroy them all."

I stared at Odhran for a moment before I let a sadistic smile spread across my face.

That was my fucking plan.

I watched Odhran rush out with his female, and I felt a strange stirring in my chest, one I wouldn't think too hard on. But it was also one I couldn't ignore.

Fucking longing. That's what this feeling was.

I didn't need a mate. I didn't need anything but the violence and rage rushing through my veins as I took down this group of miscreants who would hurt and torture my kind for the sake of entertainment.

That's what I told myself over and over again as I pictured Odhran with his female, the pure happiness and relief reflected in his face as he stared at her. This male was fucking devoted. I knew he'd spoon out his own fucking heart just to make her happy.

I blocked any and everything out that didn't have to do with the violent need for revenge and started opening the cells.

The security and locks were down, the magic wavering but tolerable.

I let out Vox and Bane from their cells, two Otherworld assholes I'd heard bickering nonstop since I got here.

A demon and an Angelis.

Bane, the demon asshole, stared at me, most likely contemplating going at me to let out all the clear aggression.

"We can fight each other," I snarled, not the least bit intimidated. "It'll be a brutal fight, what with a big bastard like you, but I've never lost a fight yet." I stared into his eyes. "Never fought a demon before either, but there's a first time for everything." I slowly grinned, letting him see my fangs elongate with the thrill of a murdering rampage filling me. "Or we can burn this motherfucker to the ground and kill all these Assembly guards."

Bane's nostrils flared, and his eyes glowed as he growled before he stalked off. Vox, the winged Angelis fucker, grinned as he watched Bane leave.

"He's a temperamental bitch." Vox laughed. He cracked his clawed hands, and rolled his head around his neck. The energy cracked around him as he unfurled his black wings, talons tipping the ends, the span massive.

A moment later Vox was gone, heading toward the corridor Bane had just disappeared down.

I was confident those two would have a body count that rivaled mine.

And then I went to fucking work on painting the floors and walls red.

I freed as many Otherworld creatures as I could in between killing and maiming guards, but when I was about to go deeper within the facility and pick off any stragglers, I felt a shift in the air, a thickening coating my blood-soaked skin.

It made it hard to breathe, made it impossible to think clearly.

But I still destroyed any human who crossed me, still ripped out throats and drank my fill of blood. I reveled in the violence that made me stronger.

Nothing was going to stop me… nothing until a massive blast pulsated all around me before throwing me across the corridor. The sound of my skull cracking against the cinder block was the last thing I remembered.