A Dark Kiss of Rapture Read Free Page A

could be the
cornerstone of massive, sweeping advancement. You could have the
mate you deserve. You could—”
    “You don’t know what I deserve.”
    “Don’t make me hurt you, Raze.” He looked
over Raze’s shoulder and his smile widened. “You surprised me by
bringing in the Sentinels and their dogs, but we had to get rid of
them at some point. Now is as good a time as any.”
    Using the man’s distraction, Raze whipped
out the blade strapped to his left thigh and threw it, striking the
prophet in the throat. The gun discharged. Pain ripped through Raze
along with the bullet that shot clear through his shoulder and out
the other side. The wound healed almost instantly, proving the
man’s words to be true: he didn’t want Raze dead or he’d have used
a silver-laced bullet.
    Behind him, the field erupted with the
sounds of gunfire and the yelps of wounded lycans. Raze dropped to
the ground. As the robe-clad minions utilized the weapons they’d
hidden beneath their robes, his mind quickly assessed his options.
Adrian and a female Sentinel took to the field, their wings
deflecting bullets and slashing like blades. Screams rent the air.
Bodies were severed into pieces.
    Most minions never knew what it was like to
face a Sentinel. They could never prepare for the lethality of
those magnificent wings that sliced like blades and were impervious
to all mortal implements of destruction. Unique to each angel, the
patterns and colors said much about the angel’s soul if you knew
how to read them, and their average thirty-foot span meant it was
nearly impossible to get close enough to inflict any damage.
    Raze took out a minion with his other knife,
then crawled to the body of the prophet and took his gun. Lying on
his back, he emptied the clip into the converging mass of robe-clad
figures, slowing them down so that he could join the fray with his
swords. Leaping to his feet, he did just that, cutting a swathe
through the chaos.
    Blood spurted and flowed like a river,
soaking the grass and splattering Raze until he dripped with it. It
was over in moments, leaving a battlefield upon which two Sentinels
stood inviolate, surrounded by snarling lycans and a sea of dead
bodies.
    Raze pointed the tip of his blade at the two
minions he’d managed to spare. “For you two,” he murmured, “the fun
is just beginning.”
     
    * * *
     
    Raze made it back to his hotel just before
dawn. He showered again, finishing the job he’d started with a
hosing down at the field. Restlessness gnawed at him. The hunt
wasn’t over. What troubled him was that he had no idea what it
would take to end it. How many more of Grimm’s devotees were out
there?
    Tugging on a pair of black sweats, he
propped up his iPad and placed a call to Vashti.
    “Hey,” he greeted her, when her face came on
screen.
    “Hey yourself.” Her gaze narrowed. “You’re
looking rough. What’s up?”
    It was hard for a vampire to look rough. He
was surprised that she said he did, but he brushed past it and
caught her up on the night’s events.
    “You killed him?” She leaned back into her
sofa cushions. It was rare for her to indulge in any downtime, so
rare that it took him a moment to pinpoint her location as her home
in Raceport. “Just like that?”
    “Just like that. After what they did to the
man they left on my porch, he got off easy. I made it quick and
painless.”
    Her brow rose. “O-kay... But who’s going to
give you intel now that the two minions you captured gave up a
whole lotta nada?”
    “I got his name. Eventually, I’ll have his
mate.” His mouth curved without humor. “Baron has to have one, if
only to practice what he preaches.”
    “Maybe you killed her tonight. Surely she
would have been there.”
    “She wasn’t on the field. Trust me, if you’d
have seen the way they were dressed and lined up, you’d know that
everyone was paired except for him. I agree she was probably there
somewhere, but she kept out of sight.”
    “So how