Page 101 of A Trial By Blood

He lifted his hands and roared, firing his nonexistent powers at me.

Laughter bubbled up inside me, born of true freedom. Freedom from this monster and the shackles he’d had on me for most of my life.

“I should have killed you like I killed your pathetic mother. I should have kept Luna at my side and removed your head as well,” he said.

“It was you who lost your head, Azel. Luna relieved you of it.”

Something flashed through his eyes, a memory perhaps, and the look on his face changed, becoming completely unhinged. He moved to block the door. “You’re not leaving. If I’m in Hell, you’re staying here with me.”

He thought he could best me? He had nothing, not even his life.

I had everything. I had something to fight for, to live for.

I had Rose.

Azel’s face twisted with hate, with rage, then he screamed and ran at me.

CHAPTER 29

Ronan

It was late. Dark outside.

We’d been in Hell for all of thirty-seven minutes, but an entire day had passed here on Earth.

No one tried to stop me when we returned, and I strode from the clubhouse. No one dared.

I was covered in blood, Azel’s and my own. Adrenaline still throbbed through me. The monster in me roared and snarled when images of Azel’s battered body, broken and twisted on the floor, filled my head again.

He was nothing.

No one.

He would never hurt Luna again. Would never touch either of us. He would spend the rest of eternity in that cell at the mercy of Lucifer and his demons, and he deserved nothing less.

I wasn’t in my right mind. I should calm myself first and gather my control before I went to Rose, but that wasn’t possible. No, there was only one place I wanted to be, and if anyone attempted to stop me, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.

The drive to Rose was a haze. I had no recollection of it when I pulled up outside the house and turned the car off. I used my power to conceal it, to conceal myself. The predator in me wanted to hide, to stalk, to capture its prey. To take what was his, and as fucked up as that was, as out of control as I felt, I knew I wouldn’t hurt Rose, not on purpose and not by accident.

So I let that part of me take over. I relished it. My blood was hot in my veins as I entered the house and took the stairs two at a time. Rose’s door was shut, but she was in there—I could smell her.

The sound of the shower, of her humming softly from the bathroom, reached me.

I walked through the door and into her private space. Her scent was much stronger here, and I breathed deeply. My fangs extended, and my cock was pumped full of blood, growing harder than I’d ever been.

I walked through the only other barrier between us, my power cracking and sparking around me, feeding off my volatile emotions.

Rose.

My snarl escaped, ricocheting off the tile walls. My female didn’t see me, didn’t hear me. My hand dropped to the hardness behind my zipper, and I squeezed to relieve the ache. Images of what I wanted to do to her filled my head, and nothing else. There were no monsters in wait to pull me from her, no memories or nightmares to get between us. When I thought of Azel now, I saw him on that floor, bleeding and broken. Nothing.

My memory of him was of the sound of his bones snapping, of his cries of pain, and if anything, it only made me harder.

Rose ran her soapy hands over her beautiful body, and I growled with need. I didn’t have a shirt, it’d been torn off during my fight. I stripped off what was left of my clothes and stepped into the hot spray behind her. She was breathing fast, her eyes filled with excitement, and as her hands made another pass over her hips and across her stomach, I covered them, following their path as I dropped my block.

She gasped, but she wasn’t afraid. I pressed my lips to the side of her throat, dragging my fangs along the tendon there. “You knew I was here.”

“Yes,” she said. “I felt you. I felt your power.” She turned, and a cry left her when she saw me. “Oh goddess. You’re hurt.”