Page 9 of Blood Code

Good. I wanted it to fuel me.

A tear rolled down my face. “I want them all dead.”

Sabine nodded. “I do, too. I do, too.”

“I don’t need anything else to guide me. I need to kill them all.”

An enormous smile spread across Sabine’s face. “And we will, my dear. We will.”

Chapter Three

Xeniya Morozova

Age 35

Present

Well, Severin went and disappointed me.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Men, by their very nature, were disappointing. They couldn’t help it, really. Dalmatians couldn’t change their spots, peacocks couldn’t change their colors, and men… well, they were disappointments.

Even this one.

Flames licked at my feet, and waves of heat rolled against my skin. A wooden beam overhead collapsed, and I jumped out of the way. Which, of course, was silly. I was in my void form, my invisible form, and nothing could touch me.

I had three forms. My void form, where I was fully invisible; my ghost form, where I was transparent like a spirit in the movies, and my human form. The void form and ghost form worked nearly identically; the only real difference being that others could see me in my ghost form.

I could feel temperature, but it couldn’t hurt me. Although it could become uncomfortable if I stayed in this fire too long.

I felt the heat of it currently crawling up the back of my neck.

Embers popped next to my ear, and I tensed; above me, the warehouse beams groaned under the weight of the collapsing roof. I gritted my teeth. This building wouldn’t last much longer.

I had no idea why I hadn’t left the warehouse yet.

At first, I wanted to see what he would do. Severin Volkov was a genius and a strategic mastermind. He should have figured out how to escape, but then I had locked him in a burning building.

Technically, he locked himself in it.

But semantics.

Slowly, I approached his unconscious body, partially covered by a structural beam. If I left him here any longer, smoke inhalation would kill him, or the fire would burn him alive.

He deserved the latter.

But… what if he died while passed out?

It just wouldn’t do.

My stomach churned, and I felt a pounding at my temples.

I cocked my head like a bird of prey eyeing its next meal and knelt beside him. I brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes. I was still in my void-form.

So he couldn’t see me.

Severin was so beautiful like this, vulnerable and exposed, with glass-sharp cheekbones and unmarred skin. It wouldn’t stay that way for long. The fire was eating away at the room… and him. But his face, at least for now, was still beautiful.

Young Severin was a strange mix of hopeful hero and ruthless killer. He was like a puppy who happily wagged its tail, only to bite your hand off five seconds later. This current version of him was clouded with darkness—something I’d never seen in him as a boy.