Free A Cold Day in Hell (The Hellcat Series) by Sharon Hannaford Page B

hour together.  Julius remained quiet, giving her room to work through what had just happened.
    "So, Red Rage again, huh?" she asked at last, as the memories of tracking and finding the Rogue solidified in her mind.  She opened her eyes and assessed the marks and bruises, which were already beginning to fade from her skin.  She pushed back the sleeves of Julius's coat and stared at her wrists.
    "Yes," Julius agreed quietly, keeping his eyes on the road, though he didn't need to.  "But not quite the same as last time."
    Gabi looked at him sharply.  "What do you mean?"
    Julius glanced her way briefly, a pensive frown on his face.  "I didn't see the whole fight, but when I got to you, he had your hands pinned above your head, and he was about to bite you."  He took a deep breath and looked away, back to the road outside.  His hands tightened on the steering wheel of the car.  "I got there just in time to see the terror disappear from your eyes and the rage take hold.  Only it wasn't the insane, incontrollable fury that I've seen countless times before.  You directed the Rage.  You harnessed it and used it for a purpose.  It didn't control you; you controlled it."  The certainty and awe in his voice was unnerving. 
    "I…" she started, "I don't really remember.  I only remember the moment that changed everything.  He was going to bite me; he wanted my blood.  The terror had me frozen.  I couldn't move, I couldn't fight, I couldn't stop him.  And as he lowered his mouth towards my neck," she gave an involuntary shudder, "I suddenly knew that he just wasn't allowed to do that.  There was only one person with permission to do that."  She glanced at him sideways and noted that his jaw was set in a rigid line, tension radiated from him like heat from the sun, and he was working very hard to keep his emotions from her.  She continued, "Once that thought was in my mind, the terror turned to anger, then to rage.  I felt the mist descending.  I felt it take over, and I didn't fight it, I embraced it."  The Ferrari's engine roared as Julius accelerated onto the highway.  "I don't feel like I had any control over it, though.  What makes you say that I controlled it?"
    "There was a calmness to your thoughts,” he explained.  “A methodical single-mindedness to the way you attacked him.  You had a goal, and you were going to achieve it.  I think it's possible you would've brought yourself out of the Rage given a bit more time.  A Vampire in the grip of Red Rage is oblivious to all around him.  If you were in the same Rage, you would've been as likely to attack a rubbish bin or the building as attack the Vampire threatening you.  You would've lashed out blindly, possibly hitting your target by accident.  It would've been impossible to precisely and systematically cut down an attacker.  That is the biggest complication with the Red Rage; a Vampire in its grip is as much a threat to themselves as to anyone around them." 
    Gabi turned this new information over in her head.
    "I really don't remember the fight or killing him," she said, shaking her head, nothing else was coming to her.  "And the next thing I knew, I was having a very realistic, erotic dream."  She shot him an accusing glare. 
    The tension eased in his face by a scant degree, and the faintest trace of amusement twitched his lower lip.  "Sorry," he said, not sounding it in the least.  "It was a bit of an experiment.  It was only meant to ease you out of the Rage."
    "Not make me pounce on you like a rabid tigress?" she asked, allowing mild sarcasm to colour her tone.  This time an actual smile turned his lips up.
    "Well, that was an added bonus."  There was an evil twinkle in his eye as he glanced at her in the darkness of the car.  If she'd had the energy, she would've punched him.  The smile faded.  "Honestly, I thought I would be able to control myself, Lea.  I just wanted to get you out of there and home.  I could see you'd been