Free A Dark Kiss of Rapture by Sylvia Day

what disturbed him.
    He released her before the silver poisoning
from the bullet tainted the blood he drank. She slumped to the
floor. Lake screamed and hit the brakes, sending him crashing back
into the bench seat.
    “Take another step,” he warned,
straightening, “and I’ll kill you slow instead of fast.”
    She paused, sobbing, standing in the apex of
the open door and the body of the vehicle.
    Raze gestured her back into the van with a
jerk of the pistol. When she returned to the driver’s seat, he
directed her to drive to Baron’s safe house.

CHAPTER 8
     
    Francesca, Lady Seagrave, eyed the big
vampire who prowled around the refuge she and Baron had created
together and felt the hatred sizzling in her blood along with the
silver that burned like acid. He was lost in the recording he
listened to on her wireless headphones, his face a mask that
revealed none of his thoughts. But he had to hear what she’d heard
through the bugs she’d placed in his hotel room. The tenderness and
affection that had developed between him and his mortal lover were
evident in every word they spoke to each other, every breathless
cry and pleasured moan.
    It was going to wound him terribly when he
lost her, perhaps even break him considering how long he’d gone
without anyone being necessary to him.
    The crash of something breakable shattering
on the floor sent a jolt through her. There were others in her
home; two men Raze had called to assist him. They were presently
rifling through her things, watching the videos she’d made of
certain memorable kills. They watched and listened with such
horror, as if it was a surprise that a vampire should hunt prey.
That’s what was fundamentally wrong with those in power of the
vampire nation—they acted like animal rights activists who
advocated vegetarianism, an impossible stance when ruling those who
could be nothing but carnivores.
    Mortals were food and sport. It was a joke
that vampires should hide their existence and scrape for scraps to
eat when there was so much to be had. The Sentinels were powerful,
yes, but Syre had never once made an attempt to break out of their
rigid boundaries. Who knew what they could accomplish? She and
Baron envisioned a world in which vampires ruled as they should.
She hadn’t Changed to live like this. What was the point of having
so much power if you never wielded it?
    Raze yanked the headset off his ears and
shot daggers into her with his gaze.
    Her mouth curved. “It’s my right to take her
from you. Baron gave her to you as surely as if he’d introduced
you. You wouldn’t have been in Chicago to meet her if not for
us.”
    “Were you planning on going through my
entire black book?” he shot back. “Taking out every person I’ve
fucked?”
    “Oh no,” she crooned, nursing her vicious
fury like a babe at her breast. “She’s special to you. Not like the
others. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been at her place this
morning. You would’ve taken what you wanted and left before
sunrise. I miscalculated how quickly and deeply you fell for her,
but it doesn’t matter. She’ll die, whether or not it’s my hand that
kills her. You have so many enemies, Raze. She won’t last a minute
in the grand scheme of things.”
    Francesca had to give him credit, his face
and body language gave nothing away. But she knew the impact of her
words. Tossing her head back, she laughed.
    “You’re a crazy bitch,” he said grimly. “I’m
just wondering if you were always psychotic or if the Change warped
your brain.”
    “I Changed for him. We Changed for each
other, so we’d always be together and you’ve taken him from me. And
for what? You’re as much of a Sentinel pet as the lycans. Now you’ll lose something irreplaceable. You’ve finally found
what you’ve been missing and it’s about to be ripped from you. I
hope you’ll see what’s done to her. I hope you watch while she’s
cut and torn and broken. I hope her screams stay in your