Free Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) by Kathi S. Barton Page A

Standing up, he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, almost afraid to see what damage had been done in there. He was shocked to see that this room, like the living room, was set to rights as well. Reid moved throughout the house and found that the entire house was now cleaned up as well as furnished.
    Ending up in the master bedroom , he sat in one of the beautiful wing chairs near the fireplace. He was closing his eyes when a thought suddenly popped into his head. Smiling, he sat up.
    “Now all I have to do is nip a little blood from her and I can do it.” Sending her images of them together would either drive her over the edge or make her want to murder him. Either way, he was going to have some fun.

Chapter 7
     
    Ethan Randolph sat quietly in his room. There was no furniture with the exception of a pad on the floor, and no windows. The walls had been painted with the blood of his victims, and under that was black magic. It was his own place to rest and to feel.
    She was out there , the girl that had nearly killed him. And he was going to find her if it was the last thing he did. Smiling, Ethan reached deeper into the earth to see where she might have tread, but found only traces of her, not enough for him to actually find where she was now. He would find her soon. He had to.
    The girl was stronger than she’d been as a teenager , but she’d never be strong enough to harm him again. He felt the scars she’d given him and the one wound that had yet to heal pull when he moved. She’d pay for those as well.
    “I should have searched harder when I killed your mother and father. I would have had you long before now.” Ethan smiled again, his fangs stretching below his lip as he thought of her mother. “Tasty.”
    She’d been a morsel he’d not been able to resist. Killing her mate had been incredibly easy, and he’d thought that she’d be easy as well, but she’d been like a bear with a cub. Ethan supposed now that he thought about it, she’d been just that. Protecting her cub would have been what drove her. And Kelley Elden had been a fighter.
    Finding her after so long had been a miracle. Ethan hadn’t really been looking very hard, he’d admit to himself now, but he’d been looking. She’d been powerful for a wolf, more than he’d ever thought, and her taste still lingered in his mouth when he wanted something to savor. But it hadn’t been nearly enough. But now there was her child.
    Ethan knew that he’d only found the girl by chance. She’d been coming out of a fast food restaurant when he’d been walking by it. Her scent had nearly had him take her then, but there were too many witnesses, and he was a little more cautious back then. Now he would simply have taken her and damn the others.
    But he’d watched and listened , and finding her alone had been easy if not exciting. She’d been a good deal more than he thought she’d be for one so young. And she fought back with the savagery of a cornered animal. Which he supposed she was.
    He’d gotten the jump on her , of course, but he’d never had the upper hand. She’d torn into him, shifting fast and attacking him as if she’d thought she had a chance of surviving. Ethan had been so terrified when she tore into his back that he’d allowed her to get to his throat. And when she’d torn into him, even though he knew she was close to dying, he had to leave her. It had taken him nearly a month to be able to move his head without pain from what she’d done to him, and longer to find someone to bleed dry for their magic. By then she had disappeared. That was over five years ago and he’d not been able to find her since.
    Ethan knew that she lived. He could feel her heart beating from the little blood he’d managed to taste from her. It hadn’t been enough to do much more than help him search for her, but enough that he knew she still lived.
    And find her he would.
    Moving to the upper levels of his home, Ethan moved through the