Free Rage to Adore by Cara Lake Page B

no one else was
looking for it. Morana knew it would be somewhere on Tani’s delectable frame
and had watched her like a hawk through numerous treatments, enjoying the sight
of her luscious skin, particularly when she glimpsed parts of her body that
Morana itched to bite.
    She had spent a pleasurable day wondering what Tani would
taste like, feeling satisfied that those thoughts were almost helping to purge
images of a different leaner, taller, more muscular body that drew her like no
other. His blood was still sharp on her tongue, refusing to dissipate even
though she had taken it more than twenty-four hours ago. Now as she dashed off
a note to Lorcan with the news that he would welcome, her thoughts insisted on
returning to the one man she could not forget. Could never forget. He was her
secret. Her weakness. No one could know about her association with him. Ever.
    * * * * *
    Lorcan read both notes again. The first was as expected. The
second had him fuming. He was furious. Why him? Why would his brother have
manifested as the Esseni and not himself? Jaro. Bane of his life. He hated him
almost as much as he loved his mother. Still, Morana had come through for him
so he could now put his plans into action. She had confirmed in the first note
that Tanith Laska had manifested the Taijitu as expected, that it was located
on her left hip. Lorcan touched his right hip, seething with anger at the
absence of the mark from his skin. And Jaro had the corresponding Taijitu! That
fucking bastard was her partner duality! It was lucky that Lorcan had a trusted
friend in Phenex’s employ who had been able to get a visual for him. And now
that he knew for certain it was true—he would do everything in his power to
take what should have been his.
    All that Esseni power. The Discordants craved it. He craved
it! He could have put that power to good use and become someone they would
respect. He would have had more power even than that bastard Phenex. He still
could. Jaro would die one day and hopefully that day would come soon. According
to Morana, he couldn’t kill him, but someone would do it eventually. It was
inevitable. How Jaro had survived this long anyway was a mystery.
    Lorcan had delayed sending the message to his friend at the
training pits where he knew Jaro would be practicing for the gladiatorial
battles that evening. He had held on to the faint hope that the mark might
still appear on his own skin but by midmorning, when it still hadn’t appeared,
he had dashed off the note. It hadn’t taken long for the reply to confirm what
he already knew in his soul. Jaro had the mark. His anger increased tenfold as
he dwelt on the paper in his hand. That also meant that his brother had kissed
Tanith Laska, that she had kissed him. He didn’t care so much about that. She
meant nothing to him but as a means to power and wealth. What really made his
blood boil was the fact that his brother was apparently more worthy than him.
His brother was the Esseni. His brother—the pitiful self-sacrificing slave!
Even his mother thought his brother was a dog! Jaro was nothing. He would
follow Morana’s advice and take back what rightly belonged to him.
    * * * * *
    They waited for him in a dark alleyway, one of many in the
ghetto. Lorcan knew his brother’s path. Jaro never failed to pass this way once
a week on his journey to the gladiatorial pit and the regular visits he made to
that bitch Liana and her son, Sami. Bastard! Why the fuck his brother bothered with
her was beyond him. The sniveling bitch was trash. He wished, and not for the
first time that Jaro had left her to die along with that bastard son of hers.
He glanced at the five burly men waiting in the shadows. His hired thugs were
itching for the fight, cracking knuckles as they waited.
    “Remember,” spat Lorcan. “Don’t kill him. I don’t care what
you do, slice him up as much as you like but leave him breathing.” Growls of
anticipation.
    “He’s coming!” Their lookout on