Free Kierra's Thread (Argadian Heart Trilogy Book 2) by Adrianna Dane

would
hinge on the opening of the tubulator doors and how quickly their reflexes
would respond. And how fast the Enforcers would react.
    The tubulator came to a halt and the doors slid open. Before
Kierra could blink, it seemed the others had deciphered friend from foe and
flashes of light surrounded her as the diffusers found their marks and forms
disintegrated in front of her. Before she could target and get off a charge
they had overtaken the Enforcers in the room.
    Devon, moving like a blur, was out the door and into the
room, with Eluria following close behind. “Out and take cover,” he shouted.
Corbin and Torak surged out of the tubulator and Kierra followed close behind.
    Sliding to a stop behind a desk, she spotted Jarek and her
heart filled with rage. And then she found Odon. A black fog of hate enveloped
her—all the memories of Before surging and blinding her.
    Odon. Hated, masochistic son of a swinerd. She saw the
collar around Jarek’s neck, remembered the pain in his mind. And remembered the
memory room she’d encountered accidentally. What he had done to Jarek. What
Jarek had suffered to protect her.
    “No more!” Her scream released an explosive tempest tinged
by all her memories. She stood without thought to her own safety and pointed
the diffuser at Odon who was crouched behind a desk at the far end of the room.
He was exchanging fire with Devon, as Eluria, Torak, and Corbin pinned two
others at the end of the room with their diffusers.
    “Kierra, get down!” Vaguely she heard Devon’s urgent
warning. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but destroying once and for all
the evil that Tribunal Leader Odon represented.
    Her diffuser failed to discharge. It didn’t matter. She
flung it aside. Surging across the room toward Odon, she yanked the dagger from
her belt. Ignoring everything, she hurled herself over the desk, directly at
Odon with the dagger raised. As they fell to the floor, she brought the dagger
down with all her strength and buried it to the hilt in his neck. Yanking it
out, she gripped it with both hands and drove it through his chest.
    His eyes bulged, his mouth opened and closed like that of a
bluefish, and blood and foam gurgled out.
    “Never again,” she vowed as she again buried the dagger
deep. “You will never hurt another. Never.” Over and over she plunged the
dagger, her memories spurring her on. Odon’s blood covered her, she wiped a
hand across her eyes to clear them.  Blood smeared across her face, the
stench of death was overpowering.
    A part of her knew he was dead, but she couldn’t stop. She
raised her arm to strike again, but an iron grip stopped her.
    She looked up, and found it was Devon who’d halted her.
“He’s done, Kierra.” Great heaving sobs burst from her. Tears mingled with the
blood.
    She heard a movement and turned her head to see what it was.
A man dressed in a lab coat crouched beneath the desk. Moving away from Odon’s
body, she turned to the coward beneath the desk.
    “Eluria,” she called. “Your ex-betrothed awaits.” Leaning
forward, she curled her blood-covered fingers into the lapels of the coat and
dragged him forward. Odon’s son, Skorda. This was the man Eluria’s father had
sought to buy for her as taman, to achieve more power. The “thing” Eluria had
managed to elude by becoming a Twilight Companion.
    “Let me go! I’ll do whatever you want, but don’t kill me.”
    “Why? What value do you have that you think we’d want to
preserve your life?”
    Skorda’s eyes shifted back and forth like a trapped rodent
as he fought Kierra’s grip. “I’m the only one who knows how to manipulate the
mind altering program.”
    Devon’s hands gripped her shoulders lifting her away from
Skorda.
    “Let me handle this, Kierra.”
    “No, if he knows how to manipulate the program, he can help
Jarek.”
    “I know. Go with Eluria.” Devon helped her to her feet and
walked her away to where Eluria stood. “Help her get cleaned