Free NoBounds by Ann Jacobs Page B

the gods damn your black heart,” Ciel
screamed, not at Amber but toward the prone body on the floor. A body that was
obviously beyond response.
    The scene before Amber made her stagger back
into the security of Cole’s arms. Over and over, like one possessed, Ciel
plunged a dagger into the bloodied body of Dax Petrone. She stabbed wildly at
any of the guards who gathered the courage to try to stop her.
    “Ciel, listen to me.” Amber worked hard to
keep her tone mild, soothing. She hoped her friend had retained enough of her
sanity to listen.
    Ciel whirled, madness in her eyes. Her
hands were bloody. Fresh blood dotted the pristine silk of her gown. “I’ll kill
you too,” she spat, lunging not toward Amber but around her, toward Cole.
    “No, Ciel. You’re sick. Give me the
dagger.” Cole looked desperate, sounded tortured, but he moved forward and
caught the wrist of Ciel’s hand that held the dagger. “Please.”
    Why were those guards just standing there? Amber
grabbed for Ciel’s free hand but found herself slammed against a wall as though
she weighed no more than a baby. “Help. Help Cole. Can’t you see she’s going to
kill him?”
    “She already got one of us. No way we’re
gonna invite the crazy woman to kill us too.”
    Amber saw that Cole now had Ciel pinned to
the floor, but she was stabbing wildly at him, her strength apparently
increased exponentially by madness. Desperate to do something, Amber turned
back to the jail guards. “Then use your guns.”
    Her pulse raced with fear as Cole continued
to struggle for control of the dagger.
    One of the guards shrugged. “Don’t have
any. The constable doesn’t allow weapons in the jail.”
    Amber tried to get close enough to snatch
the dagger from Ciel, but she felt a guard’s hands at her waist, setting her
out of harm’s way.
    “Get out of the way and let us deal with
this.” A guard moved in, grabbing Ciel around the knees to stop her from
bucking. The other one grabbed her arm and held it for long enough for Cole to
knock the dagger from his sister’s hand. He caught her shoulders then and
forced her facedown on the floor.
    “Quick. Snap those irons on her before she
breaks away. Fuck, the woman’s got the strength of two grown men.” The guard
who was restraining Ciel’s legs swore as he dodged a series of vicious kicks.
Cole managed to hold her down only by pressing his substantial weight on her
chest while keeping her arms pinned over her head. Even after the guard snapped
handcuffs and leg shackles onto her wrists and ankles, Ciel kept striking out,
screaming obscenities and threatening to kill them all.
    This blood-spattered woman who had lost her
last tenuous grip on reality wasn’t the Ciel Amber knew. She wasn’t the friend
who’d become Amber’s anchor after her close-knit family had been wrenched away.
    Still, she couldn’t help seeing remnants of
that friend. It was Ciel’s high cheekbones, her regal-looking nose, that
dimpled chin and the slender neck that Amber had always thought should wear the
right Dom’s collar of possession. But the eyes—wild eyes full of hate that
watched every move as the guards zipped the man she had killed into a body
bag—those eyes didn’t belong to the Ciel she’d known.
    Or maybe they did. Maybe this unrestrained
violence had been part of Ciel’s nature for a long time and had worsened little
by little, the way an addict’s need for drugs grew exponentially over time.
Amber had been drawn into that violent lifestyle, sucked in by her own
vulnerability and her belief that she had to do something—anything—to deserve love.
    “Come,” Cole said after he’d talked to the
head guard at the jail. When Amber hesitated, he took her hand and spoke as
softly as if he were calming a frightened child. “There’s no more we can do
now. Ciel will have to stay.”
    Of course Ciel would have to stay here. She
had killed a man. Never mind that Amber couldn’t think of one human being