“I killed hundreds for you. Carpathians. Jaguar. Lycan.”
She waved her hand to encompass the temple. “These are your toys. You love to play with them. You’re a sick man, Mitro. My kind of man, but you need to keep your word if you want to play my games. I don’t give second chances. You have a job to complete, and it is important. If you are able to break the lifemate bond and kill your woman, others will be able to as well.”
He never tied them together,Tomas reminded Dominic.He refused to bind them. I think he feared if he said the ritual words to her, he wouldn’t be able to kill her. He’d already made this bargain.
That would explain a lot.
“Use your Carpathian skills on every jaguar around that has escaped or is within your range. Make them fear all Carpathians. All males. Send the male shifters into a frenzy of animalistic lust when they are around the females. The high mage is working to eradicate them, and with your help, it will happen sooner.”
She waved her hand toward a small male child, and he screamed as Mitro’s arm and hand became a sword, hacking the child’s head off at the shoulder. The head flew across the temple to land at Sarika’s feet.
That wasn’t enough blood for the woman. She pointed to one of the sacred jaguar women. “Tear her apart, limb by limb. I want to see you play, Mitro. If you please me, I will give you the first part of the weapon. If you don’t, I will take you back to the underworld with me. As I said, I do not give second chances.”
Gleefully, Mitro kicked the smaller of the two women chained beside Sarika. She doubled over and then slipped in the puddles of blood. Mitro stuck his foot in her stomach and reached down to take one arm. Tomas saw Sarika close her eyes, but the sight was already there in her mind as Mitro ripped the arm away and threw it, hitting both Sarika and the other jaguar shifter prisoner.
The woman from the underworld cackled with joy. “More, Mitro.”
He didn’t hesitate but immediately pulled at the other arm, wrenching it free, and as he did, he cauterized the wound so she wouldn’t bleed out. He was clearly enjoying himself.
“Broadcast your message to the jaguars,” the woman instructed. “Do it while you play.”
Tomas could feel Sarika’s sudden stillness. She turned inward, reaching for that well of healing light she had deep inside her. As Mitro spewed forth his commands to all jaguars, she countered his ugly, vile orders. She did so carefully, spreading her power over his in a thin, undetectable layer. Even the woman commander from the underworld didn’t feel the veil that shrouded Mitro’s mandates.
“Finish her off,” the woman said. She kicked at the jaguar shifter. “But make her suffer.”
Sarika and the other prisoner locked gazes and then turned toward Litza as Mitro began to systematically stab down at her with the blade he’d made his arm and hand into. He didn’t hit a single spot that would kill her, only the places that would hurt the most. He ripped at her clothing, and Tomas’ heart nearly stopped beating, reading Mitro’s intentions.
Without warning, Tomas heard the faint plea.Now, before he touches me. Before he defiles my body. Let me go clean into the next world.
Tomas and Dominic felt the exact moment when the healing power turned lethal. Both women stood in chains, tears running down their faces, looking with love at their fallen sister and stopping her heartbeat and brain function at the exact same time.
There was no spillover. No way for Mitro or the woman from the underworld to suspect either had a hand in the demise of Mitro’s toy.
“She was weak,” the woman said. She gave a sneer of contempt and pushed at the body with her foot. “These jaguar shifters revered the wrong ones.”
Mitro licked his thick lips as she reached into one of the bloody tubes spinning close to her and pulled a triangular piece of metal from it.
“This is one of three. Once you have all three, they will snap together, and your weapon is complete. Nothing from this earth will be able to stop you because it is fashioned from material not from this earth. It is that powerful. The combined power of Dubrinsky and Daratrazanoff will be nothing in comparison.”
Mitro reached for the triangular-shaped piece of metal almost reverently. “Where do I go to get the next piece?”
“Find your lifemate and dispense with her.” She stepped back into one of the whirling tubes and disappeared.
The relief of her foul existence leaving had Tomas breathing again. He hadn’t realized how badly the woman’s presence affected him until he remembered he was sharing Sarika’s mind and feeling her emotions.
Again, the two men had nearly left, both needing fresh air, when Tomas felt that same well of light rising in Sarika. He turned back.
Mitro had reached for the other woman, dragging her, chains and all, to force her to her knees in front of him. “Your turn,” he said. “You are so happy to serve me in any way that I demand. Say it.” He had shoved the piece of weapon into the front of his shirt.
Asiri,Sarika whispered.Sister kin.
Do not worry about me,the kneeling Asiri said.I will cooperate anddistract him. You must retrieve and hide the weapon where he will not be able to find it.
Sarika gave a nearly imperceptible nod. What could she possibly do? Tomas and Dominic watched closely as the woman kneeling obeyed every foul thing Mitro instructed her to do. While she did, he roared with laughter and thought up even fouler, more vile things.
Sarika concentrated on the piece of metal. Her hands crept up to cover the amulet at her neck, cradling it in her palm as she matched the properties of the triangular piece of metal. She wasn’t Carpathian. Shifters weren’t able to change the composition of things or make them vanish into thin air, but somehow, she did.
Both men replayed that moment over and over, trying to see what she did to hide the weapon, but it was impossible. One moment she was all light and goodness, lifting the piece of metal from theinsideof Mitro’s shirt as if she were a member of the thief’s guild. In the next, she and her friend combined their power and struck at Mitro’s throat, closing it off, taking the air from his lungs, opening a thousand cuts all over his body.
