“Tamisia, what will you do?”
She didn’t know exactly. There was no time for a plan. She only knew she had to act.
Without answering, she raced for the stairs, pausing only long enough to issue a sharp command to her friend. “The police, Phaedra. Do it now.”
Sia was immortal, inhumanly powerful, but she wasn’t a fighter. Never had been. She was a politician, shielded by a contingent of Atlantean guards who would fight at her bidding. But none of that mattered as she flew up the steps and past the open doors and terrified faces of the shelter’s other residents.
“Back inside, all of you. Don’t come out until I tell you to.”
No one balked at her hushed orders. One by one, the frightened women and handful of small children retreated, shutting their doors.
Pausing outside Rosa’s room, Sia caught the muffled sound of a gravely male voice behind the door. “It’s gotta be here somewhere. Keep looking! Santino said no loose ends.”
Suspicion pricked at Sia’s conscience. This didn’t sound like a violent ex-lover coming back to harm Rosa. This was something else. And no less dangerous.
Sia lifted her foot high and kicked the panel so hard it blasted off the hinges.
She’d anticipated one man when she came upstairs, but inside the room were two. One was crouched inside Rosa’s closet, hastily tossing her scant belongings. The contents of her small bureau were already dumped on the floor near him.
The other intruder, a massive male dressed all in black, stood beside Rosa’s bed, his back to Sia. Rosa dangled from his grasp around her neck, her bare feet hanging several inches off the mattress. Her petite body was limp, lifeless. Her gentle brown eyes gaped open, blank and unseeing.
“No!” Sia roared, even though she realized it was already too late to save her. “Let her go!”
Grief swamped her along with her rage. She’d failed Rosa. She could not fail Angelina too. The baby’s unrelenting cries pierced the room. Sia threw a quick glance to the crib where Angelina writhed and flailed.
At least the child was unharmed. Her wails had been torture when Sia heard them from outside the room. Now they gave her strength and a deadly, furious resolve.
“I said put her down.”
Rosa’s attacker grunted, swinging his dark, shaggy head around to look at Sia.
Fiery amber eyes glowed like lit coals in his skull. His chuckle was inhuman, unearthly, his lips peeled back in a profane imitation of a smile. And within that smile, enormous fangs glinted in the darkness of the room.
Breed.
Sia swallowed as he pivoted around to face her head-on.
“Okay,” he snarled. His rough growl was the voice she’d heard on the other side of the door. “If that’s what you want, bitch, I’ll put her down.”
Barking out a coarse laugh, he threw Rosa to the floor, then kicked her out of his way as if she were nothing. His glowing eyes were wild and unfocused, his body trembling from head to toe. Something about him wasn’t right. A strange odor emanated from him, something sickly sweet that made her stomach turn.
She didn’t have time to contemplate what her instincts were trying to tell her.
He lowered his head and charged her.
Sia felt a great wave of energy rise up from the pit of her being. It exited through her raised hands in a powerful burst of light and strength. The force of it collided with the Breed male’s massive body, sending him crashing against the far wall.
“What the fuck!” The human who’d been preoccupied with Rosa’s personal belongings now scrambled to turn around in the open closet, his skinny limbs refusing to cooperate. Planted on his backside amid the contents of Rosa’s drawers and handbag, his bleary eyes bulged as he looked from Sia to the behemoth Breed male she’d just knocked cold without laying so much as a finger on him.
Power still thrummed deep within Sia, fueled by her fury.
“Wait!” The man held up one hand in surrender. “None of this is my fault! The bitch should’ve known better than to run from Santino. Should’ve known she’d get caught eventually.”
As he spoke, Sia saw him fumble with his other hand to grab something from beside him.
She didn’t realize it was a gun until he aimed it at her with trembling fingers. Without hesitation, he squeezed the trigger again and again and again.
Chapter 2
