Christ Almighty.
What the fuck was happening to him?
Khari couldn’t move, his body wracked with an immeasurable pain. Memories assaulted him, consuming him, dragging him into a hell within his own consciousness. Not just years, but centuries’ worth of images flashed through his head, never ending.
Oliver Calazans.
David Cartwright.
Finley Knox.
Bentley Palmer.
Damion Hayes.
Dante Beltran.
Then more.
At one time or another, he’d shared the name and vessel of some ninety humans, but why?
The names were endless, the list going on and on as the memories of those humans ransacked his mind. He’d lived within them, shared a vessel with the human soul that had originally accompanied the body. Until Oliver, Khari had outlived the human husk, transferred into another when they shriveled up and died. But he remembered every single thing that had happened, remembered being alone in all of them, never finding a true happiness even though the experiences were infinite.
Centuries’ worth of memories, people, places, things. It felt like they were frying his brain cells as they bombarded him. All the while, he felt a deep, disturbing anger surge within him. The need for vengeance. Someone had to be punished for what had happened to him.
“Khari? Come back to me, please.”
Oh, sweet heavens. That voice. The soft rasp of her words was a balm to his soul. His vampire soul.
He wasn’t human even if most of his memories were comprised of those he’d inhabited.
No, he was vampire.
The most powerful vampire to have ever walked the face of the Earth. Sent here by the Almighty. Created to protect the very humans he’d interacted with, the ones he’d mistakenly believed he belonged with.
A soft hand slid over his forehead, brushing back his hair. Smooth, warm. Soothing. That was the touch of this female. His female. Bijou Courtenay. She belonged to him. He’d felt it even when he’d been trapped within the human male. Khari had wanted her with a passion that defied reason.
Another surge of power tore through him, his muscles tensing. He was powerful. So fucking powerful. Not only physically, either. This went deeper than the fibers of his physical makeup. The full extent of who he was slammed into him, a reminder of what he’d been long ago. Back before he’d been locked away in one corporeal prison after another, transferred time and time again.
He was free.
His eyes flashed open.
Bright light pierced his brain and he instantly shut it off.
“What the fuck? Who turned out the lights?” someone grumbled.
“It’s him,” another voice said. “Khari’s doing it. Give him a minute.”
That was a voice of reason, one he actually recognized.
Kaj Courtenay. The Alpha.
But Khari could see nothing but the face above him, the beautiful radiance of the female his heart belonged to. The only one he trusted in the world.
“Khari.” Her smile was as blinding as those fluorescents, but he had no desire to dim it.
In fact, it was the light he wanted to live by. Only her.
