The drive to the city seemed to take hours. My skin prickled with the awareness that something was off.

Because Brock was with us, we’d driven rather than had Inarus port us to Sanborn Place, worried that if something was amiss, it would be better if he weren’t physically drained from having ported two people along with himself.

As the Pack SUV crept along the asphalt, it dawned on me that that had been the right choice.

The street was empty and the glow of the street lamps was dim, but neither hid the fact that Sanborn Place was currently occupied by more than one person. Twitch never brought friends.

Brock brought the car to a stop across the street but left the engine idling. Shadows crossed in front of the darkened window. Two men at least, neither thin enough in stature to be Twitch.

“I don’t like this. We should wait for backup.” Brock tightened his hands on the steering wheel.

A crash sounded inside the building, echoing in the deserted night like a bomb had gone off.

I swung my door open and jumped to the ground. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as a muffled scream poured out of Sanborn Place. Shit! Twitch!

Brock swore behind me but opened his door to follow suit.

“What’s the plan?” Inarus stepped beside me, three small metal spheres hovering in his right hand palm.

I pulled my daggers free and eyed the building warily, forcing myself not to run straight for the still-broken door.

“They already know we’re here. You and I will go in through the front. Brock, go through the back.”

He growled deep in his throat as his face began to contort with his partial shift. Fur sprouted along his arms, and his fangs extended, overlapping his bottom lip.

“Don’t die,” he snarled, his words barely coherent as he loped off to the back of the building.

Well, here goes nothing.

Clenching my hands tighter around the hilts of my daggers, I charged through the shattered front door with Inarus close on my heels.

The room was pitch black, but as soon as we stepped inside, someone flipped the lights on, illuminating the room and blinding me for three sharp seconds until my eyes adjusted.

Someone slammed into me from behind, and I crashed into a nearby desk.  

I gritted my teeth and ignored the ache in my hip as I faced my attacker. He was short and square with ash blond hair and eyes so dark they were nearly black.

He grinned, displaying a mouthful of crooked yellow teeth. Attractive.

My lip curled, and I called my fire to me. It rushed to respond, coating my arms in flames.

There was a crash to my left, and I flicked my gaze toward Inarus to see him brawling with two large men in black tactical gear.

The asshat who’d slammed into me used my distraction to ram into me again and hammer a blow to my ribcage.

I sucked in a breath and shoved him away before I hurled a ball of fire at him and swore when it was met by a crash of water.  

Dammit. A Hydrokinetic.

He grinned wickedly and squared his shoulders.

Furniture cracked behind me, but I didn’t look away.

“Hydrokinetic huh? I would have taken you for Geokinetic.” I shrugged my shoulders. “No matter, I think I’ll call you Blocky. It suits you, don’t you think? You’re big and square, just like a block. Are you hollow too?” I spun my dagger in my hand. “Let’s find out.”

“Shut up, bitch.”

I sighed dramatically. “Always a bitch. Can’t you come up with anything more original?”

He rushed me again.

When he was a foot away, I used my telekinesis to pull his feet out from under him, and he fell to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

I quickly plunged a dagger into his shoulder, smiling when he shouted a pain-filled curse.

I yanked my dagger free and punched him in the face with the hilt two times in quick succession.

“Lights out, Blocky.”

His head was turned to the side, his mouth wide open as he lay unconscious on the floor. His shoulder was bleeding, but I hadn’t hit anything vital.

He’d live to be an asshat another day.

I pushed away from my passed-out assailant and ran to help Inarus. Before I could get to him, my body sailed through the air and slammed into the unforgiving wall.

I crashed to the ground and dark spots blurred my vision.

Fuck. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I shook my head.

Where in the hell had he come from? I pushed myself to my feet, my legs shaking.

Movement in my peripheral vision drew my attention away from my new assailant.

Twitch? Shit!

He was bound and gagged in the far corner of the office on the floor. Blood caked his hair and his eyes were wide and bloodshot.

I took a step in his direction just as the swipe of a blade came inches away from taking my nose off.

Jerking back, I swung out with my own blade, barely grazing the asshole’s black shirt.

He danced out of reach, and as we slowly circled one another, I caught sight of Inarus, still locked in battle.

He seemed to be holding his own—one man lay unconscious while he fought another.

I heard snarls in the back of the office. Brock unleashing his fury on whatever poor bastards he happened across. I flicked my gaze back to Twitch. He struggled against his bonds but had no hope of getting free on his own.

I leveled my gaze on the attacker. I needed to make this quick and get Twitch to safety.

Just as I lunged forward, invisible fists slammed into my stomach and chest. I gasped, and my ribs screamed in protest.

Sonovabitch. Those same invisible hands squeezed my throat as he started walking towards me, a malicious grin spread wide across his face.

Did they all have to be psykers? Couldn’t she have sent humans instead? God, she was such a hypocrite.

I clawed at my throat, panic flooding my veins before I realized I needed to calm the hell down and stop fighting the invisible hands. Pressure in my head made it difficult to think, but I pushed past it and closed my eyes. I pulled on the energy swirling inside of me, calling both of my abilities to the forefront of my mind.

The scent of smoke filled the room, and my eyes began to water.

A wave of fire and telekinetic energy rolled through the office as I shoved out with everything I had in an explosive burst of pressured flames. The hands fell away from my throat, and my assailant flew back, crashing into the wall beside Twitch.

In one swift move, he rolled to his feet, swatting at the flames that clung to the hem of his jacket. He’d block the assault with his telekinetic abilities, and my flames were quickly snuffed out.

With a feral grin, he grabbed Twitch’s hair and jerked his head back.

My hands twitched at my sides and my vision turned red. Rage rolled through me. “Get the fuck away from him.” No one threatened my friends. I usually preferred to knock out my enemies. I didn’t enjoy killing people, but for this man, I’d make an exception.

He ripped the gag from Twitch’s mouth and grinned as he dragged him to his feet by his hair.

"Beg for your life," he whispered into Twitch's ear.

Twitch whimpered, and his gaze flicked between us, his eyes wide with fear before he suddenly cried out in pain when the man dug his blade into the side of Twitch’s stomach.

“No!” I shouted.

I lashed out with my fire, cutting a thin line across the enemy’s throat before he could block the attack. An unexpected rush of pleasure flooded me.

He let go of Twitch to clutch at his throat. Blood trickled out beneath his fingers and dripped from the corners of his mouth. The copper scent of blood filled the air.

More. I needed him to suffer. To ache and writhe in pain for daring to attack me and the people I cared about.

Fire seeped from my pores, licking at my skin, and energy crackled around me.

I wanted him to burn. Slowly.

A trickle of fear slipped through my trance of enjoyment.

Why was I doing this?

“Just get it over with,” I ordered myself.

In the back of my mind, I balked at my cruelty, my desire to inflict so much prolonged pain. But it was no use.

He deserved everything I gave him.

The telekinetic rose in the air, his body contorted at an unnatural angle.

“Ari!” Twitch shouted. I didn’t turn around.

My hair whipped around my face as I raised my hands into the air, pushing with my telekinetic abilities to bring his body higher off the ground.

His body was hovering six feet off the ground when a ball of pure energy slammed into my back, knocking me off balance and breaking my concentration. The man crashed to the ground with an audible whack.

He didn’t get up.

I spun in the direction the blow had come from. Through the shattered doorway I saw two soldiers on the other side of the street, feet shoulder-width apart, arms raised and ready to strike.

How many bastards were there? I took a step forward, but Twitch’s muffled whimpers drew my attention.

I rushed to his side and quickly cut him free with my blade just as Brock turned the corner, his muzzle bathed in blood. "Get him somewhere safe," I shouted. Twitch clutched at his stomach, the dark blood making it clear that an organ had been hit.

“He needs medical attention,” I told Brock. When he nodded, I charged out the door. The best thing I could do right now was keep our attackers busy while Brock took care of Twitch.

The men across the street launched themselves forward. I cleared the doorway at record speed, my boots crunching over the shattered glass of the front entrance, my body sheathing itself in fire as I ran toward them.

The one on the left held open his palms, releasing a flood of water in an attempt to douse my flames.

Instinctively, I slid to my knees and crouched low, my arms crossed over my face as I pushed with my mind against the tide.

The rush of water flowed over and around my impenetrable shield, leaving me untouched. The look on the two psyker’s faces was priceless.

“I’m sorry. Did you expect that to work?” I smiled ferally. “My turn.”

I shot out a flame-coated blade and hit my target square in the chest. He staggered before crashing face first onto the pavement. I’d aimed for his heart, and my strike was true.

His companion looked down at him then raised his eyes up to meet mine.

He eyed me murderously.

Come on. I was spoiling for a fight. This had all been too easy.

"So you're Reynold's daughter? She said to bring you in by any means necessary," he said with a menacing voice. “But she never specified that you had to be alive.”

I flipped him off. Good luck, buddy. People have been trying to kill me for years. I’m enemy number one to every vampire that walks these streets just for being a pyrokinetic, and I’ve had a damn chupacabra try to take a bite out of me.

If I was still alive after all that, there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d succeed. My mother could shove her need to bring me to heel up her ass for all I cared.

She abandoned me and then erased every hint of her past. She changed her last name, her appearance, everything.

I don’t know what flipped her switch, but I’d stopped being her daughter the day she faked her own death and helped murder my father, the man she’d supposedly loved. It shouldn’t hurt this much to know she wanted to get rid of me. I was the last remnant of her past. A past she clearly wanted to forget.

“You going to keep talking or fight? If you need a minute to piss yourself in fear, I can wait.” I cocked my hip.

“Fear? Why would I be afraid of a shifter whore? You and I, we’re going to have some fun. If you’re lucky, I’ll show you what it’s like to be with a real man. And don’t worry, I’ll kill the stupid tiger after I make him watch.”

I sneered in disgust. I was going to make him hurt for bringing Declan into this.

No one threatened my mate.

The thought almost made my steps falter. My mate.

I pushed the thought aside, and charging forward, I slashed with my daggers. He dodged and hammered a punch to my side.

I whirled and blocked a follow up aimed at my jaw.

Why wasn’t he using his psyker abilities?

I continued to punch, kick, and slash at him with every step as I forced him closer to the brick building behind him.

I landed a satisfying blow to his nose, and he reeled back, clutching his nose as blood seeped through his fingers.  

“Bitch!” He swore viciously, snapping his nose back into position.

“Again? You really can’t can come up with anything else?” Seriously, no originality with these guys.

The blood that had just moments before been pouring from his nose suddenly stopped. When he pulled his hand away with a smug grin, there was no sign of the injury.

Can’t a girl catch a break? A vitakinetic? This really wasn’t my day.

There are eight different psyker designations. Vitakinetics are one of the rarest.

I’d anticipated running across another pyrokinetic, telekinetic, and even an aerokinetic, but this I hadn’t expected.

His grin changed from smug to malicious when he saw the realization hit me.

A vitakinetic had the ability to control a person’s physical and mental—

I screamed and fell to my knees.

“I’m done playing games,” he snarled as he stalked closer.“I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

I fought against the invisible vice squeezing the air from my lungs and shoved at him mentally, knocking him off his feet and into the brick wall behind him.

I gasped when the hold on my lungs released and slowly climbed to my feet.

I threw my remaining dagger at him and heard a satisfying thunk as it pierced his vest to sink into tender flesh.

He ripped the blade from his chest with a growl, then closed his eyes and placed a hand over the spot I’d hit. I dragged myself closer to him and a stab of fear shot through my chest that didn’t originate from me.

He opened his eyes and gave me a brutal smile, then moved his hand aside to display the healed injury. And then the bastard flipped me the bird.

He healed fast. Too fast.

Panic flooded my veins and monsters from my nightmares filled my vision. I screamed and held my hands out in front of me.

Not real. Not real.

An image of my father flashed through my mind and a darkened figure behind him slowly slit his throat. He fell to the floor, his eyes wide and sightless.

“Papa!”

I heaved a ball of fire at his attacker at top speed and the vision faded, bringing me back to reality.

My real-life attacker absorbed the impact, grunted, and then stood to his full height.

His clothes had peeled away from his torso to display unmarked flesh as small bits of charred fabric fell to the ground. Sonovabitch.

Several cars roared in the distance, but I kept my eyes locked on him.

“Neat party trick,” I said. My heart hammered hard in my chest, and I racked my brain for a way to take him down. How the hell was I going to kill an enemy that could heal himself and hurt me with so little—

I screamed again. The pain a physical one.

My back arched, and my stomach cramped with so much agony it felt like my insides were being shredded.

I tried everything I could think of to shield myself. Nothing seemed to work. Fire licked along my limbs, and I struggled to remain conscious. Another flood of nightmarish visions filled my mind.

Don’t panic. It isn’t real.  

I rolled to my side and tried to push off the pavement. The pain subsided but only for a moment before it crashed into me again.

I ground my teeth together. My feet slid beneath me, trying to find purchase.

I tried to focus on his booted feet as they neared me. Focus, Aria. Focus, dammit.

I gave his ankle a mental tug, and he careened to the ground. His hold slipped away, and I launched myself at him with every last ounce of strength I had.

I slammed into him and rammed my knee into his groin. He screamed and clutched at his crotch as he threw curses my way.

Try and focus now you bastard.

I slammed my fist into his face and dodged his returning strike. If I could keep him focused on my fists, hopefully he wouldn’t be able to focus on my bodily organs or screw with my mind.

I hammered him with everything I had, putting every ounce of telekinetic strength I could muster behind each blow. I was running on instinct and prayed that whatever came out of me worked.

Bone crunched, and blood poured from his ears and nose. I suddenly realized if I kept raining blows, he wouldn’t be able to heal quickly enough to keep up with the new injuries, and I just might be able to kill the damn bastard.

I cocked my fist back and swung to hit him again when he jerked forward, knocking me off balance, and with his long-armed reach, retrieved a thin blade from his boot and stabbed it into my ribs.

I gasped and stared down at the blade as blood started to spill from the wound.

The pain didn’t register at first, but I cried out when he twisted the blade, snapping me out of my shock and into action.

I reached down and wrapped my fingers around his, fighting to keep him from sliding the blade higher into my heart or lungs.

I focused my telekinetic abilities on his wrist and snapped the bone with my mind. He howled in pain and released the blade.

I jerked it free from my side, and turning the pommel in my palm, lunged and drove it into the center of his chest. I pushed against bone, and with my hand on the end, I slammed it in as deep as it would go, using my weight for leverage.

Something inside of me snapped.

I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know that flames filled my gaze and that my hair was a mess of tangles around me. I probably looked like a crazy person and not an ounce of me cared.

He screamed again, some of the fight leaving his amber colored eyes.

I pulled the blade out and stabbed him again as warm blood began to leak from his chest to stain his dark gray shirt.

Die, you sonovabitch. Just die already.

I stabbed him again, this time higher, piercing the heart.

Blood flowed freely now, and I distantly realized that he was no longer healing his injuries. I didn’t register that his body had stopped moving. I continued to punch him and stab him again and again. His lifeless eyes mocked me, and his blood-filled mouth taunted me with his silence.

Blood coated my forearms and was splattered across my clothes. His blood.

“Aria. He’s gone. Let up,” someone shouted. I ignored it. My body vibrated with anger and unchecked telekinetic and pyrokinetic power.

The ground shook beneath me.

This bastard had tried to kill me. These assholes attacked my friend. He’d threatened to rape me in front of my mate. I wanted to bring him back to life just so I could kill him again.

The asphalt cracked beside me.

I didn’t care. I needed another fight. I turned to see others locked in battle. Shifters in their between forms fought against the wave of PsyShade soldiers who were now spilling out onto the streets with a single-minded focus.

The cavalry had arrived, and it looked like our enemies had called for backup as well.

I scanned the street for Declan.

Come on.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, still clutching the blood stained dagger.

There. Declan was ripping his way through a group of men converging on him down the street.

He was glorious. Black stripes rippled across his arms, his skin covered in white fur and four-inch claws extending from his fingertips.

His rage rolled through me, and his lust for blood fueled my own anger.

I ran in his direction, my boots pounding the ground, but was cut off when a woman with waist-length midnight hair stepped into my line of sight.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she said.

I squared my shoulders and lifted my fists, a flicker of recognition rolling through me.

Did I know her? Her eyes were familiar, blue-grey orbs that shone in the night and reminded me of a bottomless sea. She was of mixed descent, her jet-black hair starkly contrasting with her pale complexion. Her eyes were shaped like almonds and tilted ever so slightly at the corners.

I turned my head from side to side, popping my neck. I didn’t care who she was. She was in my way. “Bring it.”

She charged.