When he’d torn the head from the body of the last man standing between them he stopped, looking down and seeing he was covered in blood and gore. A notion flitting through his mind that he’d need a long hot shower when he returned to Kenzie . . . a smile turning his lips up when a vision of his Bloodmate filled his head. Quickly followed by anger once again as his eyes fell upon Stelian and Kragen who was starting to squirm around on the ground, moaning in pain.

Quinn jogged over to him, the stench of blood reaching him well before the man himself. “Are you okay?” Quinn asked as he slid to a stop on the slick ground.

“I’m fine . . . you?”

“I’m okay. Not had a workout like that in a while. It was . . . exhilarating.” Quinn checked behind them. “Ace and Talon are fine, thank goodness.”

“I know.” Flint nodded.

“Looks like Victor came through too. The other group’s been decimated. There’s nothing but a bloody mess of charred bodies over there.” Quinn’s voice was filled with something akin to wonder, although it was obvious he tried to hide it.

“Yeah, I knew he would. He doesn’t let fly like that often, but in an open space like this, well, hell’s fire, he can do whatever the hell he wants.”

“My ears are burning.” Victor joined them, arriving in a flash of speed. “You talking about me?”

“Me? Not at all.” Quinn shrugged, nodding toward where Kragen and Stelian were. “What do you want to do? And how do we stop the fighting?”

“I’m going to kill them. First, I’ll do Kragen and you can take his head . . . carry it back there and show it to everyone. That should do the trick. Don’t you think?” Flint said coldly, no emotion in any syllable. None whatsoever. “Then I want you to leave. I’ve got plans for Stelian and I’d prefer not to have an audience.”

“I’m staying.” Victor’s hand landed on his shoulder. “I won’t leave you, my friend, not here, not ever.”

“Fine.” He turned, his eyes raised to Victor’s. “Don’t talk, don’t try and stop me and don’t ever mention what happens here today ever again.”

Victor turned his head away for a brief moment, then back again, tipping it curtly. “If that’s what you want. I’ll abide by your wishes.”

“That’s exactly what I want,” Flint replied coldly, his eyes returning to Stelian. “He’s going to understand what it means to have caused the suffering and pain he’s doled out. All of it. Every last man, woman and child . . . he’s going to feel their pain before I end him.”

Flint returned his focus back to the small group, determination thrumming through him to end things as he glared ferociously at Stelian whose head was swiveling around with wild panic in his eyes. A moment later he took off, speeding away using his Vampire abilities and leaving the bodyguards who were cursing loudly after him.

“Fucking coward,” Flint turned to go after him, torn as he glanced at Kragen who’d managed to rip the daggers from his face and, although he was still blind, he was on his knees, crawling across the ground.

“I’ll get him and bring him back.” Victor gave him a shove. “You deal with him. I promise to bring him back in one piece.”

“Fine,” Flint barked out orders to the rest. “You lot can deal with those two while I take care of Kragen.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Quinn agreed and they moved off at a far slower pace so Ace and Talon’s Wolf could keep up.

It was over in moments . . . the bodyguards overwhelmed by Quinn, Ace and Talon, taken down so fast that they barely had time to react to the blitz attack. Quinn’s speed and ferocious assault leaving their bodies lying in a bloody heap, unrecognizable as anything more than a tangle of humanoid remains. Add into that the fact that Talon’s Wolf had added his massive jaws and there wasn’t a damn thing they’d been able to do.

That left Kragen kneeling on the ground, his hands in the air before him as he pleaded for his life like the dirty coward he was. Flint reached down, snatching a handful of his hair and hissing. “Not so fucking brave now . . . are you? You’re only brave when you’ve got your men there with you and you’re dealing with those weaker than you . . . isn’t that right?”

Releasing him, he shoved him away to fall back onto the ground, his yelp of surprise followed by a grunt of pain making Flint’s heart flutter with excitement.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kragen shot back, struggling to get back up, slipping on the pooled blood that soaked the ground and falling down once more.

“Me? My name’s Flint and I’m the one that’s going to end you once and for all. You’ll be dead within the next thirty seconds but I’m going to tell you why . . . her name’s Kenzie. She’s the one you’ve come here for and she’s mine. You hear that? She’s fucking mine and you’re going to die because you and your fucking bastard lowlife, Stelian, dared to touch her.”

Kragen fought to regain his knees, his voice high-pitched as he shot back, “You fucking bastard . . . my men will hunt you down, they’ll . . .”

“Do shit all.” Flint leaned down, his laughter brittle as he grabbed Kragen’s hair again. “Because I’m cutting the head off the proverbial snake and when they learn they’re not getting paid . . . I’m betting they’ll turn fucking tail and run. And if they don’t? Well, I’ll kill the whole damn lot of them. Every fucking one of them and I won’t stop until each one of them is dead. The land will run with a river of their blood, you cocksucking bastard. You hear that? A river of their blood!”

Kragen opened his mouth to answer but Flint didn’t give him the opportunity, instead his free hand snatched a silver tipped dagger from his belt with superspeed, his arm arcing back and flying forward with a speed that was impossible to see. He used every ounce of his strength, anger, and hatred as he plunged the blade into the top of Kragen’s head, right in the middle and pushed it all the way inside . . . so far that it punctured his brain and lodged there. It wouldn’t kill him outright but the pain would be unimaginable and that’s exactly what he wanted . . . for the next few seconds anyway.

Releasing the blade, he held his hand out behind him. “Ace, can I borrow yours, please? The big fucker so I can lop off this bastard’s head?”

“My pleasure.” Ace stepped up, placing the hilt of his blade into Flint’s palm. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Flint hefted the weight of the weapon. “This’ll do nicely.”

And it did. With his strength and the razor-sharp edge, Flint held Kragen’s head high within seconds, turning to present it to Quinn. “There you go. That should do the trick. If it doesn’t . . . I’ll carry through on my promise.”

Quinn glanced at the body of Kragen then at Flint, before motioning for Ace to take the offering before he replied, “I’ve no doubt that you will, but I sincerely hope that it doesn’t come to that.”

“Me too.” Flint’s jaw ticked, his shoulders rolling. “But I won’t allow his kind to win. Not happening, Quinn, not fucking happening.”

“Understood.” Quinn stepped forward, his hand landing on Flint’s shoulder. “I’ll see you soon, and if this goes as we hope, I’ll get accommodation organized for Victor and have things more amenable for your return to your Bloodmate.”

Flint didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His throat had inexplicably grown thick with emotion.

Quinn appeared to understand, he nodded once, turned and walked away, Ace and Talon following.

“I’m back!” Victor threw Stelian down at Flint’s feet, a little bloodied but otherwise intact.

Flint turned his full attention to the man who’d so carelessly inflicted such a heinous injury on Kenzie and then decided it was a good idea to go ahead and rape her in a filthy alley. The man’s face filled with fear as he saw the hatred in Flint’s eyes and the deadly intent that shone within.

“I can get you money! Lots of money! I know all his passwords!”

Victor snorted and Flint just glared at him. Money. He thought he’d get out of this with money? Was he an imbecile?

The scent of his fear was overpowering. The stench of it filling the area around them but it didn’t sway Flint on his course of action. He didn’t waver, not for a second, as he hauled Stelian to his feet with one hand while retrieving a knife with the other, he pulled his face close to his. The man’s pupils mere pinpricks, all fight gone, and he didn’t even struggle while Flint cocked his head to the side, scrutinizing him silently. Stelian’s attention so absorbed on his face that he didn’t observe his hand with the dagger sliding up behind him until it was too late.

Flint was a master with blades, knives, daggers . . . not just throwing and wielding them in battle. He knew where to use them for every occasion, and how to exact pain in the extreme, or for any means necessary. Right now, he wanted something specific and that was—he slid the blade in quickly, just at the right spot at the base of Stelian’s neck—to paralyze the fucker but still have his pain receptors firing. Stelian’s body froze in place, his eyes the only part of him able to move and those were darting about in a frenzy of panic while Flint stepped back, sighing with relief that he finally had him exactly where he wanted him.

“You should go, Victor.” Flint tried once more to make his friend leave.

“I’m staying, brother.” Victor stepped away, arms crossed. “I won’t interfere and I understand why you need to do this . . . but I’m not leaving you.”

“Rule remains,” Flint choked out.

“I understand,” Victor acknowledged.

“I’m going to explain something,” Flint spoke with no inflection, his voice a monotone. “I saw exactly what you did to her, my Bloodmate. I saw it through her eyes, felt it how she did, every emotion, her fear, her terror, every fucking thing . . . the synapses firing inside her brain when she knew what you were going to do to her in that alley—rape her right there in the squalor and dirt. No thought for her injuries, no thought for her pain, no thought for her dignity. I saw . . . and felt every-fucking-thing!”

Flint cracked his neck and began . . . the silver tipped blades his weapons of choice as he let loose his rage against the man who’d dared to hurt his love. The one who was going to violate her, who was going to sell her like a piece of meat and pass her around for others to use and abuse. Every single slice of his blade stung, each cut as he removed parts of Stelian wrought agony that he could do nothing about, each wound he inflicted eased Flint’s fury a little bit at a time, slowly, so slowly. When he reached Stelian’s groin, he looked deep into the man’s tortured eyes and smiled coldly. “This is the end, Stelian. Once I remove this . . . this filthy thing that you were going to violate my beautiful mate with . . . then I will end you. I know you’re begging for it. For me to finish this, but you’ll have a few moments more of agony, because it’s not coming off in one cut. I’m taking it off a little at a time. Well, we’ll see how long that takes because looking at you now, it’s not that big. Is it?”

Flint went to work, slicing and dicing until there was nothing left. His work finished all but the final act. “Ready to die, Stelian? Ready to meet your boss in Hell?”

Opening his fingers and allowing the weapon of destruction he’d used to fall free, he looked down at the ground, running with blood and littered with so many body parts of the Vampire standing immobile before him. He felt no sorrow for what he’d done. None. But he did feel sadness for every victim of Kragen and Stelian’s. Each and every single one of them.

Flint pulled his arm back, flexing his muscles and punching forward using every bit of strength left inside him to break right inside the Vampire’s chest cavity. His fingers sought the slow beating heart, finding it and wrapping tightly around it before ripping it free as a roar rumbled up and tore out of him . . . one that cleansed him of everything that had weighed him down since he’d first seen this bastard in that dark alley in Edinburgh.

Crushing the heart in his fist before dropping it to the ground, Flint spun around, his leg rising to smash into Stelian’s body and send it crashing away from him. As soon as he did, Victor was at his side, his arms around him and pulling him against him.

“Are you all right, brother?” Victor asked, his voice full of concern and anguish.

Flint didn’t answer straight away, taking time to think of how he felt. The truth was, now that Kragen was dead, and he’d taken his revenge on Stelian . . . he felt fine. “I’m good.”

“Right.” Victor stepped away, nodding toward Quinn’s estate. “You’ve been otherwise engaged, but the fighting stopped some time ago. We were right. Lop the head off and the rest turned tail and ran.”

“That’s a relief.” Flint looked over, seeing Quinn’s men doing clean up but no longer were there the sights or sounds of fighting. “Because, suddenly, I no longer feel like shedding anymore blood, Victor. I’ve had my fill.”

“I know, my friend, I know.” Victor’s arm wound around his shoulder, leading him away and back toward the estate. “Let’s get home to our women, ehh?”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. You know that?” Flint shook his head in wonder as they traipsed onward, his future lying in wait for him. His heart thudding wildly in his chest at the thought of what lay in store for him. “I can’t go to her like this. I have to clean up first.”

“We both do,” Victor agreed. “Kimber will not be happy if I trail in this mess.”

Flint glanced up at his friend. The hard-as-nails Victor Strong, worried about arriving home dirty and that thought hit him full in the face . . . laughter erupting like a dam breaking. He couldn’t stop it, his sides aching as they carried on, Victor joining in and that’s how they arrived at the gates of the estate where Quinn and Ace were waiting for them. A look of bemusement passing between them as they tried to regain some control.

“I take it everything’s all right with you two?” Quinn asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it is now.” Flint nodded. “Is everything okay here?”

“Yes, you were right. They left when I arrived with Kragen’s head and told them nobody was getting a penny and I happened to throw in that the Directive were on their way too. That was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. They couldn’t leave fast enough, so, it’s a case of cleaning up now and counting our casualties. I’m afraid we lost some good men, but not as many as I’d feared. And Jana is fine, she’s back at the main house having a meal and then she’s got to be on her way. Work, she says.”

“I’m sorry you lost anyone, Quinn.” Flint sobered. “I didn’t mean to bring trouble to your door.”

“I’m aware of that but we’ve taken out the worst of the scumbags operating in my country, so I’m not too put out about it, Flint.”

“If there’s anything I can do to repay you, please, just let me know,” Flint offered, quickly. Knowing the debt for Kenzie’s safety was one he could never fully repay.

“Not required.” Quinn eyed Victor. “In fact, your payment, Victor, that’s not required either. Let’s call this a service to the community, shall we?”

Victor didn’t miss a beat. If he was surprised he didn’t show it, merely responding, “If that’s how you want it, Quinn. Thanks.”

“Now”—Quinn, clapped his hands—“I’ve sorted a cottage for you and Kimber, she’s all settled and Moira has been taken home since Kenzie assured her she is fine. However, Dougie and his wolves refuse to leave. He says that until you tell him his duty is discharged that he’ll not leave his post. That Alpha has taken a liking to the girl and although I’ve told him the threat has been taken care of, well, he still won’t leave. So, Victor, you or Flint, will need to let him know it’s okay for him to go. Or else, he’ll be here forever.”

Victor chuckled, shaking his head and slapping his thigh. “Yeah, he does take things literally. We’ll let him know he can leave. But, before we do that, can we get showered and borrow a change of clothes? We’d both rather not return to our ladies looking like this.”

“Ace can sort that out for you . . . and there’s supplies for your women, with flowers and chocolates and such, as well as your usual tipples and blood supplies. If there’s anything else you need, just ask. For now, I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Thanks again, Quinn . . . for everything.” Flint gave the man a long look, knowing without a doubt if it weren’t for him that Kenzie, and probably him too, would be dead.

Quinn strode away, waving at him as he left. “You’re welcome. Just don’t make a habit of bringing a horde of madmen to my door.”

Flint smirked as he turned to follow Ace who was waiting patiently for them, his heart speeding up at the thought of finally being alone with the person this was all for. Why hundreds of men fought, and some died for: his love, his beauty, his Bloodmate.