Kiyo skidded to a stop across the street from the familiar building, his chest rising and falling, not with tiredness but fury. Sakura, the arrogant bitch, had kidnapped Niamh and taken her back to her own hotel.
Did she really think she was powerful enough to withstand a war with Kiyo?
Drawing in a deep breath, Kiyo zoned in on Niamh’s scent.
The basement. Where the fights used to be held.
He couldn’t feel her, though.
He couldn’t think about what that meant.
If he entered the hotel, their security cameras would alert them to his arrival.
But what Sakura didn’t know was that her uncle had entrusted much knowledge to him.
There was another way into that basement. Through the public subway.
A woman hurrying down the street in a light green dress lifted her umbrella to see where she was going. She halted at the sight of Kiyo standing in the rain half-naked.
In the time she took to blink, Kiyo was already gone.* * *It was worse than the time in that horrible apartment with Kiyo. The weariness was so much worse.
And there was also the pain.
Niamh laid on her stomach panting against the damp concrete floor, unable to move, as though paralyzed. Torturous flames of sensation shot up her spine and down both legs.
“You are awake,” Sakura’s voice drifted somewhere above her.
Niamh let out a grunt, trying to ask her what she wanted, but the words came out a mere whisper.
What was wrong with her?
“You have a very large iron dagger stuck in your spine,” Sakura answered, as if Niamh had voiced the question out loud. “You are not going anywhere anytime soon, faerie.” Her face came into view as she bent low to the ground to stare into Niamh’s pained eyes. Horror suffused Niamh as Sakura swung a familiar jade pendant in front of her face. “And our Kiyo-chan will not be able to save you.”35The silence in the abandoned tunnels that led to the basement of the Iryoku Towers was palpable. Kiyo could hear the overly loud, much too fast beating of his own heart as he tried to move swiftly without making a sound.
Rats fled his alpha energy as he rushed through the earthy, metallic darkness. If he wasn’t careful, Sakura would sense him before he even got there.
He had to calm.
He didn’t know how to be calm.
They’d taken Niamh, and whatever they’d done to abduct her had caused her pain.
Rage burned in his gut.
Sakura and her mate would be lucky to survive the night.
Slowing to a halt, Kiyo’s night vision revealed the blacked-out door off to the side of the tunnel. When Eito was so sure Kiyo wouldn’t be able to say no to being Sakura’s mate, he’d shown Kiyo this secret entrance. It led into the basement where they hosted their supernatural underground fights.
The key was hidden in a pipe across the tunnel.
Kiyo shooed a rat out of the way and felt cool metal touch his fingers. Wrapping his hand around it, he pulled out the old-fashioned key and returned to the door.
The door opened on hinges kept oiled to perfection so it made no sound as it swung into darkness.
Beyond was a narrow corridor blanketed in more shadows.
Kiyo snapped his hands out at his sides, his long, black claws slicing into the air. Opening his mouth, he forced his canines out.
Then strode onward to meet the shadows face-to-face.* * *He was silent as the night, pulsing in the blackest depths of the low-lit basement.
It had taken much not to rush into the gargantuan room once he’d reached it.
Years ago, the room had been decorated in cool greens and gold wall coverings, three fight rings in matching colors set along the center of the room.
Tatami mats had been placed over nearly every inch of the concrete floors.
Now there was nothing but empty echoes in a space that resembled an underground parking lot.
Except for the sconces attached to concrete pillars. Real flames lit them.
It reminded Kiyo of hell.
Except it couldn’t be because Niamh could never belong anywhere but in the light, and his mate was in the room.
Lying sprawled on her stomach, seemingly unable to move.
A long iron blade protruded from her lower back.
Kiyo grew cold and silent.
This was a new level of rage he’d never felt before.
“I can feel you,” Sakura said from her spot near his mate.
Kiyo stared at her. He didn’t see a woman he’d once known intimately. A wolf he’d once admired and respected.
He saw nothing but an enemy.
Daiki and Haruto stood off to the side like two watch dogs.
Were they fools? Did they think they were enough to protect Sakura from him?
Kiyo strode into the light, his eyes glancing over the three of them as he tried to calculate the fastest way to end them all so he could get to Niamh and remove the dagger.
His mate emitted a soft moan and he felt it, much as Emil had felt his katana slice at his Achilles tendons, taking him to his knees. It took much to keep moving as though it hadn’t affected him.