He had drunk too much blood since he escaped the blast.
Vito Massioni was lost to Bloodlust.
He was Rogue.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Arabella. Now, you’re really going to suffer.”
His tongue slid out, snakelike, as he eyed the Breed child that dangled from his grasp. Then he looked back at her as she slowly got to her feet from her stumble into the other room.
His head cocked at a chilling, exaggerated angle. “I think we’ll start by letting you watch me rip this boy’s heart out and eat it in front of you both.”
Chapter 13
“I don’t think so, asshole.”
Savage held a semiauto in his hand as he stood in the open doorway, his eyes lit up with fury, his fangs pulsing with the need to shred Vito Massioni to pieces.
He and Scythe had split up after leaving the sassi, working the attack from both ends of the city in order to contain the situation as best they could. Savage had just ashed his third Rogue of the night when all of a sudden it felt as if his heart was about to burst out of his chest in ice-cold terror.
Bella’s terror.
Their bond had told him instantly that she was in danger. He hadn’t been prepared for what he saw as he entered the sassi safe house and met with the hideous, Bloodlust-afflicted creature facing him now.
“Let the boy go, Massioni.”
Savage would have opened fire already if Bella wasn’t standing between him and a clear shot at the slavering Breed male.
Besides, in Massioni’s current condition, he was as volatile as a human on PCP. Putting him down cleanly would take a lot more rounds than Savage had left in his pistol.
Or a titanium dagger.
Unfortunately, he’d buried one a few minutes ago in the skull of a Rogue who’d ripped the throat out of a nun inside one of Matera’s old churches. His other blade he’d given to Bella.
He saw no trace of the gun or the knife he’d given her.
And there wasn’t time to consider alternatives so long as Massioni had little Pietro hanging painfully by his wrist while Chiara wept and pleaded for mercy on her son.
Massioni sneered at Savage. “Done chasing rabbits so soon, warrior? Here I’d been looking forward to taking my time with these three.”
“You heard me. Put the boy down.”
Instead of complying, he raised Pietro higher, until the child’s rib cage was level with Massioni’s open maw. Saliva dripped from the tips of his fangs. “Put down your weapon, warrior.”
Savage didn’t move. He didn’t as much as blink. Holding his 9mm steady, he only hoped Massioni would believe his bluff.
“Bella,” he said calmly. “Move out of the way, baby.”
Massioni growled. “Don’t you take even one fucking step, Bella, or the next thing you’ll hear is this brat’s screams as I punch a hole through his sternum with my fist.”
Chiara sobbed. Bella looked equally miserable, but she held herself together. She stared at Savage, shaking her head as if to warn him away from doing anything rash.
Well, fuck that. He would do anything to get her out of this, but damn if he wanted to forfeit an innocent child’s life to accomplish it.