Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

rooftops, the air above her and the buildings surrounding
     her.
    Riley held her breath. Dax tightened his grip on her, drawing her close to him. Mitro is strong in her. He’s looking through her eyes. Don’t speak, not even to me.
    She wasn’t about to make a sound. She could see the difference in Pietra. Her beautiful
     face had been the mask covering evil. The woman looking around her, lips pulled back
     in a snarl of hatred—that was the true character behind that sweet, almost childish
     face. Riley realized that Mitro had chosen this woman to be in his inner circle because
     she was easily corrupted. She already had the seeds of cruelty and depravity in her.
    Mitro appeals to her. She finds him sexy and dangerous. When he kills others in front
     of her it turns her on. She bathes in the blood of his victims just as she believes
     the countess Elizabeth Bathory did. Dax pushed the information into her mind. She has killed before. Her mother. A sister. A woman she thought was making a move
     on a man she liked. She was ripe for Mitro.
    What in the world was she doing working in Dr. Silva’s clinic around all those pregnant
     women? Riordan demanded.
    I’m afraid your doctor isn’t able to read minds in the way we can , Dax pointed out. She doesn’t have that advantage. I imagine this woman is quite cunning and can appear
     innocent and sweet. That would also appeal to Mitro. He loves deception. The thought
     that he could send a killer into a place where life is brought into the world would
     be especially gratifying to him.
    Riley wanted to weep for those lost women, victims of such atrocities, mothers to
     be, looking forward to the birth of their children, only to meet a woman like Pietra.
     Beautiful on the outside but cold and rotten on the inside. The women had trusted
     her, just as the doctor had.
    She waited until the small group had gotten a distance in front of them and Pietra
     had resumed moving steadily toward her destination, no longer suspicious.
    They have to be stopped, Dax. Whatever it takes, we have to stop them. She understood the drive Dax had to destroy evil now.
    Dax had devoted his life to the purpose of ridding the world of creatures such as
     Mitro. His life had seemed filled with honor, but terribly bleak and depressing, a
     stark, ugly world of vile criminals. She felt the need to be right beside him, no
     matter how terrifying it was. People such as Pietra had to be stopped. And malicious,
     evil creatures such as Mitro had to be destroyed.
    She felt she understood and loved Dax all the more for the insight. How could she
     not? He might look at his life as one of duty, but she knew just how much looking
     at those dead people, their lives taken from them in such brutal ways, had affected
     him. He lived with the memories every day.
    She felt the brush of his mouth over the top of her head. I have you to take the memories away, Riley. Don’t feel bad for me. I don’t. My life
     just . . . is. It was my choice.
    She was well aware he had made his choices, just as she was making hers. Whatever
     it took, being with Dax was worth it. On some level, from the moment she’d laid eyes
     on the warrior, so badly wounded, she’d known he was meant to be with her.
    She poured warmth and love into his mind. They might be surrounded by evil, but they
     could sustain one another through it.
    She began to hear the muffled sounds of music and voices as they approached another
     set of abandoned warehouses. They followed Pietra and the others through a splintered
     door hanging on broken hinges. Inside the room were old mattresses, trash, needles
     and cigarette butts. They went through the large room without hesitation to a narrow
     opening that led to a staircase.
    The music grew louder as did the voices as they descended. Davi pulled open a heavy
     door, and music blasted out. Riley clapped her hands over her ears.
    Turn down the volume, Dax instructed.
    It took a couple of minutes to figure out how to consciously control her ability to
     hear. There were hundreds of conversations going on. She could actually hear individual
     ones at the same time. Between that and the melancholy music, she felt a little insane.
     Everyone was dressed in the same dark clothing, with multiple piercings over their
     faces. Many wore dark glasses even in the dark of the warehouse.
    Riordan nudged Dax and lifted his chin toward a man moving among the dancing crowd.
     Clearly he was selling drugs.