Velvet Haven

to be worth something, and Sanchez, the greedy pig, wanted it.
    She turned away, and he grabbed her by her hair and whirled her around. With the back of his hand, he hit her, sent her crashing into the bookshelf, which rocked, dumping a row of novels around her body.
    “Well, I suppose I’ve learned all I will by using the good doctor.” He put both hands to his mouth. One hand held his upper jaw; the other, his lower one. With one great pull, he unhinged his jaw, and Mairi screamed as the top of Sanchez’ head was slowly peeled back.
    Mairi struggled to gain her feet, but Sanchez, or whoever he was, placed his foot on her stomach, stilling her. A limp body dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt fell beside her.
    Slowly she looked up the length of the long black- leather-clad legs, past a silver belt with a knife hanging from it, and up to a black T-shirt with an inverted pentagram.
    “Hello again, Mairi,” the man said as he flicked Sanchez’ medical ID badge to the ground. “I hope you don’t mind, but lover boy here made me a nice skin suit.”
    “Aaron,” she gasped. The sick bastard who had stalked and terrified Rowan.
    He crouched down on his haunches and smiled. Her gaze caught the body of Sanchez, lying boneless on the floor. Her stomach roiled and she fought the urge to faint. “If you’ve done anything to Rowan,” she gasped, fighting the blackness.
    “Oh, what I did to Rowan is nothing like what I’m going to do to you, Mairi.” He gripped her chin, forcing her to look into his pale blue eyes. “Tell me where you’ve put the book, and while we’re at it, tell me what you’ve learned of the Oracle and I’ll let you keep your entrails where they belong.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of an Oracle.”
    The sting of his hand on her cheek burned. Her head reeled back, and he grabbed her by the throat with one hand, hauling her up from the floor.
    “Let’s try again, shall we?”
    The room spun and Mairi felt the warmth of blood trickle from her nose to her lip. The metallic taste on her tongue confirmed it. She was bleeding.
    “Speak,” he snarled, shaking her. “I want the book and the Oracle.”
    “I—I don’t know what it is,” she said, her mind fuzzy.
    “Do not lie to me,” he growled. He lifted her into the air so her feet dangled and the viselike grip of his fingers steadily increased on her throat.
    “The book,” she gasped, clawing at his hand. “Is the Oracle the book?”
    Through the haze of pain and anoxia, Mairi saw Aaron pause. His eyes widened “Is it?” he asked. “I thought it a person, but maybe . . .”
    Clancy was suddenly there, jumping up, his paws digging into Aaron’s shoulders. With his arm, Aaron shoved him off. Which only made Clancy snarl and bite Aaron’s legs. With a vicious kick, Aaron sent Clancy spiraling across the floor and into the wall, where he lay unconscious.
    “Now, if you don’t want the same treatment as your canine, start talking.”
    “Aaron,” she choked, struggling for air, “let me go.”
    “I want the fucking Oracle—now!” he raged, shaking her like a rag doll. “And if the Oracle and the book are not one and the same, I want them both. You know what I’m talking about, and don’t bother to deny it.”
    “How?” she choked out, clawing his hands.
    He laughed, squeezing tighter. “I knew one of you bitches had to have the book. I figured it was Rowan, being into the occult and all that. She was desperate enough for a fuck; it was easy to get her to let me in. But once I figured out she didn’t have it, I knew it was you.”
    “Why us?”
    “Because I was there that day in the library searching for it. And so were the two of you. Now, I want that book—”
    There was a thunderous crash behind them and Bran burst through the door. Wood splintered and cracked, flying into the air. Aaron dropped her and she fell at his feet in a heap.
    “Well, if it isn’t a little birdie.”
    Mairi could see that Bran looked as shocked as he was angry. “Who are you?” he shouted.
    “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
    Smoke clouded the room, and Mairi swore she saw the mist arise from a wand that Aaron held in his hand. She knew she wasn’t in her right mind when Bran lifted the lamp and it became a metal sword slicing through the air.
    Aaron dodged it and laughed. “Your magic is weak, Raven. But then the mortal realm is not your natural hunting ground, is