Текст книги "Born in Chains"
Автор книги: Caris Roane
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Adrien called to her, “Come, Lily. Alfonse is going to take us to the vault now.”
She rose, nodding, but as she met his gaze, the shift in her emotions traveled through the chain’s constant stream of communication between them. Desire for Adrien, ever-present anyway, sharpened suddenly.
He narrowed his gaze. What is it?
She shook her head and felt another wave of heat rise up her cheeks. Damn the chains. She could hardly keep her shift in emotions secret from Adrien. Nothing. Let’s go to the vault.
When he opened his arm, she shivered as she stepped onto his foot and slung an arm around his neck.
His gaze narrowed. This isn’t nothing. I can feel your desire.
But she placed her free hand on his chest. Please, Adrien, don’t push me. I’m barely holding myself together.
She half expected him to say something sarcastic. Instead, he murmured against her cheek. “No worries, Lily. Let’s see what the vault says, then we’ll head back to Paris to get some sleep. I can feel your fatigue, and you’ve been through hell tonight. We both have.”
His sudden concern didn’t help her response to him. Her heart swelled, tightening her chest.
Then Alfonse suddenly passed through the stone wall to her left and Adrien put them in motion. Her stomach turned once more since Adrien had to go faster than usual in order to keep up.
Lily had thought the trip would be short, but Adrien informed her that some of the cavern systems were over a hundred miles long. She was aware suddenly of just how little Kiernan had really told her about this world.
Though her head ached, and her stomach boiled, she asked, How many vampires live in this one system? She thought a few hundred maybe.
Over twenty-five thousand.
Lily held on tight, afraid that this new, inconceivable piece of information had also just changed her perception of the vampire world. But she wanted to know more. And how many children?
Not many, because we’re long-lived. Only three hundred.
Three hundred vampire children, all of them loved in the same way that humans loved their children. But a new truth dawned, one closer to Adrien—that some vampire children weren’t loved, but had endured hell growing up. She knew in her bones that Adrien had suffered terribly in his childhood.
She fell silent after that, struggling against the pain beating within her head, and the nausea that threatened her.
Finally Adrien began to slow, and as he passed through one last tunnel that ended in a large cavern, the pain eased. With her feet at last on solid ground, she clung to Adrien. He didn’t let her go but continued to support her with his arm around her waist until the nausea subsided.
At last she opened her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Lily,” Alfonse said. “Adrien tried to tell me to slow down, but I couldn’t, not without giving away our location.”
“Understood. It’s okay. I wish I could say I’m getting used to altered flight, but it’s rugged.”
CHAPTER 7
Adrien let Lily go, but didn’t want to. Something had changed between them, though he couldn’t say what exactly. Lily’s emotions came at him, her sudden strengthened desire for him that only fueled his own incomprehensible and powerful need for her. But more than that, he could feel her bewilderment, her confusion probably because of what she’d just witnessed, given her low opinion of vampires.
He didn’t know exactly why he’d intervened, preventing Giselle from reaching into Lily’s mind and extracting the truth from her, the real reason why she was on this mission. But some part of him wanted her to trust him enough to tell him, wanted her to feel good enough about his character that she could reveal the truth that frightened her.
“Is this the vault?” Lily joined Alfonse by a stone pillar in the center of the space. Stalagmites and their companion stalactites marred the area, a sure sign that no one had been here in a long time to do cleanup and repairs.
Alfonse put one hand on the stone and with the other shaded his eyes. Adrien sensed his concern about the contents—that he even debated turning anything over to Adrien.
He straightened his shoulders suddenly and met Adrien’s gaze. “Except for Sebastien’s orders, I wouldn’t do this, not for you, not for anyone.”
“I understand.”
Alfonse drew in a deep breath. “Adrien, you’ve got to find a safe place to hide Lily. Giselle and I debated saying anything to you, but the underground rumors are that Silas has seen Lily in a vision destroying the vampire race, or at least that’s what he’s telling everyone. Which means that his followers will be after her, to kill her.”
“Do you actually believe what’s being said?”
“The fanatics believe Silas, just as they believe these documents are a threat to our way of life. But Sebastien and I and many others have greater faith in our ability to survive Daniel’s current plan to acquire the weapon, which is why we’re entrusting you with the documents.”
“Why do these even exist?” Lily asked. “Why weren’t they destroyed?”
Alfonse shifted in her direction, his gaze falling to Adrien’s hand, the one around her waist, the one that held her and supported her. “If the weapon truly does exist, there’s a good chance more than this set of designs is out there as well, maybe even more than one weapon. We need as much information on the side of good as the other side might have.” He lowered his chin, once more holding Adrien’s gaze. “We get that the end point for you involves Daniel, that he’s behind your having been hauled into Lily’s mission, that he’s made use of your abilities to create a tracking pair.
“But we also believe an opportunity exists as well, something you’ll be able to do to change the course of our history once you reach the end of this mission.” Suddenly he switched to telepathy: And Adrien, Sebastien is right about your connection to Lily. Something astounding is happening between you. I know how you hate humans, but even I’ve felt it—certainly Giselle has—that Lily has something extraordinary to give you, if you’ll open yourself up to her. But you can’t hold back. It might even become a matter of life and death for you to establish a deeper connection with this human, deeper than you’ve ever had with anyone.
Adrien grew very still. The last thing he’d expected was Alfonse encouraging him to explore a true bonding with Lily, the kind that for Alfonse had led to marriage to Giselle. He shook his head. What you’re suggesting can’t be. You know what I am.
At that, Alfonse’s lips quirked. Yes, I know what you are. But do you?
Lily glanced up at Adrien. “Is there something I should know?” she asked, looking from one to the other.
“No,” Adrien said.
Alfonse struck the pillar with a single sideways motion of his fist, which depressed a stone lever. In turn, another part of the broad base of the pillar slid open.
Alfonse squatted and pulled out a black metal box. He set it on the floor then slid it across a flat stretch of ground that Adrien realized comprised pavers of some kind, very old. Even this deep into the Trevayne system, though perhaps millennia ago, vampires had worked the cavern.
Adrien released Lily then dropped to his knees. He opened the lid. Inside were a dozen documents or so. He flipped through them and found several engineering schematics, but unlike anything he’d seen before, as though designed with some kind of code.
He glanced up at Alfonse. “Have you looked at these before?”
“No. I never wanted to. I agreed to house them here, at Sebastien’s request, over fifty years ago. I asked him why he didn’t just destroy them but he said he feared that one day our world would have need of them. I guess that day’s come. Just tell me that you’ll do right by them.”
“You know I will.”
Adrien glanced at each document, written in French but also translated into English. When he finished scanning one, he’d hand it to Lily, who dropped to sit beside him on the stone floor.
As she read them, he felt her excitement as she sought the weapon’s location. But as his stack grew smaller, and nothing emerged except scientific notations, experiments, and the like, that excited jolt diminished until she read the last one and examined the final schematic.
“There are references to at least two dozen countries where experiments were held,” Lily said, “but nothing else, nothing of real use.”
“But working from a list of twenty-four countries instead of two hundred narrows the field.” Alphonse closed the metal box and put it back in the vault. Another fist on stone and the apparatus sealed up again.
Adrien gathered up all documents into a single tight stack, tucked them into his waistband, then zipped up his jacket to keep them pressed against his chest.
Lily had grown very quiet. He felt her disappointment that the discovery hadn’t yielded immediately usable details. He also sensed her fatigue and that her head still ached.
He shook hands with Alfonse once more and was about to depart when Alfonse said, “Take off to the north. If you’ve been followed, they’ll be waiting to the south. You’ve got a couple of hours until dawn, so you have time to take a different route back. I’d head west to the coast, if I were you, and not return to Paris until you can enter from the east.”
“That’s sound advice.” He held his arm out to Lily. She stepped onto his foot, but as he slid his arm around her waist and drew her close, she slumped against him. She was human, unused to altered flight travel, and the hours were all wrong for her usual sleep patterns. In her world she would have been in bed a long time before now.
He needed to get her home, back to Paris, back in his bed.
But the thought of having her there, beside him, her warm body and soft curves, sent sudden desire streaking through him all over again. He took a couple of deep breaths.
Adrien, I can feel your desire. Will you need blood again? Even telepathically her words sounded exhausted.
Just ignore that. Let’s get you home. Ready?
Yes. Just … please try not to go too fast.
I won’t.
He nodded to Alfonse then shifted to altered flight.
As he took off and passed through solid rock, aiming in a skyward direction, she asked, What difference does it make which way we go? Why go all the way to the coast?
Couple of reasons. This kind of slow travel leaves behind a trail. If fanatics are trying to locate us, then they probably would have found the trail to Sebastien’s by now.
Which means the trail would also have led to the Trevayne cavern system.
Yes.
When nothing more returned to him, he realized Lily had fallen asleep. Just as well. He sustained his slow speed heading west to the coast of France.
* * *
Lily awoke as Adrien dropped them into his bedroom. She was surprised she’d slept but grateful even though her head throbbed.
She released Adrien, and took a moment to steady herself before crossing to the window. She could see the Eiffel Tower, lit up and misty through the rain. She was exhausted and confused about all that had happened, especially with Adrien. She put her hands on the cold glass, trailing her fingers down the rivulets.
Adrien had caught the boy up in his arms, a sign of affection, yet he was a vampire. And the system had three hundred more children, which meant families, something so human in design that she still had difficulty processing this new reality.
She felt Adrien behind her, very still and waiting. The chain at her neck didn’t even vibrate, but lay inert. She needed to sleep, but sleeping through the flight had keyed her up.
“How’s your head?” His deep resonant voice soothed her, but why should anything about Adrien soothe her?
“Much better.” She glanced over her shoulder, needing to say more. He took his coat off, laying it over the bench at the foot of the bed, and set the documents on the dresser. “Thanks. I’m not even nauseated.”
“Good. And I know you need your sleep. Dawn will arrive soon and I’ll need to rest as well. But I’ll sleep on the floor if you want.”
At that she turned to face him. “Why are you being so kind to me?”
He scowled. “Am I being kind? Am I, in your opinion, even capable of that?”
She put two fingers against her forehead and rubbed. “I’ve always believed that you know someone by what they do, not by their past, their family, or, in this case, their species. When I learned that vampires had killed my family, I had believed that you were all made like sharks, restless killing machines that devoured anything in their path. You’ve proven so much to me this night and I owe you an apology.”
He stepped closer to her and took her arm gently in his. But as she looked up at him, she saw the deep frown between his brows, something that seemed as much a part of him as the shade of his dark hair or his flecked teal eyes. “Lily, I want to apologize for what happened before, here, when I took blood from you. I wasn’t myself and I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “I don’t regret what you did but I haven’t been able to make sense of why I enjoyed it so much. I feel very confused by all of this, especially by what Sebastien said earlier about the chains not lying.”
He stepped closer and the chain at her neck began a new vibration as desire for him rose in a crisp, sharp wave. Was it possible this was more than just a result of the blood-chain?
His desire returned as well, flowing in waves over her body, which lit her up even more despite her fatigue.
“What about what Sebastien said?”
“About how the binding with his wife made things worse between them.”
“And this hasn’t been intolerable for you? You haven’t hated this experience, hated being with a vampire?”
“I did at first and I’ve despised the situation, being forced together, but you already know the pleasure I experienced, that I…” She couldn’t finish the thought; she was too embarrassed.
But her desire for him kept building and the chain almost shook now. She felt his need and knew that, as before, he hungered for her blood.
“Do you need to feed?” Please say yes.
He thumbed her cheek. “It’s not critical, not like before. But right now, I’d give just about anything to have another taste, in every way, including your blood.” He slid his hand down her neck and over her breast, caressing her.
“Adrien,” she whispered. Her need had become an ache that echoed through her bones, her blood.
She shivered. Whatever fatigue she felt melted away, so that when he leaned into her and slanted his lips over hers, a soft warbling sounded in her throat.
Her hands found his arms. She stroked slowly upward, feeling the size and strength of his muscles, to shape her hands over his powerful shoulders. Adrien had a wonderful mouth, sensual, moist lips.
He cursed, drew back, and removed his Glock and harness. His shirt went next, which meant her hands got busy again as she smoothed her fingers over his thick, fleshy pecs. His muscles flexed and relaxed, which caused her to spasm low.
Was she doing this? Having a consensual experience, not just feeding Adrien out of his desperation, but agreeing to make love with him? What did it mean?
Confusion once more swirled through her mind.
Yet whatever bewilderment her head experienced, her body knew exactly what it wanted—to feel Adrien, to touch him. She’d never been with such a physically imposing man before.
His tongue played in her mouth, teasing every recess, thrusting, teasing a little more, showing her with each flick and push what he could do to other parts of her body.
Flames leaped at her now, teasing her deep within, heating her up, tightening one part, releasing another, building the tension, seeking the release.
She pulled back and stripped off her shirt, then her bra. She would have gotten rid of her pants at the same time, but he moved closer and put a palm between her breasts. Though she wanted to touch him, she stopped and let him look at her, to stroke her breasts with his hands and his fingers, to pinch her nipples, then to lean down and swirl his tongue over each tip.
“Sit down on the edge of the bed.”
His hoarse voice took out the remaining strength in her legs and she did what he wanted. He pushed her thighs apart and, dropping down to land on his knees, he got a better angle and suckled her breasts, taking turns.
She arched into his mouth and he took as much of each breast in as he could, suckling, licking, biting until she moaned heavily. She dove her fingers into his hair and used pressure on his head to force him to take more. He put a hand on her back and pushed at the same time as well. For several minutes, a sucking sound filled the room.
Her body contracted deep within, almost spasming at the erotic feel of his mouth as he nursed on her.
Without warning, he stopped and pushed her onto her back. He worked her pants off, struggling with her shoes for a few seconds. She sensed his mounting desire, and as he removed her thong she spread her legs wide.
You’re bare, drifted into her mind.
I am.
Without leaving his knees, he growled, slid his arms beneath her thighs, and started to feast on her low. He used his tongue to separate the folds of her body and tease the outer recess of her sex. He grunted and drove his tongue inside her, doing what he’d said he wanted to do, to taste every part of her.
He used his mouth and his tongue, devouring her hard. His tongue moved swiftly in and out, faster and faster. She’d never experienced this kind of hard, driving speed, not with a tongue.
Her body seized and she cried out. She was close.
He went faster, gripping her hips with his fingers, squeezing and driving until ecstasy tightened within and released in a driving flow of sensation that sent her cries up to the ceiling.
He sustained that incredible speed and sensation until the last of her whimpers filled the room and her knees grew lax.
Kissing her inner thighs, he was suddenly in her mind. Did that please you, Lily?
She looked down at his slow-moving head. Speaking to her telepathically, he didn’t have to stop the kisses. Yes, she responded. Adrien, that was amazing.
With his lips, he plucked on the inside of her leg, then using his right hand he massaged beneath her thigh, rubbing and smoothing her skin, kneading her muscles, and working his way to the center of her body. He began licking her low again, only this time he used two fingers to penetrate her, stimulating the outer part of her with his tongue while he began to slowly tempt her once more, thrusting his fingers into her.
She was almost too sensitive, but as he worked her, pleasure mounted once more. The tip of his tongue teased her clitoris, while his fingers worked her faster and faster.
Does this please you, Lily?
You’ll make me come again.
There’s something I want to do.
Oh, God, Anything, Adrien.
I just need to warn you. I want to take blood from your vein, here, down low. You should be prepared.
For some reason, she hadn’t considered just how many places on her body could give up the blood he sought. A shiver ran through her, increasing the pleasure of his flicking tongue and driving fingers.
May I?
And there was only one answer. Do it.
He shifted slightly, balancing his free arm across her hips and moving to the skin to the side of her mons. He began to lick in long sweeps of his tongue. All the while he kept his fingers pulsing inside her.
Deep within her body, she felt her vein respond, vibrating and swelling, as though part of what he could do was call to her blood. Maybe he could.
He breathed heavily, a raspy sound as his fingers thrust into her. Pleasure began to build once more. Her abdomen rose and fell as her vein responded to him.
Ready?
Yes.
A quick sting of fangs, a withdrawal, and she felt her blood rush from her body. A new sucking sound followed as well as a pervasive sensation of pleasure in her lower abdomen like nothing she’d known before. Flames once more licked at her, this time over every part of her.
As she listened to him suck, as she heard the wetness of her body with each drive of his fingers, as pleasure rose, her back arched and she cried out. Almost there.
I can feel you tight in your channel. Come for me, Lily.
Something about his voice in her head brought her, only this time the sensation of ecstasy ripped through so that she screamed now, her body gripping his fingers, contracting and releasing, sensations of fire and pleasure driving through her, spreading across her abdomen, unequaled sensations.
As the climax eased, and her hips grew quiet, she heard him grunting as he sucked down her blood.
His movements grew gentle, almost sipping at her and finally he swiped his tongue over her vein. She felt a coolness enter her bloodstream. Was that the rebuilding serum?
Yes, something our genetics created to ensure a continuous supply of blood because we feed one another.
It feels wonderful. She was grateful for telepathy. She breathed raggedly through her mouth and wasn’t sure she could speak even if she wanted to.
Adrien rose up and removed his shoes then carefully peeled away his pants from a massive erection. She lifted up on her elbows to watch. She’d always liked looking at a man’s body, at how different it was from hers, how a man’s cock was designed to fit inside her.
Not surprisingly, her mouth watered. “I want a taste before you enter me.”
He groaned heavily as he lay down beside her on the bed. She shifted to arrange herself, her hand gliding over his hip and caressing his buttocks.
He put his hand at the back of her head, a very controlling signal that weakened her all over again. He fed her his cock, one thick inch at a time. Her hands played with his ass and as he pushed inside her mouth, his buttocks flexed. She groaned as she licked her tongue over the crown, as she sucked and dragged her teeth lightly.
He sped up, thrusting into her mouth, still holding her head. She took him deep, as deep as she could, and let him do what he wanted. Her hands grew hungry sliding up and over his back then down his buttocks, his thighs, rubbing and feeling the strength of his muscles.
Do you want to come like this?
She looked up at him, still savoring him. He met her gaze and continued to thrust into her mouth. She sucked and licked and just stared into his eyes. How they glittered in the dark, heavy with passion.
“No,” he murmured, pulling out of her mouth.
She smiled as she sat up. “You have my blood on your lips.”
* * *
“Your blood tastes like nothing I’ve ever known before.”
Adrien rose from the bed, then leaned down and picked Lily up in his arms. He’d done all this while she lay on the comforter; now he wanted her in his bed while he took her the rest of the way.
Holding her in his arms, he flipped the comforter and sheet back then settled her in the center of the bed so that he could enter her the way he wanted to, face-to-face, his hips moving into hers.
“I want to watch you come, to kiss you while I bring you again.”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded as she spread her legs for him once more and held out her arms to him.
The gestures were of a woman with experience, a woman who had been married and was welcoming her man. He felt moved though he shouldn’t have been and he recalled once more what Sebastien had said about the chains—and what Alfonse had told him, that something extraordinary was happening between him and the human.
He planted his knees between her thighs. Her hips rocked as he positioned his cock against what was shedding her sweet-tasting fluids.
His jaw trembled at the memory. So many remembered sensations poured over him, of what his tongue had felt like moving deep inside her, how much he loved her folds and secret hidden place, the softness of her bare skin, the sense of her vein rising for him, reaching for him, the feel of his fangs piercing her and releasing her blood, then the blood hitting his tongue.
He groaned at the memory as he pushed inside Lily with his cock a rigid pole, as he rolled his hips and felt the answering undulations of her body, as she pushed her palms up his arms, then dug her fingers into his biceps and moaned.
Her head rocked back and forth.
Pleasure. So much pleasure.
He dipped low and began to kiss her as her head moved. He caught her cheek, her chin. He wanted her to taste what he tasted.
Once seated within her, his cock thrusting steadily now and building, he crashed his mouth down on hers.
She rewarded him with a sudden cry, an arching of her body, and her nails raking down the length of this back. She suckled the tongue that had pleasured her and his balls tightened.
These past twelve hours with Lily were almost worth his year in that hellhole. He couldn’t have planned this kind of all-consuming reward for his struggles.
He drew back just enough to look down at her as he drove into her. He’d never been with a woman like this, repeatedly in the space of several hours, looking at her, into her eyes, wanting to watch her come, to feel her pleasure through the shared chain.
He sped up, and that was something he could give her that a human couldn’t. He had speed and strength. He hit a stride that had her lips parted, her lungs dragging in air. She looked almost panicked, almost in pain, her brow slightly furrowed as he drove her toward another powerful climax. Only this time, he would come with her, giving her all that he had to give as a man, his power enhanced by the sharing of her blood.
“Adrien. So close.” Her voice was barely a breath of air.
He nodded, taking in the flush on her cheeks, the delicate sheen of perspiration on her upper lip, how her eyes were dilated. The fragrance of her sex flowed upward, making him harder.
He thrust heavily into her now, deep rolls of his hips against her, driving her to the cliff’s edge, pushing her hard.
She made a sound between a grunt and a mewl.
As she began to cry out, he felt her tighten, and sensing her low in that way, on the cusp of orgasm, triggered his release. He sped up and came, pleasure ripping through him, along all the sensitive nerves.
He heard her screaming, saw her wide-open mouth. “Look at me,” he shouted.
Her gaze latched onto his and she cried out once more as pleasure flowed up his abdomen, climbing higher and higher, his skin on fire, his chest expanding. He shouted several times but kept pushing into her.
She gripped his arms. You’ll come a second time, won’t you? I can feel it.
He nodded. Yes. God, yes.
He pumped hard now and faster. She writhed beneath him as his balls fired up once more and another shot of pleasure, more intense this time, rushed through his cock. At the same time, he felt her grip him low as she came again, tugging on him, crying out, thrashing beneath him.
Only as she started down from the heights did his body begin to settle over hers. In stages his thrusts slowed, and her hips grew quiet until at last, panting, he lay on top of her, his body rising and falling as she struggled to breathe as well.
One hand of hers slid to the back of his neck and played with his hair, the other became tangled with his left hand, their fingers entwined.
You were so beautiful when you came.
Adrien. What is this between us? I don’t understand.
Pleasure.
Understatement.
Yes. He smiled.
He didn’t want to leave her body. He felt a need to say something more to her, but nothing else came to mind.
* * *
Lily lay slack against the comforter, sated. She pulled Adrien’s palm to her mouth. She closed her eyes and kissed his damp skin, then licked. He tasted like heaven, like something she could devour over and over and still want more, a flavor very masculine, yet more, maybe vampire.
He stayed inside her, which suited her right now. She had missed this so much, the closeness, the pounding motion, the weight of a man.
Her husband had been six-two and worked out, but Adrien had so much muscle that his weight felt like the earth covering her and protecting her.
For this split moment in time she felt safe, like everything would be all right, that all would be well. She knew it wouldn’t last, but she breathed it in and savored the taste of him as she continued to lick and kiss his palm.
She sniffed his fingers. “You smell like herbs, like something I’d put in a soup to give it a strong edge. And I’m in heaven.”
He kissed her cheek gently. “Me, too. Thank you for all of this, Lily, especially your blood. You’ve saved my life repeatedly this night, and I owe you.”
She finally shifted her head on the pillow so she could look at him. Tears welled. “I have you bound in chains, Adrien. You can’t be grateful to me or owe me. You’re probably going to die because of this. Kiernan and Daniel won’t let you live once they’ve gotten their hands on the weapon.”
“I’m not going to die. You should know this about me. I have a strong will to live.”
“I know. I can sense it in you.” She caressed his cheek. “I haven’t told you everything.”
“I hope you’ll be able to.”
Her thoughts turned to her family and to Josh, the hope that he truly was still alive. Maybe it was her fatigue or the simple reality of her situation, but the pain of her loss suddenly overwhelmed her.
Tears streamed down her face and with Adrien still buried inside her, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, wept, and cried out. The sounds came from so deep inside her they didn’t seem to come from her at all.
Adrien held her fast in return. He let her cry and groan and shout and weep some more.
The only thing he did was occasionally thumb tears away from her cheeks.
“Lily,” he murmured softly now and then. “So much pain.”
His tenderness, so completely unexpected because of her opinion of his kind, kept the tears coming. She wanted to tell him the truth about Josh, but the words wouldn’t come. Kiernan’s orders were clear: No one must know about Josh.
“I miss my family so much.”
He lifted her to a sitting position, held her close, and rocked her in his arms.
“I am ashamed of my kind right now. Your family should still be alive.”
She nodded against him as she continued to weep.
* * *
Adrien petted her head, rubbed her neck. So unnecessary, these deaths.
He understood earth-based accidents like an unexpected ocean wave that took down a ship or a bolt of lightning or an earthquake that closed up a living cavern. But acts of evil, designed by men whether vampires or humans, that took the lives of the innocent were among the most abhorred in his world, in both their worlds.
