My blood instantly boiled. Rage crashed over my senses like a tsunami.
“Where is Othanos?” I asked the Ururu. My voice sounded strange to my own ears, but I kept my focus pinned on the slowly dying Krampus.
“Othanos will make the sacrifice,” he repeated.
I raised a hand. The Ururu shot up, hovering inches above the ground. My heartbeat drummed in my ears and blood surged through my body. Every detail of the room came into clear detail, from the dust particles floating into the air to the coppery stench of the Ururu’s pierced guts. Power and strength, unlike anything I'd felt before, ran through me.
“Where is Othanos?” My voice boomed through the bookstore.
I thought I heard someone say my name, but I was locked on the Ururu and wouldn’t let him go until I had my answer.That son of a bitch, Othanos, was going to pay. “Tell me.”
All the Krampus did was grin, his pointed teeth stained with bright red blood.
My power was suddenly not my own, as instinct took over and I stretched my hand out a little more. A long ribbon of black smoke wafted off his body, sharply twisting and turning in midair as if trying to get away. I pulled his life essence to me, the darkness traveled into my palm, power zoomed through my body, and I shuddered. I sucked it all out until the Ururu dropped his head, nothing more than a lifeless rag doll.
I stumbled back, gasping for breath as if I’d been holding for ten minutes. Calan was there behind me to catch my fall in an instant. I leaned against his chest as his arms wrapped around me. Inhaling his reassuring scent of fresh soap and the spicy masculine musk underneath, helped ground me.
“Emma,” he started, voice tight with concern.
“I’m fine,” I stopped him, still gasping for breath. “That was a hell of a rush though.” I couldn’t help but smile.
Calan’s body relaxed a little, but he still held onto me.
When I caught the look on Krystan and Travis’ faces, eyes large with alarm, I straightened. “What?”
Krystan tightly held the cuts on either arm tightly to stop the bleeding. “You were communicating with each other?”
“He mentioned Othanos, I guess I just lost it.” I shrugged, suddenly self-conscious. Ever since I'd gone through the Reckoning, I had on occasion sucked out and absorbed the energy from dark creatures from the Stygian. It didn’t always work on command, but I was getting better at wielding my newfound power. This was the first time I’d done it to a physical creature. In the past, I'd only ever absorbed evil spirits or incorporeal entities. Yet I’d cracked the Ururu like a walnut and pulled out his lifeforce. That was new.
Calan turned me around to face him. His was gaze intense. He was trying to hide it but I could tell he was spooked. “You both were speaking in a strange guttural language.”
I shook my head, suppressing a shiver. The power inside me was ebbing, but I could still feel it tingling along my nerve endings. “No, I thought you guys could understand us.”
Calan eyed me. He didn’t say anything, but the man could always see straight through me. Intermixed with the powerful magic I’d just wielded was fear and uncertainty.
What was I now? Awesome? Part demon? We didn’t know.
Taking the attention off me, Krystan turned to Travis. “The mother of your child is bleeding over here. Care to grab a couple of Band-Aids? Or would you rather take a coffee break?”
Travis’ green eyes widened as he went about checking her wounds and asking how the baby was and if she was feeling alright.
“I’ll get the med kit. You stay here, seriously,stay here,” Travis said to Krystan in a firm tone after making sure she wouldn’t keel over. He threw his hands up. “Not that you listen to anything I say. You just barrel into a dangerous job, not a thought of our unborn child or that you could get your ass scratched up.”
No matter how hard I looked, there was little left of the stoner I knew from high school. Travis continued to complain about Krystan as he jogged off.
I heaved a sigh.
“Are you alright?” Calan asked, his voice anxious. He set his hand against the small of my back and I leaned into his touch.
“I think I deserve a reward,” I said, sending him a hopeful smile and dodging the question.
He raised an eyebrow in a way that told me he’d been hanging around Krystan too much.
“A reward?”
“Yeah, I single-handedly smoked that monster’s ass and saved Krystan.” To my own ears, the actions I took sounded good. Why was I so unsettled? While I was still mulling that over. Calan leaned in toward me, sucking me into those ocean-deep eyes. “Does this reward involve buying you books?”
I grinned up at him. “Yes, please.”
