The beast inside me surged awake instantly.Mine. Mate. Take more.
Not now!I violently forced it back down and pulled away too soon.
Olivia blinked up at me, dazed, her chest rising sharply while she tried to catch her breath. I winked at her.
Rack clearly decided he wasn’t about to lose that competition. His forehead rested briefly against hers first, his thumb brushing softly along her cheek, then he gently cupped her face and turned her toward him. Unlike me, he kissed her slowly. Patiently. His mouth moved over hers like he had nowhere else to be in the world.
Olivia practically melted into him.
Her weapon lowered completely while she leaned forward, chasing him when he finally started pulling back.
Petty jealousy clawed up my throat. I wanted to shove him to the side and kiss her again, show her how I could really do it. The other side of me that loved her more than my ego won out.Barely.
Rack brushed another soft kiss against her forehead before stepping back. “We’ll come back.”
“Stay alert,” I added quickly.
Olivia looked between both of us, eyes bright beneath the dim hangar lights. “You both better come back to me.”
“Always,” we answered at the exact same time, then immediately turned to glare at each other before rolling our eyes and going back to the situation at hand.
“Stop copying me,” I muttered under my breath.
Rack’s gaze stayed fixed on the mage across the hangar while he whispered back, “You copied me first, dickhead, always trying to steal the show. Is this how it's always going to be?”
I snorted softly while tracking the demon’s pacing pattern. The thing looked nervous. Twitchy. Good.
“You kissed her after I did,” I whispered smugly. “Who's really doing the stealing here?”
Rack inhaled sharply like he was preparing a comeback, but that was when the demon turned his back.Now’s my opportunity.
Grinning viciously, I gave him a wink and a “Bye, bitch,” then I blurred forward.
Aiming straight for the demon’s spine, I was ready to punch through his back and rip his heart free before he could react, but the bastard split himself into three identical copies.
All three turned toward me together.
“Well,” one of them sneered, “nice try, fang scum.”
Greasy black hair hung around his hollow face while dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes. He looked like a corpse someone forgot to bury properly.
Slowing to a stop, I stared at him flatly. “…Fang scum?” I tilted my head. “That’s seriously the best insult you’ve got?”
I heard Rack collide with the mage somewhere across the hangar a split-second before heat blasted across my skin. Fire roared past my shoulder while a slicing current of air followed right behind it.
Twisting away, I slammed into one of the demons, driving both of us into the concrete, hard. The impact rattled through my bones, but I was already moving.
Straddling his chest, one hand shot toward his ribcage, my fingers curled to rip straight through him. Suddenly, metal flashed beside my face, and I jerked sideways. I slammed my wrist forward just as a blade crashed into the electric shield wrapped around my arm.
Blue electricity violently exploded outward, and my whole arm bucked from the impact. Sparks spat wildly between the blade and shield. The fae magic coating the weapon hissed and crackled as the electricity chewed through it, then the glow died completely.
The demon beneath me seized that opening, wrapping his hand around my throat hard enough to crack concrete before he hurled me across the room.
I smashed into the floor shoulder first and rolled hard across the hangar. The shield flickered out with a sputter of dying electricity.
Good news? The shield worked.
Bad news? Apparently, all three demon copies hit just as hard as the original.
