‘I see,’ the doctor said from the doorway with a disapproving look. ‘We’ll do another test in a few weeks when you’ve calmed down, hm?’
Kyan gave a curt nod, hoping it disguised the relief guttering through his still straining muscles. Then he turned to Logan, who was shoving up from the glass-strewn floor.
‘Alexander was dangerous,’ Kyan said. ‘He was aggressive, short-tempered, and clumsy. He got himself exposed several times and frequently let humans and creatures die to prolong the thrill of the hunt.’ Kyan ripped off some of the remaining stickers on his chest. ‘Call me whatever you want. But our abilities aren’t aboutpower, they’re aboutprotection. And if you don’t honour that, you disrespect what we stand for and the very goddess that put it inside us.’
Kyan stalked out. Despite the fact he’d been successful at hiding his scar, he felt off kilter. That was supposed to have been a distraction but it felt all too real, and he felt all too wired.
‘Hey!’ Akira called, jogging out after him. ‘Aren’t you million-year-old Empyreals supposed to be chill? What happened in there?’
Despite his foul mood, he shook his head, lips twitching. ‘I’m not a million years old.’
She rolled her eyes as she came to stand beside him. ‘Close enough.’
Kyan took in her swiftly healing, fine-boned features and split lip. ‘When someone goes for your face, try to deflect their strike by pushing it aside, all right?’
Something flickered in her eyes. Gratitude? Disappointment? ‘Yeah, I would have but I – I still don’t realise how fast we are.’ Prior to her transformation, Akira had had no idea what she was or about the supernatural world, other than stories her Japanese grandmother had told her as a child. She sniffed like she didn’t care, then winced at the blood plugging her nose. ‘I’ll beat the shit out of him one day. But … do you wanna talk about what happened?’
Her eyes were wary. Kyan knew she’d been trying to form connections thanks to her constant complaining about how hard it was to find a girlfriend now she had to live ‘this badass life of secrecy’. She was a good person; trustworthy and brave. He’d known from his first glance at the daring light in her eyes that the day she’d transformed hadn’t been her first time dealing with physical violence.
For all that, he didn’t want to risk her getting involved.
He shook his head. ‘I’m fine.’
She looked doubtful and a little hurt, but shrugged impassively. ‘All right, well, pull yourself together, big guy.’ She gave Kyan’s arm a punch. ‘Where’s the usually stoic grunter who lets the riff-raff tangle while watching disapprovingly?’
Kyan huffed and a smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. ‘Don’t worry about me. You all right?’
She brought a hand up to her nose and winced as it began snapping back into position. ‘Eh, nothing a good shower couldn’t fix.’
‘There you are,’ came Callum’s voice.
He strode smoothly down the hall. One of the walls was aged stone, mimicking the Roman baths, the other pristine white.
His brow arched at the blood on them both.
‘I came to find out what was taking so long. I see the appointment went well.’ There were questions in his eyes that Kyan would answer when they were outside. ‘But I need to steal you away. Get cleaned up.’ He gave Kyan a conspiratorial look. ‘We have somewhere to be.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kyan
THE NAZEN WAS A SMALL ITALIAN MAN IN HISEARLY TWENTIES,named Luca.
Kyan was knocking on his loft door – a battered-looking metal slab in the centre of a long hallway – when the creature arrived. He had a bag of shopping under one arm and was in the process of shoving a fistful of strange sweets into his mouth while checking something on his phone. At the sound of Kyan’s knock, and the realisation there was someone else in the hallway, his head snapped up.
Kyan got only a momentary look at the creature’s wiry frame, warm tan skin, and black messy hair before the Nazen dropped the bag and bolted.
He got a few feet before Kyan caught him by the scruff of his jacket, lifting him clean off the floor.
‘Look, it wasn’t me—’
‘I didn’t accuse you of anything,’ Kyan said, already exasperated.
But the creature reached up anyway to shock a bit of Kyan’s bare skin.
‘Calm down, Luca,’ Callum interrupted from the hallway behind them, returning from scoping out the rest of the building. ‘It’s just me.’
The Nazen twisted in Kyan’s grip and relaxed slightly, though his electric-blue eyes whipped back to Kyan, uncertain. ‘What about the big one?’
