Page 11 of Knight’s Salvation

Chapter 3

Zenon circled the compound.From above it looked abandoned, rundown, like it should. The windows were boarded so no light could escape. He couldn’t see what went on inside the multistory building, but he could sense those within. Right then, one presence rose above the rest. It called to him like the sweetest song from the heavens. He’d heard it once while training under Silas, the angel who had trained and watched over them. Zenon was sure he’d never again hear anything as sweet. That was until now—until he heard Mia say his name.

The direction of his thoughts sent dread lancing through him. He had to stop thinking about that female. For her good as well as his own.

Tucking his wings in close to his back, he let himself drop from the sky. He plummeted toward the cracked concrete below, feeding off the adrenaline racing through his veins. The rush was the only way he knew to feel alive. To make sure this wasn’t all a dream and that at any moment he’d wake, still in hell, chained in his cell like a dog waiting for his next beating.

At the last minute he spread his leathery wings, halting his descent to land softly on his feet. Not long after Silas came for him he’d done the same thing, only from the top of a cliff, but that time he hadn’t pulled up at the last minute and discovered hitting the ground wouldn’t end his waking nightmare—no, it just hurt like a motherfucker. And waiting weeks for his body to repair itself had nearly driven him insane.

That was how Silas found out about Helena…

He shoved the bitch out of his head.

The compound was quiet as he entered through the parking garage. Chaos had sent a car so they could transport their prisoner, but Zenon hated traveling in cars, hated any type of confined space, and had told Rocco he’d meet him back here. Zenon had taken his time.

The door off the garage was open and he descended the flight of stairs into the basement. His boots echoed off the concrete floor as he headed down the hall to where the interrogation room and cells were located. If this guy needed to be executed, he wanted to be the one to do it. Sex demons were disgusting vermin that needed to be wiped out as far as he was concerned.

What if Mia hadn’t called them this morning? What if she’d been in that club? He knew his train of thought wasn’t logical, but logic had a way of scattering when he thought about that female.

Rage, wild and barely controllable, reared up inside him. His demon wanted the driver’s seat, but he maintained control easily. It wouldn’t have been so easy six months ago. When Tobias, a knight and one of their brothers, devastated after the death of his mate, had purposely succumbed to his inner demon, he had nearly dragged them all back to Hell with him.

Being half angel, half demon meant one side was always fighting for dominance. It was a delicate balance they all had to maintain. And because of the connection between them—a connection they’d shared since birth, a safeguard created by the angels to keep them in line and unable to abandon their mission or each other—when Tobias had succumbed, that balance had been disturbed, not just within Tobias but all the knights.

If it hadn’t been for Lazarus and his mate, Eve, they’d all be Diemos’s bitches. The head asshole of Hell wanted Earth and the humans who inhabited it. The knights were the only thing stopping him from getting what he wanted. He didn’t like being denied.

Zenon had firsthand experience with that as well. Something else he didn’t want to think about.

Slipping the key card from his back pocket, he disengaged the lock and pushed inside the interrogation room. When he entered, Chaos and Lazarus were in full-on good cop, bad cop mode. And going by the way Laz had the demon pinned against the wall by his throat, it wasn’t hard to work out which role he’d taken.

Chaos stood back, hip resting against the only piece of furniture in the room, a small table, and offered the red-faced sex demon a smile full of mock sympathy. “You sure you’ve nothing to add to that, Amen?”

The windpipe-crushing hold Laz had on the demon didn’t really help with the whole talking thing, but he managed to shake his head vigorously. Chaos turned to him, and Zen lifted his chin toward Laz. “Where’s Roc?”

Chaos’s jaw hardened. “Amen here thought it would be fun to mess with him. By the time he got here he could barely walk. Blue balls is an understatement. I sent him to the city to relieve the, ah…pressure.”

Zenon grunted. No surprises there, then.

Laz released the demon but stood close, crowding the guy, and Chaos took a step closer. “Lazarus here is kinda…well, crazy. No offense, Laz.”

Lazarus grinned. “None taken.”

“Cutting off limbs and other…anatomy is one of his favorite pastimes. I have somewhere else I have to be, and I’d hate to have to leave you all alone with him. But I’m not gonna have much choice if you don’t start talking.”

The guy had sanctuary. His behavior made no sense. And like Zenon, Chaos didn’t buy the whole I didn’t understand the rules bullshit either. The guy was either up to something or he was one of a growing number of creepy-ass fuckers that got a boner over getting close to a knight. Rocco had his own little fan club.

The demon, Amen, hid his fear well, but Zenon could hear his heart pounding from across the room, could smell the acrid scent of it. Amen turned to him then, his blue long-lashed eyes fixed on Zenon’s. His gaze sharpened. “I know you.” His stare moved over Zenon’s body and back to his face. “Not from here, though. Zenon, right?” he rasped past his abused throat.

Bile churned in his stomach and burned a path to the back of his throat.

Please no.

The bastard grinned. “I thought I recognized you earlier. You servicing the knights now, drudge?”

The name was given to the lowest of the low, the scum of the hell realm, and it slithered down his spine and settled like a rock in the pit of his stomach. Only one person called him that, and she only got away with it because she had the power to end his life. Shame darkened his cheeks. He never wanted the males in this room to know what he was, and this asshole had just blown his shit all over the walls for everyone to see.

An all-consuming rage sliced through him. And before he knew what he was doing, his blade was in his hand and flying across the room. Amen’s high-pitched scream as the knife hit its mark gave Zenon little satisfaction. This demon had seen him at his lowest, knew all his dirty, shameful secrets.

His disgrace.