Page 26 of Knight’s Salvation

Rocco grinned. “It’s a nice place. One of ours, and close enough we can keep an eye on her.”

“And why would you want to do that?” He heard the menace in his voice but had no control over it.

Rocco frowned. “Do we have a problem here, Zenon?”

“I don’t know. Do we?”

Chaos moved in between them. “Is there something going on between you and Mia?” And, yeah, the guy looked confused as fuck about that notion, like the idea was so foreign as to be ridiculous.

He clenched his fists and shook his head.

The knight frowned. “Fuck’s sake, Zenon. Do you have to start shit all the time? What’s crawled up your ass?”

Zen shrugged.

“We’re just trying to look out for her. She hasn’t reached her full potential yet. She’s capable of a lot more. James hasn’t been able to work out what her trigger is. I think her leaving is a stupid idea, but he’s assured me she’s safe. She can block what she’s got going on at the moment and she’s agreed to come in for regular training sessions. I could force her to stay, which is what I want to do, but James thinks that will only make it worse. She’s unhappy here, she wants to leave, so we’ll let her, but we’ll keep an eye on her.”

She wanted to leave. She was unhappy. That knowledge was like a smack to the back of the head. Confirmed what shouldn’t be a big surprise. This whacked-out need he had, pulling him toward Mia like a supercharged magnet attached to his chest, was one-sided. He didn’t know why it hurt like a motherfucker, but it did. Fuck it, he was used to pain. At least this way he wouldn’t have to see her every day.

“Fuck knows how we didn’t sense her right off the bat, because despite her sister’s help, she had a lot of work to do with her blocking,” Chaos added.

No, the training her sister had given her hadn’t been enough. He didn’t know what the fuck Chaos was talking about. He’d sensed her loud and clear. “I did,” Zen said.

Chaos stilled. “You what?”

“Sensed her.”

The males in the room went silent, the creak of leather and the shuffle of boots the only sounds as they all turned to face him.

“You sensed her?” Chaos said, breaking the unsettling silence.

“Yeah.” Jesus. Now what had he done wrong? Was this another demon thing? Another difference because he was hell born? He dipped his head, sick of seeing the weirded-out expressions on their faces. He hated whenever this kind of shit came up. Like he needed another reminder that he was different.

“Do you know what that means?” Kryos asked, almost gently.

He didn’t want to listen to this, have his differences laid out in front of him, have them point out again what a fucking freak of nature he was. “I have somewhere I need to be.” He turned to go, but Kryos grabbed his arm. Zenon hissed and spun to face him. “I said I’m done.”

He got as far as the door when Kryos stopped him in his tracks with a few simple words. Words that, when strung together, had the potential to tip his warped little world on its ass. The guy sounded as freaked saying them as Zenon did hearing them.

“I think Mia’s your mate, Zenon. I think you’ve found your female.”

Just like that his legs were back to Jell-O, and he grabbed onto the nearest desk to stop his ass from hitting the floor. “No. That can’t be.” He didn’t recognize his own voice, pitched high, shaky.

He felt someone move closer, but they didn’t touch him. Chaos. “Zen, none of us felt her. You did.”

“So?” Could he get out of here before he passed out like a pussy?

“You must know. Kryos, Laz, when they—”

“In case you missed it, I don’t sit around shooting the shit, discussing your goddamn love lives.” No, Zenon rarely mixed with the others unless he had to, and he sure as hell didn’t know the ins and outs of knight/demi-demon courtship. He’d never stuck around long enough to learn. Never thought he’d need to know.

This couldn’t be. Mia, his mate? The very idea had his heart beating like a jackhammer, and another wave of—fuck, he didn’t know what it was, couldn’t name it, but it kept nailing him in the chest until he was close to hyperventilating.

“Zen? You all right, man?”

“What do you think?” he growled.

Kryos moved around him but didn’t get in his space. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. I think this could be a good thing.”