Page 53

A clearing loomed up ahead, and I pushed aside the pain of my cut and grazed bare feet as I rushed toward it. It was surrounded by pines, and glossy white and black stones defined the area. The full moon lit the whole place up—and in the middle, two enormous hellhounds squared off against each other.

The larger one was head down, teeth bared, red eyes sharp and steady on their prey. Warrick.

While the other, Edric, foamed at the mouth, pink from the blood of his recent victims, eyes crazed and confused.

He charged, and Warrick snarled, exploding into action. Their bodies crashed together in a bone-jarring collision before they rolled, smashing into a tree, making the ground shake.

Edric sprang back to his feet and ran off, Warrick making chase.

I took a step into the clearing—

“Sooo preeeetty. Hmmm.”

I turned as the owner of that creepy voice, a dark and misshapen creature, revealed itself. A forked tongue darted out, tasting the air—then it took a step closer.

“Taste good,” it said in its weirdly pitched voice.

Some demons were more humanoid in appearance, and others, like this one, were not. The demons in the surrounding woods had been here a very long time, the gene pool limited, and demons like this one were the result. They couldn’t walk the streets, they couldn’t blend in, so they hid in the shadows and watched for opportunity.

“Yessss, tastes soooo good,” another voice said.

I stepped back as a second demon glided from the shadows, and my blade let me know what I could see with my own eyes—shit was about to get ugly. Yes, I’d handled one demon while not completely sober, but two—I wasn’t so sure I was up to the task. Especially since my powers were feeling rather depleted.

“Girl mine,” the first one said and slithered closer.

“No, she mine,” the other said and did the same.

Fucking hell. All I could do was wait for one of them to make their move. I didn’t want to exhaust my magic unless absolutely necessary.

“Mine,” the first one shrieked and ran at me.

I let my blade fly, nailing it between the eyes. The demon dropped, flailing around, and I threw out a hand, calling the blade back to me. It wriggled, working its way out of the demon’s thick skull.

The other one cackled. “Sheee minnnne,” he said in a loud, singsong voice.

Then he ran at me, right as the blade finally worked itself loose, the hilt landing in the palm of my hand a second later. I drew back, about to let it fly again, when a huge black shadow exploded across the clearing at a speed that should be impossible and knocked the demon to the ground. Warrick. Without pause, he bit off the demon’s head and spat it out, his massive jaw and long serrated canines making quick work of it.

One moment the alpha was in his hellhound form, ten times my size, the next, he was a very tall, very naked male. He looked down at the demon’s ashy remains with disdain. “No, fucker, she’s mine.”

I stood stunned as he turned to me, eyes no longer red but vibrant gold.

My gaze moved over him, and that’s when I saw the gaping wound across his stomach. “Oh my god.” I rushed to him, dropping to my knees and applied pressure, while blood steadily pumped out. “Don’t move. We need to stop the bleeding, then get you out of here.” I tore strips of silk from my dress and wrapped them around his thickly muscled waist, tying it off firmly—

A branch cracked behind us and I shot up, spinning around and blocked him with my body, my knife gripped in my bloody hands. Nothing stirred, nothing emerged from the shadows. I reached out with my magic and the cold evil had faded, just a shade of what it had been. “Must’ve just been an animal. I think we’re safe for the moment.”

“What are you doing, dove?” Warrick rumbled behind me.

I scanned the tree line again. “You’re injured. If you keep losing blood like that, I’ll have to drag you out of here, and right now we’re easy prey.”

Big hands landed on my shoulders, and he turned me around. “You’re protecting me?” he asked, his expression impossible to read.

“Well…yes.” I motioned to his bound stomach.

“You think I need protecting?” he said, chin dipped, eyes bright in the moonlight flooding the clearing.

I looked down at his stomach. “You’re injured.”

He fisted the blood-soaked silk.