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But I won’t let them hurt her, nor will I betray my kind and kill them if I don’t have to.
She doesn’t call the human’s name, knowing the danger of drawing attention to herself. If she was not right in front of me, I would not even hear her because she is that sly and quiet. She easily navigates back to the square where I first found her. Crouching at the edge, she regards the human footprints leading away before standing, and without sparing me or the tiger a glance, she follows them.
Moving closer, I see the trail as well, even when her human eyes cannot. “There,” I murmur, helping her for some reason. The human is clumsy and uncoordinated, unlike my Aria. She didn’t use the buildings for cover or move through the streets. In her panic, she hit dead ends and had to turn around, and after hours of following the tracks, they suddenly end in the middle of a street.
“Where did she go?” Aria murmurs, looking around. “She would have left tracks. There’s no blood or signs of a struggle.”
I scan the area with my sharp eyes, noting some disturbed rubbish and dirt. I know what that means. There was a struggle, but not much of one. Whoever it was, they subdued the human and took her.
She was kidnapped by another of my kind. Not one of mine…one from another sector.
The closest border from here is the nightstalkers, but I find it strange that they would leave their lair and roam around, never mind take a human. They pride themselves on their intelligence above us all, staying hidden in their lairs and towers.
Yet they couldn’t hate humans more.
I cannot tell Aria that her friend has been taken. She would go after her and head straight into their midst, and I have no doubt they would kill her. Her friend is probably only alive because she isn’t a threat and they want to study her. Aria? She’s a warrior through and through. She would attack them and get herself killed. I would be there at her side, dying.
No. It is better she thinks she is only lost.
I will lead her away from their borders on the pretence of continuing the search. She will eventually forget about the human, forget about all humans, and remain here, over the wall.
With me.
Her monster.
ELEVEN
ARIA
“She isn’t here. She must have double backed after noticing her prints, or they were cleaned away,” Red offers at my side, but he won’t meet my eyes.
“Is that right?” I demand with my hands on my hips, my new tiger buddy nudging my side and snarling at the monster as if to tell him he has my back.
“Yes.” He swings his head around to look at me then, his tail twisting. He holds my gaze, one that would make anyone else fidget.
Is he lying?
I can’t tell.
But I can’t see anything. I don’t think Talia is smart enough to cover her tracks. She was too panicked, worried, and confused. No, something happened, and he’s not telling me. I need to find out what happened to her, which means sticking with the big red bastard and his pussy wetting muscles.
I’m not going back over that wall without her.
Too many have been lost here. No, I won’t be like the others beyond the wall, only caring for and saving themselves. She trusted me to bring her here and bring her back, and that’s what I’m going to fucking do.
“Fine, where to then? I’m not leaving her. She trusted me.” I allow a bit of weakness into my voice, and I see him soften. For a monster that millions fear, he truly isn’t that bad. Even if he has claws, fangs, and likes to kill and bite things, he’s definitely not the villain they made him out to be.
The jury is still out on his people though.
One thing is for sure, though, he is nothing like I expected.
“Then we keep looking, little one, come.” He holds out his claw-tipped hand and waits.
I place my hand in his, giving my body and trust over to the devil himself.
* * *
He leads me through the city, checking high and low. We start in tube stations, then check the skyscrapers. We search until my legs ache, my back hurts, and my mouth is dry, but I still don’t complain.
