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“A form of protection. True demon blood is stronger than both shadow and reaper. Do you know what her blood did to the infected?”
Dannika frowned. “The infected? The shifters from the first demon incursion that drank blood to survive, but lost their ability to shift to the animal form.”
“I’m guessing that part of the story was omitted. Your blood burns us and the shadows, but it killed the infected. The shadow clans dipped arrows in the mixture given to them by the priestess. A spell she performed using her own blood. That’s how they won the war.”
Dannika wiggled her new fingers. The knuckles were still forming, so they appeared as slim, skin sticks. Something out of a horror movie. “How do you know all this?”
Killian’s face flickered with annoyance. Or maybe it was pain. Regret. Either way, he recovered, waving his hand dismissively. “The shadow clans believe the portal cannot be reopened, but that isn’t accurate. The Priestess made a pact with the demon king. She acquired blessed steel and the means to keep the portal closed, but she ingested demon blood, and promised to bear children in the human world.”
“Why would she agree to that?”
Killian took a deep breath. “The demon home world is doomed. They feed on one another, but their ecosystem is failing. The king saw a chance to keep his species alive, and he took it.”
“If they feed on one another, and there’s plenty of demons, why would the ecosystem fail?”
Killian reached with lightning speed, grabbing a rat from beneath one of the stripped vehicles. The rodent squealed in his hand. “The low born demons feed on a demon version of a rat, but these rodents are on the brink of extinction. Once they fall, the other species will follow.”
“Again, how do you know what the shadow clans don’t? You say these things as if I should trust you. Like you should be someone special in my life because you’re a distant relation. Are you anything more than a monster? A murderer? I thought reapers killed their blood relatives.”
Killian’s face twitched before he threw the rat to the ground. It scurried away, though its heartbeat thundered in Dannika’s ears, her hunger every bit as monstrous as the man in front of her.
“Your mother told me the truth. I was investigating the scrolls. That’s how I met her. She was a direct descendant of the Priestess and was raised in their doctrine.”
Dannika couldn’t detect a lie, and that scared her more than anything. “You killed her.”
He glanced toward the sound of a truck starting. “Yes, but not right away. I had made my first human kill, but my animal hadn’t died. Your mother kept me teetering between the shadow and reaper world for quite a while.”
“What happened?”
Killian turned back to her. “You look like her. The same smile. The voice that could stop an angel’s heart. I thought her beauty was beyond anything until I saw you. I had forgotten what love looked like.”
The longing in his voice pulled a Dannika’s heart. The regret was just as painful. Had Killian been infatuated with her mother? Was that why he watched her? Thought she was his?
“That sounds like an amazing fairy tale. I wish I could believe that she was like that, but she abandoned me and my sister.”
Killian flinched. His hands fisted at the sides before he spoke. “Alyssa didn’t abandon you. She didn’t abandon any of her children.”
Dannika flexed her new fingers. They moved perfectly, with a minimal amount of pain. “Is my sister still alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Dannika stepped forward. “How could you not know that? You seem to know everything about me.”
“Like you, they placed her in foster care, but she disappeared as a baby. I searched for her but found no trace. There was evidence that an organ transplant ring was operating in that territory. They stole children, babies, and harvested their organs, selling them to the highest bidder.”
Pain and loss, for a sister she had never met, squeezed her insides. “And my mother? Why did you kill her?”
Killian’s eyes focused on Dannika. “Because she asked me to.”
It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
“What?” she squeaked.
Killian arched an eyebrow. “I thought you would have understood by now.”
“Why would she ask that?”
“She was days from her due date when I interrupted the reaper attack. I cut her unborn children from her womb, saving them, killing her. I performed her last request, then I killed the leader of the reapers and took his place. Her death severed my connection to the human world. It completed the death of my animal.”
