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I wanted to see his face. I wanted to see the pleasure on it. I wanted to see how he looked as he fucked me.
What I saw instead was that his honey brown eyes were molten gold. There were rows of sharp teeth between his pierced, parted lips. There were thick black veins in his hands and neck. The angles of his face were sharpened, his muscles swollen. Sharp dark claws dug into my hips, rivulets of blood dripping down from where they were sunk into me.
“Fuck —”
I saw what he was and I still orgasmed on his cock. I still shuddered uncontrollably as he spilled inside me, gripping me tighter as he reached his own peak. But the moment his hold loosened, I kicked myself out from under him and scrambled back, trying to catch my breath as I snatched up the shotgun and aimed.
I remembered him. I knew where I’d seen him before.
He knelt there on the ground, his head tipped back, a smile full of sharp, wicked teeth on his face. His cock...fuck, no wonder it had felt so unnatural.Everythingabout him was unnatural, but his dick was thick and ridged, swollen on the sides and beneath, the head slightly slanted and cherry red. I shook my head, cocking the gun as he opened his eyes and fixed me with that gaze.
“Remember me now, little wolf?”
Cold dread rose in me. The night I’d fled Abelaum remained in my memory in only bits and pieces. I’d gone into a diner. I’d pointed the gun I’d stolen from Mom’s trailer at the poor waiter, because I was so hungry and had no money, and I didn’t know what the hell to do. I’d been followed that night, the Eld stalking through the woods alongside me. I hadn’t known what they were at the time.
He’d told me. This man, this...monster. He’d told me what they were.
“Aww, what? Do I scare you?” He opened his mouth, and extended his tongue. I was right about the piercings, but it was more than that: his tongue was forked, and each side was pierced. “I really hate that disguise. It’s such a fucking bother. But if I didn’t use it, all you humans would be running away from me, screaming.” He paused. “Oh, wait...I like it when you run and scream.”
I couldn’t pull up my jeans and aim at the same time, so I sat butt-naked on the ground and didn’t lower my gun. “Tell me what you are, now, or I’ll blast your head off.”
“You can’t kill me with that thing. You should know that from last time.”
Last time, I’d seen my bullet enter his body and it hadn’t even made him flinch. I’d watched him dig it out like he couldn’t feel pain. But I didn’t lower my weapon. “I can damn well try. This gun is a hell of a lot bigger than the last one.”
He stared me down, that shit-eating grin on his face. “It’s been a few years since you last saw me. Surely, you’ve done your research. I think youknowwhat I am.”
I swallowed hard. I tried not to think about it. I tried not to remember. But he wasn’t the first of his kind I’d encountered. Those golden eyes, the sharp teeth, the claws…
The night the Libiri had tried to kill me, the night I’d crawled out of the darkness of the mine and fled through the forest, a being like him had pursued me through the dark. Relentless, merciless, I knew Kent Hadleigh had sent it after me to take me back.
It would have dragged me back to the mine if it had caught me. It would have thrown me back into the dark.
Of course I’d done my research. I had combed through old websites, locked forums, dusty long-forgotten books in the back of libraries. I’d hoarded those rare gems of knowledge from amongst the rubble of conspiracy and hearsay, trying to make sense of this fucked-up world I lived in.
“Demon,” I said, spitting out the word. “You’re not the first one I’ve met. Is that thefriendin Washington you mentioned, hm? Do you serve Kent Hadleigh too?”
“I told you last time: I work for me, myself, and I,” he said. He rose to his feet, and I scrambled up too, trying to tug up my jeans and aim simultaneously.
“Juniper Kynes,” he drawled. “The girl who got away. The sacrifice who...wasn’t. A soul who escaped from a God.” He chuckled. He was walking toward me, and his face was changing as he did. The molten gold in his eyes cooled to honey-brown. The thick black veins in his throat disappeared, his teeth shortened and lost their sharpness. His claws disappeared. I was backing away, trying not to trip over gnarled roots and fallen branches.
But he took it one step further; even his tattoos were disappearing. His eyes were widening. He was just some boy-next-door, pretty and innocent, wide-eyed and sweet. But his smile was filthy, no matter what he did. “I’ve kept my eye on you, since that night. Does this face look familiar? Maybe you’ve seen it in a crowd, in a club, on the side of the road. But you probably didn’t even notice, did you?”
He’d been stalking me. All this time, these last three years, he’d been following me. It was horrifying that a monster like that could blend in so perfectly, but of course he could. Predators had to camouflage themselves to get close to their prey.
Demons disguised themselves to make people feel safe, they made themselves attractive to draw us in — only so they could manipulate us, their prey, into giving up everything. Body and soul.
“I didn’t think much of you when I first saw you, Juniper. Frankly, I didn’t think you’d survive this long. But I told you we’d meet again. You really are a fascinating little mortal specimen. You should have died so many times, and yet...you just...keep...going. Impressive. Very impressive.”
I stumbled, but my back struck the trunk of a tree and I pressed myself there. There was nowhere else to go.
I couldn’t run. He’d catch me.
I couldn’t hide. He’d smell me.
I could shoot, but that wouldn’t kill him.
He sauntered up and leaned one hand against the tree over my head. The muzzle of my gun was pressed against his chest, and he didn’t give a fuck.
