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“I do. They’re called puppies. The most vicious puppies I’ve ever seen in my life.” He chuckled as one lapped up more of his blood, tickling his finger with its tongue.
“Those are hellhounds. Demons.”
The baron snorted at that. “Well, don’t get too close, their puppy teeth aren’t exactly feathers, but their tongues will surely be your demise.”
A high-pitched yelp snapped the baron’s attention back toward Soreth, where three of the puppies had wandered toward the other boy. On the ground lay one of the pups, his head severed from his body and blood oozing from its wound.
Mouth gaped in shock, the baron stared down at the mutilated puppy whose body still twitched. “Why did you do that?”
Collective growls erupted inside the cave as all the puppies set their attention on Soreth.
“We are not here to pity evil, but to banish it.”
Hands balled to fists at his side, the baron snarled as viciously as the little beasts gathered around him. “They are harmless!”
“To one who is half demon, I’m certain they seem that way.”
He swung his sword again, and another yelp signaled a second severing.
The baron shot up from the ground, turning to face the boy. “Enough of this! They’ve done nothing!”
“Do you not know what hellhounds do? What theirbitchmotherdid while alive?” He pointed to the carcass lying off to the side. “They eat children because they are the easiest prey. Have you not heard of young ones going missing in the woods?”
“These are only puppies, Soreth. They’ve not done any wrong.” As one of the puppies behind him lurched forward, the baron swiped him up and held him to his chest, then knelt down, keeping the other two back. “Let them go. We will go.”
“I will not allow them to grow into the evil beasts that they will surely become.” Before the baron could stop him, Soreth swung his sword again and lobbed off the head of the third puppy who’d kept on with its growling.
Fury exploded inside the baron, and he reached out for the other boy’s sword. A flickering bolt of lightning shot up the steel from where he’d gripped the business end of the weapon, and the moment it reached Soreth’s hand clutched to the hilt, it knocked the other boy backward onto the ground.
Snarling, Soreth shot back to his feet, and the baron flipped the sword around in his hand and pointed the blade at him. “If you come near them, by the gods, it will be your head on the ground next.”
The older boy’s lip trembled with his obvious anger. As if he had any right to be angry. “Keep them, if you are so inclined. But know that they will turn on you. Evil has no regard for loyalty. Which is why I do not understand why Solomon wastes his time on you.”
With that, he turned and strode toward the entrance of the cave.
Sighing, the baron knelt to the ground, watching the three remaining puppies cautiously sniff around their fallen siblings. They whined and lay beside them, the sight of which had the baron scowling after Soreth.
“Not everything must follow the uncharted path of fate,” he muttered, and reached out to pet one of the pups, who made a pained noise in its throat before kicking back its head and howling.
The other two joined in the song, the sound so miserable it hurt his chest to hear it.
After another few minutes, their howling died down, and he scooped one of the puppies into his arms. “I will call you Cerberus. The alpha and leader. And you are Fenrir,” he said to the one that had nipped him first. The last trotted over to him on its own, and he awkwardly reached down to lift it up, piling him in with his siblings. “You will be Nero, since you are so willing to leap toward the sword. And though all three of you may be fierce, you will be loyal to me. But only me. And in turn, I will protect you.”
Cerberus licked his face as the baron carried them out of the cave.
26
FARRYN
Iran a warm cloth over my arm, the scent of jasmine thick on the air. So long as I kept the water level below my breasts, I could stave off the panic attacks I’d suffered since my father’s attempt to drown me. Unfortunately, the eerie blackness of the water still roused an unsettling feeling, as my head conjured images ofNightmare on Elm Streetand Freddy’s hands coming up out of the surface. Fortunately, I’d gotten more than enough sleep the night before, which seemed to have kept my nightmares and hallucinations at bay. Strange, how much better I felt, having slept most of the night, even while tethered to Jericho. But perhaps that waswhyI’d slept so soundly.
A clang from my adjacent bedroom sent a wire of tension through my muscles, and I sat up in the water. “Hello?” Through the bathroom door, I could only make out the bed and the window beyond it, where nothing moved.
With a dismissive shrug, I lowered myself back to the water and resumed my washing. Another clang sent me upright again, the bathwater spilling over the edge of the tub with my abruptness. “Who’s there?”
A flare of anxiety shot through my nerves, and standing up from the warmth of the water, I was struck by a blanket of bone-chilling air as I reached for the towel I’d sat out on the edge of the tub earlier. After a quick pat down, I stepped out onto the cold tiles and, with cautious steps, made my way into my bedroom.
At the sight of a figure near the window, I let out a screech and jumped backward, my spine crashing into the wall behind me. A regal looking woman who wore an ornamental wrap around her head sat perfectly poised on the chair next to the window. Large bangle earrings and bracelets dangled from flawless dark skin, and when she smiled, a strange feeling of warmth and familiarity came over me.
