Page 1 of Wreaking Havoc
PROLOGUE
Kai
Kai gasped for breath, dagger in hand, body convulsing as he bent over at the knee. Of all the damned things in either realm, was there anything worse than the dizzying panic of being returned to the Void?
“You’re back.”
Kai looked up to find the incubus staring at him, his tail flicking rhythmically against the stone walls of the cavern. “The others?” Kai asked.
“Sleeping.”
Of course. What else was there to do between contracts but sleep? Even their little chaos demon grew tired of peering into the human realm eventually.
Kai straightened, wiping his bloody dagger off on his trousers before placing it carefully in its sheath. There was the soft sound of a throat clearing, and he glanced up again to see the incubus still staring intently, purple eyes aglow. “How was it?”
Kai cast a pointed glance to his sheathed dagger, then to his blood-soaked chest. “A success.”
The incubus leaned closer. “What did they want?”
“What do they always want?” Kai shrugged. “Power. Glory. Carnage.”
“How deliciously greedy,” the incubus murmured, licking at his lips.
That was one way of looking at it. Not Kai’s way. Why had he ever thought the human realm could be fascinating? That it might relieve the bone-deep apathy he’d been plagued with in his home realm? Almost a thousand contracts later and he could no longer remember. When it came down to it, the human lust for power was predictable. Boring.
Meaningless.
“How many left?”
The rasping question came not from the incubus—who’d leaned back and shut his eyes, lost in some fantasy of his own—but from the shadows, where eerie white eyes were open and glowing.
So Nightmare wasn’t asleep after all.
Kai bared his teeth in a sharp smile. “Just the one.”
“How fortunate for you.”
Kai supposed so, especially as he’d just been summoned. How long had it been since the others had been called?
Nightmare retreated back into the shadows, his brief flicker of curiosity apparently appeased. That suited Kai well enough—he wasn’t one Kai would have picked as a companion, given the choice.
But there was no choice. Only four remained, out of the hundred who had first started. Stuck with one another until they could complete their final contracts.
Kai left the daydreaming incubus behind to wash the rest of the blood off in the lake. As the rivulets of red swirled away, he considered taking a taste. But he didn’t need it—not here. He didn’t need anything here.
One more contract, as he’d told Nightmare. Just the one. And then…freedom. The freedom to return to his home, to never think of humans and their predictable, tedious desires ever again.
When the last of the human carnage was rinsed off his skin, Kai left the lake behind, settling in the cave he’d claimed for himself.
He allowed his eyes to shut for the first time in days.
All that was left to do was wait.
1
Sascha
There should be a special place in hell for people who called before ten a.m.
