Gasping, pulse pounding in fear and fury and regret, his mother jumped from her seat and backed away, eyes scanning both Adair and him in suspicion. His father’s jaw dropped open, his complexion paled.
Chest heaving, her teeth grinding as his mother showed her true colors as the hunter she was, she shifted her sights on Adair and balled her fists, ready to attack.
“I…” his father looked from Adair to Bennett then back again. “I don’t understand.”
Raising his eyebrows with a careless shrug, Bennett rose from the couch and moved into the kitchen. He filled his mug with the rest of the pint from the refrigerator. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, he guzzled, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he soothed the craving he should have addressed before taking Adair again this morning. Afternoon. His sense of time was a disaster these days.
“I don’t either,” he said as he caught his breath, then rinsed the mug before setting it in the sink. Strolling back around the edge of the kitchen, he leaned against the edge of the island and folded his arms over his chest. “I was in a mood. Too wound up to wait for help, so I stormed into a warehouse with eight vampires feeding not far from my place in Seattle. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
His mother shook her head. “Eight vampires? No one should attempt that alone.”
“I know. But since the boost from our demon ancestor last year to defeat Typha, all the damn training while I triednotto think about the shitshow my life had become, I took care of them without a problem. But it was a trap. Dozens more flooded in. Drained me. Fed me. Changed me.” His gaze fell on Adair, unsure how to react to the watery regret in her eyes, her lower lip turned down as she watched him describe it. “I would have killed someone if Adair hadn’t found me. And I most certainly would have died.” Under his breath, he added, “Maybe should have.”
Adair cleared her throat, her voice thick as she said, “I saw what was left of the building. I can’t imagine another hunter surviving what he endured. And he resisted when he should have been completely uncontrolled and enthralled.”
Lizzy loosened her fists and braced her hands on the back of the sofa. “This can’t be. You are our son. A promising demon hunter. You have at least two centuries of fight ahead of you.”
Resting his hand on Lizzy’s, Jonathan kept his voice low. “I’m so sorry, Bennett.”
Bennett gave a somber nod. “This isn’t what I had in mind.” Crossing one foot over the other, he said, “I’m a freak mix of vampire, hunter, and human.”
Adair set down her empty mug and rested her hands on her knees. “Most vampires are content to keep to the shadows, either feeding discreetly or, like me, choosing to feed only from animals and to live quietly alongside humans. But there are those that crave power nearly as much as they do blood. Bennett was changed by a group I used to run with, Calloway and his idiots that accept his hairbrained ideas. They found a prophecy that tells of a changed demon hunter. From our research, and I can only imagine this correlates with their plan, a changed demon hunter is the only one that has the power to free Tromos.”
Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “Tromos?”
Nodding, Bennett said, “The monster I’ve become, supposedly an impossibility, but it happened all the same, it may enable me to free the original demon that created vampires. Banished from the demon realm for his unseemly tastes, he developed a particular fondness for human blood and for the power he can wield in our realm. If he roams free, he will overrun this world, making humans his cattle.”
Lizzy crossed her arms over her chest. “So we fight back. I’ll call in my team, you call in yours, and we will hunt down this Calloway and those that will come for you, and we can squash this prophecy before it fully unfolds.”
Bennett shook his head. “I’m going after Tromos.”
“You must be joking. Unleashing such a powerful demon carries too much risk. I cannot permit you to attempt it.”
“Not your choice. It’s mine.” His jaw clenched painfully, but he had known this would be the response. Which was why he hadn’t intended to tell her untilafter. “Imagine if word gets out that a demon hunter has been changed? Already, it’s inevitable. I can only hope that vampires like Calloway will realize this has zero benefit for them. He had to have been pissed to realize I had no attachment to my sires; I got the hell out of his grasp as soon as I woke up. But Calloway won’t be the only one with this idea, and they’ll learn from Calloway’s mistakes. The only way to prevent someone else from trying to fulfill this prophecy is to take out Tromos myself.”
Lizzy’s feet planted to the ground, her pulse firing as her speech pressured. “But you don’t even know what sort of prophecy this is. Does it tell of victory or of the world’s end? You cannot risk the fate of the world on your own ego.”
“I’m not taking him alone. But the fight is going to happen. I choose now. It’s not ego. Iknowwe’re the team best suited to take him out. You said it yourself, although less complimentary, we’re an unconventional team.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he was still too pissed off. They’d insulted his team, and as much as he knew that was out of generations of bias and ill-taught bigotry, he couldn’t let it slide.
“Come on, let’s find an empty warehouse and spar right now. I will win.” He closed his eyes and backtracked. “Your team is great; I’m not saying they’re not one of the best. But they’re like all that have come before. Proud demon hunters set on freeing the world from evil. Yeah, your team is not like some that kill monsters for the sake of killing.
“But if you met Adair the way I did? Would you havelistenedwhen she told you she hadn’t killed in hundreds of years and had sworn to never take another human life? Or would you have believed her to be the murderer she was changed to be, and slain her without batting an eye?” Rubbing a hand over his face, he shook off the tooth-grinding sneer. “Ryan’s not merely from a different demon-sire, he’s the fricking prince of the demon realm. Bodie isn’t some feral that’s mindlessly terrorizing–and now I’m regretting telling you about him, even though it was his idea to begin to spread the word of their true existence in the hopes of one day being treated as equals. This is exactly why werewolves live in secret, and none of us knew their true nature as shifters, rather than the rabid monsters we know them to be.”
Lizzy didn’t budge, soaking up what he’d said.
Jonathan rubbed his hand over his jaw. “You would risk the fate of the world on your faith in your unique team.”
Bennett shook his head. “Doesn’t matter that the team was granted enhanced abilities when we faced Typha. Or that we defeated the largest feral army that has ever walked this earth. Or that I can run a four-minute mile without breaking a sweat, in broad daylight. The fight is now. I can’t leave it for someone else, because this prophecy is going to come to pass. One way or another. Maybe we can wipe out Calloway and bury the prophecy. But in two hundred years from now, when some less-equipped team attempts what must be done, and fails?”
Adair shook her head. “You haven’t seen Bennett fight. It’s incredible. Like nothing you’ve ever seen.” She crossed to him and cradled her hands around his jaw, tracing her thumb along his cheekbones. She raised to her toes and pressed her lips to his. “Don’t forget, you have a vampire on that eclectic team of yours this time.”
Heart in his throat, Bennett rested his forehead on hers, too terrified to ask for how long.
Lizzy cleared her throat, her chocolate eyes laced with cream. “I always worried that you would stubbornly walk into a fight without a care for your own safety. I worried you lacked some crucial instinct at self-preservation. Yet each time you get knocked down, you seem to come out stronger. Clearly nothing I’ve done right, as I have tried to keep you on the straight and narrow path. My team will back you up. We’ll see to rooting out Calloway’s followers, and any others that are tempted to follow in his footsteps.”
Uneasy in his seat, jaw clenched, Jonathan shook his head. “I agree. If you survive this, you will forever be feared by your enemies and their target both. We’ll back you up. Whatever you need.”
