A floorboard creaked, and I shot up, my hand squeezing the human’s delicate throat. I pinned him to the wall, holding him high enough that his feet dangled. His eyes widened, reflecting my calm expression, but the promise of death simmered in my inhuman amber eyes. The human fought to breathe, choked grunts escaping him. Something hard dropped to the floor before his hands clutched my wrist. His blunt fingernails dug into my skin. I barely felt the sting as they pierced my flesh.
“Where is she?” My voice came out garbled because my demon spoke with me.
The man’s face turned a bright red, his eyelashes fluttering as his eyes threatened to roll into the back of his head. I loosened my hold on him to allow him to speak. He sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m not telling you shit.”
A slow smile curled my lips, and I squeezed his neck until I felt his bones snap beneath my palm. Blood flooded his face, swelling until the vessels burst in his eyes. The pungent aroma of urine filled the room. I tightened my hold. One last gurgle sputtered from his lips before he went limp, then his pulse slowed until I couldn’t feel it anymore.
I tossed him aside and looked at his corpse with disgust. Next to him lay a gun. I picked it up and checked the bullets. Spells on the ammunition in this gun allowed the hunters to take down demons. I scoffed and tucked the weapon into the waistband of my pants.
“You’re wasting time,”Daimon growled.
I picked up the dead body and used my shadows to take us somewhere more private. When they parted, we were in the bayou I’d used for years. I threw the dead human into the swamp for the alligators to feed on.
My shadows swirled around me again, and I was back outside the mansion. I hid in the darkness so no straying eye could see me. I knew Emma wasn’t among the partygoers anymore. The demon hunters took her somewhere more private and were most likely waiting for me. They knew I’d come for her, just like their ancestors knew my father would come for his mate, who despised him.
My footsteps were light but so loud in my head as I walked to the village. The sheathed sword attached to my hip clanged with every step. Despite me thinking all humans were brainless beings, they knew this sound and were aware nothing good came from it. I stopped at the large tree just outside the village. My hands balled into tight fists as I stared at the decomposing body hanging from a sturdy branch. They gouged his eyes out, carved runes into his mottled body, cursing him and other demons. There were also runes of protection for the people in the village. Flies buzzed around my father, feasting on his corpse. A single crow sat on his head, cawing at me as if that were enough to deter me.
My gaze zeroed in on one of the many things they had carved into his chest.
“How does it feel that humans killed the ‘feared warlord’?”
It was a message to all demons, but I knew they meant it for me. They thought they won and would get away with this.
I turned to the village, eyes narrowed, and pulled my sword from its sheath.
Anger and disgust filled me as I blinked out of the memory. What happened to my father wouldn’t happen to me. The one thing he didn’t have was a mate who loved him and would do anything to protect him.
“Find her,” I murmured to Daimon.
“With pleasure.”He curled his peeled-back lips into a sinister smile before he thrust to the surface.
The sound of a freight train followed by gravity and pain tore screams from me. My head slammed against glass, and I flew into the cold until I landed in a heap in the snow.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” a woman whispered—she sounded so familiar. Fingers brushed my burning cheek and played with a lock of my hair. “But you have to understand the man you’re with isn’t a good person.”
“Emma!” a man bellowed.
I stirred, knowing I was waking up, but my head hurt badly. Memories flooded my mind. Not just the car accident, but everything before it. Things from my childhood that had faded over time. What really had happened to Tyler. Dimitri’s face popped into my vision. He stood next to me in an elevator, and I was terrified because he was beautiful. I remembered how he glared at me while I tried to strike up a conversation.
Things were coming back to me, like how my relationship with Dimitri bloomed over time and how I couldn’t stay away from him. I remembered it all.
“Wakey, wakey,” a woman said in a sing-song voice.
I groaned and my eyes fluttered open. Everything around me was blurry, but as I kept blinking, it eventually cleared. I bunched my eyebrows together. I wasn’t in the room Dimitri had left me in. The car’s engine purred as the man in the driver’s seat drove. I couldn’t make out his details other than his dark brown hair and business suit.
“I know you must be confused,” the woman said.
I twisted in my seat, eyes widening as I looked at Mia sitting beside me. She still wore her black dress, but what caught my eye was the gun she loosely held. The same weapon she’d used to knock me out. Mia smiled, which lacked sympathy; some red lipstick had smeared on her front tooth.
“What’s going on?” I asked, retreating until my back bumped against the cold window. Her voice...I heard her voice in my dream, telling me she was sorry and that Dimitri wasn’t a good person.
Mia tucked a stray piece of blonde hair behind her ear and got more comfortable in her seat. “I’m helping you.” I shook my head, and she rolled her eyes. “Dimitri buried his sharp claws into you, but don’t worry. It’ll be over in no time, and you can be free.”
I rapidly shook my head again, and a lump formed in my throat as I thought about her hurting Dimitri. “You can’t kill him,” I begged, my voice cracking.
Mia looked at me with sympathy. “You’ll thank me when it’s over. You’re under his spell, Emma. Just think about it like this, as an outsider. You’re watching a demon who has made a terrible name for himself. He blends in with everyone and fools them into thinking he’s normal. Then you find out he’s been luring women into his trap and killing them while using them for pleasure. Even while they are dead, he defiles them until he’s done.”
I stopped breathing. That couldn’t be Dimitri. No way would he kill women and...and still have sex with them.
