Except that itwasn’tJulian. He didn’t stand like the sour mortal dealer I knew, and when I looked into his eyes, I was met with two shimmering black pools with no discernible pupil or iris.
But then the man blinked, and Julian’s eyes were blue again, though they lacked their usual sharpness. There was somethingblankabout his expression — something inhuman that made me recoil.
Backing out of the office, I stopped only when my hip nudged the edge of a rickety wooden table. A menacingchuckle rumbled from behind me, and my heart nearly punched out of my chest.
I whipped around.
A dark figure stood less than three feet away, dressed in a hooded black tunic. Beneath that hood, a pair of identical oily black eyes gleamed.
I shuffled away, edging toward the door that led to the street, but found my path blocked by another tall figure — also male, dressed in the same style of tunic with the same unfathomable black eyes.
Shit.
Shadows lapped at the hooded figures, keeping the light from Julian’s office at bay. The shadows swirled around their legs and caressed their sides, almost as if they weremadeof darkness.
The witchwood blade flared hot against my thigh, and my whole body gave a jolt. It had never done that in all the years I’d owned it. Rare magical objects didn’t come with owner’s manuals, but it could only mean one thing.
Demons.
The blade had been forged to be deadly to demons, and being this close to Julian and the hooded males seemed to have activated its magic.
But that was absurd. Demons couldn’t penetrate the veil that separated the mortal world from the Otherworld. And yet . . .
My mind raced. If theyweredemons, I couldn’t just stab them — not when I was so outnumbered. I couldn’t risk losing the one weapon I had that would be effective against them.
Drawing two ordinary daggers from the sheaths at my thighs, I pivoted so that I could keep all three in my sight.The one possessing Julian had to be the weak link. Julian’s body was still mortal, which meant that if I killed him, the demon would have to find another host — or remain vulnerable in his primordial form.
That might buy me some time.
But before I could formulate a plan for the other two, the demons started to encroach. A wicked grin twisted Julian’s normally dour face as the demon possessing his body took a few slow steps forward.
The demon on my left moved. One second, he was standing in the aisle, blocking my exit. The next, he was right in front of me.
I slashed at his throat, but he dodged my blade easily. His hand shot out to grasp my neck, and panic overrode my senses.
This demon wasn’t solid, so I couldn’t feel his fingers, but I felt the force they were exerting on my windpipe. I couldn’t breathe — couldn’t think.
I whipped my other dagger across his throat, but the blade went straight through him as if slicing through air. I staggered under my own momentum, but the demon didn’t release his grip. The demon’s form wavered momentarily, and then the pressure disappeared from my throat.
Suddenly, he was all around me — a dozen black-eyed monsters hemming me in from every direction. I whipped my head from side to side, searching for a way out. But then strong arms clamped around my body — squeezing so hard that my lungs couldn’t expand.
And then . . . I was burning alive.
The demon who held me seemed to be made of fire, though his body was as solid as any man’s. Scorching-hotflames lapped at my back, and something sinister slipped inside me.
It felt like a thousand tiny clawed things burrowing under my skin. I screamed, but my body was suddenly not my own, and my hand went limp. My dagger clattered to the ground.
Shit.
Not only was I burning alive, but a demon wasinsideme — bending my body to his will. Terror and pain clanged through me, but all I could do was scream as flames lapped at my skin.
Then I felt those flames along my leg — fingerlike tendrils of fire clawing at the witchwood blade — and something inside me snapped back into place.
Immediately, the crawling sensation disappeared. The pain from the flames was still blinding, but I used that pain to focus my attention on reaching for my dagger. The runes flared white-hot as my fingers closed around the hilt, but this heat didn’t burn me.
Summoning all my strength, I backhanded the blade and plunged it into the fire demon’s thigh — or where his thigh should have been.
An inhuman screech rent the air, and those flames seemed to sputter around me. I stabbed again, and acrid black smoke filled the air as the fire ebbed away.
