Ivaguely register the sound of the gunshot. The darkness that had consumed me moments ago lasted mere seconds. My ability to fight slipping into unconsciousness surprises me, but I don’t question it.
Sydni’s pink hair fades from my vision as someone drags her carelessly from the car.
“No…”
My shoulders tremble as the acrid scent of gasoline and burning metal fills the air. They’d leave me here to burn, and that would surely kill me. My arm is jammed, and I know I’ll have to tear it off to escape this death trap.
Suddenly, my door is ripped completely from its hinges. Blinking through the smoke, I watch as the haze clears, revealing two piercing yellow eyes framed by the gray fur of a wolf—larger than its animal counterpart.
AfuckingWerewolf.
“Get the girl.” The voice sounds familiar, but fuck, I can barely gather anything beyond seeing the beast staring at me like I am its next meal.
It steps away and moments later, someone new appears.
A hand reaches in and grabs at my bicep. “My arm—” I’m surprised I can even get a singular word out “—stuck.”
I know I need to get out. The fumes from the car are starting to seep through the vents, filling the air with a suffocating toxicity.
The figure leans in, and the flash of white hair and familiar scent make it clear who it is. Despite the rising bile of anger in my chest—knowing exactly who has come to “help”—I’m in no position to fight the assistancebeing forced on me.
“Alaric,” I spit his name through clenched teeth, my tone dripping with disdain. He leans over me, his body uncomfortably close as he works to unclasp the seatbelt holding me in place.
His eyes narrow when he spots the pole that’s shattered through the windshield and pierced my right bicep.
“You’ll lose your arm,” he warns flatly, slipping one arm under my shoulder and the other around my neck.
“It’ll grow back,” I grind out, my voice laced with fury and pain. “Pull.”
The moment the word leaves my mouth, he obeys. The sickening tear of my flesh is muffled beneath the groans spilling from me. My foot braces against the car, every ounce of strength I have left pushing to help free me from the wreckage.
As my arm separates from my body, we’re thrown several feet away from the fiery wreckage, the car on the verge of explosion.
“Sydni—” I rasp, trying to push myself up, but my crushed leg refuses to cooperate, leaving me helpless.
Lifting my head, I catch a flash of pink hair on the far side of the chaos, being carried away from us. Alaric grabs hold of me and drags me farther from the inferno, his movements rough but decisive.
“Bring her…” My chest tightens as I struggle to get the words out. “…to me—” Before I can finish the demand, the car explodes.
The blast, magnified by the semi-truck lodged inside it, is deafening. The force slams into us like a hurricane, sending us tumbling backward.
And that’s when I finally lose consciousness. As much as I fight to stay awake, the abyss comes for me, pulling me into the void, leaving nothing but darkness in its wake.
Xera… I’m coming… I swear it…
“Why do you stare so much?”
I’m one wrong word away from her decapitating me, and even with that knowledge, I can’t help but smile.
“Do you not like it when I stare at you?” Xera steps from the shower and grabs a towel, narrowing her eyes. “Would you like me to stop?”
“I didn’t say that, asshole, I’m just asking why you stare.” Her towel lazily falls as she begins to dry her hair, scrunching it up to give it a natural curl.
Leaning against the vanity, I give her a slow look from her cute toes up to her moonlit eyes. “Why would I not want to look at you? You are perfection wrapped in a tortilla made of madness. If I can’t eat you all day with my tongue, then you better fucking believe I will with my eyes.”
She keeps her breasts free from being covered, and fuck, they are so perfect. Rounded to be the right size that even my hands have a hard time grasping their entirety. The delectable pink nipples that harden just by my gaze. I know it’s because of her being a Succubus, but both are equal in size; one isn’t bigger than the other as is the case with nearly every other race of women.
My tongue brushes across my upper teeth and I bite down on my lip. I huff out a breath, and shake my head in disbelief that I’ve got her here in my home.
