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“You killed my brother.” The hard edge of his words penetrated my flesh like knives.
“I’ve killed a lot of nightworlders.” Not really. Mostly sub-demons and a few feral vamps had seen the end of my blades. “You’d have to be more specific.”
His hand, rough with calluses, dragged over my bare midriff to my left side, making me shiver. Three fingers ran over the long scars like they were the talons that caused them. “You’d remember him.”
I plunged into a frozen pond, icicles crystalizing within my veins as his words sank in. All the heat and fire he’d stoked in my center zapped out like a snowstorm suffocating a blazing inferno in a forest. The first demon I’d killed—of course I hadn’t known what he was then—flashed through my mind. Those black eyes, terrifying gaunt face, pale complexion, and talons dripping with blood.My blood.
Dead bodies scattered around. And her tiny frame, so still and cold…
I gnashed my teeth so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them cracked. “Your brother was a monster.” Only a beast could have done that, evil through and through. The high demon had been on a rampage that night.
Did that mean this nightworlderwasa demon? What about his red blood?
He disappeared, sparing me only a moment of relief before he grabbed my arm, yanked me around, and slammed my back into the fence. Unleashed fury dripped over him, and his lips curled back, a sinister growl that would make most piss their pants snaking between his teeth. His hand wrapped around my throat, not enough to choke me, but enough to lightly constrict my breathing. “Youare the monster.”
A bitter laugh slipped out. “We’re all monsters to someone.”
He blinked, caught off guard, and I used that to my advantage by gripping his wrist, twisting, and tearing his hand from my throat. I kicked him off, and he stumbled a few steps before catching his balance.
“You’re not killing me tonight, demon.”
The violent snarl coming out of him shook the ground beneath my feet, and steam rose from him again. “You’re not walking away from this.” His voice lowered like thunder rumbling through the atmosphere, and his skin twitched, the black tattoos slashing his tan flesh coming alive. The snap and pop of bones reverberated through the alley.
And then it hit me—why his irises were different colors, and why I couldn’t pinpoint his species of nightworlder.
He was a demonanda shifter.
Shock had my feet cemented to the ground as talons burst from his fingertips, and his pupils grew into diamond slits, not a feature any shifter had. But demons…
Ebony fur sprouted along his arms over his tattoos, his teeth elongated, and his shoulders curled in. A snout formed as his ears became pointed.
Wolf. No doubt about it. His shifter parent was a wolf.
How could this guy change into animal form at all? Demons and shifters didn’t typically have offspring. If they did, they usually only displayed demon traits.
His change halted, and his head cocked to the side, listening. He cursed under his breath and then shook, returning to his human shape within the blink of an eye.
Air caught in my lungs. Shifters couldnotslip back from a transformation that damn fast.
He cracked his neck and then his knuckles, which were also covered by black ink in the shape of mysterious symbols. “This isn’t over. I have a special talent for finding things, including people.”
“You’re not very good at it if it took you two years to find your brother’s killer.” I must have a death wish because there was no doubt that this guy could cause severe damage, and the people he hunted down probably ended up dead not long after.
A vicious grin pulled at his lips. “Don’t worry. I found you once. I’ll find you again. Then we’ll finish this.”
I flipped him off, hoping like hell he couldn’t see the tremors racing through my limbs. “I’ll have a silver bullet ready just for you.”
If I got the heart—assuming he had one—it might still kill him even if he was half demon.
He stared at me for a few tense moments and then bent his knees, jumped over the fence, and vanished into the shadows without a sound.
I slumped against the metal links, bouncing gently, and rested my hand over my heart. His scent still invaded the air, the earthy aroma of spices and leather twisting with hot fire. I could almost taste him on my tongue.
What in the ever-loving hell just happened? And why did my body buzz like it had been struck by lightning?
Boots hitting the pavement yanked my attention away from thoughts of the mysterious demon shifter, and a figure sprinted around the corner.
On instinct, my muscles relaxed, but then images of him and Roxie bombarded my mind, and steel sped through my veins, hardening everything.
