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I lifted my hands, showing my palms. “Calm down, man. You don’t want to start anything with me.”
A haze clouded his unfocused black eyes, the confusion in them crystal clear. He sniffed the air and lowered his front paws back to the ground.
A breath of relief burst out of my lungs, and my shoulders slumped. My heart still tapped out a frantic beat while a dribble of sweat slid down my temple. “You should change back to your human form, so we can talk about why you barged in here to attack me.” I took a step away from the couch.
“No!” Fane’s arm slammed against my sternum, stopping me from getting closer to the shifter.
I scoffed. “What is your problem, Maverick? I can have a conversation—”
A vicious roar tore out of the bear’s mouth. And then he charged.
ChapterSix
The bear’spaws thundered against the floor as he stormed toward me, rage mixing with the confusion in his eyes. I shuffled back and slammed into the edge of the glass coffee table, losing my balance.
Why did I have to be drunk now?
As I tumbled to the ground, the bear pounced.
“Tate!” Fane rushed over, but like earlier, he could only stand by and watch the shifter’s massive teeth try to sink into my neck.
Hot breath fanned my face, and saliva dripped on my throat. Another growl belted out of the shifter. My heart hammered the inside of my chest, and my arms were the only things keeping him from locking his jaw around my neck.
But my strength waned, and I lacked my usual coordination thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol I’d consumed.
“You have to call on your shifter strength.” Fane kneeled next to me, his stare burning holes into my skull.
“I can’t!”
He cursed. “Don’t be stupid. You’re going to transform one day. It might as well be today.”
“You don’t understand,” I gritted out, my arms shaking from the bear's weight. His musky scent barreled into my senses, and I gagged as more thick saliva oozed on my chin. “I’m afraid I’ll tap into the Infernal Sol instead. You saw what I was like when we fought those demons after jumping out of Logan’s apartment.” I’d tormented that female demon, slowly killing her and reveling in her pain. If Fane hadn’t intervened, I would have prolonged her suffering even more. And enjoyed it.
That night, I’d begun to transform into a demon shifter hybrid with eyes like Fane’s, but the Infernal Sol had taken over and warped the darkness in me into something of nightmares.
That cruel creature with a taste for violence wasn’t anything I wished to become ever again. Its ominous power already raked just below my surface, and if I gave in, it could take me whole.
“I don’t give a fuck how dark you go. Just don’t die.” Fane slapped the ground near my head, making me turn in his direction. “Please.”
Something in his eyes, fear or desperation, drilled right into my soul. My heart clenched, and for a moment, it was just the two of us.
“Please, Tate.”His voice held so much emotion that my throat tightened, and my vision burned with unshed tears, blurring the room.
He would beg me. Fane Maverick would beg me to do whatever I needed to survive.
“Okay,” I said, even as trepidation and unease coated my veins in frost. “I’ll do it.”
I searched for the shifter inside, recalling those sensations I experienced when Fane had tried to help me transform on my first full moon. My consciousness brushed against the mystical creature longing to come out, and soothing warmth bled through my veins. The primal, wild—but not uncontrollable—presence opened her arms for me, willing me to embrace her.
And then, like I feared, that sharp, searing, addicting power of the Infernal Sol rushed forward. My muscles locked up, and I tried to focus on the welcoming shifter magic, but the amulet overpowered everything.
Violence and wickedness flowed through my system, poisoning me faster than any drug or potion could. My senses sharpened as my strength grew. That sinister presence took hold, washing away all my morals and leaving only that menacing shadow behind.
The bear paused his struggle as he sensed that I was not the same creature he pinned to the ground.
I kicked him into the coffee table, his heavy form demolishing it and falling into a pile of glass and wood. My muscles moved before I consciously willed them to, and I rolled into an inhuman crouch, releasing a low, eerie snarl.
“Just knock him out, Teague.” Fane crouched next to me with his pupils in slits like mine. I didn’t need to see my reflection to know they’d changed.
