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It’s not like there are any other jobs available in town to give a reference to.
I storm back to my car, angry tears rolling down my cheeks. This is all Zorion’s fault. Blazing into my life and turning everything upside down, making me think about him night and day. Making me stay up until all hours poking around on crazy old websites.
The one good thing about not having to be at the grocery store all day is now I can find him and rip him a new one. Get the answers I deserve.
I reach into my bag for my car keys, but there’s a loud cracking sound behind me and suddenly everything goes black.
Chapter 7
Zorion
It’s been a long night and I only get back to the human realm when the sun is high in the sky the next day. It’s bad enough I was torn away to the portal to meet up with Dagon and Maalik when I was so close to showing Kara what a lifetime with me will be like.
The look of confusion in her eyes as I hurried away followed me to the meeting on the coast, even as I went through the portal and onto the Veiled Island of Port Nemo, where my brother and assistant told me a bunch of bullshit I didn’t want to deal with.
Demon hunter on my tail? Who gives a fuck? That’s what I wanted to say, but they were worried enough about this one to call me away from my future mate. I told them exactly what I thought about their worries and then left.
Now I’m waiting for Kara to return to her house after she’s finished with work. Her grandfather is inside, resting in front of their television, so I don’t want to bother him. I sit at the edge of the forest, ignoring the prickle at the back of my neck, like someone’s watching me.
I shrug it off. It’s only Dagon and Maalik’s hysterical warning getting to me. If there reallyisa demon hunter roaming free in the human realm who’s painted a target on my back, then let him show himself. I’m in a foul enough mood for a fight and a fool like him can pick it if he wants to.
I look up at the position of the sun in the sky. It’s well past time for her to arrive home, and I don’t want to wait any longer. When I knock at the back door of the house, it feels like it takes forever for her grandfather to open it. He looks distraught, his phone in his hand.
“Hello, Zorion,” he greets me absently, looking down at the phone as if willing it to ring. “I’m afraid I can’t spend any time with you and the bees right now. Kara’s late getting home and I’m trying to reach her.”
I step past him into the house. “Perhaps she’s doing overtime at her job?” I ask hopefully, that prickling at the back of my neck intensifying. Something’s not right, but I don’t want to face it yet.
Her grandfather’s shoulders slump. “That’s the first place I called. Mae said she got fired this morning. She hasn’t been there all day.”
“She’s upset,” I say, vowing to find the person who fired her and make them pay. “Maybe she’s at her favorite bar?”
He shakes his head vigorously. “She doesn’t drink at all. And I’ve already been in touch with her friends. No one’s heard from her.” He looks down, bereft, his hands shaking. “Her phone just goes straight to voicemail, and that’s not like her, either.”
I turn away, opening up a mental connection with Dagon.
Well, well, well, he drawls.Taking things seriously now?
I growl in warning.Shut up and tell me what you know. Or find out.
He grumbles something about how I really am an asshole when a woman’s involved as he connects with Vassago, my father’s assistant. If anyone knows anything, it’ll be him. A few minutes later, not even a blink to Kara’s grandfather, Dagon gets back to me.
He says there’s a strange energy reading in the woods near your location. Do you need exact coordinates?he asks.
I’m about to tell him that of course I do, but I’m torn away from the connection by an earth-shattering scream from the forest. It’s unnaturally amplified, but Kara’s grandfather doesn’t even seem to hear it, which means it’s aimed solely at me. The sound of her fear tears through me, twisting my gut into knots.
I don’t spare a moment to tell her grandfather where I’m going, choosing instead to race toward the sound of her cry. As my feet tear through the undergrowth and duck under low hanging branches, it all falls into place. The hunter must have been tracking me, and saw me with Kara at some point over the past few days. The loathsome creatures will stoop to any level to bring in a bounty, especially one as valuable as me. Nothing will stop a hunter from pursuing their prey, not even an innocent human.
Another scream rings out and I swerve to change directions and follow it. By the time I pass the clearing with the beehives, the place where I’d first noticed Kara’s intoxicating scent, I’m filled with enough rage to sink a dozen ships. To crack a mountain in two. I thunder past the hives, the sounds of Kara crying becoming clearer and clearer. No longer amplified. She’s close.
I stop when I see her come into view. She’s tied to a tree, her long chestnut hair in a tangle around her face as if the hunter had dragged her by it. My fists clench and I let out a menacing roar.
“Show yourself, coward.”
The hunter steps out from behind Kara’s tree, leaning down to wrap his filthy fingers around her pale throat. “I thought you’d come for this little treat,” he says, sliding his hand down to her chest.
She recoils, trying to kick him. Even through my fury, I’m proud of her fire. It’s time for me to handle the asshole who’s touching my woman.
I transform into my copperhead form, but my intense anger makes me grow to my true size. Even the psychotic hunter pauses in his taunts when he’s faced with me, thick as a tree trunk and long enough to wrap around one multiple times. I rear back and show him my fangs, how I could eat him in a handful of bites, that he’s little more than a snack to someone of my power. But these are truly crazy and he decides to put up a fight, rushing for me.
