What will the army people do if they find out I eviscerated a dozen humans this time? Will they send their new hunter and sorcerer friends against us and all our other allies?
My hands squeeze around the wheel so tightly my claws gouge the material covering it.
Ihaveto defend my mate. I have to make them pay…
But what if there are better ways of making them pay that don’t come back to hurt us even more? That’s what Peri would want, isn’t it?
She’s the one who taught me I could be more than just a killer. That my power doesn’t have to be completely brutal.
My gut stays knotted, but a spot of warmth blooms in my chest alongside the stream of her love. I want to protect my mateandmake her proud.
My sense of her presence grows stronger by the second. I swerve around a stand of trees, wincing at the screech of a branch I didn’t quite avoid scraping the roof.
A cluster of human figures comes into view up ahead next to a familiar van.
As I hit the brakes, the humans startle and scramble apart. I spot Peri’s vibrant turquoise hair in their midst where she’s sitting in a chair. Her head ticks toward me, but it looks like her arms and legs are tied in place.
A growl slips from my lips. I spring into the open air through the shadows, not bothering with the door.
A few of the humans are running toward me rather than away, holding more of their nets and whips. I’m ready for them this time.
Before they get within ten feet of me, I narrow my eyes and let just the thinnest punch of poison exude from my basilisk gaze.
One and then another figure goes rigid and topples over on the ground. More of their companions charge over, having grabbed weapons of their own, but they hesitate after seeing how quickly I took down their colleagues.
I don’t care if they’re having second thoughts. I’m not leaving anyone willing to fling those toxic things at me conscious while I free my mate.
A renewed flare of rage hazes my vision. I suck in a breath and shut my eyes for long enough to quell the worst of my fury.
I will not let their monstrousness make me more of a monster.
With rigid control, I glance from one to the next of our attackers. They drop like flies in a gust of insect spray, but they’re not dead.
A few others remain, huddled by the van empty-handed. I stride toward them and Peri, letting my voice come out harsh. “Do I need to knock you out too?”
“No! No, please, no! Don’t kill us!” One of the men cowers with his hands raised in appeal.
I grimace at him. “I didn’t kill anyone. They’ll wake up in a couple of hours—when my mate and I are far away from you.Idon’t hurt people when I don’t need to.”
“That’s right,” Peri says, her voice as bright as the sun.
When I look at her, her beaming smile lights me up the way nothing else can. I hustle the rest of the way to her, eyeing the glinting ropes wrapped around her limbs?—
And a roar that’s not mine reverberates over the low hill several paces away from us.
As I brace in reaction, a tiger-like creature with talons protruding from its paws—and too many other places as well—crashes down the slope. It barrels toward the van and the three humans now frozen in fear there.
I have to admit that my first instinct is to let it have them. Why should I extend myself to shield three beings who held my mate prisoner?
But in that first instant, it’s obvious that if Idon’tintervene, the warped shadowkind will kill them. And I can’t convince myself that’s particularly better than if I had murdered them.
Restraining a sigh of resignation, I spring into the creature’s path.
I don’t kill it either. It deserves the chance for Peri’s joyful energy to work her magic and simmer down its temper, if this being is capable of chilling out. Like with the humans, I only aim a portion of my gaze’s power at the creature.
At first, it merely stumbles. Shadowkind aren’t quite as fragile as mortal beings. When I glower at it with a little more intensity, it stiffens up. It flops over on its side with awhoomphand a spray of dust.
The humans stare at the creature that nearly mowed them down, their jaws slack. I will my contacts back into my eyes and glower at them in the non-basilisk way. “You’re welcome. Now how about you untie my mate?”
