ELOISE
Something —I’m not sure what— drags me out of a deep sleep. My clock reads 4:30 a.m. I reach behind me for Damien, but he’s gone. He must’ve left for the day. That's probably what woke me. Restless, I roll over onto my back. A creek from the floorboards in the hall perks my ears.
“Damien?”
A figure moves toward me in the darkness. Smiling, I sit up to turn on the light. I realize it’s not Damien, when the cold edge of a knife presses against my throat. I scream, but I cut myself off when the blade bites into my skin. A hand fists my hair and yanks my head back. Rank breath hits me in the face, and when the stranger speaks, he has the wheeze of a long-term smoker. “Hold still and shut up, or I'll make this slow and very, very painful.”
I'm not sure how I can hold any more still. If I flinch, he’ll pull my hair out by the roots. “What do you want?”
“Let me have a look at you.” The lamp on the bedside table clicks on, and I glare into the face of a soulless killer.Empty pits watch me, his pockmarked skin and gap-toothed smile much too close. He’s balding. Late fifties. I have the instant, ominous feeling I will not leave this room alive.
“Hmmm.” His oily gaze slides over my chest, and I’m overcome with dread. I’m still naked from being with Damien. I try to draw the blankets higher to cover myself, but the man yanks them back down again.
“Please—” A warm, wet bead of what I can only assume is blood drips down my neck and slides between my breasts from where he must have cut me.
“Shhh. Close those lips, girly, or I'll have to put something between them, and you won't like it.” He chuckles. “Or maybe you will. A woman like you probably likes a lot of things.”
Icicles of fear form in my blood, and my limbs tremble.Think. Think. Think, Eloise. I assess my situation. I have only one thing going for me. My body is under the blanket, pinned down by his knee. Although my chest is exposed, he'll have to stand up to get at the rest of me, and when he does, I'll be ready. I’ll shove the knife away and sprint for the door.
As I expected, he grips the edge of the blanket and shifts onto his feet to expose me. I shove at his wrist with both hands, lean my head back, and roll toward the window. He lunges across the bed, but my feet are already under me. I dash for the door, throwing myself into the hall. My weight hits the old runner carpet and I go flying. I slide across the wood floor, my body slamming into the far wall.
He pins my back against the wall with his portly body, and this time, when the blade presses to my throat, it’s clear he means business. I grab his wrist with both hands but the sharp edge digs in. Tearsdribble from the corners of my eyes as he positions his feet for leverage to overpower me. “Could've been fun. Now I'll just have to kill you.”
“Why,” I ask, hoping to distract him as a murky shadow in the corner thickens and broadens behind him. “At least tell me why!”
The man bares his teeth, just as a horned, barbed-tail demon forms behind him —Damien in his true form. My mate releases that strange atavistic rattle I’ve heard before when he was angry, draws his clawed hand back, and swipes. My attacker has one second to spot the threat behind him before razor sharp talons rip through his lower half.
I gasp in relief as the blade drops from my throat and the stranger crumples to the floor in a heap of blood and entrails. I have to look away. I squeeze my eyes shut against the horror as Damien's growl fills the space behind me and echoes down the dimly lit hall.
“Never. Touch. What's. Mine,” he says in a voice so low and gritty it sends goosebumps marching up my arms. I doubt the man can hear him though. He has to be dead. No one could live through that.
“Fuck you,” comes a gurgling rasp. I peek over my shoulder at the man, thankful that Damien's enormous body blocks everything but the intruder's face. Blood dribbles from the corner of the stranger’s mouth but he’s alive, those dark eyes filled with a medley of pain, rage, and malice. Damien brings his fangs closer, locking eyes with the creep. The man goes limp, his pupils widening into dark disks.
“Why did you come here?” Damien demands.
“To kill Eloise Harcourt.” Venom oozes into his voice as he adds, “Shoulda done it quick.”
He came to killme. A ball of hot lead forms in my stomach.His malicious intentions were obvious but hearing him say he'dplannedto murdermespecifically chills me to the bone. Not to rob a rural home. Not to rape a woman who happened to be in it. This man I've never met before wanted to killme.
“Why? Who sent you?” Damien snarls.
“Denardi.” The man’s tone is weak and robotic. “Wants her dead.”
I stumble back toward my room, my hand reaching out to grip the doorjamb as my knees turn to gelatin. What the hell? Tony is behind this?I have to let that sink in. I can't fathom it. Why would he do something like this? Because of the house? He’s rich enough to buy any home he wants. Fuck, he could have a dozen! I always knew he was an asshole, but this is pureevil.
Images of my wedding day flash through my mind… our honeymoon… our years together. Tony had once been kind to me. He'd been affectionate. True, it didn’t last, but he must've feltsomethingfor me once. Now he wants to murder me? I have nothing… nothing aside from this house. It’s just so cruel.
“Supposed to… make it… look like a break-in,” the man adds, gurgling. He gasps, lips working like a beached fish.
“Why does Denardi want her dead?” Damien’s voice is comprised of two parts fury and one part sandpaper.
“Don't… know.”
Damien searches the man's eyes as if sifting through his thoughts, then grabs his head and twists, snapping his neck.
I squeak, sliding down the wall as my trembling legs finally give out. Damien rushes to me, gripping my shoulders and moving in close so he’s all I can see. In the time it takes me to draw my nextbreath, he’s in his human form again. “Don't tell me you expected me to show that man mercy,” he grits out.
I swallow. “No.” Tears roll freely down my cheeks. Damien has saved my life by killing an evil man. Seeing it has shaken me, but I don't think it was the wrong thing to do. “I’ve just never seen anything like that before.”
