Someone screamed. Selma wasn’t sure if it was her or Marie. Maybe it was both of them. She stared at the place the officer had stood less than a second ago, her eyes refusing to focus on what was there now.
But then a horrific clarity set in. Marathin, drenched in blood, stood in front of the small nurse, his hand outstretched and clenched around something round and red. She could see his profile, see that his eyes were locked on Marie, who stood trembling in front of him, a small noise leaving her petrified lips with each of her rapid breaths.
The officer... Selma’s eyes shifted to the ground between the demon and the nurse, and her blood froze in her veins. The policeman’s chest cavity had been ripped open, blood oozing from the hole where his heart had been.
His heart.
The thing Marathin was clutching in his hand—the same hand that had been intimately caressing her not a moment ago—was a man’s heart.
Her mind went blank a second before she doubled over to throw up.
“No, no, no. Please, no!” The sound of Marie’s desperate voice rose over Selma’s retching. “Please, don’t kill me, please! Oh god, what are you? No! N—gh!”
“Don’t.” Selma gasped between heaves, supporting her trembling arms against the desk. “Don’t hurt her, please.”
When she looked up to plead with him, he’d already locked his bloodied fist around Marie’s slim neck, the heart tossed carelessly to the floor.
“Marathin!” Panic finally made its way through her disbelief and she stumbled around the desk to throw herself at the demon. “Please, no!”
He pushed her away with his free hand, ignoring her desperate attempts at wrestling his grip loose from the struggling woman. “Worthless human cunt.”
Then he clenched his fist, snapping the neck of the young woman who’d tried to save her.
“What did you do?” Bile filled Selma’s throat again as she slid to the floor where he tossed the nurse’s still-warm body next to the officer’s corpse.
“Oh god, no, no, no!” Her lungs felt too big for her body, pressing against her ribs and threatening to break them apart. How could he... How could they... They were dead. He’d killed them.
“Be calm.”
She looked up through her tears and saw his face smoothing into its normal lines, as if the savage snarl spread across his features mere moments ago had never existed. As if he hadn’t just slaughtered someone in front of her.
Calm?
“You killed them,” she croaked. A shiver was making its way through her body until she was shaking on the floor in front of him.
“Of course I did.” He frowned down at her. “I will not tolerate human interference with our plans, and certainly not from some human thinking he can tell me to step away from my mate.” Without waiting for her response, he grabbed her underneath her armpits and lifted her up. “Come. You need to go back to your room and clean up while I get rid of their bodies.”
She didn’t move. Blood dripped from her thighs and legs to the floor where he’d placed her. She’d sat in the officer’s blood without realizing it, and now she stared at the deep red streaked across her pale skin.
“Selma!” the demon snapped. She flinched when he pressed his large hand against her cheek to bring her into his chest. It was splattered with blood that smeared over her face when he crushed her against him.
“Humans,” he muttered against the top of her head before pulling back so he could lift her.
He carried her to his office chair where he sat her down, turning it away from the bodies. “Wait here. I will rinse my hands and get you something to help you relax.”
She sat silently, staring at his many books while he left the room. Moments later he was back, once again lifting her by the armpits as if she didn’t weigh more than a small child.
He got her dressed and pressed a blue pill into the palm of her hand.
“Look at me.”
She did, wondering how even a demon could be capable of such cruelty.
“You’re in shock, sweetheart.” His voice had once again lowered to the soft, kind tone he’d used to coax her to relax before. “I apologize; I didn’t consider how a young Breeder would experience it. I should have taken you back to your room first so you didn’t have to see it. I will make it up to you later. For now, I need you to go back to the room and take a shower. Then take this pill. It will help you sleep, and when you wake up, all this will be taken care of.”
Was she in shock? There was an odd numbness in the pit of her stomach that had spread through her entire body, leaving an unpleasant sensation of an echo in her mind, but she heard everything he said. And she understood everything that had happened.
“Selma.” He stroked her hair. “Can you do this for me, my sweet?”
