“I found him and Khiva working through the spell that blocked him,” Conah clears up what would have been my next question.
“That means this wasn’t a random attack. Someone purposely put that drudge outside her shop. They wanted it to go after her.”
Conah rubs the back of his head.
“What? What are you thinking?” I question.
He looks at Erazel and then back over to me. “Era noticed something. And I did too.”
The way his gaze kept flickering down led me to believe that whatever he noticed I would not like.
“What is it?”
“On the corner of the lot, there was a Chinese restaurant,” Erazel says. “Five people were inside that place. The drudge never even looked in that direction.”
I rub my chin. Drudges are like bloodhounds when it comes to flesh. They will always chase after the strongest scent. And a gathering of people will always have a stronger scent. If there were more humans in the restaurant, a normal drudge would have gone for them and not a single female.
“That isn’t all,” Conah goes on to say. “When you had him in your arms, crushing him. He never tried to fight you. His focus was solely on Nasiah. Not once did he snap at you. That’s not normal.”
I think back to the incident. I was so pissed I didn’t pay attention to the drudges’ actions when I had him. But now I realize he didn’t fight me. He didn’t attack as a drudge normally would.
I didn’t respond to either man. I quickly opened a passage through the void and traveled into the bedroom. Nasiah walks out of the bathroom as I arrive, a towel wrapped around her.
“You scared me.” She clutches a hand to her breasts.
I storm over to her, grab her arm and flip it over. My heart knocks against my chest, my world spins, and my wings spring from my back. Her gasp of horror doesn’t phase me as I stare down at the mark on her arm.
I want to roar. I want to dismantle all of humankind. But I contain myself. Someone has put a death mark on Nasiah.
She finally recognizes what I’m looking at.
“What the hell?” She runs her thumb over the mark as if she’s hoping it wipes off. If only it were that simple.
“What is this?” Those brown eyes look at me with so much concern and fear.
I don’t even know how to respond to her. Telling her that she is in danger and until we find who placed the mark, she will never know peace seems like a bad idea. But lying to her keeps her in danger.
“I need you to sit,” I say, licking my lips and drawing my wings back into my back.
I guide her over to the bed. Seeing her in a towel with the dew of a fresh shower coating her skin would usually have my cock so hard it would be painful, but not even her nakedness can distract me from the danger she’s in.
“You’re scaring me,” she says once she takes her seat.
I swallow the knot in my throat. “I need you to listen to me. There are laws that prevent us from killing humans. We can possess them, beat the shit out of them, and even fuck them,but none of us are allowed to kill a human without a damn good reason.”
“What does that have to do with this mark?”
She wanted me to get to the point. I can respect that, but I needed her to know everything. Or maybe I’m just stalling. I run my hand through my hair.
“I’m getting to it, Baby. You see, as with everything, there are loopholes in our rules. We can’t just kill a human, but we can if we’re asked to by another human.”
Her gaze narrows. Nasiah is a very smart woman. I can tell by the way she’s staring at me she’s putting it together.
“Someone wants me dead?” she asks.
I nod. “Someone has put a death mark on you, granting demons, forsaken, and fallen a chance to kill you. It’s like having a bounty on your head. And they won’t stop until we find out either who ordered the mark or who placed it.”
Only a human can order a mark, but only one of us can place the fucking thing. Which means I need to find both of them.
