“All too well,” he muttered.“Let’s go.”
The sirens became deafening as he reached for her hand, butbefore he flashed them out of there, he saw movement out of the corner of hiseye.He whipped his head around sofasta human wouldhave suffered from whiplash.Drayger’s head, there it was, sticking out fromunder the bed.And it was...collapsing.
Hawkyn’s gaze flicked from body part to body part.His arms,legs, torso...all the parts were deflating like tires with no air.
“What’s going on?”Lexi stared at the scene in horror.“Ithought he was human.”
“I thought so too.”A sudden, terrifying thought popped intohis head, and as he watched Drayger’s remains become nothing but empty skins,he understood what was happening.“Oh, shit,” he whispered.“Oh...fuck.”
“What?”Lexi tugged on his arm.“Tell me!”
“Drayger wasn’t human.He was a fucking bludgolem.”
“A what?”
He wracked his brain for information he’d stored away sincehis first years of training, when he’d been required to learn about every typeof known demon.Bludgolems were rare, so rare he’d never seen one, nor heard ofanyone encountering one.But there were rumors.Lots of rumors.
“They’re like viruses.They infect hosts, usually children.They spend years infecting the child’s mind, and they’re only released when thehost dies.”
“Released?Sothe bludgolem isstill alive?”
“And looking for a new host.”
“Another child?”
He shook his head.“According to legend, if they haveunfinished business, they’ll infect an adult, and they’ll take over, using theperson to finish whatever it is—” He broke off with a curse.“Aurora.”
“Who?”
He didn’t bother replying.He grabbed Lexi’s hand andflashed to Underworld General, dropped her off in the parking lot, and flashedback to Aurora’s house.
The screams reached his ears before he’d even fullymaterialized.
ChapterNineteen
The ward Aurora had set should have stopped thestranger from coming into her house.It hadn’t even slowed him.
As she sprinted toward the front door, another scream ofterror and pain lodged in her throat.Blood dripped to her hardwood floor fromthe stab wound in her arm.She shouldn’t have investigated the noise in herbedroom.She should have trusted her instincts and run out of the house.Instead, she’d found the bastard climbing through her bedroom window.
Silver fire hadn’t even slowed him.
Suddenly, there was a flash, and a dark-haired guy with ascythe popped into the living room, putting himself between her and thestranger.
“Not today, fucker,” he snarled.
Her guardian?Had to be.He resembled Hawkyn too closely tobe anything else.
And damn, but he had good timing.
Another flash, and Hawkyn was there, menace rolling off himin a tangible wave, both hands gripping swords.He cast her a reassuring smile,and then he was shoulder to shoulder with his brother, forming a wall she knewnothing would get through.
The air around them went icy and still, and she swore shecould feel their desire to fight.This was what they’d been bred to do, andanticipation wrapped around them like armor.
The stranger attacked, and within seconds it was apparentthat the man who looked like a skinhead was not entirely human.Sharp,needle-like teeth replaced the tame human grille, fingers morphed into wicked,raptor-like claws, and its screech threatened to shatter her eardrums.
“Maddox!”Hawkyn shouted.“Flank him!”
Hawkyn moved like a dancer, a deadly, lightning-fast dancer.His blades whirled as if they were in a blender, cutting and slicing as Maddoxcarved chunks out of the stranger with his scythe and with some sort ofelectrical ability that left thin, smoking gashes all over the demon’s body.
