That was unforgivable.
My gaze lifted from the screen, the decision already made.
“Identify the demon,” I said, my voice low and lethal, leaving no room for delay.
“I know where he’ll likely be.” Torin’s jaw set, and he gave me a firm nod. Of course he did. As head of my security, he knew more about what went on in my club than even I did.
I handed him the broken tablet without looking at it again, the image of her standing alone burned too deeply into my mind to require repetition.
“Good,” I said, already turning away before adding,
“Because I intend to make an example out of him.”
Somewhere deep beneath restraint, my demon stirred in anticipation. The shift was immediate the moment I stepped onto the lower level.
Conversations died mid-sentence. Laughter was effectively cut short. The music didn’t stop, but it seemed to soften, muffled beneath the sudden weight of my presence. Fear bloomed, fast and ripe, spreading in instinctive waves as bodies turned, heads bowed, eyes averted far too late.
This fear was familiar.
It curled through me like smoke, dark and potent, sinking into my bones with a satisfaction I did not bother to deny. My demon stirred fully now, uncoiling with approval, feeding on the tension that thickened the air with every step I took forward. This was the type of fear I had earned. The fear I deserved.
Not like hers.
Torin moved at my side, silently, his gaze already scanning the room. I did not need him to point anything out. I could feel the disturbance like a bruise against my awareness. A knot ofunease that did not belong to the crowd as a whole but clung to a single presence near the bar.
There.
My demon growled.
The effect rippled outward, a visible hesitation as the space around me cleared without instruction. No one needed to be told to move.They felt it.
They felt the darkness rise from my skin as it unfurled, feeding on the fear already thick in the room. I didn’t even need to nod to Torin before he made a cutting motion across his neck for the music to be silenced.
“The mortal girl,” I stated, my voice carrying easily over the space, over the few brave murmurs, and over the collective breath held too long.
“She is under my protection.” Silence fell hard then.
“She is not prey…” I continued, each word spoken like a ruling.
“She is not entertainment, and furthermore,she is not to be touched, followed, spoken to, or fed from.”I let the pause stretch, allowed the weight of it to settle into the bones of everyone present before I made my final point law…
“She is mine!”
The declaration landed like a verdict.
I felt it then, the spike of panic from the demon near the bar, sharp and sudden as recognition set in.
Too fucking late, asshole.
He tried to shrink into the background, to make himself smaller and forgettable. But fear had already betrayed him, bleeding through the crowd like ink through water.
Torin inclined his head slightly, and I bared my teeth, my fangs growing in anticipation as I moved. The distance closed in a blink, my hand catching the demon by the throat before he could so much as scream. Gasps rippled through the onlookersas I lifted him from the floor with effortless strength, his feet kicking uselessly as his hands scrabbled against my wrist.
“You thought that because she was mortal, that she was unclaimed,” I said quietly, leaning in close enough for only him to hear. His terror spiked, raw and choking, and I inhaled deeply, savoring it.
“I am correcting that mistake.”I did not tear him apart. That would have been too quick.Too merciful.
Instead, I let my power seep into him slowly, crushing, compressing, turning bone and muscle into something more pliable beneath my grip. His scream tore free then, echoing through the club as he collapsed inward, body folding under the weight of my judgment.
