She ground her jaw but then nodded, having no idea I was lying.
Fine, I was too powerful for many to read, but peoplecould. She was clueless.
I texted the team to hang back. I wanted real answers without doing what demons did to get them. I—the puzzle wasn’tfilling in as it should be. And given how my mind worked, that was actually most important to me right then.
There was too muchweirdgoing on when I wasn’t someone in the dark or who kept their head in the sand. Vamps designing drugs to wipe our power and leave us human weak. Finding demons who were still human and hadn’t turned yet.
Just… Weird. Too many weird things.
I finished my pedicure, noting it wasn’t great, but still tipping well and heading outside with my new friend. I rolled my eyes as she stomped over to her vehicle, but I blocked her from the door just to be safe.
“Say what you need to and then—”
“Are you having a fucking laugh?” I demanded, not holding back anymore. “You judge me when youkill?I’ve been looking—”
“We all kill to feed,” she sighed. “Don’t act like you don’t, or do you just close your eyes and walk away to pretend that they’re still alive.”
I slowly blinked at her. “No, we don’t.” I held up my hand to her when she opened her mouth. “I killed when I changed. Yes. I’ve killed to survive and killed bad people.”
Her face changed. “Oh, then you’re like me, not the other leeches.”
“Vampires?”
She snorted. “No, demons. They only drink blood. Demons feed from life and—”
“You are one!” I blasted.
“I can’t help what I am, only what I do with it,” she threw right back. “I don’t feed like others and—”
Nope, nope,nope!I was done.
I shoved her against the vehicle and pinned her there. “You’re a mass murderer. I’ve been chasing you foryears. Youare the monster I’ve been hunting, not other demons. We feed all the time andno one dies.”
“That’s not possible.” She scoffed but then slowly started to frown. “No, that’s not—I’ve met other demons. I’ve known other leeches who—”
“Yes, we can accidentally kill our first time,” I told her firmly. “A lotdon’t. I did on accident because three men tried to rape me and it just all happened. Some demons can’t even kill in a feed.”
She was almost with me until that last part and then she snorted. “Like you’re some sort of authority or—”
“Yeah, I am,” I assured her. “I’m with the newly formed demon council.” I blew out a long breath when she snorted again. “What rock have you been living under?” I felt better when she flinched at least. “Yeah, I’m not the one out of the loop here. You are.”
She swallowed loudly but then tried to muster up some courage. “Look, I don’t have to listen to you and—”
“You do actually,” one of our guys said as he came over. “People got nosy, Councilwoman. We’re handling it.”
“Good work,” I praised. “Let’s get her out of—”
“No, I still have one more to finish,” she argued.
“One more tomurder,” I hissed. “No, you’ve killed enough.”
She made the mistake of trying to fight and run, so I knocked her ass out and glamoured us.
Idiot.
Then again… I would never have given up either. It just wasn’t in me.
Then again, I would have been caught by bad people, not picked up for being a murderer.
