“I haven’t done anything,” Luka protested, struggling to free himself from Dagan’sgrip.
“Haven’t you now?” Dagan asked, tone dangerously pleasant. “We can do this the easy way. Or the hard… I’m really hoping you’ll choose the latter. Tell me about the female, Jenna. Where isshe?”
“I don’t know what—” Luka’s dark gaze flashed to Shae and glowed red in understanding. “You fuckingwhore—”
Dagan punched him in the face. Bones crunched. Blood flowed. “Never speak to my mate that wayagain.”
Luka roared, clutching his nose. A wave of his hand, and his face healed. A flash of metal reflected in the moonlight. He leaped at Dagan, who didn’t even attempt to evade theattack.
Nooo!Shae darted tohim.
“Don’t.” He flung out his hand, stopping her, jaw tight as Luka slashed at him. She bounced against the invisible barrier that had sprung up betweenthem.
Dagan trapped Luka with invisible restraints against the wall. The demon squirmed, scratching at his throat with one hand, trying to break free of the psychic hold, his skin taking on a red, leathery appearance, before morphing back to the frat boy. His eyes bulged from their sockets as if he were choking. He rasped, “You don’t know whom you’re dealingwith.”
“And you, it seems, want to learn the many ways I can make you scream without touchingyou.”
The dagger in Luka’s hand rose and pressed against his neck. Slowly, it started digging into his flesh. A raucous growl erupted as blood seeped from thehole.
“Where. Is. Jenna.Ion?”
“Fuckoff.”
The blade sank deeper. A cry rattled out of the demon as if his larynx weredamaged.
“You don’t talk, you’ll killyourself.”
More blood spurted from his deepening wound. Perhaps finally realizing just how precarious his situation was and whom he was dealing with, Luka choked out, “Let me go, and I’ll tell you where sheis.”
Dagan folded his arms and waited. Shae was aware that he could simply kill the demon and get his last memories off the blade he held, so why was he torturinghim?
“She’s in a warehouse in the Bronx. You won’t get in, she’s heavilyguarded.”
“Address?”
After some stuttering and gurgles, and with the blade pushing deeper, the demon gasped out the answer. And the dagger sliced him clean across the carotid. Blood gushed. He slumped to the ground. Seconds later, his body shimmered and crumpled into ash before vanishing. Not even a spot of blood remained. The blade on the ground melted into a lump of steel, and with a wave of his hand, Dagan flung it into a nearbydumpster.
Shae stood there, frozen to the spot. She knew he was lethal, but to see him kill so coldly and without any bodily contact shocked her. “Why?”
He cut her a flat look. A tick pulsed hard on his jaw. “He and the rest of those assholes have had your mother imprisoned for sixmonths.”
They did. God. She rubbed her cheek, unable to bear the thought. “Wait, there were two other demons withhim.”
“Both dead.” At the chilly tone behind her, Shae wheeled around. Hedori stood a foot back, his expression scarier than Dagan’s icyone.
“I’ll be back,” Dagan told Hedori, grasping her hand. “I’ll see Shae to thecastle.”
Uneasiness twisting her stomach, she shut her eyes and held on tight as he dematerialized them. They took form again at the castle portico. He ushered her into the brightly lit foyer and, without a word, turned toleave.
“Wait.” She grasped his arm. His muscles tensed beneath her fingers. “I’m coming with you, I want to be there when you findher.”
“Don’t push me, Shae,” he said in a dangerously low tone. “Don’t make me do something we’ll bothregret.”
“What? You’ll lock me up in the basementagain?”
“Are you really going to start an argument you won’t win while your mother’s held captive?” His bright eyes burned with suppressed anger. “The deal when I agreed to that asinine plan of yours was that once we got the address, you’d let me handle therest—”
“Asinine?” she retorted. “We got a location, didn’twe?”
“I could have gotten it regardless—and with less fuss. I only agreed soyouwouldn’t insist on going with me to find yourmother.”
“Damn you, Dagan,” she bit out in frustration. Why had she thought she could change his mind? The man was like a damnrock.
Those cold eyes held hers. “I’m already damned, Shae. Don’t you know that? And very easily since you are my mate. Your part’s done. You will keep your promise and remainbehind.”
Then hevanished.
