Chapter 2
For years,Kira had avoided the dangerous parts of the city at night, knowing about the demoniis hunting for human souls. But when it came to a child she cared about out there alone, and with the new threat that someone was abducting the children for whatever sick plans they had, she put aside her fear.
Three hours later and no sign of Tomas.
Liam suddenly grasped her hand and hauled her behind several dumpsters lining the wall. The decaying stench of garbage and human waste slammed her straight in the nose and had bile twisting her stomach again. Christ!
“Look,” Liam whispered, nodding toward movement farther down the alley. A dark figure dragged a kicking kid by the scruff of his neck.
“Lemme go!” the boy screeched.
It wasn’t Tomas. Still, anger surged at the mistreatment of a child and she leaped to her feet, ready to rip the jerk apart. Liam grabbed her arm and tugged her down again. “Are you crazy?” he hissed. “We need a plan first.”
“The plan is to save him!” she hissed back.
A loud slap reverberated, and the man snarled, “You don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll hurt you more.”
The bastard.Growling, Kira sprang up and marched into the alley.
Beneath the stink of piss and things she really didn’t want to know about, the faint whiff of sulfur drifted to her. Her footsteps faltered, fear constricting her lungs. Oh, shit. Not human. Demon. Hanging around Echo during her time as a demonii hunter, Kira had learned to recognize the odor.
“Kira, wait—” Liam grabbed her arm. “He’s not human.”
“I know.” Inhaling short, rapid breaths, Kira slid her hand under her fleece-lined jacket, taking comfort in the blade concealed at her back. “Hey, loser,” she yelled, hoping her bravery would finally find her and back up her voice. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
“Get lost,” the demon snarled, shooting a glare at her while hauling the still-fighting boy deeper into the alley.
“We could have just snuck up and taken him by surprise,” Liam groaned.
“There are two of us and one of him,” Kira muttered, her weapon palmed. “This world is no longer ours alone. You have to be prepared for scourges like these.”
Liam slingshot the demon, and he pitched backward, a guttural yowl echoing. They sprinted to where he crumpled on the asphalt. Liam grabbed the boy, and Kira plunged her blade into the demon. Unfortunately, he shifted last minute, and the dagger embedded in his side instead of his chest. Snarling, he blurred upright, fist lashing out and connecting with her cheek. Kira stumbled back, pain hurtling through her face.
The demon yanked free the blade and flung it aside, then hauled her by her jacket to him. “I’m going to rip you from limb to limb, bitch—make you hurt—”
“Try, scumbag!” She kneed him in the balls. Hard. He screeched and fell to the ground. Kira grabbed his hair, and snatching the other blade from her boot, she pressed the lethal edge against his carotid. “What do you want with the children?”
Red-streaked eyes sparked in defiance and chilling coldness. “I’m clearing out the vermin from your pitiful world. Be grateful, human.”
“Wrong answer.” Kira pushed the dagger tip deeper into his neck. Blood flowed. At the crimson trickle, bile rushed up her throat.Oh, hell. Her distraction cost her. The demon exploded up. A lash of his fist struck her in the chest. She flew back, landing on her backside, the wind knocked out of her.
Liam snarled. His slingshot twanged in the dark, and the demon hit the opposite wall.
A sudden ruckus erupted. Several more demons took form. “Get ‘em,” a guttural voice ordered.
Crap! This was beyond her. “Let’s get outta here!” Kira yelled at Liam. Her blade fisted, she leaped up from the ground and took off, praying she didn’t collapse from the lack of oxygen in her sore lungs.
Her fingers tingled with sharp pinpricks of power. Really?Now?
Blindside the demons by changing their hair color? She would have rolled her eyes if she weren’t running for her life. Damn, but that hit to her chest hurt.
* * *
Týr leaned against a wall in some fuck-to-nowhere backstreet and pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed a moment to get his sanity back, and Kira’s warm, hypnotic scent out of his head. Hell, he needed his head screwed on right. He was an unpinned grenade, an explosion waiting to happen, and recently, his edginess roiled too close to the surface.
No one was safe around him.
Voices from farther up the alley drifted to him. Týr lowered his hand and narrowed his eyes at the demon lounging on a bike, gabbing with his human pals, acting as if he owned the place.
