“You make it so easy,Sicari…” His avaricious gaze shifted to Ely. “Iwanther. The human females in the other demesne, their sexual energy is like sewer water, but hers…” He groaned, twisting the blade deeper into Aba’s chest. His sire’s jaw clenched. “It’s like a life-giving sustenance.”
A dark rage swept through Nate—Ely’sfury.She moved—
No! This is my fight, Ely. My vengeance!
Nate held onto his bubbling anger as her frustration swept through him. This bastard was pushing him, testing him. If he made any move, the coward would kill his sire. He had to get him away from Aba.
“You and Pangur?” Nate snapped, trying to distract him, had no idea if they were in cohorts with each other.
Amped up on his ego, Derrodus snorted. “Pangur wanted power. He hunted you for your weakness and symbiont, making everything so easy for me…” In a blur, the cur flung out a power blast with one hand.
Nate barely evaded the perilous blow to his chest, Ely’s anxiety rolling within him. And he shut down their mate bond, he didn’t want her sensing his unease at not knowing what his abilities were now, or if he had any at all. No matter, he could still fucking fight without weapons—
“Powerless, indeed.” The ass laughed. “Finally, I get to be the one to take down the champion of the death arena.” Derrodus couldn’t stop his freakin’ crowing. “Know this,Sicari, I will fuck her in my pleasure den. Don’t worry, she will enjoy it. Everyone will revere me when I let them feed on her sweet orgasmic energy—”
Nate’s tightly leashed control snapped. He flashed out his hand, and Derrodus froze for a second, then snarled, “You will regret that!”
Red-faced, he pulled out the dagger, and punched his fist into Aba’s chest, a pained grunt echoed. The vermin yanked hard and held out his sire’s pumping heart, dripping blood. Aba collapsed to the ground.
“No!”An icy wave of rage slung out of Nate and shot toward Derrodus, freezing him along with the flame he’d produced to incinerate Aba’s beating heart. Something else within Nate uncoiled as if all his cells, every single atom stretched and shifted then coalesced together, reforming. Nate flung out his hands, and Derrodus rose from the ground.
“What the hell?” he snarled.
Ely blurred toward the demon, leaped high, and grabbed the shuddering heart. “Get Aba!”
Males—Guardians—appeared, and one of them carried his sire’s crumpled form away. Power roiled within Nate, and he watched it all unfold as if from a distance.
Derrodus screeched. His neck tendons bulging, he fought Nate’s invisible restraints, grunting as he strained to summon his powers and break free. Then he stilled, brow creasing in confusion. He stared at his pale hands, beading with red dots, and scrubbed furiously at his skin, but only succeeded in spreading the bloody smears. More globules of red formed on his face and neck, plasma seeping from every pore, every orifice.
His two minions shrieked and flashed away.
“I’ll get those scourges,” a male grunted.
Nate’s rage didn’t subside. Retribution burned through his every molecule. His back grew heavy.
Derrodus’ bleeding eyes widened. “What blackened spell is this?”
“No spell,” Nate said, tone flat, his massive appendages fluttering out behind him. “Payback.”
“Angel wings? No! You’renothing. A weakling with no symbioooo—”
Derrodus folded over. Nate released his psychic hold on the vermin, and he fell to the asphalt on his knees, shrieking and grabbing his head.
“I am your reckoning, scourge!”
The demon’s eyeballs rolled out of their sockets and fell in messy plops to the ground. His body caved and started to melt, his screams morphing into whimpers of pure agony.
Absently, Nate watched as the demon’s head compressed, and his sniveling stopped. Gray matter and gore oozed from every orifice. He collapsed to the asphalt in a bloody mess of liquified flesh and bones.
“Damn. That power’s similar to what Jenna once possessed,” someone muttered.
“Guess it had to go back to its source,” another said. “But that sure is some scary shit.”
A ball of churning dark fog lifted out of the puddle of Derrodus, hovered, then flew off to the side. An annoyed grunt echoed in the absolute stillness. “Shit, that’s one soul of pure malevolence. I feel it…”
The convo faded.
As the rage within Nate settled, his thoughts crashed back online. The moon cast a pale light over the grisly scene marring the slushy asphalt. Nate inhaled sharply and shut his eyes, letting the silver rays seep through him. His pulsing symbionts siphoned the light’s energy as his entire being resettled…
