The beast within Nate snarled in challenge, the sound rumbling in his throat—
Fuck! Jaw clenched, he hastily bolted his mind shields, shutting the fucker out. He gave Azgor a perceptible nod, a courtesy he demanded, then removed the pouch with the red crystal orbs from his jeans pocket. “Demon’s taken care of. Artifacts retrieved.”
He crossed to the craggy boulders and set the sack on one.
“Why is it everyone thinks they can simply take off with my possessions and there won’t be repercussions, hmm?” Azgor scooped up and poured the bright orange lava over his domed skull and jagged horns. The flaming sludge slid over his leathery umber skin and down his torso.
Nate didn’t answer, knew it was Azgor’s way of reminding him what was at stake. If Nate didn’t toe the line, he would be killed, too, no matter how many fights he won or how good his kill-and-retrieve record was.
“I have a match arranged in two human weeks.”
Shit. His gut twisted. So soon? “No—”
“You forget the symbionts that give you life and power belong to me.” His dark eyes flashed red, pinning Nate’s as he poured more lava on his biceps.
Yes, remind him of that, like he didn’t know. It restarted his fucking life, and now he had to live in constant battle with a monstrous side that refused to give him peace. Another match, and it just might be his last.
“It was supposed to be a fightafterthefourthblood moon rising!” Nate reminded him, shoving his clenched fists into his jeans pockets, and only two had passed. This was his damn life on the line, and how he died should be his fucking choice!
“And I can change my mind.”
Anger careened through Nate, and his belly rolled because there was nothing he could do.
Azgor ruled the region of Ys with an iron fist and was as merciless as the barren realm to dissenters, thieves, and whoever the fuck went against him. Nate knew becausehedid the gruesome jobs. Still, for some reason, he never understood—and Aba had merely shrugged when he’d asked, not knowing either—Azgor allowed Nate more leeway than any of the other subjugated minions who worked for him.
“As a show of goodwill,” Azgor said. “Here…” A small box appeared with a click of his fingers, hovering in the dense, boiling air, an arm’s length away. “It’s what you’ve been after, isn’t it?”
Nate’s breath cemented in his lungs.Aba’s soul?
Azgor rose and stood in the flaming lava pool, scorching red sludge sliding down his naked body like molasses. His leathery skin cracked, revealing veins of red-hot plasma. He smiled, revealing a perfect set of teeth as his demonic form shimmered into a tall, lean male with pale features and a shock of green-streaked brown hair. “Take it.”
Nate didn’t move.
Why now when he never had before?
“It’s only a part of it.” Azgor nodded at the gleaming lead box. “For the other half…” He flicked back his steaming hair. “Fight when I want you to and continue as mySicarifor, let’s say, onehumandecade, and your debt to me—which means your sire’s, too—is paid in full.”
Nate’s heart nearly crashed through his ribs at the possibility.
A human decade was a mere blink for demons, but fuck. This was about his sire’s soul, one he wanted more than anything.
The nailed demon moaned.
“Don’t mistake my generosity for weakness.” Azgor’s stare went dead-cold. “Go against my wishes, and I will kill your sire. You will be bound to this world, never to set foot on the human one for the rest of your life.”
“On one condition,” Nate countered. He didn’t trust the bastard, who, for some reason, wanted him like a dog after a bone. “If anything happens to me before the decade’s up, you will return the other half of my sire’s soul.” He was fucked anyway, and chances were he might not last that long in the damn death fights.
Azgor lifted an eyebrow. Then he laughed, the sound like rusty nails on metal as if he knew better. “Very well,Sicari.”
His easy acquiescence didn’t bode well. As the Demon of Voracity, Azgor never gave up anything. Ever. It was all about possession. So what the fuck was he up to?
But Nate didn’t care. If it got his sire’s soul back, he’d fight every damn day to the death. He caught the hovering container, and a faint warmth seeped into his palm. “I’ll be here.”
“Good.” Azgor flicked his fingers, and the demon tacked to the rockface tore free and was flung straight into the flaming magma pool, his pitiful whimpers snapping off as the ravenous flames consumed him, turning him to ash.
Then Azgor and his pet, along with the pouch on the rocks, vanished without a stir of the heated air.
Nate pocketed the lead box and flashed out of the volcano to the barren place where he’d entered the realm, and inhaled a deep breath of acrid, ashy air, wishing he could feel something, anything, knowing what was left of his life was now tied to an insatiable demon. But all he felt was a yawning emptiness.
