Urias, this was so out of her depth. Usually, she killed and walked away without remorse after sending those Dark Realm deadbeats, who stole human souls, straight to Purgatory. But this? He hadn’t done anything for her to warrant killing him, except for her tormenting her, putting her on a rooftop, then sniffing her, and exacerbating her ire—
Wait a darn minute! He’d been with those blood demons who’d fed on the human, and he’d been feeding, too.
You don’t know that for sure.
“Were you part of those blood demons who captured the human?” she demanded.Darn, he’d just say no—
“What do you think?” He gave her a tight-lipped smirk.
—or say that and provoke her.Damn pain in her backside.
Ely frowned then, recalling him yelling at the demons to stop. Did that make him a good guy or the leader of the pack? Ugh. She glowered as her ire fizzled.
But she refused to apologize. He’d been an ass back then. Still was.
With no way out of the quagmire she found herself in, she snapped, “I know demons can self-heal. Do what you must, and never interfere in my business again! Or it will be the last breath you take.”
He laughed outright, irritating her like no one ever had. “Ah,laika, how can I stop when you’re a temptation beyond any dream? Not that my dreams are any good, you get me? But you are one I cannot resist.”
“Try.”
* * *
Try?This female.
The moment he arrived back on Earth, he had to bump into her.
Nate gripped the weapon stuck in his gut and watched those cool copper eyes glitter like metallic stones beneath the moonlight, spitting her venom at him. No demon would dare attack him without consequences. But she had, and he couldn’t blame her. He’d pushed her with his teasing—how could he not? She’d somehow cracked through the layers upon layers of deadness within and brought out a playful side of him.
By the nine hells,no! He shook away the whimsy—
Fuck! His breath caught, agony garroting his insides at his movement, and he could withstand a shit-load of pain. Whatever her blade was created from, it hurt like freakin’ red-hot swords jabbing into his belly. And try as he did to remove the thing with his hands—his mind—he couldn’t. The beast within rumbled, sensing pain, too. But Nate kept that part of himself tightly leashed.
“Well?” she demanded, slicing him a cool-as-hell stare, fingers clenching the other half of her deadly glaive.
She wanted her weapon back, did she?
Fitting, really, if she did kill him, considering the violent life he led. He’d accepted long ago it would also be how he left this existence. But not before he got Aba’s soul back.
He cast her a taunting smile, and her lips tightened, pink creeping into her pale cheeks. Yup, he got to her with his baiting, and it was so worth the injury. However, the damn dagger buried in him refused to budge. Nate dropped his hand. “You’re gonna have to remove this,laika. I cannot.”
She went motionless.
Yep, it finally struck her that she would have to get close to him to do so.
But deeper, another urge took hold, one he’d recognized from their first meet, and made him sniff her. That scent. It beckoned him closer like a life-giving sustenance…warm and playful like a spring breeze, filling the empty void in his chest and easing the suffocation of his unending cycle of violent killings. Peaceful—
She growled, detonating his illusion.
The dagger suddenly ripped free from his abs, and he grunted, damn grateful then it wasn’t her glaives, even though hers were a smaller version of the massive weapons he’d faced in the death pit a time of two, or she’d have probably sliced him in two at his lack of focus.
The blade settled in her outstretched palm.
Nate cocked an eyebrow, despite the immense pain flaying him. But hats off to her for recognizing the vile fuck-up he was.
She scowled and stalked off, heading deeper into the alley. Her fallen glaives had vanished, too.
Well then. He pivoted for the garage—
