Nate flashed over the buildings at preternatural speed, tracking the vibration of fear. As he closed in on them, the demon skidded to a halt in a grimy backstreet, holding the whimpering boy in front of him like a shield.
“Let him go,” Nate called out. “You know you can’t escape.”
“Come any closer, and I’ll kill him!” The demon pressed a blade to the shuddering youngster’s throat, his features morphing to a leathery, demonic one and back to humanoid. His gaze bounced all over the alley, trying to pinpoint Nate’s location. Then he glanced up to the warehouse rooftop where Nate stood.
“You should have known better than to steal what belongs to another.”
“He doesn’t even know it’s gone,” the demon flung at him. The boy, barely in his teens, cried out as the blade pierced his skin. Blood dripped.
Nate leaped into the sludgy snow merged with sewer water and strolled closer, the stink barely making an impact. “Then why amIhere?”
The demon’s eyes widened when he saw who it was, terror leaching what little color he had. “Sicari?” he gasped, shuffling back, dragging the boy in a chokehold.
Yeah, he got that right. It’s what he was.
An assassin. A killer.
“I need it to aid my ailing consort. She’s fading from this life!” he blurted, sweat dripping down his face. Red-streaked eyes darted about, looking for an escape route. “Sicari, I’ll give you half of it, let me go.”
Always the same thing when they were caught.
A metal door further down shut in an echoing clang. The demon’s gaze shot over his shoulder—
In a move too fast for human eyes, Nate dove forward, snagged the dagger, and shoved the boy aside. The demon stumbled back. Growling, he flung out a hand, and a fiery hellbolt torpedoed straight for Nate.
He ducked, the missile missing his head by a hair’s breadth, slamming into the building behind him. Bits of brick and mortar exploded, the debris raining on the asphalt.
Terror reeking off him, his mark flashed, but Nate lunged and grabbed him by the neck before he disappeared. Iron dagger summoned—a metal lethal to demonkind—he swiped clean across the demon’s throat, slicing through muscles, tendons, and carotid. Blood spurted. Nate plunged the blade into his mark’s heart.
The demon gurgled and fell to the ground. His body began to deflate, and before the clothes disintegrated, Nate rummaged through the pockets, found the small pouch with several reddish-black crystallized blood orbs, and shook his head.
Who the fuck knew what these things did? But extend a life force? It certainly didn’t.
Symbionts did.
He recalled the oneshe’dstolen several years ago to save his blooded kin, Shadow. Well, she lived, and it was all that mattered—
Fuck! Pain splintered down his spine, like claws digging into his back, and he grunted, reminding him that he also paid the price for breathing again as the beast within made its presence known.
Teeth clenched, sack in hand, he rose. The terminated demon had crumbled to ash and goo, already sucked back to Purgatory. The job was kill and retrieve. Mission accomplished.
He looked around for the boy. He’d vanished, too. Good. Nate slipped the sack into his coat pocket.
Why the idiot thought he could steal from Azgor and get away with it, he had no idea. But the irony didn’t escape him. He’d done the same shit once. His punishment, however, hadn’t been termination but something worse.
Death fights.
No, Azgor wasn’t going to destroy his trophy killer, hunter, assassin, or whatever the fuck Azgor used him to get done when Nate housed something they both knew every powerful demon would give their left nut to own.
He shut out thoughts of a life he could never change.
Head lowered, he made his way out of the alley and up the street. Prickles coasted over his nape and down his spine, and the sensation of being watched took hold. Nate slowed his steps and mentally scanned, but he couldn’t pinpoint anyone. Still, the impression persisted.
No…not threatening.
Probably some stray feline hiding in the shadows, watching him.
He always had eyes on him. In this world, in the Dark Realm, there were always those determined to find his weakness.
