“Tell me,Sicari,” Derrodus drawled the tag, brandishing his bloodied dagger. “Do you use dark spells to win your death fights? It would seem so when your demonic side is as pathetic as you. Talons and horns?” He laughed. “Even an Otium is scarier in their true demon form.”
Keeping the piss-stain in his sight, Nate pulled off his t-shirt, revealing the bleeding gash on his lower abs.
Releassssse me,the beast’s sibilant hiss ricocheted through his skull like a snapped twine.
Jaw clamped, he bolted down on his mind shields, wishing he could reach inside him and rip out the bastard. He pressed the tee on his wound to stop the bleeding, and he stumbled a step—
Shit! He steadied himself before he fell face-first on the hard-baked, hot ground.
“Kill. Kiiiill!”the growl reverberated in his head.
“Would you look at that?” Derrodus grinned, playing for the crowd. “Jewels in his frail body. They’re not even good ones. Dull, just like him. What’s next, a cock ring? It’s probably wasted on his limp dick. The angel will get more enjoyment riding me—”
Rage exploded. Nate dove for the fucker, ramming his talons into Derrodus’ chest. An agonized shriek erupted. He yanked at Nate’s hand, but he didn’t budge.
“Don’t ever talk about her.” He squeezed harder, his tone like blades. Derrodus whimpered, hate spewing off him. “And get that bounty off her, or I will crush this useless organ. If I find or hear of anyone after her again, you will breathe your last.”
Yanking his fingers free, talons retracting, Nate wiped them on the whining dickhead’s shirt, wishing he could kill the cretin without putting a bull’s eye on his sire or Ely from Azgor’s retaliation. “And just so you know, she’s likely to slice off your dick and feed it to you first.”
Guffaws of laughter erupted.
Nate picked up his fallen shirt and strode through the parting crowd to find Pangur waiting for him.
The demon shook his head, pale blue eyes gleaming. “For a moment there, I thought you’d kill him.”
“I will if he continues on this path.”
While Ely could take care of herself, and with the kind of backup firepower she had behind her, yeah, she’d be fine. But he was the one who put her in the weasel’s sight, so he’d fix it—
Dizziness swamped him, the ground tipped, and he lurched forward. Shit!
Pangur grabbed him. “You okay?”
Nate shrugged off his hold, checking his side and the still seeping wound, wishing the fucking thing would close…he shook his head again to clear the dizziness.
“I don’t trust him,” Pangur muttered.
Nate’s mouth thinned; he didn’t either. He dug his fingers into his temples, the foggy haze there persisting, then grunted, “What day is it?”
“If you mean when’s the fight? Then that’s tomorrow. The blood moon is almost upon us.”
Damn. Though the night remained dark and soulless, the moon would appear soon, taunting him with its pale pink first light before turning blood red.
Nate scrubbed his face. Being with Ely, he’d lost track of time, and when she wasn’t with him, she consumed his thoughts. But the shocker she’d laid on him, he still refused to accept. No matter the job she did, Ely was compassionate, and she felt deeply. She wouldn’t leave a child in a dangerous alley to be shot by some damn thug—
Yessssss, she did,the sibilant rasp scraped his mind like rusty blades.“She not wantsss pitiful young.”
Fuck off!
He flashed to the foothills of the Mounts of Debas at the outskirts of Ys, to his sire’s two-story abode in this world. The house was far bigger than their garage apartment.
In the kitchen with its gray cupboards and cooker, he dropped his ruined shirt and found the box Aba kept for medical emergencies. Inhaling a sharp breath, he dug through it, found the gray paste, applied the goop on his wound, and then taped a dressing over it.
Fists braced on the table, Nate lowered his throbbing head, wishing for a different life, and since that was forever out of his reach, a modicum of quiet, a little damn peace.
But he had a fucking fight looming.
No one walked away from those matches. It was a definite death sentence.
