Chapter Thirty-Three
Enzo
Morden slowly lowered his son's body onto the muddy ground with infinite tenderness, then stood with lethal grace. His shoulders were rigid with barely contained grief, his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles working beneath his skin.
A Dark Demon materialized from the chaos behind him, sword raised high overhead, ready to cut him down while he mourned. The blade caught the lightning's flash, gleaming with deadly intent.
I didn't think—just moved. I raced across the battlefield and closed the distance in seconds. I seized the Dark Demon by his arm just as he began his downward strike, yanking him away from Morden with brutal force.
The demon whirled on me with a snarl, swinging his sword in a vicious arc aimed at my throat. But rage and fresh blood made me faster than ever. I ducked beneath the blade, grabbed him by the neck with iron fingers, and sank my fangs deep into histhroat before he could scream. His hot, bitter blood flooded my mouth—foul but strengthening.
The demon's body went limp in my grasp. I dropped him to the ground like the trash he was.
Morden turned around just as the corpse hit the mud with a wet thud. His dark eyes—so achingly similar to Joy's—flicked over me with a quick assessment, taking in the blood coating my mouth, my exhausted state, the desperation that must have been written across my face.
"Enzo Di Salvo."
I wiped the Dark Demon's blood off my lips with the back of my sleeve and panted, my chest heaving from exertion and adrenaline. "Morden Grimshaw."
His gaze bore into me with uncomfortable intensity. "You've tried to protect my daughter."
I winced, shame and failure twisting in my gut like a knife. He was right in what he didn’t say. I hadn't kept her safe. She was trapped in another realm, in the hands of monsters, and I was here—alive and free while she suffered.
"I failed her," I said, the admission tasting like ash. "She's in the Elder Dimension. Ari and the queen have her."
Morden didn't answer me. His jaw clenched tight, and anger flashed in his dark eyes like lightning across a storm-clouded sky. My muscles tensed as I waited for him to tear into me, to tell me exactly how badly I'd failed his daughter, how I didn't deserve to even speak her name.
But then I realized with a jolt that he wasn't looking at me at all.
His gaze was fixed beyond my shoulder, and the fury burning in his eyes wasn't directed at my failures—it was aimed at something far more immediate.
Dark Demons had surrounded us in a tightening circle, their weapons gleaming wickedly in the flashes of lightning. At leasta dozen of them closed in, swords raised high and ready to strike. The gleam of their blades and the dark shimmer of sulfur clinging to their forms made them look otherworldly. The acrid stench burned my nostrils.
Morden's expression shifted from grief-stricken father to lethal warrior in a heartbeat. He raised his palms toward the encircling enemies. I watched in awe as shadows erupted from his hands like living serpents. The darkness moved with terrifying intelligence, weaving between the Dark Demons' necks with the precision of a master craftsman. Each shadow wrapped around a throat like a hangman's noose, tightening with inexorable force.
Then Morden smacked his hands together with deliberate finality.
Crack.
The sound echoed across the battlefield like a gunshot—or rather, like a dozen necks breaking simultaneously. The sharp, horrible snaps came in perfect unison, a symphony of death conducted by a grieving father's rage.
All the Dark Demons fell to the muddy ground in a synchronized collapse, their bodies hitting the earth with wet thuds. Their heads lolled at unnatural angles. None of them moved again.
The entire execution had taken perhaps three seconds.
“Fuck.” I stared at the carnage as I dragged my fingers through my hair. This was Joy's father—this was the power that flowed through her veins. No wonder the queen wanted her so desperately.
“Impressed?” Morden cracked his knuckles. “I’m just getting started. Marsha will pay for the death of my son.”
I sighed as I looked down at Nyx’s pale face. Blood slipped out of his mouth. I wasn’t sure if that was his blood or mine.
“I tried to save him?—”
“You mean turn him?”
Heat swelled on my cheeks. “Yes, but it…”
“Made him worse?”
