Page 42 of Bond of Passion

Tavin had just told Deja to sacrifice or kill him if necessary, and she was laughing? Because, sure, his potential death was some funny shit.

The front door handle rattled, and suddenly her outburst didn’t matter. He nudged her with his foot.

“Showtime.”

The asshole vampire, whose name was apparently Denis, came inside first, and a couple of other demons and shapeshifters followed behind. Anius, who Tavin fondly addressed without the i in his name, popped into the living room for one final healing session.

“Now,” Anius said with a flourish, “I’m going to heal you so you feel everything this Neebless demon does to you.” His beady black eyes regarded Deja with depraved curiosity. “How are you going to kill him?”

She drew her dagger. “Through the heart. Like he did to me.” Good for her, sounding all confident. As if she genuinely intended to do that.

Or wanted to, anyway.

“How uninspired.” Anius rolled his eyes. “I liked Gorm’s railroad spike plan much better.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, looking straight into Tavin’s eyes. “I’ll go slow. Twist the knife. It’ll take some time.”

“Promises, promises.” Anius sighed as he gripped Tavin’s skull in his hands.

Power streamed through Tavin, oily, tainted power that hurt more than the wounds it was healing.

Don’tscream…

He bit down hard, clenching his teeth until the pain and sensation of knitting flesh eased. Then, before the fallen angel released him, Tavin exploded from his chair and knocked Anius into the wall.

“What the—?” Anius stumbled, and Tavin lunged, snapping one of the Bracken Cuffs around his wrist.

With his powers cut off, Anius was helpless as Tavin clamped his fingers around the guy’s arm, engaged his power, and exploded that stupid fallen angel’s eyes like popcorn.

Abruptly, shouts and grunts of pain and curses filled the room as the spectators scrambled to fight back against Deja’s brutal but graceful onslaught. The female fought like she’d been born with a knife in her hand. She was a whirlwind with that blade, slicing and dicing before her victims knew what was happening.

Something nailed Tavin in the thigh. Pain became an unwelcome companion as he went down and rolled, barely avoiding being impaled by his own fireplace poker. Snarling, he kicked out, catching his vampire attacker behind the knee. Denis dropped the poker as he slammed into the chair Tavin had been chained to.

In a desperate lunge, Tavin grabbed the vamp’s ankle and lit him up with his gift. The vamp screamed and clawed at his destroyed eyes, giving Tavin a chance to dive to safety when an axe came at him in a great arc.

Something sliced into his neck, and for a terror-filled moment, he thought the blade had found its mark. But as his veins filled with scalding poison, and his thoughts turned to rage and hate and death, he grinned. The viper was awake and doing its thing.

Adrenaline joined the party, and he welcomed the rush of energy mixing with the serpent’s battle toxin. His muscles twitched and stretched, pulsing as if they had their own heartbeats and wanted out of his skin. Rage turned his mind to mush, and with a roar, he leaped to his feet, feeling no pain, no mercy, no logic.

His beast had been released, and it wanted one thing: to kill everything in the room. Especially Mako.

But not the female.

He had other plans for her.