Page 63 of Savage Claim

So delicious.

I wanted her soul. And then I wanted her fears.

Ruin ran his hand down my back, whispering encouraging words as I devoured more of Roxie’s soul.

A voice, maybe my own, screamed in my head to stop, that I’d regret this. But I shut her up with another sip, my insides vibrating while it felt like I floated on a cloud.

Something tingled on my neck before a steel rod wrapped around my waist and yanked me off.

“Ruin, what the fuck?”

So it wasn’t a steel bar that dragged me off my yummy meal. It was Fane.

Fury twisted through my beast’s voice. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

The demon lord flicked his hand toward me as I struggled in Fane’s relentless grip. “She’s hungry. Am I supposed to let her starve?”

“She’s not a full demon,” Fane snarled. “She doesn’t need souls to survive here like you.”

“Doesn’t mean she doesn’t crave them.” Ruin folded his arms against his chest, his jaw clenching and white teeth flashing. “She wanted it.”

The demon shifter finally set me on my feet but kept his arms firmly around me. “She can’t always have what she wants.”

Truer words had never been spoken. I wanted to belong anywhere, and that always blew up in my face. I wanted Hawk to love me, and he did—until I became a nightworlder. I wanted Fane so much it hurt, but he’d never fully give in to me because of that witch’s spell.

I never got what I wanted.

“You’re keeping what she wants most from her,” Ruin said, his stern gaze penetrating Fane as if he could see right through him. “If you weren’t such a stubborn asshole and let us break this spell, you’d both stop being miserable.”

“Kaspin is dead, so there’s no fucking breaking it.”

Fane’s words were daggers to my heart not even the amulet could protect me from.

“Do you really think I can’t find another way, Maverick?” Ruin scoffed. “Did you forget who I was and what I’m capable of?”

“You’re delusional if you think it’s that simple.”

As they argued, my anger pushed more of my sensible self aside, making room for the darkness. That addicting power invaded my bloodstream, and I opened to it, needing to shove away the ache of missing Fane.

While they were busy insulting each other, I tapped into a human across the room—their minds were much easier to breach—and drew out one of her fears.

Her screams erupted as she fell to the slick, black tiles, swiping at the invisible spiders crawling over her legs. I grabbed hold of a male vampire, making him believe he was stuck in a coffin, buried alive. He flailed on the leather couch and beat his fists against an invisible barrier.

“Let me out!”

His pangs of bloodthirst and hunger intensified as I convinced him that he hadn’t fed in years.

A dainty fae—a faerie with gossamer wings behind her glamour—locked eyes with me, terror filling them because she felt me rooting through her mind. She shook her head as I smiled, unleashing her fear of being attacked by a kelcryp in Faerieland.

“Teague, stop it,” Fane demanded when he realized what I was doing.

A laugh burst out of my mouth as I soaked up the screams and terror saturating the smoky room. “You took me from my prey, so I made more. Their nightmares keep me company and feed my emptiness while you two battle with words over what I can have. I’ll have what I want. Make no mistake, my beautiful beast. Now that I’m in control, I’ll take my fill.”

Shrieks pierced the foggy room as I cracked open more skulls.

“Do you see what you caused, Ruin?” Fane whipped me around and picked me up, tossing me over his shoulder. “By indulging her dark side, you’ve let that thing latch on and take control. Before long, your entire club will be full of chaos if she doesn’t stop.”

A string of curses burst from the demon lord’s mouth. “Maybe I miscalculated the situation. Perhaps you should have been with her since you know so much about her. And how are you such an expert if you don’t remember most of your time together? Are you remembering things, Fane?”

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