Page 25 of Savage Fate

I ducked his next hit. “You really don’t want to fight me.”

Even though I no longer had Infernal Sol, I could still take one little dux demon. Hell, I killed one before I even received supernatural strength and speed from The Calling spell.

Are you sure you can do this without me?

The taunting voice in my head distracted me, and as the demon charged, I stumbled.

Thankfully, my reflexes kicked in, and when we hit the ground, I rolled him off. I snatched the transformative hilt from my boot, activated the blade into a knife, and pressed it against his throat.

“Did you kill that shifter, or did you simply do someone’s dirty work?”

Laughter shook him as I hovered above. “You’re going to taste delicious when I crack your skull open and suck out your brain. Yummy, delicious, and nutritious.” He attempted to buck me off, but I pressed my claws into his stomach. “So hungry.”

Ice trickled down my back at the familiar manic behavior. Was he one of the demons that had taken Ruin’s experimental Soulvation? Some were still suffering from the side effects.

That still wouldn’t explain why he tossed a dead shifter with his heart cut out into Corvin Manor, though.

I pushed the blade harder into his throat, drawing a line of black blood. “Tell me what you were doing with that dead shifter.”

“Tell me what you were doing with that hole in your soul.” He grinned as his eyes flickered toward my abdomen where the sun tattoo inked my skin beneath my clothes. “I can see the shadows it left behind. Were you unworthy?”

My heart stopped as his words slammed into me like daggers. How would he know that? Could he really see something missing?

While I was distracted, his fist swung out and crushed into my temple.

Pain exploded on the side of my head, and my ears rang. While blinking the spots from my vision, the dux demon tossed me off, and my knife slid across the ground.

Damn it.

My spine hit the concrete, the back of my skull thudding against the hard surface, creating another burst of agony.

A heavy pressure rested on my chest as the demon shoved his knee into my sternum to keep me down. His grin bore jagged teeth, and saliva dripped down his chin.

“You’re going to taste delicious, even if you aren’t fully intact.”

He gripped my jaw, pried my mouth open, and reached for my soul.

Chapter

Eight

The icy clawsof panic wrapped around my heart as the demon lowered over me, attempting to feed on my soul. Blood coated the back of my mouth from the hits I’d taken to the head, and my ears still rang.

“So small. I’ll have to drain all of you to satiate my appetite, shifter.”

Seriously? Was this the end? Would I really meet the Reaper in a back alley, killed by a Soulvation-affected dux demon?

This would never happen if you had me.

I growled at the voice.No shit.

A pulling sensation unfolded in my core as the demon’s power gripped my soul—what was left of it—and opened his mouth. White-hot pain struck my center, and my spine bowed away from the ground.

His sinister chuckle made it past the fog swirling in my mind. “Such an easy meal. I’m a little disappointed.”

Easy?

Onyx talons sprouted from my fingertips, digging small trenches in the concrete. I wouldn’t be a victim again.

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