Page 5 of Shadow Scorching

“Half-demon, but that’s enough.” I wasn’t sure what I looked like—I knew my face had changed—but his expression told me that I scared the hell out of him, regardless of his attempts at bravado. “Now,names.”

He let out a shaky sigh. “Lisa. She was my first date. She was thirteen. I was fourteen.”

I began to list down the names and details, embracing the numbness that allowed me to listen to what he was saying without breaking down. Twenty minutes later, I had a document to mail to the police, and Jace was sweating hard from pain. I’d delivered several dozen little cuts all over his body. They weren’t big enough to kill him, but they were in places that hurt.

As I set down the notepad, I considered my options, but they led to one conclusion. I wasn’t about to go to jail for hurting him, because in my eyes, he was a piece of garbage and the best thing to do with garbage, was to take out the trash.

I stood, tapping my dagger in my hand. “So, Jace. What about it? Any last requests?” I wanted to ask him about my mother, to ask if she had mentioned me. I wanted him to say she had died easily, but I knew better. Even if she had, he would lie and tell me things I’d never want to hear.

“I’d ask you to make it quick,” he said. “But…”

“But you know I’m not going to.” I felt immune to sorrow, immune to the reality of what I was about to do. The blood pulsed in my ears as my hunger rose.

“Kyann—wait!” Penn appeared in the doorway. She took in the scene and then gasped. “Your face?—”

“Penn, leave. You don’t want to be here?—”

“No,” she said, steeling herself. “I’mnotleaving. You can’t do this…not in this state. Not…in hunger.”

She and Dante were the only two who knew what had happened the night Dante saved me from the streets. He had been there, and I had told Penn all about it later when we became friends.

“He deserves to die,” I said. “I have a list of over twenty-five women that he destroyed.”

“Yes, he deserves to die, but don’t do this. Don’t let yourself fall into the same hunger that drives him. You’ll never forgive yourself,” she said. “If you give in now, it will be easier next time. And the next…and pretty soon, you’ll lose every part of yourself that you care about.”

“What do you mean?” Her words echoed in my mind, cracking through the wall of ice I’d built between my demon and my human side.

“I mean that you’ll become the same thing he is—a cold-blooded killer. If youenjoykilling him, then you’re one step away from becoming what he is.That’swhat makes him a psycho. He embraces torture and murder. Hefeedson it. And right now, I can tell you’re a step away from occupying the same space. Do youreallywant that?”

I stood, frozen, fighting with myself. I wanted him dead. I wanted him to hurt. But Penn’s words echoed inside. I began to waver. “But…he killed my mother. He tortured her?—”

At that moment, Jace broke free from the ropes. He must have been working on them all the time I had him tied up. He reached for his pocket.Shit,I’d forgotten to search him.

Before I could act, Penn turned on him and held out her hands.

“Mother Hecate of darkest night,

Give me strength in this fight.

Come you guardians of death and doom,

Destroy the villain in this room!”

A split second later, a brilliant flash exploded from Penn’s hands and hit Jace square in the chest. He screamed as the magical current sent him into convulsions. As the air filled with the singed smell of hair and flesh, he stiffened, then keeled over and landed on the floor at my feet. He was charred, burned over his entire body. And right then, I knew he was dead. Penn had saved us. And in doing so, she had saved me from turning into a monster that I wouldn’t know how to handle.

“So,what else did you do today?” Penn asked.

I pushed away the memories. The food was hot and delicious. The house felt safe. Murdoch and Jangles came running out from my bedroom to cadge a few bites of food from us.

I took a deep breath. We had seldom spoken of what happened. Penn had convinced me she was fine—she had saved our lives and that was all that mattered. But now, I wondered if she still thought about that night. Did she ever relive the memories? How had it affected her?

I wanted to ask. I wanted to offer the space for her to discuss it. But things were so peaceful, and she looked so relaxed, that I decided it could wait.

“I cleared up some old cases. We have a couple potential clients coming in next week. What about you?” I asked, helping myself to a second bowl of stew.

“Several new orders. This online store thing was the best idea,” she said. “I’m making more money, have far fewer overhead costs, and it’s easy enough to keep up with.”

As we continued to discuss the everyday happenings of our lives, I thought about the lessons I was taking from Devon.Would they reawaken that hunger? Would they free my demon, along with the powers? Worried, but trying to brush it off, I spent the rest of the evening thinking about anything and everything else except my heritage, and how it was emerging.

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