Page 42 of Demonic Division

My familiar.

“It’s okay. Comet’s friendly,” I murmur, raising my hand and calling the stag toward us. Comet raises his head high, beady eyes homing in on Dagny’s face as it trots across the frozen ground.

It stops just shy of Dagny, lowering its great hornedhead. A greeting. An offering. To my surprise, Lir and Cyprien are frozen in place, their eyes flickering with shadows as they watch the encounter. The runes covering their skin glow with a molten light, heating the air and the ground beneath their clawed fists.

Dagny reaches toward Comet, her eyes glossed over with a faraway look. She blinks rapidly but can’t seem to focus, and her hand is pulled ever closer by that invisible thread.

Warning bells blare in the back of my mind, but I can barely hear them. Even if I could, I doubt I would pay them any mind. I doubt I could. Not when all of me wants her like I do. Not when I’m starting to think she’s the answer to all the questions I didn’t know I had. I want to touch her as Cyprien and Lir have. I want to feel her. To taste. Todevour.

A moment later, one of my wishes is granted.

23

Dagny

As soon asI touch the stag, a bolt of lightning strikes my heart. Roark falls to his knees as Comet rears back, and a single bleat punctuates the air. It lunges forward, stabbing the tip of its antler into the flesh of my lower thigh.

I scream as red-hot pain flares to life, and I fall backward to the ground. A dark purple rune glows beneath the white of my bodysuit, just as it does Roark’s. He throws his head back, bellowing a roar as the bond snaps into place, sealing our souls. Lir and Cyprien mirror him, howling into the abyss as their features fracture and transform, turning them into the terrifying beasts that lurk beneath the polished exterior.

There's a violent tugging in my chest, and I raise my head to see Roark crawling across the ground toward me. His claws extend, digging into the ice with each powerful movement, his muscles shuddering with the effort to control the beast within.

Before he can touch me—before he even gets halfway to me—a great black blur falls from the sky. It slams into Roark’s side, knocking him off balance and sending himflying. He slams to the ground with a sickeningcrack,one which echoes in my own chest. He lies there, gasping for air, whining my name in a heart-wrenching plea.

I’m so out of my mind, I don’t realize that dark blur is Kaebl. I don’t notice the expression on his face nor the rage that shakes the very air surrounding him. Not until he speaks for the very first time.

Tell me this is not what I fucking think it is.

The voice that pierces my mind is unnaturally deep, the words ending in a growl that sends a pleasurable shudder down my spine. And for all the anger it contains, I want to hear more of it.

I watch through wide eyes as Kaebl stalks toward Lir and Cyprien, flinging them away in a similar manner as Roark. His eyes flash a deep bloodred color as he whips toward me, his serpent curling around his shoulders and snapping at the air in front of my face.

Seeing this, the stag steps between us, raising its antlered head high in defiance. A high-pitched bleat pierces the air, dragging everyone’s attention to the deer. Its skin seems to bubble and shift, stretching and spilling out at odd angles as the animal transforms. Bones snap and meld into place, and the air is filled with a horrible squelching as the muscles swell and burst. Rotting flesh and sinew drip from a face once coated in baby fuzz, exposing the yellowing bone beneath. Blunted teeth are pointed and jagged, though absent in places and allowing the tongue to droop out the side of its mouth.

The creature paws the ground, blowing a puff of vapor into the air with a warning snort as Kaebl steps closer.

Cease your complaining and step away, spirit. The human does not belong to you.

I jerk at the intrusion of the impossibly deep voice in mymind. My pulse races as I look around the circle, trying to discern where it came from.

As if it heard the voice too, the Comet huffs, lowering its head with a threatening grunt. There’s a loud whooshing in my ears as my eyes find Kaebl’s, and I’m shocked to find real fear in his gaze.

No. This is not natural,that voice whispers again.She is ahuman.You must release her at once?—

The voice is cut short by the Comet’s thundering bellow. Sighing, Kaebl turns his attention to Roark, his jaw ticking.Call him off.

“I can’t,”Roark coughs. “He doesn’t want to leave her side. He thinks you’re going to hurt her. And the bond is so new?—”

The bond. Let’s talk about thebond. A flash of red replaces the gold in Kaebl’s eyes, and I realize where the voice is coming from. His teeth sharpen to points, puncturing his bottom lip, but no blood flows.Now I not only have Cyprien’s tether to break, but yours as well? How thefuckdid you allow this to happen?

Cyprien raises his hand, calling Kaebl’s attention to him. “You also have to break Lir’s.”

WHAT?Kaebl turns bloodred eyes onto Lir, his chest heaving with the effort to keep his transformation at bay.Tell me he’s lying, Lir.

Lir makes a choked noise. “I… I didn’t?—”

Kaebl narrows his eyes.I knew I felt something down the bond earlier, but I… I didn’t want to believe it…

“I couldn’t help it. Honey got into her room and?—”

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