Page 77 of The Devil and His Goddess

I leaned down to brush a light kiss over Harper’s forehead. “I’ll be right back, Goddess. Sleep and forget as long as you can.”

I didn’t know the extent of what happened tonight. I didn’t know why she was alone, what all he’d done to her, or why I hadn’t been there to stop this from happening.

One thing I did know?

Drake was fuckingdead.

I disappeared in a plume of shadows and reappeared in the dance studio at Harper’s. The minute I was alone, I threw my head back and roared, letting the heat of my hatred ignite into flames around me. My shoulders rose and fell as I let out heavy, fuming breaths. The fire crackled around my feet and tried to crawl across the room. I barely managed to think clearly enough to call the fires of Hell back to me and restore the charcoaled floor and walls with a wave of my hand.

My gaze swung to the floor where I’d found Harper. I couldn’t move. I was stuck, reliving the moment I’d walked in and found her. Naked. Crying. Desecrated.

I gritted my teeth and stalked over to where blood and semen still pooled on the ground. I nearly punched a hole through the goddamn wall when I saw it, but instead, I channeled that suffocating rage to where it needed to go.

Him.

I dropped to a knee and gathered the white, sticky substance on my fingers. Unlike other types of demons, an Incubus could only track and find someone via a sexual connection. If I’d slept with someone or tasted their sexual essence before, that person—or more specifically, theirsoul—would forever be available on my radar.

I closed my eyes and brought my fingers to my lips. Bile tried climbing my throat, absolutely rebelling against the idea of staining any part of myself with that fucker’s essence. But I ignored the reaction. My momentary displeasure was nothing in comparison to the need to murder Harper’s rapist.

I quickly swiped the gunk over my tongue. Hot week-old trash polluted my mouth and funneled through my stomach. Even with all my years of tasting different essences, Drake’s had me doubling over to gag. I’d never come across a taste so foul, yet I breathed through the revulsion soaking my stomach, throat, and mouth.

I absorbed his essence, and his soul suddenly became visible like a blip lighting up on a map. With a snarl, I stepped through shadows and found myself appearing in a rundown motel room. I hadn’t stepped out of my hidden world, yet, first confirming if Drake was alone.

And he was.

The fucker was in nothing but tight briefs that were once white but now stained in various shades of yellow and brown. He sat in the middle of the orange and beige bedding, smiling wide at some fabric he held in his dirty hands. The smile stretched wider as he brought the black fabric up to his nose. I didn’t even need to inhale or get closer to know what he clutched was a pair of Harper’s underwear.

Fury ignited my insides like a match catching gasoline. I raced out of the shadows I hid in, appearing at his side before he registered someone was there. I snagged him by the throat and let my claws dig into the skin of his neck. He screamed, but the sound became muffled as shadows wrapped around us. When the darkness cleared, we stood in a cool stone basement.

Drake dangled off the ground as I continued to clutch him firmly by the throat, gaze level with mine. His brown eyes widened, and a gurgle funneled out of his mouth as he futilely fought against my deadly hold. The abrupt smell of urine saturated the space between us. I didn’t need to look to know the bastard had pissed himself.

“I thought I sensed you,” Dante called out from the top of the stairs behind me. He flicked the light on, casting shadows over the shelves of wine bottles and trinkets filling the basement.

Dante’s footsteps padded down the stairs. “Why the Hell are you in my cellar?” He stopped at the foot of the stairs before letting out a deep sigh. “Andwhydo you have some human pissing all over my floor?”

I bared my fangs at Drake with a low growl emanating deep from within me. I slung the human across the room, his bare torso smacking into the wall opposite me. He yelped before crumbling in a heap on the floor, out cold. Unlike the last time we found ourselves in this position, there was only one exit, which Dante and I blocked.

He’d never leave this basement. He’d never get near Harper again. He would suffer, and—

“Perseus,” Dante called beside me.

His firm yet concerned tone had me momentarily snapping out of my rage-fueled thoughts. My eyes stayed locked on Drake, even as I took my first real breath since finding Harper earlier. Yet the inhale felt like shards of glass cutting up my throat. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to exist, knowing what he’d done.

I gritted my teeth, eyes burning as they seared into the unconscious human. I curled my clawed fingers into fists and welcomed the searing pain as the talons dug into my palms. It was better than feeling the other shit swarming my chest.

“Perseus,” Dante repeated louder.

How fucking dare he hurt her. I’d make his existence miserable. I’d make him regret ever fuckingbreathing, let alone coming near Harper. No punishment would be good enough. No amount of pain would ever equal what he deserved. No—

“Perseus!”

The sound of Xander’s voice tore into my mind just as a hand gripped my shoulder and forced me to turn. I came face to face with a pair of distressed black eyes. Xander swallowed hard and shook me slightly. “Pers?”

I blinked a couple of times and looked over his shoulder to see Dante and Zagan right behind him, staring at me. Working to formulate words, I looked at Dante. “Did you call them over?”

“Fuck, yes,” Dante snapped. His brow furrowed, and a frown pulled at his mouth. His dark gaze searched me up and down, as though the answer to my behaviour were on my person. “I couldn’t get you to say anything. You were freaking me the fuck out.”

“Sorry,” I rasped, the mere word straining my voice. “Your place was the only one I could think of in the moment.”

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