Page 44 of Consume Me
I slam into the demon, driving him back into the wall, raining blows onto him. My fists meet flesh and bone, but he’s laughing through the blood. Still locked in whatever mental nightmare Kendall has trapped him in.
“Touch her again and it’ll cost you,” I snarl, fangs lengthening, my wolf breaking free under my skin.
“I don’t think so, mutt.”
“Think of your own fucking mortality. Killing her will end you, remember?”
He blinks, his gaze finally clearing. I startle at the sight of him focused on me, and my grip loosens a fraction.
His grin splits wider, teeth stained red. “Not anymore.”
Dark magic ripples off him like smoke, foul and thick. My rune sears white-hot on my arm, my skin burning as it melts to the bone.
Behind me, Kendall groans as the demon’s magic reaches for her. I let go of him and rush to her side, shoving myself between them to shield her, but the shadows pass right through me.
I roar, a desperate, predatorial sound—helpless to do anything but watch as phantom hands envelope my mate’s heart.
There’s a hollowpop.
Kendall sighs.
The hands retract.
I look back at the demon.
He straightens, red eyes glowing brighter now, triumphant. “It’s time I found myself another wielder. Our bond is severed eternally.”
My chest fills at that.
The bond is severed. I can at last slay my enemy. We can both be free.
But at his words, Kendall still doesn’t stir, and my fury turns to a cold, gripping fear inside me. The rune’s burn ices over with that fear as I use my fae sense to search for a pulse. Some sign of a life force inside the woman I’ve just found. The woman I’ve just begun to love.
One moment passes.
Then two.
The demon snickers.
My head falls butthere?—
A tiny breath lifts her chest. Her eyes flutter open—clear, glacier-blue so I know it’s her—and the sight of it reignites me.
My knees threaten to buckle with relief. But I gather every ounce of strength I possess, fae and beast alike, and prepare to fulfill my blood vow once and for all.
The demon merely gazes back at me, hollow-eyed and eternally evil. “I will carve that rune from your bones. And then I will kill her slowly while you watch.”
“You will not touch her!” My roar shakes the walls.
The wolf tears free—unstoppable this time, ripping through my skin and bone in a blaze of white-hot agony and release. Fur erupts, claws rend, teeth lengthen until the beast I’ve held caged is loosed at last.
The demon manages a single step toward my future wife.
And I lunge.
Chapter 14
Kendall
