Page 104 of Blood Bound (Blood Mafia 3)

Jumping out of the way of a large leg, I drop the demon and dash away, glancing over my shoulder to see him stab the blood demon and disappear into the trees.

“Get the blood demon!”

Grayson’s head whips in my direction when he hears my scream. He’s working with Evelyn, trying to take down one of the two remaining scorpions. Nicole and Zander have the other one down, so I’m not worried about it.

Mateo flashes past me, heading straight toward the blood demon who’s trying to get away from Kerberos and Blaze. The blood demon disappears, reappearing twenty feet away, near the scorpion.

The demons haven’t been able to move very far, so I suspect their air jumping is limited to the immediate vicinity.

“Get him before he gets away! We need to feed the scorpion.”

Mateo doesn’t miss a beat and races after him.

Evelyn and Grayson turn to stop him, surrounding him on the left and right while Mateo flashes up behind him. I move around the downed beast Nicole and Zander are battling, and rush between the other’s legs, preventing the cloaked demon from escaping this way.

It jumps straight at Mateo, landing in front of the vampire. Grabbing a glowing blue dagger from inside its cloak, it jams it into Mateo’s stomach.

“No!” I hurry from underneath the scorpion and toward Mateo whose face has gone pale and slack.

“Demi, watch out.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rise and I dart my eyes to the scorpion. Its tail is reared back and is coming fast toward me.

Oh fuck.

Something knocks me out of the way and I fly back, landing on my ass and rolling to a stop. I hop to my feet and scramble away from the scorpion. My heart is pounding against my chest.

When I see who’s impaled on its tail, I start running back into the line of fire.

“Maria!”

She knocked me out of the way, taking the hit for me. The scorpion whirls around and I have to drop and roll to the right to avoid being stomped on.

“Fuck. Maria, hold on.” I crouch and get ready to do something stupid.

The scorpion races through the trees, knocking several down as it escapes with its dinner.

“Stop it!” I flash after it, only to slam into a hard chest. I smack Kerberos and glare at him. “Get out of my way.” I move to go around him but he yanks on my wrist, spinning me toward him.

“You can’t save her.”

The fuck I can’t.

I growl and headbutt him, making my own head spin, but he doesn’t let go of me. Grabbing my last knife from my thigh sheath, I press the blade against his throat.

“Let me go.”

“She’s dead, child. The scorpion venom is swift.”

Blaze runs over in wolf form, shifting mid lope and scowling at Kerberos. “Let her go.”

Kerberos gives me a hard look. “She is dead.”

When he releases my wrist, I crack him across the face with my fist. His head snaps to the side and he snarls.

“Fuck you,” I say on a ragged breath. “I’m going after her.”

I can’t let her die. Not here. Not with a scorpion waiting to eat her.

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