Page 28 of The Demon's Pet

I felt a wave of energy emanate from me, like a sound wave, and all the rocks currently in the air were knocked backward forcefully.

I looked at the rocks on the ground and raised my hands, somehow knowing they would rise too. They did, all around me, some marked with my blood.

Spinning, I sent the rocks out and flying toward the crowd, where people dodged back, screaming.

I levitated several more rocks, feeling more waves of energy burning inside me.

Had this been what Sam meant by waking up?

Because it felt like a part of me that I’d always suppressed had awakened, and it was pissed.

It was surreal looking down at my own body, covered in flames, and then at the rocks floating around me in circles ominously, along with other debris.

As this storm continued to spin, it gained traction and started pulling in larger objects.

“A demon!” the priest yelled over the whir of the spinning wind I was causing and the cracking of the flames and the screaming of the crowd. “She’s demonic! Demon-tainted! Everyone, run for your lives!”

People started to flee, knocking each other over, trampling each other in the process.

Ha. That was a sight to see. I suddenly felt powerful, maybe for the first time in my life. I waved my hands, sending rocks at the fleeing villagers, hitting those who had struck me hardest.

But I didn’t realize the village alpha had somehow come up behind me, quiet as the wind. He stood outside my whir of objects and raised his hand.

“Obey, omega,” he commanded.

I felt my wolf, even suppressed, wanting to bow to him.

But I also could still feel where I’d been hit by the rocks.

I’d never trust anyone in this village again.

“Never!” I said.

The priest came forward, pulling something out of his robe. “I never thought I would have to use this on a member of my own congregation.” It was a small crystal bottle with clear fluid and the celestial emblem on the front, wings crossing over a heart.

“Holy water!” he yelled, throwing it forward onto me.

Oh gods, it burned. It actually hurt, which meant I was technically, at least in part, a demon.

The irony didn’t miss me, considering I’d been called a hellion most of my life.

But still, how did I not know there was a demon inside me? One of the very things this village did everything to protect itself from?

I didn’t know what to think of myself.

The priest hit me with more holy water, and it burned my skin like acid. The intense pain doubled me over, and I nearly fell forward. The objects in the air slowed slightly, though still levitating.

But while the priest had me distracted, the village alpha had snuck up behind me with a large rock, it seemed, because I felt something huge crash down on my head, and then everything went black.

7

“So they didn’t manage it, as I thought.”

A deep voice pulled me out of the achy, heavy darkness I was swimming in, and as I opened my eyes and blinked around me, I realized I was in the pack jail.

And across from my cell, sitting on the main interrogator’s desk, was Sam.

I looked at my wrists and saw I’d been shackled again, this time with cuffs on a long chain that buckled to the wall, allowing me only to move around the cell to sit or lie on the bed.

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