Page 24 of Demon Defeat: Part One

“The woman wearing the grey sweatshirt. She’s quiet and has shied away from Molev every time he gets close. But she’s good. She’s a mix of Roni and Katie, I think.”

I looked down at my notes. I’d written her off because of her aversion to Molev.

“We’ll put her in Molev’s group tomorrow and see how she does,” I said.

The others joined us and shared their recommendations on the way to the house. Everything they said was close to what I’d noted, and we decided to put three women and one older man with Molev to start with the next day.

Once we were inside, we gathered in the kitchen as Brandon and Roland started dinner.

“So if they pan out, we have eight women and two men out of one hundred volunteers,” Katie said. “At that rate, it would take us about eight weeks just to reach two hundred people. Are we being too picky?”

We all looked at Molev.

“No,” he said. “You are doing well. Many things require patience. Choosing the right people is one of them. And if we were to rush it, Waurlyn would question why.”

“Is she going to question why we’re being so picky?” Steve asked.

“I doubt it since we’re also being picky about who we recommend to her,” I said. “But I’ll give her our notes just in case.”

Waurlyn knocked on our door thirty minutes later.

“Sorry to interrupt your meal. I wanted to check how everything went today and if there was anything we could do to make tomorrow run more smoothly.”

We invited her to sit, and we shared our thoughts on how the day went along with our compiled notes.

“Thirty is good news. Hopefully, a few of them will accept our offer,” she said, looking everything over. “And six is probably lower than you would have liked, but these were randomly selected. Hopefully, the next group will have more promise.

“If you don’t need the full day tomorrow, you can dismiss them at midday. They can eat at the mess hall and then fly back. It would enable us to transport the next group before dark.”

Molev agreed, and she left to coordinate what she would do with the thirty names we’d given her.

The others drifted off to do their own things, leaving me with Molev.

“Would you like to go for a walk?” he asked, holding out his hand to me.

The look in his eyes was enough to tell me he didn’t plan to go far…

CHAPTERFIVE

I tippedmy head back and looked up at the night sky as we walked next door. Although the tenderness between my legs had faded, that didn’t mean I could handle as much as I had the day before, and I debated how much I was willing to give.

Molev’s hand closed around mine.

“Do you still miss it?” he asked. “The sounds?”

“I guess I haven’t thought about it much since we’ve been here,” I said honestly. “You’ve kept us too busy for those kinds of thoughts.”

He grunted and opened the door for me. My gaze swept the vacant room as he closed the door. I was still scrutinizing the space when Molev’s hand tangled in my hair. The next thing I knew, he had my front pinned against the wall and was nibbling his way up the side of my neck. His teeth scraped my ear, sending a shock through me. My pulse jumped as I pressed my palms against the wall.

“Do you like this, Andie?” he asked, his voice rough.

“Probably more than I should.” I couldn’t hide the catch in my breathing, and he growled.

“When you answer like that, I want to do more. But I fear scaring you. I fear losing you. It makes me desperate like the people we saw today. But in a different way.” He nipped my neck again. “Do you know what I want to do to you?”

I licked my lips, already anticipating his answer.

“Tell me,” I said.

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