Page 9 of The Monster's Desire

Nadia is never loopy. Not even on the rare occasions I’ve been able to coax her into subspace.

“She’s the most powerful type of witch in existence.” Kash crosses his arms. “I couldn’t risk her getting the upper hand.” He’s majorly misreading his cards. It’s going to be a stark realization.

“You couldn’t risk injuring our tether,” I snarl. “Which we made blatantly fucking clear.”

My eyes glow white. It fully illuminates the dirty floor of the warehouse he had the audacity to bring Nadia to.

Are we to blame for this?

Perhaps.

We have been coaxing him to do the summoning spell for some time. However, we were very clear his sacrifice was not to be injured under any circumstances; otherwise, she would be deemed unworthy. Fat fucking chance of that happening, but it was the best we could come up with.

“Your tether?” Kash sputters.

“He’s a little slow, isn’t he?” Malice asks.

“Would you mind untying me?” Nadia asks in a weak tone that I instantly hate.

“Fuck, no. That’s not happening,” Kash hisses. “You’re my ticket to immortality. I’ll no longer need to make yearly sacrifices.”

“Of course, love.” Wraith ignores the warlock completely as he unties her ankles first. As soon as he’s done, he immediately moves to her wrists.

“What the fuck is this?” Kash snaps. “Malice, I command you to stop him.”

“You may have chanted, but her blood was the sacrifice to summon me across the veil,” Malice replies in his normal bored and disinterested tone. “You may want to check the fine print on your spells in the future.” He floats over, grabbing the leather spell book the warlock used before heading for Nadia and Wraith. “They piggybacked in through the portal used to summon me. You’re going to want to close it before any even more vile creatures find their way through.”

“What?” Nadia sputters.

“It’s this one.” Malice taps a finger against the notebook. It’s weird as hell when he manifests certain body parts out of his shadows.

The warlock keeps hissing commands no one pays any mind to.

Wraith carefully assesses Nadia’s scalp. “She has a deep wound.” He’s vibrating with tension or rage, and that doesn’t bode well for the shithead.

“It’s fine, my magic is reabsorbing all the blood I’ve lost. A little like it’s cannibalizing my energy.” Nadia frowns. “That sounds gross.”

“Read this,” Malice instructs her. “We weren’t exactly in an isolated area when you summoned me, and any being could pop through that portal after us.”

“You injured and drugged her,” I say as my fists clench. “You were warned.”

“I’m serious, little witch.” Malice’s head swivels back to look at the portal. “There’s some nasty shit in Hell, and I’d rather that it didn’t make it into this realm.”

Nadia snatches the book and begins to read. She’s not chanting, but it’ll get the job done.

“No fucking way are you stealing my demons.” Kash raises a hand of dark blue magic. I take a step forward, assessing him as he extends it like he’s about to attack.

I move faster than his eyes have a chance of tracking and break his neck. I twist a little too strongly, and the next thing I know, his mouth is facing mine. Which is surprisingly convenient, since I need to eat his sins immediately.

I suck in a deep breath, causing black smoke to pour from his mouth into mine. Kash makes for quite the delightful meal. I’m going to be stuffed to capacity once I gorge on his sins.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Wraith growls.

“He was about to attack. The three of us could weather his magic with no issue, but...” I step back, nodding to Nadia. “I’m not sure she could in her depleted state.”

“He’s going to pass over. Malice, jump your ass in there before this entire plan goes to shit!” Wraith hisses. “She’s wobbly. Keep her upright.” He directs the last bit at me before heading over to devour the warlock’s soul.

“Hello, doll. Sorry about that unpleasantness,” I murmur, wrapping an arm around her lower back.

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