Page 67 of Kat Bethel

I grabbed my food and forced it down, chewing over what the best line of action was. Caressing fingers danced over my thigh, and I could swear his face was resting in my lap.

Afterwards, I slunk down the alleyways, looking for a car to steal. A few men were lounging at the end of the alley, so I turned to take another route. Footsteps softly followed behind me, trying to not be heard. I ignored them.

Please. Turn back. You have no idea what you’re fucking with.

I eyed the abandoned industrial buildings that surrounded me. At least the loss of life would be minimal.

“Fuck off,” I warned them. “Trust me.”

“Did you hear how she spoke to you?” one said to the other.

Warmth plastered itself to my back, fingers running down my arms. A soft reminder that there was nothing to fear, because he was with me.

Why couldn’t they hear the warning growl echoing off the cement walls?

I barely saved a man who deserved to be saved. There wouldn’t be any saving them if they pursued me any further.

They continued following me.

His growling grew louder, and it made the men pause for a moment, looking for a stray dog or something. Not realizing something from their nightmares surrounded them here in the endless darkness of the alley.

What if I wasn’t a witch?

What if I didn’t have a psychopathic shadow born of man’s sins guarding me like a rabid dog?

And instead, I was a regular woman minding her business.

They deserve their fate.

That was a frail justification, and I knew it.

I was supposed to stop this. It was my job to preserve human life.

They didn’t know that a five-hundred-year-old curse was calling their most fucked up thoughts and desires to me. The kind of curse that destroyed an entire colony without leaving a trace.

The kind of curse that created the Rinah name.

It was my responsibility to hold myself to a strict moral code, and they didn’t know that at some point on this hunt that I’d abandoned it.

The shadows before me leaned toward the men. A threat they couldn’t see coming. A song of screams and panic started behind me. I didn’t bother turning around to watch or asking ‌Abiel to calm down.

The men’s shadows on the wall twisting in unnatural ways was visual enough.

At least here, the only people he could hurt were people who deserved it.

The squelch of blood and organs made my stomach drop, but I kept walking. Even with all the cries and fear behind me, Abiel’s eyes were locked on me.

Was he waiting for my horror? My argument? Did he want me to turn to see what he was doing?

He wasn’t going to get any of those things.

A shadow stood still at the end of the alley, making me halt. My eyes scanned the other shadows slinking behind me to Abiel, like he sucked all the darkness in the area to him. Everything except that one shadow. Unease filled my veins with ice.

Something wasn’t right.

I squinted, trying to get the shape to come into focus, but all the other shadows moving over it kept throwing me off. Hot blood spattered across my back, making me flinch.

When I blinked, the shape took on a clear definition that made my heart stop.