Page 96 of Caretaker

Chapter Thirty-Two

The demon, wrapped in his naked hot man package, didn’t look like a monster. Not at first. But then his rage grew too strong for him to maintain that pretty exterior, and he became the thing raining fire down from the sky.

He became the demon.

So I became the bloodhunter.

It wasn’t a thought, or an attempt, it was just a thing that happened.

One second I was standing before him with a broken arm and a trembling body, and the next I was a freak filled with bloodlust.

Silverlight poured her molten liquid silver up through my arm, my shoulder, my body, and I was not just her arm. I was her power.

“That’s good,” he said, his voice a low, gravelly roar. “I’ll take you both.”

I tapped my cast with Silverlight and it shattered, clinging to the padding and stocking like an eggshell to its membrane. I peeled it off and dropped it to the ground.

“I thought you were after your incubus,” I said, marveling at my calm voice.

“I am,” he answered. “And I will have him. I will have all of you.”

I caught movement from my peripheral and wasn’t surprised to see Miriam slipping toward us. The sword’s light glinted off the silver in her hands, and I knew she held her switchblades.

The demon’s eyes tracked her movements as she came to stand beside me.

“You bring knives to a demon fight.” He was sneering and contemptuous, and he crossed his arms over his massive red chest. “Only Silverlight is a worthy opponent. I will stomp the two of you like fat baby chicks, and I will take back my sword.”

Silverlight shook my arm, but not from fear. From eagerness. She wanted to taste him. And who was I to deny her anything?

Perhaps I was a little too confident.

I leapt at him, screaming, and Silverlight screamed with me. Her silver arc sliced through the air, reaching the demon long before her tip touched him.

He hissed and dodged her blow, but she’d tasted him, and she wanted more. So did I. I embraced my fear, then converted it to rage, and I knew, I knew we could defeat him.

We’d either defeat him, or he would disappear, perhaps blowing up another car with his tantrum. The demon seemed more hesitant with humans in the mix—but there wasn’t a single human in that field. Not really.

He lifted a meaty hand and shot a blast of power so hot it singed my hair and reddened my flesh before Silverlight threw up a wall of silver to deflect it.

I shook it off.

My men came.

I didn’t hear them arrive—I felt them arrive. They didn’t throw themselves in front of me but fought at my side, their rage and eagerness a match for my own.

“One against four,” the demon roared. “I like those odds.”

I glanced around to see who was missing. Rhys, Amias, and Clayton weren’t there, but there were five of us fighting the demon. Angus, Shane, Miriam, Leo, and I stood against him in a determined line, but either he couldn’t count or he didn’t consider one of us the enemy.

Then Clayton was there, standing dark and still in the middle of the field, alone but for the incubus inside him.

Miriam pointed. “There,” she screamed. “Keep your promise.”

“You first,” the demon murmured, and his voice slid through me like ice water, numbing my insides with a wicked portent of evil. I lifted Silverlight to the sky, suddenly aware of only one thing. I must kill the demon before—

Then Angus roared as something hit me in the back, punching me so hard I was thrown nearly to the demon’s feet, and I jumped up, turning to look, realizing as I saw Miriam’s empty fists that I hadn’t been punched. She’d slammed her switchblades into my back. Our eyes met, mine slightly wide and confused, hers brimming with tears and regret. I’m sorry, she mouthed.

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. “You’ve killed me. You’ve killed me to keep him a slave.”