River
The woman’s countenance never changed when she lashed out at me, her talons whistling as they sliced through the air. I jumped back, barely managing to avoid their deadly arc at my throat. This wasn’t Kobal and training. This woman was out for blood, my blood. She swung at me again, this time an upper cut that would have broken my jaw and sliced my jugular open.
My leap to the side brought me up against Vargas, jarring him out of whatever strange stupor he’d been in. He blinked before pulling his gun free and pointing it at the woman. One of the other demons leapt forward. The demon smashed his arm down on Vargas’s, causing him to lose his grip on his gun. It clattered against the wood floor when it hit the ground. Vargas swung at him, but the demon had already stepped away to watch the woman as she circled me like a shark on the hunt for its prey.
She came at me again, swinging wildly in her growing frustration. Before she reached me, the world fell away to allow the battle to unfold in my head. It was only her and me now, and I saw every move she would make seconds before she made them. A strange sense of calm descended over me as I swung my forearms up, blocking each of her blows.
When she drew her arm back, I leaned against the beam behind me, lifted my leg, and drove it into her chest. Stunned gasps filled the room when the woman reeled backward and crashed into another beam.
Silence descended over the other demons. The pounding of my heart resonated in my ears when her eyes lifted to mine. Hatred burned within their clear, green depths, but I also saw curiosity and disbelief there. Vargas looked between the two of us as the woman pulled herself away from the beam.
“What are you?” the woman hissed.
“We only came for our friends, let us take them and we’ll go,” I told her.
Her eyes traveled over me and for the briefest of seconds I almost believed she would agree to my terms. Then, she came at me so fast my mind barely had a chance to process her intentions until she was almost on top of me.
Before I had a chance to react to her new attack, the front door crashed open with so much force it flew off its hinges and across the room to smash against the stairs. The shattered wood of the doorframe rained down on the occupants of the room. The other canagh demons leapt back and threw their hands over their heads to protect themselves from the debris. They scattered out of the pathway of the seething demon who stepped inside.
Vargas threw himself to the floor and rolled across it to retrieve his gun. He bounced back up close to the ruined door. The wreckage and noise didn’t deter the woman as she swung at me again. I dodged the claws arcing toward my chest by ducking out of the way. They sliced into the beam behind me, tearing splinters from the wood and rending a bellow from Kobal that rattled the windows.
Shoving my hands into the woman’s chest, I pushed her away from me and scrambled low to avoid the lethal talons of her other arm descending on me. I hadn’t completely risen to my full height when an arm slid around my waist, pinning me against a much-loved chest. I would have breathed a sigh of relief if I hadn’t felt the fury vibrating the muscles beneath my touch.
Kobal thrust me behind him, bracing his feet apart as he faced the woman across from us. Vargas stood behind me, paler than normal but his eyes were clear once more, as whatever hold she’d had over him was broken.
Hatred no longer twisted the woman’s exquisite features. Her expression was now composed into the beautiful face that would make the angels weep once more. “Kobal,” she purred with a swish of her hip.
“Lilitu,” he grated.
She smiled as she fluffed back her blood-colored hair. “You know I would have welcomed you to join in the fun. There was no reason to destroy my door.”
“Not here for fun,” he replied, nudging me back another step.
I shot him a disgruntled look, but my protest died at the burning intensity and the harshness of his amber gaze sweeping over me. If I pushed him now, I had no idea what he would do. His lips skimmed back when he spotted the blood beading on my skin. His wrath blasted over me in a wave I swore blew the hair back from my face.
Lilitu’s eyes flickered between the two of us, and then she sneered at me. Before me, the marks on Kobal’s arms shifted in response to Lilitu’s hostility. I half expected the beasts to burst free of him, but they remained caged in preparation for a fight.
“You couldn’t have marked her on purpose,” Lilitu said in disbelief.
“I mark what is mine,” Kobal said flatly.
Around Lilitu, the other canagh demons murmured again. They shifted and moved back to allow more space down the center of the cavernous building. Shadows fell across the busted doorway, briefly blocking the little bit of light that had spilled in from outside. Turning, I watched as Corson and Bale slipped inside.
“Yours?” Lilitu scoffed. “Come now, Kobal, we both know you could never be satisfied with taking only one woman for the rest of your days.” Her talons trailed down the front of her dress. They slipped over her breasts before stroking over the flesh of her belly exposed by the cutouts in the sides of the gauzy material. “I can clearly recall what that taking was like, as I’m sure you can too.”
The blood drained from my face so fast I was amazed I didn’t pass out. I kept my face impassive as I tried not to let my distress show. Lilitu made beautiful look like the understatement of the year. She oozed sex, and I was certain she knew exactly what to do to please a man. I’d known Kobal was the exact opposite of a saint long before I’d started sleeping with him, but she was something I never could have imagined.
“Give us the others and we’ll leave,” Kobal replied, ignoring her words completely.
Lilitu’s hand stilled on its way back up her body in the valley between her breasts. “You could always share,” she suggested in a husky voice. “She must taste delicious.”
“No one else will ever touch her. If you try, Lilitu, it will be the last thing you do.”
“She’s so young, so inexperienced. I have more than a few here who would be eager to teach her how to make a man beg for more. I’m sure you recall the way I had you begging for more.”
This time I was unable to suppress a shudder at the hurt her words caused. I hated this place and these things.
“I don’t recall,” he replied.
I thought it might have been actual distress flitting over her perfect features before a smile curved her lips once more. “You’d appreciate her so much more after my men are done teaching her. I can guarantee it.”
Some of the eerily beautiful men stepped forward, their perfectly chiseled features looking almost fake. A few of them raked their eyes over me before licking their lips. One, with platinum blond hair took hold of his erect shaft and fondled himself as he stared at me.
With a swift step to the side, Kobal seized him by his neck and snapped his head to the side with a sharp thrust of his thumb to the man’s jaw. I could only stand and gawk as fire burst from Kobal’s hand to encompass the face of the screaming demon. The man’s eyes burned from his head as flames burst out of his eye sockets and rolled up to consume his blond hair.
Kobal tossed his flaming body aside, letting it fall to the floor as if it were no more than a mosquito he’d swatted from the air. “Look at her again, and I’ll burn you all to the ground,” he snarled at the others. Their mouths gaped open as their eyes remained locked on the burning body of their fallen companion.
Whatever interest any of the men had been showing toward me vanished in a heartbeat. They all glanced at me before focusing on Lilitu once more. The amusement and lust had vanished from Lilitu’s gaze. Now the pupils of her eyes had become pinpricks as they focused on Kobal with murderous intent.