Savage bite den of shado.., p.7
Savage Bite (Den of Shadows Book 1), page 7
His eyes narrowed at the accusation. One of them definitely sported that eerie demon blue, so maybe he did feed off souls.
He remained silent, though, watching me as I watched him. Distant car horns blared, and the scuttle of trash blowing in the wind coming off the river echoed. Strands of hair so black they even trumped the night sky brushed over a scar running along the bottom of his left cheekbone. Another scar dug into the skin at his temple and disappeared within the shadows on his jaw.
Calling this guy pretty would be like saying a raging lightning storm was pretty. He was… raw and primal. Something feral pulsated out of him, and he had a wildness that would never be tamed.
A beast. And a man.
The nightworlder took the few moments of my distraction to lunge forward. I tried to counter with a right hook, but he batted my hand away. My back hit the wall with enough force to knock the air from my lungs, and then he pressed his body into mine.
An icy chill skated down my scalp. Holy hell. He’d been toying with me the entire time. He could have had me pinned the moment he slipped into this alley.
“A raven. No wonder.” His voice—a rough timbre that sounded as if he spent most of his life snarling at everyone—hit the nonexistent space between us, raising the hair on my nape. “That’s why I couldn’t find you.”
My head jerked back, cracking into the bricks. “Find me? Why the hell were you looking for me?”
When I tried to shove him off, he put more of his weight on me, the rough wall digging into my bare lower back. But that wasn’t what halted my breathing. I could feel every hard, hot inch of him against me. An earthy, spicy scent that made me think of warm fire on a cold autumn night wrapped around me like a noose slowly drawing out my death.
He smelled like a holiday bakery, freshly cut wood, and leather. Raw sexuality infused those notes, mixing with the destructive, all-consuming fire.
I trembled, and a violent surge of lust unfurled in my gut, forcing me to choke back a moan.
What the hell was wrong with me?
This nightworlder had attacked me, and suddenly I could only focus on the sexual energy flowing off him, causing a throb to hit me right between the legs.
A vicious leer pulled at his lips as if he sensed the urges rippling through me. His head dipped so close his warm, cinnamon-flavored breath ghosted over my mouth. “I would rather disembowel you and play with your entrails than—”
I slammed my forehead into his nose, the crunch of cartilage popping through the alley. He stumbled back and grabbed his face, a dribble of burgundy blood leaking through his fingers.
Not a demon. His blood would be black.
“Use your tricks on someone else, nightworlder prick,” I snapped even as flames crawled up my neck and into my face.
He scoffed and wiped blood from his nose, smearing it on his heather gray t-shirt. “No tricks here, sweetheart. Apparently, me trying to kill you turns you on. You must be one sick little deviant.”
A crimson haze cascaded over my vision, and I bolted forward, shoving him into the building on the other side of the backstreet. His vicious roar shook the cobblestone ground, and for a moment, heat simmered from him like ice water hitting a hot blacktop in the summer.
What the…?
Before my brain could comprehend the sight, his arms enveloped my middle, and my legs kicked at the air as he lifted me. I crushed my fist into his back and struggled while he sprinted farther into the alley.
“Get the fuck off me, asshole!”
He dumped me to my feet, whipped me around, and threw me face-first into a chain link fence. His body, like a scalding piece of rock, crashed into mine to keep me pinned.
Fire erupted in my core, and my knees would have buckled if he wasn’t holding me. His hot, ragged breath coated my neck and washed over my cheek. I clenched my teeth from the electric sensations wreaking havoc through my system. Some unrecognizable part of me screamed and begged me to provoke his touch.
I choked back the misplaced desire and curled my fingers around the thin metal links. “Get. Off. Now.”
His head lowered, and his lips brushed my ear as he released a low hum, the vibrations carrying through his chest and into mine, shooting sparks through my bloodstream. “I’ll get off once I destroy you.”
I lifted my boot to stomp on his foot, but only cobblestones met my sole. “Why did you follow me? I’ve never even seen you before. What could I have possibly—”
“You killed my brother.” The hard edge of his words penetrated my flesh like knives.
“I’ve killed a lot of nightworlders.” Not really. Mostly sub-demons and a few feral vamps had seen the end of my blades. “You’d have to be more specific.”
His hand, rough with calluses, dragged over my bare midriff to my left side, making me shiver. Three fingers ran over the long scars like they were the talons that caused them. “You’d remember him.”
I plunged into a frozen pond, icicles crystalizing within my veins as his words sank in. All the heat and fire he’d stoked in my center zapped out like a snowstorm suffocating a blazing inferno in a forest. The first demon I’d killed—of course I hadn’t known what he was then—flashed through my mind. Those black eyes, terrifying gaunt face, pale complexion, and talons dripping with blood. My blood.
Dead bodies scattered around. And her tiny frame, so still and cold…
I gnashed my teeth so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them cracked. “Your brother was a monster.” Only a beast could have done that, evil through and through. The high demon had been on a rampage that night.
Did that mean this nightworlder was a demon? What about his red blood?
He disappeared, sparing me only a moment of relief before he grabbed my arm, yanked me around, and slammed my back into the fence. Unleashed fury dripped over him, and his lips curled back, a sinister growl that would make most piss their pants snaking between his teeth. His hand wrapped around my throat, not enough to choke me, but enough to lightly constrict my breathing. “You are the monster.”
A bitter laugh slipped out. “We’re all monsters to someone.”
He blinked, caught off guard, and I used that to my advantage by gripping his wrist, twisting, and tearing his hand from my throat. I kicked him off, and he stumbled a few steps before catching his balance.
“You’re not killing me tonight, demon.”
The violent snarl coming out of him shook the ground beneath my feet, and steam rose from him again. “You’re not walking away from this.” His voice lowered like thunder rumbling through the atmosphere, and his skin twitched, the black tattoos slashing his tan flesh coming alive. The snap and pop of bones reverberated through the alley.
And then it hit me—why his irises were different colors, and why I couldn’t pinpoint his species of nightworlder.
He was a demon and a shifter.
Shock had my feet cemented to the ground as talons burst from his fingertips, and his pupils grew into diamond slits, not a feature any shifter had. But demons…
Ebony fur sprouted along his arms over his tattoos, his teeth elongated, and his shoulders curled in. A snout formed as his ears became pointed.
Wolf. No doubt about it. His shifter parent was a wolf.
How could this guy change into animal form at all? Demons and shifters didn’t typically have offspring. If they did, they usually only displayed demon traits.
His change halted, and his head cocked to the side, listening. He cursed under his breath and then shook, returning to his human shape within the blink of an eye.
Air caught in my lungs. Shifters could not slip back from a transformation that damn fast.
He cracked his neck and then his knuckles, which were also covered by black ink in the shape of mysterious symbols. “This isn’t over. I have a special talent for finding things, including people.”
“You’re not very good at it if it took you two years to find your brother’s killer.” I must have a death wish because there was no doubt that this guy could cause severe damage, and the people he hunted down probably ended up dead not long after.
A vicious grin pulled at his lips. “Don’t worry. I found you once. I’ll find you again. Then we’ll finish this.”
I flipped him off, hoping like hell he couldn’t see the tremors racing through my limbs. “I’ll have a silver bullet ready just for you.”
If I got the heart—assuming he had one—it might still kill him even if he was half demon.
He stared at me for a few tense moments and then bent his knees, jumped over the fence, and vanished into the shadows without a sound.
I slumped against the metal links, bouncing gently, and rested my hand over my heart. His scent still invaded the air, the earthy aroma of spices and leather twisting with hot fire. I could almost taste him on my tongue.
What in the ever-loving hell just happened? And why did my body buzz like it had been struck by lightning?
Boots hitting the pavement yanked my attention away from thoughts of the mysterious demon shifter, and a figure sprinted around the corner.
On instinct, my muscles relaxed, but then images of him and Roxie bombarded my mind, and steel sped through my veins, hardening everything.
“Tate, there you are.” Hawk stopped a few feet away, hunching over and resting his hands on his knees, breathing hard as if he’d raced from Wrath & Ruin. “I am so sorry.”
The encounter with the demon shifter made me forget that Hawk had ripped my heart out less than an hour ago. The nightworlder had turned my world upside down and inside out, and I wasn’t sure I could ever get back to normal.
I pushed off the fence and forced my feet forward, one in front of the other. “How did you find me?” He couldn’t have tracked me in a random alley.
Hawk stood and dragged his fingers through his tousled blond hair. Roxie must have enjoyed tugging on the strands while she rode him. “My aunt puts trackers on everyone’s phone in case of an emergency.” The ghost of a crooked grin melted over his mouth. “I might have gotten Strome to hack it for me.”
This jerk had the audacity to puff his chest out at his own cleverness. “Good for you.”
When I slipped by, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “I’m so sorry, Tate. I didn’t mean for that to happen. It was the Rapture.” He shook his head, those puppy dog eyes—still dilated and hazy from the drugs—pleading. “You don’t know what it’s like. I couldn’t control myself. Neither could Roxie.”
“Why did you take it in the first place?” I asked as his fingers kept a firm hold on my arm, but it didn’t burn away the demon shifter’s touch lingering all over me like phantom tattoos.
Hawk lifted one shoulder. “Roxie had already taken some by the time I found her, and she begged me to try it with her so she wasn’t alone. I didn’t think it would be that—intense.” He bit his bottom lip and tugged me closer. “Can you please forgive me? I’d never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”
Roxie’s perfume coated him, making me want to gag.
“Did you finish?”
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Hawk knew exactly what I meant, and the panic in his gaze revealed his answer. “After I bolted out of there, did you finish banging Roxie before chasing me down?”
Some of the color drained from his face.
“I thought so.” I yanked my arm out of his grip and strode toward the mouth of the alley.
Hawk jogged after me, quickly catching up with his long legs. “It’s not like you and I are dating. There was no commitment. Don’t take it so hard.”
His words stung like a harsh slap across my cheek, and my boots screeched to a halt. An invisible fist squeezed my heart as I glared at my best friend, the guy I’d been in love with for the last two years.
Did I ever really matter to him? Would he have hooked up with me tonight and then moved on to another?
The hurt and betrayal must have leaked through my hard expression because he let out a string of curses.
“I didn’t mean that how it sounded.” He rubbed his temples. “You’re my partner, for real now, and I want things to go smoothly between us. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to—”
I lifted my hand to cut him off. “Just shut up, Hawk.” Every word out of his mouth dug the knives a little deeper, twisting until I wanted to scream.
But this was nothing compared to the shit I’d been through. I would survive, like always. No one, not even Hawk, would break me again.
“You’re right. You can do whatever you want and screw whoever you want.” I flicked my hair over my shoulder and shrugged. “Same goes for me.”
He scoffed. “Don’t go hopping into bed with that douchebag Axel because you’re mad at me. I already apologized. What more do you want?”
My bitter laugh reverberated through the night like a banshee call. “I’m not mad at you, Hawk.” Of course I was, but it didn’t matter. “I’ll get over tonight. I’ve experienced worse things than watching the guy I like fuck my supposed friend.”
His eyes widened as those words bounced between us, something I’d never admitted out loud to him. “Tate, I—”
“This is just another horrible memory I’ll shove down so far until it doesn’t exist.” Like all the other shit I’ve tried to bury.
I stormed out of the alley, trying to keep my knees from buckling as I walked away from the one person I trusted the most for the last two years. The historic buildings and twisting oaks blurred as I marched down the sidewalk, cutting through Crawford Square to put as much distance between Hawk and me as possible.
I’d kick tonight's events into another steel cage in the back of my mind and lock it, but the memories of the demon shifter wouldn’t go quietly. He’d haunt my nightmares.
Would he make good on his threat and find me again?
Chapter Nine
The scorching summer sun heated my skin even though my blood felt like liquid ice as I stood in the very spot I had more than two years ago when my life imploded. It hadn’t been that good to begin with, but I at least had some control over it.
That night, I had no control, and everything I thought I knew about the world shattered.
I ran the toe of my boot over the loose bits of gravel and concrete, the yellow construction tape I’d ripped down fluttering in the wind. The city demolished the abandoned warehouse a few months ago to make way for regentrification or some shit. I hadn’t been able to even look at this place, let alone go near it.
This was the first time I’d set foot on these grounds since that night.
I’d left Jayla—my little thirteen-year-old shadow—with four other street kids while I met up with a few guys to sell some stolen merch. After what happened a few months prior, I’d quit fighting, so I had to up my theft game to make money.
Jayla begged me to go, but it was too dangerous. I didn’t want her anywhere near Isaac or his lackeys. They were terrible people, and thanks to Griffin, she was already on the creep’s radar…
“Please, Tate.” She stared at me from the bean bag chair I’d bought her, those dark irises like shimmering pools of onyx. “I’ll be quiet as a church mouse. I promise on my dead granny’s grave.”
“You don’t know the meaning of quiet.” I motioned my hand opened and closed. “You got a motormouth that runs on high octane and nitrous.”
She pouted and crossed her arms with a huff. “No, I don’t.”
I plopped down on the bean bag chair, both of us small enough to share it even though I was seventeen. I wasn’t the biggest teenager on the streets, but that was what made me so dangerous. No one expected a tiny girl like me to hold her own. And then some.
“Don’t be mad, Jayla Bear.” I poked her side. “I promise to bring you back a surprise.”
The dilapidated building we’d been squatting in the last few weeks used to be a shipping warehouse that held furniture, but a fire on the second floor ruined the merchandise, and the company moved. The place had been vacant ever since. Soot still crawled over the ceiling on the first floor, and metal beams and rods had fallen through the floor. No one went upstairs unless they had a death wish.
I set us up in a little nook far away from the damage. Battery-operated lanterns illuminated the mismatched rugs and the few folding lawn chairs for guests. Two clean sleeping bags were rolled in the corner.
It wasn’t the lap of luxury, but it could have been worse. I’d lived under an overpass before.
Jayla’s head slowly swiveled in my direction. “What kind of surprise?”
My lips curved into a smile. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.” Plus, I hadn’t planned on getting the kid anything special. I could find something to wow her, though.
She sucked her teeth. “Fine, but it better be good. You know how boring it is with the twins, Mike and Josh. Shelly and Van aren’t much fun either.”
I chuckled at her dramatic expression. “They aren’t that bad.” And boring was safe. Well, as safe as you could get being a bunch of runaways squatting in an abandoned building.
“Are you going to get some food too?” She batted her thick lashes as she rested her head on my shoulder. “Maybe some of that Kung Pao chicken I like.”
“Demanding, aren’t you?” I gently tugged on a raven curl, the perfect spiral springing back into position as soon as I released it.
Jayla swatted my hand away. “You know I hate it when you do that.”
“I can’t help it. I’m so jealous.” I ran my fingers through her soft curls. “I wish I had your hair.”
She scoffed. “Oh please. You have pretty pink-red hair that’s always silky soft.”
“Want me to shave it off and make you a wig.” I yanked on my ends. “I’ll do it. Just say the word.”
A giggle erupted out of her. “No way. Then you’d be even scarier, and no one would let us crash at their place.”
“Hmm. Good point.” I would have given her my hair or the shirt off my back if she really wanted it…
