Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
I shook my thoughts clear, feeling the last of the rage slipping away, and I lowered the shields. As I did, she came in, looking around. I reached for her, my hand going to her waist, and drew her to me. I leaned in to touch her forehead softly with mine, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was still looking in my head, reading my thoughts, feeling my emotions.
Finding nothing—or nothing I hadn’t wanted her to know—she pulled back a little, still frowning. She tipped her head back and dropped her voice. “I don’t like secrets.”
I shook my head. “No secrets. Not from you.”
“That’s a lie—”
My mouth was on hers, and as I knew it would, the kiss pushed her little resistance aside, distracting her completely.
I was a demon. We’re all assholes.
CHAPTER 2
STILL KELLAN
“Kellan, dude.”
My blood froze. The human was not talking to me.
I looked.
His mouth moved, grinning as he stuffed a rolled-up piece of pizza inside. “What are you and the missus doing for Christmas?”
It was.
He was talking to me.
Damien’s pet gestured toward Damien, who had frozen beside him. “This one just says you all are going home for the break but won’t say when.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Did this child not have any sense of self-preservation? Did he not realize what could happen if I was in a bad mood?
Damien shot me a look.
I’m sure Shay would be miffed if I turned this human into mist, but I entertained the thought. This was the human who seemed to be getting an indication there was something not of human descent about the three of us.
Crowman, they called him.
Crowman was stupid.
I leaned forward and held up my hand. “I could break your neck with the snap of my fingers.”
He stopped chewing. His eyes lifted to study me.
Study. Pfft.
He should fear me.
I was going soft. I’d been around too many humans, been in love—no, not that. This wasn’t Shay. I loved her with everything in me, the good and bad, but I was a demon. I’d been ignoring my roots for too long.
A bit of the rage from before began swirling inside of me.
It crept in through cracks I’d ignored, and it began filling me.
Shay gasped in my head.
Shit.
She was in here. I tried to push her out, but—
“No, you won’t!”
Damien’s eyes went wide. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
The darkness had nearly engulfed me. At Shay’s discovery, it pushed faster, coming with more ferocity.
I did want to kill this human.
Kill him. Kill him.
I did. I actually wanted to do this.
There was a faint sound of chairs scraping in the background, but I was focused on him. He froze completely. I had a hold on him. He couldn’t move, not an inch. His eyes rolled in their sockets. I could smell the frantic fear on him, and if I were letting him move, he would’ve run by now.
I sensed others leaving the dining hall. The room was fast emptying.
Other humans had better life instincts than this one.
“Kellan!” Shay’s nails sunk into my arm, and she wrenched it from the table. “No!”
She yanked me out of whatever spell I’d been in.
I looked around and realized the black mist wasn’t just in me. It was all over the room, filling it up, going into every corner.
I turned, almost dazed, and realized I was still holding Damien’s friend. I had paralyzed him. I released him, and he scrambled backward. His pants were wet. He hit the floor on his back but was immediately back up and took off for the exit.
“What just happened?” Damien stood, stepping back from the table. He moved to stand between his friend, who was out of the room by now, and me.
Shay groaned and snapped her fingers.
The smell of smoke mixed with my mist.
A moment later, someone yelled, “Fire!”
The alarm sounded.
It was only the three of us left, and for a beat, no one said a word.
I fought the rage, trying to suck the mist back inside me. But it lingered in the air.
“Wha—” Damien started to speak when the door opened behind him.
The alarm grew louder, and his friend—the one I had frozen—stepped back in the room. His face was set, guarded, his fists opening and closing at his side. Then, he lifted his head, his hands unfisted, and he strode back toward us.
Shay moved to stand between him and me.
I moved to the side so he could still see me, and his gaze never wavered.
A few yards away, he stopped and looked at Damien for a second. Then back to me.
“What just happened?” he asked.
I snorted, but Shay rounded on me, giving me her look of death.
I shut up.
“Crow—” Damien stepped toward him.
“No, dude.” He moved back a step, and Damien halted. He looked back at me. “I know something just happened, and I know you did it. I—” His throat moved up and down. He blinked a few times, rapidly, before his chest lifted and held. “I couldn’t move, and I knew you were going to kill me. I…” He edged back another step. “To tell the truth, I still feel like you’re going to kill me.”