Page 37 of Capturing Sin

Pushing metal through flesh, I began the gentle process that had become horrifyingly familiar. The demon didn’t so much as twitch as I sewed him back together.

His attention warmed my face like the sun.

“What?” I poked him a little too hard on the next stitch, but I was the only one to wince.

He smirked. “You have freckles.”

It was something my mother used to criticise, before she’d walked out of my life a year before my father died, pointing out how most men would prefer smooth, unblemished skin.

I’d never paid much attention to her little gripes about my appearance growing up. Fighting otherworldly monsters put things into perspective pretty fast. Besides, her opinions lost all value the moment she’d left me to this vicious life.

It was my turn to grunt. “And you’re incredibly spiky. What of it, parasite?”

He pursed full lips as if in thought. “They’re…intriguing. A shade lighter than your eyes.”

I paused, an odd sensation squirming through me with the urge to blush. My eyes narrowed on his sharply angular face. “I can start on your gaping fish lips next.”

He tutted, a smile tugging up one corner of his mouth. “Your bedside manner could use some work.”

I clenched my jaw, refusing to look at the smug bastard as I jabbed the needle back through his skin.

The next gash sat just under the script on his left pec: “As I walk through the valley of the righteous, the shadow I cast is behind me.”

I paused.

The words were tattooed in English. A human language, not one of their hellish dialects.

Their meaning resonated with something inside me. What righteous path was he seeking? What brighter future did he look for and what darkness did he leave behind? Did blood soak his claws like it burrowed under my nails and seeped into my skin? Was it in English for him to remember the human lives he’d taken?

I swallowed hard, unable to meet his gaze as I continued to patch him up.

Chapter 15

Ilooked away from the imposing demon, going about my routine, getting the latest compound Martin and Cara had cooked up for me to play guinea pig with.

Dosing myself up with the clear liquid, I exhaled a steady breath and approached the monster lurking in the back of the lab.

I hadn’t seen my spiky lab rat since I’d wrangled him back into his cell three nights ago, throwing in a new pair of sweatpants behind him. My schedule said I should have fed him the very next day, but I’d skipped it, telling myself it was to allow him more time to heal after Leo had forced him into the fight ring.

The irritating demon had been on my mind ever since. The sight of his blood-smeared features haunted my nightmares. Almost as much as his pleasured bite consumed my dreams.

He looked as imposing as ever, curving horns reaching only a foot below the ceiling. The cuts that had littered his dark skin were fully closed, healing to pale scars that blended with his tattoos.

Starlit eyes glowed as they tracked my movements.

Unlocking the hatch, I shoved my arm against the slot. My teeth found my lower lip, worrying at it until it pinched with pain.

I waited for him to strike. For his fangs to sink in and inject liquid pleasure until I was wet and needy, coming for a demon and so embarrassed I could hardly look at him after.

Or for him to push agony through my veins until my legs gave out.

A dark chuckle rolled through the cramped space.

I glared up at the demon. The smug bastard thought he had the upper hand here, and I hated that a tiny part of me agreed with him.

I just hoped this compound knocked him on his stupidly toned arse.

“Get on with it, parasite.”

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