He strode past me, tugging me along.
His tail on my wrist felt oddly like holding hands, intimate in a way that nothing should be between a hunter and a demon.
I glowered at his broad back but let his caveman bullshit slide. The more compliant he thought I was, without raising suspicion, the easier it would be for me to run when the opportunity arose.
We walked down the corridor, and I fought a blush as a demon used her tail creatively with a woman who moaned extra loud right as we passed. The demon shot me a wink as she caught me staring.
I edged closer to Sin, ducking my head and chasing him through the door at the end of the corridor.
The cool night greeted me, a welcome breeze tousling my loose hair and soothing my clammy skin.
The club had been filled with too many sweaty bodies, and the fresh air was an instant relief despite how little I was wearing. I adjusted my glasses and drew in a breath, ignoring the stale tobacco scent.
Fake grass waited for us in a bright smoker’s area, loosely penned in with short planters and dotted with benches.
“So good of you to bring us another human snack, brother.”
My heart shot into my throat. A grinning blood demon stepped from the shadows of the building, joining us in a pool of white cast by the club’s security lighting.
Behind him, a second demon leaned against the bricks. He sucked on a cheap roll-up while he held a smiling young woman against the wall, a hand pinned between her tits so her satin dress bunched under his wrist. She looked barely old enough to be here but pretty enough to get in regardless, her doe eyes rimmed in dark kohl and big curls tumbling to her trim waist.
Stark lines of blood trickled down her throat.
Both demons looked similar to mine, with grey skin, white horns and a long tail, but that was where the similarities ended.
Neither had Sin’s bony spikes, making them seem tame in comparison. Where Sin was packed with lean muscle and a cruel streak wider than his broad shoulders, the pair eyeing us seemed thin and sly. Even their tails lacked Sin’s heart-shaped tip, tapering into nothing instead.
Sin edged in front, pulling me closer. My chest brushed his forearm with each rapid breath.
The thought of their fangs sinking into my flesh was terrifying.
Yet that instinctive fear had somehow vanished when it came to Sin. The realisation shocked me out of the growing dread.
“I’m not your brother. This is my human,” Sin sneered, the expression so familiar that it was almost comforting at this point. “And you’re leaving that one with me too.”
An oily sensation coiled through my middle. I frowned at the idea of him drinking from someone else, then instantly berated myself for being a colossal idiot.
The smoker pushed off the wall, helping the giggling human along with an arm slung across her shoulders, coming to stand beside the other demon. “How very greedy. Don’t worry, we’ll share ours with you too. We just wanted a taste of yours. We won’t hurt her.”
“Oh? But I’ll hurt you.” Sin raised his tail, releasing my wrist as his spikes slid from the heart tip in eerie threat. “Leave the girl and go back inside. This is your final warning.”
The woman blinked sleepily, and her head lolled aside, bumping the smoker’s bicep. She might be smiling, but she was also dying.
I stepped from Sin’s shadow, readying to fight. I might be unarmed, but I wouldn’t let another person die by fang while I did nothing.
“We aren’t bones for you rabid dogs to growl over.” I borrowed Sin’s favourite sneer. “Keep your fangs to yourself. All of you.” I shot a pointed look at the demon towering beside me.
Before Sin, nobody had ever protected me. But I’d been raised to kill demons. Not knowing how many innocents I’d executed would always haunt me, but some of them had deserved their fate.
Like these bastards if they tried to slurp any more from their juice box. She was past consenting at this point, and I’d seen enough bite victims to know she was flirting with oblivion.
I caught Sin’s cruel smirk in my periphery.
“Jealous, poison?”
“Shut it, parasite.”
The smoker released his victim, and I didn’t spare a moment to wince as she collapsed on the fake grass. I launched myself at him, ducked grabbing claws as I weaved aside, and kicked out the back of his knee.