“You are fucking delicious,” he murmured against my throat. “I will never drink from another vein but yours, poison, because I want your life for my own, in every way I can get it.”
I panted hard, coming down from the high as his lips left my skin and he dropped his hand to run his spiked knuckles over my collarbone in a lethal caress.
Anger replaced the floating bliss. I was making this far too easy for the possessive demon.
Starlit eyes mocked me as much as his smirk.
“I hope you choke on your breakfast,” I hissed.
He chuckled. “Aw sweet poison, don’t tempt me to choke my breakfast.” He stepped back, letting the mild air flood between us, and tugged on my wrist with his tail. “It’s time to hunt.”
“This is dumb,” I said, eyeing Sin with a frown.
We’d left the cosy house we were officially squatters in and driven into the city centre, Sin forcing me to drive the SUV he’d commandeered from the garage.
I really hoped whoever that family was, they were on a very extended holiday. Who knew what Sin would do if they came home to find us living there.
Apparently we were all on borrowed time.
By some miracle, I’d found parking, despite it being almost nine a.m. midweek. Most people would have been there to run errands or going to work, not chauffeur a demon into the shopping district so he could parade himself about waiting for hunters to miraculously appear and try to murder him.
It shocked me to realise I actually trusted Sin not to snack on random innocents. After all, he’d claimed the blood bond forming between us meant he only wanted to feed on me. I hated the possessive satisfaction that ran through me.
Sin rolled his starred eyes. “How else will I find the rats scurrying around the city? They’ve just had their base raided and their numbers depleted. They should be in hiding. So it would take an extra juicy bait to draw them out.” He tugged me along behind him, large hand gripping mine in a strangely intimate act. “What could be more irresistible than you, sweet poison?”
He smirked, lifting his tail to wrap it around my throat in a warm velvety collar I was becoming sickeningly used to.
I narrowed my eyes, giving it a sharp tug that did absolutely nothing to dislodge him. My own helplessness lit embers of rage in my middle. At least he had his tail spikes sheathed. For now.
His smirk split into a wicked grin. “They’ll eventually spot me dragging you around and jump in to save you from the evil beast.”
I bared my teeth, annoyed at being controlled so easily. As usual. “You overestimate my value.”
Sin growled, pulling us to a stop as some darkness blazed in his bright eyes. “And you underestimate it.” His jaw feathered as he looked away for a moment. “Why wouldn’t they save you? You might be their last surviving scientist.”
Humans parted around us like we were rocks in a stream.
I huffed, not bothering to correct his mistaken assumptions. If his whole science staff were killed, my uncle would put out an open invitation to other hunter chapters, seeing if anyone wanted to transfer to Riverside once he was back up and running.
The hunter network was a mishmash of bloodthirsty zealots, but it was organised.
If Sin thought I was useless to his plans, though, he might actually kill me on the spot.
His warm skin at my throat felt tighter than a second ago.
“Maybe.” I shrugged, looking away, pretending to study the shopfront as I resumed our slow walk.
Sin allowed it, his arm brushing mine with every step.
I’d brought him to the city’s main street: a long pedestrian road lined with mismatched shops on either side.
Small cobblestone side-streets branched off, hiding the more boutique stores specialising in everything from unique buttons to artisan chocolate.
Riverside was a melting pot of old and new, the quaint village having rapidly expanded a few decades ago when a railway was built alongside the town.
“So where do you want to go first?” Sin asked, scanning the oblivious crowd bustling past us.
He stood out like a knife in a bouquet. Everything about him sharp and dangerous, a weapon honed. A feral predator among unsuspecting prey.