It was my default setting.
Taking a slow breath, I turned my attention to the rest of the table. A giggling woman sat beside Leo’s latest conquest, and a stocky male flexed his impressive biceps at her, a too-wide grin on his squashed features as he gestured with his pint glass.
I recognised him immediately: another alpha squad hunter. I’d fought beside Arsen for years.
Yet the stocky hunter was just another traitor who’d left me for dead and then had the audacity to shun me when I’d miraculously survived and transferred into the science division instead.
He noticed us first, eyes bugging comically as he choked on a sip of his beer. He slammed the glass down and his mouth moved, but the sound was lost to the buzz of the other patrons.
Familiar navy eyes left perky cleavage and landed on the towering demon, half blocking me from view. Leo stood, his chair screeching against the floorboards loud enough to pierce the chatter.
The hard indifference on his face contrasted the slack fear on Arsen’s.
I stepped out from behind broad, spiked shoulders, giving both men a sarcastic, tinkling wave.
I wasn’t sure what reaction I’d expected from my ex-fiancé, but I’d thought seeing me alive and collared by a demon would invoke some kind of emotional response.
I’d been wrong.
His expression remained unchanged. Cold. Unfeeling. His stare leaped straight back to the demon, like my presence meant nothing.
Something in my chest crushed further. I didn’t need more evidence that he was a piece of shit, but it would have been nice to be pleasantly surprised for once.
Obviously, my taste in men needed work. Something to think about when I was trolling the desolate forest of eastern Europe.
Arsen rose from his chair, eyeing Sin. He glanced around at the pub patrons nervously before saying something to Leo. The cold bastard jerked a thumb at the back exit, his meaning clear.
Most hunters wouldn’t risk harming innocent civilians, and it was good to see that hadn’t changed.
Though I wondered whether Sin would start brawling right here in front of all these witnesses.
The demon chuckled, grinning like a maniac. “I’m going to kill your friends.”
Nausea rolled my stomach, but I clenched my jaw. No matter how hard I tried, violence followed me like a deranged stalker.
“I have no friends.” The words escaped my lips so softly, the laughter in the pub drowned them out.
Sin shot me an unreadable look over his lethal spikes. “You don’t need any. You have me.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I’d have nothing when he found out the truth of what I’d done to Silvanus.
The demon trailed leisurely after the hunters as they made excuses to their confused dates and headed towards the unlit emergency exit in the back, easing past the cheery humans.
I remained rooted to the spot until Sin’s tail tugged at my neck, forcing me into motion.
Dread built with every step.
Sin waltzed through the open fire door, and straight into a trap.
Chapter 36
The pair of hunters stood with pistols raised, pointed straight at the demon’s chest.
Leo grinned, a malicious baring of teeth. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
I swallowed thickly. Tension suffocated the wide alleyway snaking behind the noisy pub we’d exited.
Sure, I could have warned Sin that the hunters would ambush him like this, but why should I?