Page 36 of Hellish Witch

“You’ve got a real issue with her, huh?” he asked, wry tone laced with amusement.

I supposed he wouldn’t understand why seeing her practically naked and salivating over him would be a problem for me.

“Me? An issue withher? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My voice came out a little too high-pitched to be convincing.

I wanted to swipe my claws at him in annoyance.

He chuckled, letting me know he’d seen right through my not-so-convincing act.

“Sweetness… This wouldn’t have anything to do with what she was planning to do to me, would it?” His low purr was somehow so suave, I almost missed what he’d actually said.

Heat singed my cheeks. “What? No. I…”

He waved me off, and the chain tattoo wrapping his forearm winked at me. “I’m just teasing. You’re a succubus. I know you’re not afraid of a little sexual tension. If anything, I’m sure you were snacking on her lust like I was.”

“Right. So tasty.” I forced a wide smile onto my face, like I could totally just skim energy from anyone feeling intense lust.

Another oddity that I kept to myself.

Most demons fed on heightened emotions. They tuned in to the specific frequencies they gave out. Sexual demon types, like Zahara and Killian, fed on the energy of someone feeling lust, no matter who it was they desired.

Me, I could only strengthen myself with powerful desire aimed right at me, and even then, for demons, I had to be touching them to feel it.

It was no wonder I was barely stronger than a human. My demonic side was practically malnourished.

His brows drew closer. “Eve… Youdofeed on lust, right?”

I nodded quickly. “Oh yeah, big lust eater right here.” I pointed both crimson-clawed thumbs at myself and turned up the brightness on my fake smile.

His textured horns canted aside. “What aren’t you telling me?”

I tucked a stray blood-red wave behind my ear. “I usually need direct touch to feed.”

“What?” He stilled, regarding me with a shocked intensity that made me squirm.

He’d found me with a dead body last week and shown less emotion.

Warmth lit my cheeks like a blast of hell-fire. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“Maybe not to you…,” he murmured, something unreadable yet strangely intense swirling through the stormy depths in his eyes.

Before I could question the cagey incubus, a low snarl ripped through the woods. It echoed oddly, bouncing from random points between the trees.

My magic pulsed. Multiple glowing points dotted around in my mind’s eye. Surrounding us.

It wasn’t an echo.

It was an ambush.

My gaze slammed into Killian’s.

His wings blackened, aura darkening with violence. “Eve, run.”

“You run.” I drew my poisoned daggers, eyes narrowing as I scanned the trees.

“Stubborn witch,” he muttered, unsheathing the sword strapped between his wings. “It’s bone-kin.”

Somehow, I already knew that, even though the bright-white beasts had cloaked themselves. Now they hinted at their presence in order to terrify their prey. Us.

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