Page 7 of Hellish Witch

It took me long minutes to haul the corpse through the grass to reach the dark tree-line. Minutes where I was convinced any of my neighbours would look out their cabin windows and see me. More than a few hybrids had great night vision, and some were even nocturnal.

The darkness of the forest cradled me as I finally passed the first bleeding tree. I took a second to catch my breath, searching for a way to make a fully grown male disappear.

The betrayer waited for me.

The hellcat who’d bitten me lounged along a low branch not a few paces away. My eyes narrowed, but she held my gaze, unblinking, for a long moment, before looking pointedly to the base of the tree she was snoozing in.

A large hole had been clawed out near the roots. Not big enough to roll the body into, more like an animal’s den had beenwidened for better access. I frowned at the hellcat, but there wasn’t a speck of dirt on her precious paws.

I didn’t have long. Someone else might be taking a late night-time stroll like me. Or another creature of the forest might be hungry enough to finish the job the hellcat had started.

I heaved the body to the hole. Cursing under my breath, I shoved the demon in head first.

A faint hissing hack, almost like a cough, sounded above.

“Oh yeah, laugh it up, fluff face!” I shot a glare at the beast lurking on her branch above me, laughing at me kitty-style.

She licked her paw, tufted tail dangling down and swaying above me, just out of reach. Another taunt. I was half-tempted to jump up and snatch it, yanking the rude furball down into the mud with me.

“First youbiteme, and now you’re mocking me,” I huffed, trying to shove all my weight down on the corpse, but his damned shoulders wouldn’t fit through the hole. “You could at least be a little grateful I saved you from becoming an accessory.”

A vague sense of amusement seemed to radiate from the hellcat, blood-red eyes glowing with mirth.

I glared harder.

I wasn’t sure how I knew the hellcat was a female, exactly. Maybe it was the bitchy energy she radiated. Only a female could mock their saviour with such ruthless efficiency without a single word.

Or maybe I was projecting because I had mommy issues.

Well, I had a lot of issues.

Like accidentally ripping a person’s flesh apart with magic until they bled out and died on me.

“Need a hand?” A sultry voice purred behind me.

I screamed, dropping the bloodied leg and leaping back. The body splatted against the mud, head stuck in the hole, leaving his spine bent at an unnatural angle.

A rich chuckle filled the night.

I whirled on the newcomer, heart in my throat.

Killian rested his toned shoulder against the trunk of a tree, a wicked smirk gracing his sculpted features. His hands were tucked casually into his trouser pockets, arrowhead tail held loosely along the line of his muscular thigh. The dusky purple of his skin blended with the night, until he resembled a dark god of shadow and sin, contrasting the angelic wings at his back. He shuffled his feathers, the wing-tips brushing the tree roots at his booted feet.

I gaped at the incubus, unable to move even to pick up my jaw.

Mirth swirled in his eyes, glinting with flecks of silvery light. He nodded his elegantly waved horns at the man I’d killed. “Doing some late-night gardening, are we? Your flower seems to be wilting.”

A surprised chuckle slipped from my lips.

All amusement dried up in an instant as the seriousness of my situation hit me.

I chewed my lower lip, letting the sting of my fang ground me. “You’re going to take me to the holding cells, aren’t you?”

“Hmmm…and why would I do that, kid?” He flicked an imaginary piece of lint from the fabric wrapping his chest in a warrior’s cross. It left a glimpse of his sculpted abs visible, covered in ink that almost blended with his shadowy purple skin.

I canted my head, unsure what game he was playing. “Because…you’re an enforcer?”

He flashed me his pearly white fangs, viciously long. “So?”

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