Page 106 of His Curse

“How many are on the other side?” Colton asks as he places a warm palm against my back. “Can you tell how many we’re going to have to get through before we hit the yard?”

Another sigh from the demon before he steps next to us and takes a deep breath. “No more than seven of the blackest souls I have come across in many, many years.”

I open my eyes and take a step back, steeling myself against the grief that’s already trying to take hold. “Frankie stays behind us but in front of Andrej and Ronny.”

“And no one shifts yet.” My eyes dart to Zan but he just smiles like the evil asshat he is. “It has been far too long since I’ve done this. Their essence ismine.”

With a furrowed brow, I stare at him for a beat before I nod. “It’ll be quieter.”

“Exactly, my dear. Quieter and more efficient. And I’ll be high as a goddamn kite by the time we see grass.”

With another of my never ending eye rolls, I take another step back and shake out my shoulders as the demon grips the old crank handle and begins sliding the door open.

“I love you,” Colton whispers as a dim light begins streaming into the tunnel. “No matter what happens, no matter the outcome, I need you to know that I love you, and I am so fucking proud to be your mate.”

I give him a watery smile as I push up on my bare toes and give him a quick kiss. “I love you, too. No matter what. Forever.” And after one more quick kiss, it’s game time.

Slowly, as quietly as the six of us can be, we follow Zan and make our way down the long hallway, past the multiple freezers and body-filled gurneys then end up at the bottom of the stairs before we see another living creature.

“What the…” a guard says as he blinks at us. “Who are you? How did you get down here?” He lifts his rifle and aims it at me before his eyes go wide and he quickly points it at our demon guide. “What the h-hell are you?”

Zan chuckles and holds up a hand before he does a little finger wave right next to his horns. “What is hardly polite, don’t you think? Shouldn’t it be a question ofwho?”

The guard blinks again, his heart rate going through the roof as he tries to walk backward up the stairs. “Wh-wh-who?”

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” the demon pouts, his suspended hand starting to glow a silvery purple color before all of his markings follow suit. And right before our very eyes, the terrified idiot holding the gun turns into what can only be described as a goddamn mummy. “But, my gods, is that black as pitch essencedelicious.”

When he turns to us… justwow.

The horns and tongue, the markings and skin. Everything about the way Zan looks most of the time indicates demon without any doubt, but looking at him now, the way his body glows, how his amethyst eyes have glazed over silver… he looks like the epitome of the evil that resides inside him. And as we move upstairs only to have him take the essence of six more humans, I can feel what must be my own touch of evil jump to life under my skin.

The evil my mate shared with me so many years ago.

“That’s building A,” I whisper as we look out the window in the front of the crematorium. “Unfortunately, that’s where all of us need to be, but I think—”

“Leave the guards to me,” Andrej grunts, and I turn to look up at him.

“Are you sure?”

He nods once.

“You can handle them like this?” I motion to his very grizzled and muscular, though human, form. “Because if you shift before we get inside…”

“I can take them on, and I will not shift before you make it inside that hell.”

I search his ink black eyes before offering him a soft smile. “Thank you.”

Another curt nod and a twitch of his lip has me almost chuckling, but the time for laughter is over. “There are emergency exits on each side of the building because of the codes Kentworth had to follow when he first built the place.” I return to looking out the window. “Use the one on the left in order to get to South where Chumani and Bella should be, the one in the back for Wes and Hotah. Colton and I will go in on the right—”

“Hopefully causing a big enough distraction for the rest of you to do what you need to do,” my mate adds with a growl that was all wolf. “Ripping Dick apart should do the trick.”

“Exactly.” I nod my head in agreement then take a deep breath.

This is it.

Thisis the moment I’ve been waiting for for the last forty-five years.

I will finally get my revenge, revenge for every innocent life taken here, every sweet soul taken and extinguished long before their time.Thisis what I’ve stayed alive for and there is no way in hell I’m backing down now.

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