Page 23 of Thane's Demon
Slowly, cautiously, I turned my head, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever lingered behind me, but the path remainedempty. I closed my eyes, swallowing the knot forming in my throat before letting the faintest whisper break free.
“Whoever you are, I know you’re there,” I said, my voice tight and trembling with confusion more than fear.
I stopped dead, the strange certainty that I was being watched pulling me backward like an invisible hand. I turned too fast, too blindly, and crashed straight into a wall of warmth and muscle. A sharp gasp escaped me as I stumbled against a solid chest that had just been empty air a moment ago. Strong hands shot out to steady me, and when I lifted my head, my world tilted.
My savior was back.
11
LITTLE PREY
THANE
Ispent the entire day in her orbit without ever stepping close enough for her to sense me fully. My body moved through the edges of the campus like a shadow with a purpose. One silent and watchful, slipping between buildings and walkways as if the world had been built to conceal creatures like me.
The demon inside me was restless from the moment she stepped outside her home. Its growls vibrated through my bones with a hunger that was no longer simply about feeding. It was about claiming something it perceived as rightfully its own. I swear, but her presence changed the air itself. I tasted it, warm and soft, drifting around her like a scent only I could detect.
Every time she moved, the demon whispered.
‘Follow.
Protect.
Stay near her.
Mine.’
When she entered her lecture hall, I watched from the far corridor, pressing myself back into the shadowed corner where the narrow window allowed me a glimpse inside. She sat nearthe window, sunlight painting her hair with a soft glow that tightened my throat in a way that made no sense. She looked fragile in that moment, her posture stiff, her fingers fidgeting with her pen even though her eyes tried to stay focused on the lecture.
She was pretending to concentrate. Pretending to be fine. Or should I say, pretending to belong, as let’s just say, that I recognized the signs well enough. Even from this distance, I could see the tension pulling at her shoulders, the way her breath hitched slightly whenever she sensed movement from the doorway.
She felt me.
It was as if some instinct in her body responded to my presence. The faintest whisper of awareness rippled along her skin like a soft tremor. My demon preened at the recognition.
‘She knows.
She feels us.
She is ours.’
I stayed through the entire class, ignoring the irritated voices of students brushing past me in the hallway. Ignoring the hunger gnawing at my insides. I had never lingered over a single person like this before, never watched someone so closely that the world around them faded into nothing. But the city’s poison no longer satisfied the craving. Only she did. Only her presence soothed the monster coiled beneath my flesh.
And when class ended, I followed her to the courtyard.
I saw her sit on the low brick wall and watched the way she held her sandwich with small, careful fingers, as if she were afraid it might crumble under too much pressure. I drank in every detail of her, the way her hair moved in the wind, the way she tucked a strand behind her ear with a nervous gesture she repeated without thinking. The way her real smile flickeredinto existence only when she believed no one was watching too closely.
And then a male approached.
The demon reacted so violently that the air around me thickened with rage. My nails lengthened beneath my skin, demanding blood, demanding violence. Demanding I rip the boy’s throat out for daring to stand so close to her, for daring to look at her with even a hint of interest.
He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
A tiny smile.
Soft.
Polite.
