Page 69 of Thane's Demon
I was in his bed.
And somehow…
It felt like the safest place in the world.
28
WHERE SHE BELONGS
THANE
Iran.
The streets a blur as each step hit the pavement with a force that could crack through the concrete. The demon inside me clawed toward the surface with a violent desperation I could barely contain. Its voice a low, guttural pressure curling at the base of my skull. Every sound was too sharp, every light was too bright, every flicker of movement screaming danger as the city bent itself into the shape of a threat I had already decided to kill. Panic, real and vicious, pressed like a fist against my ribs. It was a foreign feeling, one I had not experienced in years, one I never expected to feel again. And yet it tore through me with a ferocity that left no room for thought.
‘She is gone.
She is alone.
You failed her.’
The words were not spoken out loud. They lived inside the cracks of my mind, inside the tremor of my breath, inside the twisted knot formed by instinct and fear. The need to hunt surged through me, hot and blinding, merging with the darkerurge to tear apart anything that dared stand between us. My demon roared, not with rage alone, but with something older, more primal. Something more binding than anything I had ever allowed myself to feel.
‘Kill them.
Break them.
Tear them apart for touching what is ours.’
My vision flickered at the edges, colors warping, the city lights bending around my focus. Horns blasted. Shouts pierced the night. People stumbled out of my path, their fear blooming in waves that normally would have fed something inside me. But tonight, even that meant nothing. Tonight, there was no satisfaction to be had in terror. Tonight, no amount of dread could soothe the wildfire ripping through my chest.
Only one instinct mattered… Find her.Find her now.
I knew they had taken her. I knew she was somewhere afraid and alone because I had failed to reach her in time. That knowledge twisted through me like a blade, dragging the demon’s fury to the surface in hot, vicious waves.
‘They touched her.
They took her.
They hurt what is ours.
Kill them, kill them all.’
When the narrow alley behind my building came into view, I pushed myself even harder. The door appeared ahead of me, old metal dulled with rust and years of neglect. I slammed into it with my full weight, sending it bursting open so violently it rebounded off the wall. Thankfully no one was in sight, so I was free to use my supernatural abilities to get me to the top floor with greater speed.
I questioned how Xue had known about the Heirloom Seal. One that I was fully prepared to hand over if it meant saving her life. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get her back.
But then, as I unlocked my door, something in the air hit me like a blow.
A scent.
One that was soft… warm… sweet. Familiar in a way that rooted me to the spot. I took two steps forward, heart stuttering painfully in my chest, sensing a warmth in the air that did not belong to me. My gaze swept the dim room, tracing the outlines of the low table, the battered crates, the cracked walls, until at last my vision settled on the bed tucked into the corner. The blanket was pulled halfway up, the fabric rising and falling with the slow, steady breaths of someone deeply asleep.
My breath caught.
It was her.
My beautiful little dreamer.
