Page 79 of Thane's Demon
I clenched my fist.
The man stiffened. His breath froze. His chest convulsed once, violently, before his heart ruptured inside his ribs. Blood filled his mouth as he collapsed lifelessly onto the floor. The gun dropped from his hand and clattered across the wood with a hollow echo.
Shock tore through me. I stared at my hand as though it belonged to someone else. The demon purred with delighted approval, but even it recognized the shift. This was not a power I had ever possessed. Not a power the demon alone commanded. It was something else, something far more dangerous.
‘The Seal.
Its power.
We draw from it now.
Use it.’
Fear threaded through my anger, sharp enough to sting. I had not touched the Seal, yet its energy had reached through me, amplifying the demon beyond its natural limits. It was a warning I could not ignore. But there was no time to dwell on the consequences. The final intruder crawled across the floor, blood trailing behind him as he tried to escape. The demon stepped forward and crushed his spine beneath our heel. Silence followed, thick and suffocating.
Only then did the world rush back.
Her scent lingered in the air, faint and trembling. A mixture of fear and sorrow and something that tightened around my throat like a noose. I had protected her, yet she had run from me as if I had been the threat.
A sound escaped me, low and hollow, something between a growl and a breath of pain. The demon, once so wild and savage, recoiled inside my chest, confused by the agony tearing through me.
‘She feared us.
She fled us.
Bring her back.’
There was no time to indulge the ache. She was out there, alone, terrified, vulnerable. And the men who hunted her would not hesitate to harm her. I forced myself upright, dragging the demon down enough to regain control. My form remained altered, my horns heavy, my veins glowing red. My skin darkened and hot, but I wrestled the frenzy into something that allowed me to move without destroying everything in my path.
I crossed the room to the concealed safe embedded in the wall. Only my blood could open it. The supernatural lock reacted immediately, the metal splitting apart like a living thing fed by ancient darkness. Inside, the Jade Seal pulsed with a faint, ominous glow. Its power thrummed through the air, calling to me like a whisper from the abyss.
I grabbed it, shuddering at the contact in my demon form. But I forced myself to ignore its lure and shoved it into a bag before slinging the strap over my shoulder. Then I stepped out of the ruined doorway and into the hallway, following the fading traces of her scent down the stairwell and into the streets.
I would find her.
I would bring her back.
I would tear apart anyone who dared touch her.
And nothing in this city, or any other, would stop me. The demon went still at that realization, its satisfaction dissolving into a raw, confused ache. It receded just enough for my human pain to surface, sharp and slicing.
‘Why does it hurt?’
There was no time to answer. No time to mourn. She was alone in Shanghai, terrified, vulnerable, hunted.
I forced my bones to snap back into place, shadows ripping away from my skin as I dragged the demon down enough to move without tearing the city apart. My form slowly returning as I made my way down the staircase.
Then I followed her scent.
Across the alley. Through the streets. That faint fear, for once, was something my demon recoiled at. Instead, I focused on tracking her, doing so until I reached her apartment building.
She had gone home.
But it wouldn’t be her home for long.
I slipped to the alleyway and released my wings, flying straight up until I reached her balcony with a snarl already forming in my chest. The scent of her panic pulsed through the air. I heard shouting inside. A deeper voice. Harsh. Cruel. The kind of voice that shaped fear in children and silenced women.
Her father.
