Page 54 of Monster Inside (Shadow Pact 1)

Demon hunters.

My veins were flooded with fire and magic. My power grew with every death. Every pile of ash.

My enemies had burned and were gone.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as my flames turned on the innocents still trapped in the room, all of them choking on smoke and dodging flames. My hands rose of their own volition, myself now a prisoner to power I couldn’t stop. I saw vengeance. I saw an exit. I saw myself trapped in this room and felt only an immense need to destroy everything that reminded me of those ten years.

My pain. My suffering. My vengeance.

My justice.

This magic—not mine. Not really.

Not in my control. Not anymore.

My chest heaved, rising and falling in grand motions as though literally flames churned beneath the surface of my skin, just waiting to break through any and all cracks.

Fire churned from my palm, a swirling gyre of dark, shadowy flames that scorched the room with abandon. I felt someone tug on my hands. My shoulders. Leif’s tattoos lit with magic. But nothing, not even a demon hunter’s magic, could stop this as Mrak’s demonic, monstrous presence swam back to me. Encompassing me with his love, his promise, his power.

“Finish it,”he whispered in my ear.

No,besidemy ear.

I turned, gasping in shock to find Mrak’s monstrous form towering beside me. His hulking mass of shadows physically next to me, his claw reaching to grab my hand. To hold it aloft with his shadowy, dark talons. His six red glowing eyes looking directly at me—enchanting, terrifying, and loving all at once.

I barely had time to process exactly what the feel of his touch—his glorious, toe-curling touch—meant before Mrak’s gaze set on the room before us. On the innocents standing in the way of completely wiping out all trace of Lazarus’s lasting effects on the world.

“Move!” I screamed to the innocent feeders, the men and women who’d been trapped here as I had been for a decade. They didn’t deserve to die for this, but I wasn’t sure there was another ending to this day.

They did not scramble fast enough. Leif did not act quick enough.

My power wasn’t mine to control anymore. Mrak’s form shifted us forward, moving us foot by foot toward the back of the room. Shadowed flames filled the space as we walked, filling in gaps in the air with nothing but fire and magic.

Darkness filled my mind. Mrak held my hand.

All I saw before shadowed fire magic and Mrak’s physical presence consumed me was a glowing red ring floating in the air before us.

---