Dark holes where eyes should’ve been met mine. Black veins twisted like snakes under ghastly pale skin. Her mouth was hanging open, revealing a row of jagged teeth covered in blood— Josie’s blood.
I slammed the titanium dagger into one of the holes, cutting off the damn wail daimons were known for before she could let it loose. They were highly allergic to anything titanium. Allergic as in a single slice-and-dice from a titanium blade took them out. As I yanked out the dagger, her face crumbled into itself and then she imploded in a shower of shimmery dust.
The male daimon reared to his feet and stumbled back a step. Josie didn’t move. Her neck was covered in blood and her sweater was torn, revealing more than that bastard ever should’ve seen.
“She tastes like a god.” He staggered, tripping over her still leg. His lips curved into a gruesome, bloody smile. The son of a bitch was high. “Bliss…”
“You’re so fucking dead,” I growled.
He dipped his chin and opened his mouth, letting out an eerie howl that was a cross between a bobcat getting run over and a screaming infant. Then the stupid fuck charged me. All hocked up on the hidden aether that must be in Josie’s blood, the daimon moved like a freight train. I dipped under his extended arm, popping up behind him. The need to make the bastard hurt, to make him pay overrode the years of training that taught Sentinels not to play with their prey. The daimon whirled on me. I was going to break his fucking neck. Then his arms. Then his legs. Then I was going to find something rusty and dull to cut his balls off. Then I would kill him. Slowly. As painfully as possible. I started to toss the dagger aside as it barreled toward me again.
A soft whimper came from behind me, echoing through my head a thousand times, louder than a gunshot or crack of thunder. For a second, a tiny moment in time, I was torn between the lure of losing myself, losing everything in the revenge, in the art of fucking payback, and the girl on the ground—the girl who needed me. With no time to spare, I snapped out of the haze of violence.
I launched forward, meeting the daimon halfway. Catching him around the neck with a hand, I held him off as my eyes locked with the soulless, black depths. “You are so very lucky.”
Then I shoved the dagger deep into its chest, yanking the blade out. I spun around before the bastard imploded into nothing.
Dropping down to the ground beside Josie, I placed the dagger within reach. I brushed her hair back from her cheek. Her face was too pale. The skin above her temple was bruising, turning red and swelling.
“What’s going on out here?”
I looked over my shoulder. An older man in slippers and a dark robe stood a few feet away, his watery eyes moving from me to Josie and coming up with gods knew what. I didn’t have time for this shit. “You didn’t see or hear any of this,” I gritted out, packing a powerful compulsion. “Just a dream. Go inside. Go back to sleep.”
The man didn’t blink. He was frozen for a second, and then he wheeled around and walked stiffly across the grass.
Heart pounding, I turned my attention back to her. Carefully moving more strands of hair out ofthe way, I got a good look at her neck. The tag wasn’t deep and blood had already stopped oozing out of the crescent-shaped bite mark. I checked her wrist. Same.
“Fuck,” I grunted, shifting so I could slide an arm under her. I lifted her up into a sitting position. Her head lolled back and I quickly adjusted her, cradling her against my chest. “Fucking mother fucker.”
She didn’t make another sound. Didn’t move.
“Come on. Open your eyes, Josie. Come on, baby, open your eyes.” I got an arm under her knees and lifted her as I stood, swiping up the dagger. My heart was still pounding. There was a weird dropping sensation in my gut. I carried her inside, my jaw aching from how hard I was grinding my teeth together. What had she been thinking going outside like that? If she were awake, I would’ve shaken some godsdamn sense into her.
But that wasn’t entirely fair.
Josie had been thrust into this world and she still had a lot of mortal traits in her. She probably hadn’t even thought once that going outside wouldn’t be safe.
I kicked the door shut as she finally stirred, moaning softly. I stopped. “Josie?”
Her features tightened, pinching as her lashes fluttered. Potent relief rushed through me as she slowly blinked her eyes open. Her gaze was a little unfocused, but her eyes were open.
“You with me?” I asked.
Her lips parted, and I saw the angry red cut on them then. Anger replaced that relief, tearing through me as an unsteady breath expelled from her. “I think…I think they bit me,” she croaked out.
“Yeah, you most definitely were chewed on,” I told her.
Her eyes shut, staying close long enough that I felt the punch of panic again, but they swept open again. “They…they were daimons, weren’t they?”
Nodding, I moved to the bathroom. “You think you can sit up?”
She cleared her throat, wincing. “Yeah. I can.” Her words were mushy.
“Good.” Carefully I set her down on the closed toilet, then placed the dagger on the edge of the sink. Her eyes were closed again and that worried me. The sweater was torn, slipping off her shoulder and revealing a lavender strap and the dainty lace covering one swell. My gaze flicked up to the bite mark as I inhaled deeply. There was something in the air, more than a metallic scent—something potent and alluring. Aether? Shit. I was loosing my mind. I couldn’t smell aether like daimons could. I could sense it, so maybe that was what I was picking up, and that made me cagey, because a yearning took root in my stomach, striking deep, making my mouth water.