Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 118374 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118374 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
Her screams faded, her eyes clouded, her grip weakened … and the demon sank its hard-as-steel, razor-sharp teeth into her throat and yanked, ripping it out.
“Fuck, no!”
Something heavy careened into the demon’s flank, sending it skidding along the floor. Seeing Eric bent over Leticia, the demon righted itself and bared its blood-stained fangs at him.
Eric’s fists clenched as he turned to the feline, his eyes blazing. “You fucking killed her.”
The feline’s head whipped to the side as a psychic blow slammed into its head, almost dazing it. With a chuff, the demon gave its head a little shake, clearing its cloudy vision … and saw that every bit of glass from the floor was hovering in the air. A muscle in Eric’s cheek jumped, and then the pieces of glass rocketed toward the feline and sank into its skin.
The feline bucked with a roar of agony as pricks of pain stabbed its head, flanks, neck, legs, and paws. The shards sank deep, one even went down its ear. The larger pieces were wedged into the feline’s skin, but there was nothing the demon could do to pull them out. Blood soaked its—
A psychic blow to its spine made its legs crumple, and the feline landed on its stomach. Then Eric was straddling its back, pummeling it with fists that felt like slabs of granite, driving the pieces of glass deeper—so deep some scraped bone and pierced organs.
“Fucking, fucking, fucking bitch!” He yanked out a large chunk of glass from the feline’s paw, making it roar. “She was mine.” He stabbed the glass deep into the feline’s neck. Roughly pulled it out. Stabbed it again. And again. And again. And again.
Curling his arm around the feline’s head, he wrenched it back and pressed the sharp piece of glass to its throat. “She wanted to slit this right open, you know. That’s how she wanted you to die, so that’s what’s gonna happen.”
The feline roared fire into his face. Screaming, he dropped the glass and fell back. The demon righted itself, turned—
Eric was snatched from the floor by some unseen force and flung at the wall. A familiar guttural growl split the air just as a large hellhound launched its body at Eric, its veins glowing as if filled with liquid fire.
Breaths sawing in and out of its body, scratching at its dry throat, the feline watched with grim satisfaction as its mate mauled and mangled the other male, chomping through bone, digging out organs, and tearing off limbs. It butchered Eric just as it had butchered Lockwood, even stripping the skin from his face.
Then, chest heaving, muscles quivering, the hellhound turned to the feline, who only stared right back at it. Tiny red embers danced around the hound’s body as it stalked toward the feline, sniffing and rumbling.
“We need to get the glass out,” Knox said.
“I can do it with my telekinesis,” said Levi. “But it’s gonna hurt the hellcat, so Tanner’s hound had best make sure its mate doesn’t go for my throat.”
Then it was like a vacuum was aimed at the feline, ripping every bit of glass right out of its body. It roared, legs trembling. And then the hound was there, licking the feline’s wounds.
“Sorry, but it’s just plain weird seeing a hellhound tend to a hellcat like that,” stated Levi. “Plain. Weird.”
“Hopefully Devon can explain what happened here later,” said Knox. “First, we’d better call in some people to clean this place up. And someone needs to check on Finn—he seems to be out cold, and he’s in a bad state.”
*
It was the feel of fingers playing with her hair that woke her. Lying flat on her stomach, Devon forced her heavy eyelids open. Tanner was sitting beside her on the mattress, toying with the ends of the clump of curls in his hand.
As if he felt her eyes on him, he looked down at her. A warm, lazy smile softened his mouth. “Hey, kitten. Nice to see you awake.” He bent over and pressed a lingering kiss to her temple.
“Hey,” she breathed. It was all she managed to get out. God, she was dog-tired. She could only guess that he’d brought her to bed, since she didn’t remember much after shifting back to her own form. The mix of psychic exhaustion, blood loss, and the adrenaline crash had knocked her clean out.
“Brought you coffee. Think you’ve got enough energy to sit up and drink it?”
“No,” she pretty much grunted. Okay, fine, she just didn’t want to get up yet. “But I can prop myself up on my elbows.” Devon went to push herself upwards, but then she winced as she felt the pull of several injuries.
Tanner softly cursed. “You need to move slow or you might reopen some of those wounds. It pisses me off that I can only heal injuries I inflict.”