One thought that consumed him.
Feed.
I shouldn’t have been so eager to prove them wrong.
The thought revolved in Skyla’s head as her fingers closed around the rock. Athena, the head of the Siren Order—Zeus’s personal band of highly trained assassins—had tried to talk the King of the Gods out of sending Skyla on this assignment, but Skyla had argued she was ready for action again. Never mind that she was only weeks out of a battle that had nearly left her dead. She wasn’t about to let some shitty hybrid force her into retirement.
Of course, now, surrounded by three—no, make that four—hybrids, all bigger than the one who’d left her bloody and bruised in the first place and who were each eyeing her as if she were prime Grade A beef, she thought that maybe she shouldn’t have been so bullheaded. Maybe just this once she should have at least listened to Athena’s rationale.
Damn it, if she could just reach her dagger. It, like her bow and arrows, was charmed and could inflict more damage than a regular weapon. But daemon hybrid skin was tougher than most, and since her arrows weren’t doing much to stop these monsters, even it was no guarantee. Her mind raced with options. Feminine charms definitely weren’t going to work in this situation. Her only hope at this point was to deflect and incite.
The closest daemon growled and stepped toward her. But a voice at his back stopped his feet. “I said she’s mine.”
Skyla looked past the first to see another—bigger—daemon stalking across the ground with murder in its glowing eyes. Her adrenaline surged. She gripped the rock and glared up at the closest daemon, the one who was backing off to make room for the big one.
“Can’t do it yourself?” she taunted. “Oh yeah, you’re a real badass, aren’t you? Do you wipe his ass for him when he asks too?”
The smaller daemon’s eyes flashed, but he stepped aside for the big one. If she could get them to turn on one another, she might have a chance. A slim chance.
“No one touches her but me,” the big daemon growled.
She lifted the rock. Ground her teeth together. Felt the weight of her dagger in its sheath against her lower back. But before she could swing out and make contact with the rock, the daemon at the back of the pack—the one who’d only recently appeared—wrapped his meaty claws around the neck of the big monster and jerked him backward.
A roar poured from the mouth of the bigger daemon as his feet left the ground. The other two turned to look with shock and awe across their grotesque faces. The big daemon sailed across the small clearing, slammed into a tree trunk. Crumpled like a rag doll. A blur of claws slashed out until there was nothing left but bones and blood. The other two daemons, sensing fresh meat, turned and charged.
Skyla scrambled to her feet, grasped the dagger at her back and hurled it through the air. It hit one daemon square in the back of the head. He slammed into the ground face-first with a thud. As the other charged the remaining daemon, Skyla darted for her bow and arrow. She ran hard, slid across the damp ground, scooped up her weapon, then lined up her shot and hoped like hell she was aiming for the right one.
Her arrows sailed through the air in succession. Stuck into the back of the daemon still wearing a trench coat. Another slash of claws and all that was left was her, a bloody mess, and the man named Orpheus she’d followed into the trees.
Correction, the daemon named Orpheus she’d been sent to find.
Her chest rose and fell with her rapid breaths. Hands steady from years of training, Skyla kept her bow at the ready, her arrow aimed dead center at his chest in case he made any kind of threatening move. Though Athena claimed he was nonviolent and that after three hundred years he’d mastered control over his daemon side, the acrid scent of blood and the vile stench of daemon slime wafting on the breeze reminded her he was more beast than man, no matter what Athena said.
Her adrenaline surged as his glowing green eyes lifted to hers. She searched his face for any sign of the man she’d seen earlier. The man who’d tried to get her to leave before the battle began. She couldn’t find him. All she saw was a monster. A monster born of the Underworld and intent on annihilation.
Skyla widened her stance, braced herself for one last fight. No, she wasn’t going down this way. Screw Zeus and what he wanted from the daemon hybrid. Yeah, she’d been sent to gain his trust so she could complete her mission, but if it came down to her life or some stupid relic Zeus deemed important, she’d choose her life every time. No matter the consequences.
He stepped forward.
Skyla’s pulse raced. She pulled the arrow back. “Stay where you are, daemon.”
Chapter 2
Orpheus breathed deep, tried to regulate his pulse. Energy and darkness radiated through his body—through his daemon body—urging him to strike again. To take. To feed.
The female pulled the arrow back, the tip catching what little moonlight filtered down from the forest’s canopy. But there was no fear in her violet eyes. Only challenge.
Take her. Taste her. Feed.
He licked his lips. Took a step closer. Knew it would be so easy. To suck the blood from her veins. To tear into her pale flesh. In his daemon form, instincts ruled and the need was always there, even if he’d forcibly denied himself over the years. One taste wouldn’t kill him. One bite wouldn’t condemn him. He’d already been condemned to a fate worse than death.
He eased closer.
“Stay back,” she said. “I’m warning you.”
Something familiar in her tone stopped his feet. He tried to see through the wavering haze that always descended after he turned. But the golden glow of her hair and the violet of her eyes were all he could focus on. That and her voice. He inhaled. Exhaled. Tried to place her. Couldn’t. All he knew was that he wanted her. Had always wanted her.
The bloodlust turned in on itself and twisted his insides until pain consumed him. The change came on as swift as the slice of a blade, even though he didn’t consciously will it.
He stumbled forward a step, then another. The female’s wide eyes came into focus just before something sharp sliced across his scalp near his ear.
“That was a warning. I said stay back.”
He hollered, but no sound escaped his lips. He was already in the throes of the change. His body slumped to the ground and excruciating pain exploded everywhere—through his torso, his limbs, his fingers and toes, even behind his eyelids.
He gripped his stomach as a wave of nausea rolled through him, followed by two more that kicked the shit out of him. Bones cracked and reformed, blood raced like fire through his veins. A kaleidoscope of color burst behind his eyelids, melding with the torment that seemed to have no end. Just when he was sure that this time the change really would kill him, an ice-cold chill slid through every cell in his body, leaving him clammy and shivering in its wake.
He breathed deep to fill his aching lungs, teeth cracking together as he fought the cold. In the fuzzy aftermath that was his brain, he knew he’d be lucky to find enough strength to uncurl from his I-just-got-my-ass-handed-to-me fetal position.
But with the weakness came a rush of memory, and he groaned when he realized where he was and how the hell he’d gotten here.
Skata. He’d lost the female he was tracking. He couldn’t even sense that weird light of hers anymore, which meant she was long gone. Which also meant he’d be starting from scratch all over again, and that this time she’d be watching for him.