“Stay.” He sprinted toward the creature. It screeched and skittered down the street toward a drainage hole. If it escaped, it would report to its master that it had found Serena. “Oh, no you don’t.”
Wraith grabbed the creature, which looked like a mastiff-sized skinned opossum, by its ratlike tail. It wheeled around, snapping razor-sharp teeth.
“Bad monster.” Wraith flipped it with a flick of his wrist. It landed awkwardly on its side with a snap of bone, but the injury didn’t stop it. The demon came at him, a drooling, fire-eyed abomination—
A backpack smashed into its face and the khnive yelped, rearing backward and clawing at its eye, which had been impaled by a pencil. Serena clobbered the creature again, and it struck out at her with venom-laced claws, but somehow missed despite its close proximity.
Bright lights blinded Wraith. A swerving vehicle bore down on them, its driver apparently drunk, the vehicle’s tires bouncing off curbs.
“Serena!” Wraith caught her around the waist and threw them both into an empty vendor’s cart. Brakes and tires squealed. The compact car smashed into the truck the khnive had been hiding behind, and the creature leaped into the back of the pickup as it rolled forward, gaining momentum on the hill.
Serena tore free of Wraith’s grip, darted toward the truck, and vaulted nimbly into the back with the demon.
Unbelievable. The woman had no sense of self-preservation. Wraith chased after them, landing next to Serena as she pummeled the thing. With a curse, he darted around behind the demon, wrapped his arm around its neck, and snapped hard. It went limp, sinking to the pickup bed.
The truck hit a bump, catapulting Wraith backward. He grabbed for the roof with one hand, and for Serena with the other. Horns blared, and a busy-ass intersection loomed ahead. Shit. He dove on top of Serena, covering her as chaos exploded around them. The truck T-boned a bus, and then at least two more vehicles smashed into its rear quarter panel and the driver’s side door, spinning it wildly into other cars. The sound of metal crunching, glass shattering, and people screaming pierced the veil of smoke and steam that rose up all around them.
“You okay?” He pulled Serena to her feet. Though she looked a little dazed and had lost her cap, she smiled sheepishly.
“I’m fine.” She shook shards of glass out of her hair. “Stuff like this happens to me a lot.”
“Your dates must love you.” Sirens warbled in the distance. “Let’s get the hell out of here before people start asking questions. Or before a plane lands on you or some shit.”
Keeping hold of her hand, he leaped out of the truck and they both ran, weaving through the tangle of smashed cars and the crowd of people. She kept up easily, her strides quick and graceful, a gazelle in flight. The predator in him wanted to give chase, to take her down to the ground. The male in him wanted to ravage her while she was there.
Right now, the best he could do was keep other predators away.
They didn’t slow until they reached the hotel. He pulled her to a stop in front of the door.
“What was that thing?” Serena panted, looking back over her shoulder as though afraid it would come after them, even though it had started to disintegrate before they’d even jumped out of the truck.
“Don’t suppose you’d buy that it was a rabid dog?”
“Hardly. I know it was a demon.”
“A tracker.” He watched her closely, wondering how much she was willing to say. “What do you think it’s tracking?”
She lifted her chin and looked him straight in the eye. “No idea. But thank you for killing it. I’m glad your Aegis skills haven’t rusted.”
Well, good. He’d earned her gratitude. Tayla had told him to be nice, but maybe killing things for her would be even better. Not to mention, more in character. And more fun.
Tayla had also said human females liked polite men, so he opened the hotel door, releasing an aromatic breeze of coffee and spicy lamb coming from the restaurant. He entered behind her, and speaking of behinds… hers was nice.
“I could use a drink,” she said, gesturing toward the bar. “Want to join me for one before we talk business? You have the artifact, right?”
“It’s in my room.”
“Excellent.” She gave him a smile that made his insides quiver. Weird. No female had ever made his insides do that. His outsides, yes, but that didn’t take much.
Maybe the poison was affecting him in yet another way. Besides the libido-dampening, he’d been intermittently nauseous and dizzy, and sometimes his muscles and organs cramped as they slowly died.
Fun stuff, that mordlair necrotoxin.
“I could definitely use a whiskey.” Which didn’t affect Wraith, unless taken through the veins of a human who had imbibed. He eyed Serena’s throat. He didn’t suck human females, but he’d love to latch on to Serena’s long, slender neck and drink his fill, maybe settle between her thighs.…
“I could use a few more than a drink.”