Rage slammed through him before he even knew it was coming. Gideon launched himself across the room, morphing into his demonic form on the fly without giving it a second thought. He plowed into Mortika? with bone crushing force.
A shrill scream rent the air, but Temptation was too focused on killing the demon he battled to wonder where the cry had come from. Huge fists pummeled him. Razor sharp claws tore through his flesh. Temptation barely felt the blows. Unleashed fury drove him. He wanted this bastard’s blood flowing between his fingers. Temptation wanted to tear him into tiny pieces. He wanted his head on a spike.
Walls cracked, windows shattered, furniture splintered and crumbled beneath his fury as he threw the demon across the room and dove after him, rolling about, teeth gnashing, claws slashing, elbows and knees flying.
Temptation felt a brief sting as his enemy made a grab for his throat. He missed tearing out Temptation’s jugular, but a glint of silver flashed in the demon’s bloody fist. A plasma ball exploded near Temptation’s shoulder as another demon appeared in the corner.
Dodging the flames, Temptation shot to his feet, driving a fist spine deep into his foe’s stomach. Another plasma ball splattered across Temptation’s back. With a fierce roar, he turned to confront his attacker. He vaulted across the room, gripped the newcomer’s head between his massive hands, and squeezed, crushing it like a cantaloupe.
After igniting a plasma ball, he dropped it on his fallen foe to finish the job. Spinning back, he caught a brief glimpse of his nemesis’s vile smile as his foe held something small, something shiny, and sparkling silver up in his bloody fist. And then his target disappeared in shimmering waves of air.
Uncomprehending of what message his enemy had been trying to send, Temptation lunged forward, roaring for the bastard to come back. Just a hint of a shimmer trail lingered. The bastard wouldn’t get away from him that easy.
But a tiny whimper snagged his attention. Still caught in the grips of bloodlust, Temptation whirled about, searching for another adversary. Wild with the hunger to kill, Temptation stalked across the room, kicking the broken hunks of furniture out of his way.
A small female crouched in the corner, her eyes wide and terrified. Something feral rose up inside him. He could scent her fear, and he fed on it, tracking it the way a wild animal scented its prey.
The female rose, her whole body trembling violently as she braced her back against the wall. She cautiously lifted her hands, palms out, between them and spoke. At first he couldn’t understand her, couldn’t understand the strange language, the words foreign and difficult to process.
Hunger for destruction drove him closer. The female’s soul pulsed with an energy he’d rarely, if ever, seen before. It bathed her like a golden sunrise. Feeding from her would give him energy untold. He stared at her, at first greedily drinking in the pulsing power he was soon to take, but then, by slow degrees, he became aware of her physically. And hunger of another kind rose. Her body would pleasure his first, as he hadn’t been pleasured in time untold.
Temptation closed the distance between them, reaching for her. But the moment his large hand closed over the fragile bones of her wrist, the strangest sensation washed over him. It was as if he’d been bathed in white light. Magical. Soothing. Peaceful. A foreign kind of calm enveloped him. He drew a deep breath. Sweet. Vanilla. Cinnamon.
Familiar. Why?
Frowning, he struggled to make the connection as his body warred with itself. Feed from her. Hold on to her like something precious. Take her beneath him and pleasure himself ruthlessly upon her flesh. Protect her.
Temptation drew another deep breath. Breathing her in. With every breath, those urges to protect became more powerful, the urge to destroy muted, placated.
He reached out curiously and ran the back of his knuckles along the smooth skin of her cheek. Soft. His brow knitted as he caught a lock of hair between his thumb and fingers. He rubbed it, marveling at the smooth texture.
She nervously moistened her lower lip with the tip of a delicate tongue. His feral, narrow-eyed gaze snapped to her mouth. With cautious movements, he gently ran the pad of his thumb along the glistening pink flesh, testing texture and warmth. The acrid scent of her fear abated. He slowly met her gaze. The color, not quite blue, not quite green, caught him. Trapping him. Calming him further. The flutter of her pulse tickled the pads of his fingers and he gentled his grip on her wrist in response.
A disturbance of energy and power behind him snapped his attention around.
“Gideon!” A deep male voice cracked through the room. “Step back from the Halfling.”
Temptation whipped his head back, and he blinked at the female. She began to twist and tug frantically at her wrist, first whimpering, and then agonized moaning deep in her throat as her big eyes welled with tears. She spoke to him again in that language he couldn’t understand. Her delicate wrist snapped like a twig beneath his grip, and she cried out.
“Temptation! Release her!”