Holding herself stiffly, she turned. “How bad is it?” He didn’t answer, but fury blasted the air, sending shockwaves sweeping outwards. The walls and ceiling shook slightly. She slowly turned back to face him. His expression was now blank, and he looked the image of composure even as his anger seemed to clog up the room. “How bad?” she asked again, panicking now.
Knox cupped his mate’s jaw, wanting to pull her close and hold her tight against him, but he was scared he’d hurt her. She was in enough pain as it was. “The bastards didn’t get very far. The saw didn’t even make it halfway through the stems.” But he knew that every drag of the serrated blade must have been absolutely agonizing. He clenched his jaw, hating the very thought of her in such excruciating pain.
She wasn’t bleeding badly, but the cuts on her back were ugly. The saw had sliced into her flesh several times, as if she’d repeatedly jerked and the blade had accidentally nicked her each time.
The front door burst open just moments before Levi came skidding into the office. His gun-metal gray eyes took in Harper, the dead demon, his whimpering friend, and the bloody saw. “Fuck,” he bit out.
Knox wasn’t surprised to see his sentinel. They’d been in the middle of a conversation when Knox had heard Harper’s telepathic scream, whispered her name, and then abruptly pyroported from his office to the studio. Levi had no doubt panicked.
“They tried to steal Harper’s wings,” Knox told him. “I believe they’re hunters.”
Levi cursed again. “How successful were they?” he growled, examining the dead body.
“Not very,” said Harper. “I’ll be okay.”
Knox framed her face again, fighting to keep his touch gentle when he was feeling anything but. “You should have called me immediately. I know you want to protect me just as I do you, but why wait until you’re so badly hurt?”
“I did call you. You didn’t come.”
He frowned. “I came as soon as I heard you.”
She shook her head. “I called you over and over. You didn’t come.” She’d started to think that he wasn’t going to come at all. “I thought something might have happened to you.”
Knox slid a possessive hand around her nape and gave it a comforting squeeze. “I only heard you once, baby. It was like an echo of a scream.” And it had pierced a heart he hadn’t thought he had until he met Harper. “One of the hunters must be a blocker.”
“A what?”
“Someone who can block telepathic calls. If you weren’t so strong, I probably wouldn’t have heard you at all.” And then they’d have taken her wings, he thought. They might have even killed her to protect their identities. He could have arrived here, spare set of keys in hand, only to find her dead. His breath caught in his throat at just the very idea, and his demon bared its teeth, wanting vengeance on the other male who’d dared to harm its mate.
Knox stroked his thumb along her jaw. “We need to get you home.” Where she’d be safe, where he could get her cleaned up, where she could heal. Vengeance would come later.
“Are we taking that little fucker with us?” Levi clipped.
Knox cut his gaze to the hunter that was huddled against the wall, shaking and whimpering as what Knox suspected was soul-deep pain reverberated through him. That wasn’t good enough for Knox or his demon. No amount of pain would be enough. They wanted to see the bastard bleed, wanted to hear him scream in the sheer agony that he and the other hunter had put Harper through. Neither Knox nor his demon would settle for anything less.
“He’s definitely coming with us,” Knox replied as he prowled to the hunter. The smell of the male’s fear pleased his demon, who tried to resurface again, but Knox pushed it down. Now wasn’t the time to play with their prey. Getting Harper to safety where she could heal was his priority.
Knox squatted in front of him. “You and I will talk very soon. You’re going to tell me everything I want to know. Everything.”
And then he was going to die.
CHAPTER TWO
Stretched out beside his mate as she lay on her stomach, Knox stroked a hand over her long, sleek, dark hair and played with the gold ends. Although her cuts had faded to pink lines and the tears in the stems of her wings had partially reknitted, anger still blazed inside him. He took a deep, controlled breath, inhaling her warm, honeyed scent. She was alive. Safe. Healing. But rage was still a living, breathing, clawing thing inside him.
His demon’s anger didn’t show any signs of abating either. How could it? Their mate had been attacked, for fuck’s sake. Attacked in her own studio, a place where she should have been safe. He’d been the one to convince her that she would be safe there. She’d relocated her studio at his request, believing he was right, and he’d been far fucking from it.
His eyes fell closed as he remembered the moment he’d heard her telepathic scream. The panicked, pain-filled sound kept replaying in his mind like a broken record, and he knew he’d never forget it. Similarly, he’d never forget the sight of her there in her office; eyes clouded with pain, limbs trembling, and her skin glistening with a fine sheen of sweat.
His demon had almost lost it; had wanted nothing more than to rise and wreak havoc, but Knox had only given it dominance for a short time. He’d needed to check on Harper, had reminded the demon that she was more important than their revenge – something it luckily agreed with. The entity was selfish and merciless, but it would always put Harper first.
The dark entities that lived within demons couldn’t love; they simply weren’t capable of that emotion. But they could form attachments to people. It wasn’t something they did often or easily, but it was always permanent and always intense. Knox’s demon had claimed Harper as its mate. It had “collected” her and was every bit as possessive and protective of the little sphinx as Knox was.
Shiny, defiant, and unique, she’d instantly captured his demon’s interest the second they met. Knox had been just as fascinated. She was an intriguing creature. Smart. Stubborn. Complex. Elusive. There weren’t many things that Knox found unpredictable, but Harper often managed to surprise him. That was something he liked.
It sometimes amused him that someone so small had so easily upturned his life. Innately sensual with mouthwatering curves and a plush mouth that he’d never tire of biting, Harper was a package that he hadn’t been able to resist. He craved her on every level – mentally, physically, and even emotionally. She was indelible to him, as both his mate and his anchor.
Demons came in pairs; had fated psychic mates, or “anchors”, that could make them stronger and keep them stable enough to prevent them from ever turning rogue. It was impossible for demons to control the dark entity within them, but it was possible to resist the entity’s persistent attempts to completely take over if a demon linked minds with their anchor.