Kase grabbed my arm and yanked me backward, tucking me behind him with a hold that couldn’t be broken.
Not that I was planning on breaking it. Troy could say all he wanted about my lack of self-preservation, but I also knew when I was outmatched. I wasn’t about to try and face off against some sort of…smoke creature.
Whatever it was wouldn’t be held by Grant’s spell, though. It twisted, horrible sounds coming from its writhing body.
It broke free, but before it could strike me—and why I was its target, I had no idea—another flash of black and red struck it. The two figures tumbled to the side, the smoke combining so it was impossible to tell where one creature ended and the other began.
Well, other than the snapping fangs.
As the smoke creatures moved, striking trees and rocks, I managed a better look.
Dragon was the best I could come up with to explain them. Black smoke covered their bodies, and sharp white fangs lined their long muzzles. Huge hands tipped with gleaming claws slashed, and red flames danced in their eyes and along their spines.
One pinned the other, but I couldn’t tell which had won.
Did it really matter? I didn’t feel much like trusting either of them.
The one trapped beneath spoke in a gravelly voice that could have come from no human. “I yield. You were always quicker than me, Hunter.”
Hunter?
They broke apart, the shaking of the ground beneath their massive weight making me cling tighter to Kase. Once they’d separated, the one who had triumphed shimmered, the smoke twisting until a human form swallowed up the massive body of the dragon.
Standing there was no monster—at least not the kind that could be seen—but Hunter.
I’d recognize that ass anywhere…
His words came back to me, when he’d said his true body resembled a dragon—I just hadn’t believed him.
The other creature rolled and rose to its feet, standing far taller than Hunter.
“What are you doing here, Jerrod?” Hunter asked.
The creature stretched, then shook its head like a dog. “I was tracking that.” It gestured at me. “What have you brought here, brother?”
“I didn’t bring anything. Lucifer summoned her here.” Hunter turned to peer at me, then back. “And she isn’t used to hell or our other form, so why don’t you change?”
Jerrod—or at least I assumed that was his name, given the conversation—made an unhappy sound before doing as Hunter asked. When done, he stood around six feet, covered in thick muscle much like Hunter, and with the same tattoos wrapped around him. However, his hair was shaved off, and he had an unhealthy, pale glow to his skin. He had eyes that were almost yellow, close enough to amber that a person wouldn’t immediately assume they were fake but far enough that anyone would take notice.
He was naked and had the same ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude as Hunter.
It seemed modesty wasn’t an issue for hellhounds.
“Why do you like to look like this so much?” Jerrod asked, his lip curled up as if it was all together unacceptable. “It’s small and weak and soft.”
“It has its advantages,” Hunter said, and I could hear his smirk even without him turning toward me. No doubt he was talking about advantages that I didn’t care to discuss with company around. He moved on before I could scold him. “Besides, it isn’t like our other form can go inside.”
“Who wants to go inside? Give me the open air anytime.” Jerrod leaned to peer past Hunter, and the moment those freaky yellow eyes landed on me, I pressed closer to Kase. “Lucifer wants her? What for?”
“I don’t ask things like that,” Hunter said. “But more importantly, she’s under my protection.”
Jerrod snorted, as if that meant nothing. “Keeping a mortal alive here is a losing feat, even for you.”
“Maybe, but I have a feeling that anyone who fucks with Lucifer’s guest will have problems even bigger than me. He wouldn’t call a mortal down here unless he wanted something from her pretty badly.”
Jerrod huffed and crossed his arms. “Lucifer is fickle. He may want her now, but give him a few days and he’ll have moved onto something else. You’re away too much, brother. Lucifer is always bored now.”
“Maybe, but you remember the time he had that pretty girl here? The one with the white hair?”
Despite the fair complexion, Jerrod paled as he gulped. “The girl caught a portal topside.”
“The idiot who let that happen didn’t get off too easily, did he?”
I didn’t need to hear exactly what Lucifer had done to the poor person. Even without all the knowledge, I could venture a guess based on the fear in Jerrod’s eyes.
Which made me wonder, yet again, just what the fuck I was doing in hell headed toward the very person who had put that fear into a hellhound’s eyes.
Some rules people had to be taught, but some should have been basic knowledge.
One of those had to be that if a hellhound was afraid of something, maybe don’t go looking for it.
Of course, that implied I had a choice in the matter, and I wasn’t foolish enough to think that.
Jerrod smiled, all sharp lines. “Where are you headed? The Court?”
Hunter nodded, though he hadn’t relaxed. He might know the other hellhound, but he didn’t seem willing to let his guard down just yet.
“Are you going through Styx or taking the pass?”
Hunter’s jaw twitched, as if he didn’t like the question. “Styx.”
“Good idea, because I’ve heard the pass is awfully dangerous. Creatures there will tear apart anything for a meal, and that girl looks delicious.” Jerrod shimmered and his other face, the one of a dragon with dripping fangs, stared at me.
Hunter made a sound that was so much like the one Jerrod had, an answer but with far more aggression. “Do you need another lesson about looking at her like that?”
Jerrod shook his head, turning
