Demon Marked

she sprinted across the unbroken blanket of white. It should have been harder, she thought, but her legs churned a trail through the heavy snow, strong, unstoppable. Within seconds, she was at the driveway, racing in front of Nicholas’s vehicle and into the splash of his bright headlights.

He slammed on the brakes. She heard his shouted curse—though she supposed even a human might have heard that. Rushing to his door, she pulled it open.

Nicholas was still yelling. “Jesus, Ash! What? Are you being chased?”

“No,” she said, but he must not have believed her.

Grabbing a crossbow already in the passenger seat, Nicholas jumped out of the car. He turned, searching the empty field, then looked up at the sky. As if satisfied that no one was after her, he finally looked to Ash again.

“What the hell?”

He couldn’t guess?

“I need to know,” Ash said. His expression changed suddenly—and she knew. She’d been right. Oh, God. Pain hit her gut again, ripping, tearing. “What happened?”

“One of Rachel’s old boyfriends did it.”

“What did he do?” She didn’t really need to ask. The blood had said it all. And a boyfriend had done that? “My God, did she just attract the psychos?”

Surprise and pained humor flashed across Nicholas’s features. “Apparently.”

No. No, not him. He wouldn’t have done this. He wouldn’t have torn them apart. Maybe a demon, but not a human. What kind of person did that?

Not the kind that deserved to live.

The stabbing pain hardened into something else. Ash didn’t know what. But she knew what she had to do. “Where is the boyfriend at now?”

“They caught him. He’s in the county lockup.”

“All right. Move aside, and give me the keys.”

Nicholas frowned at her. “Why?”

“Because I’m going there to kill him.”

“What?” His confusion changed to disbelief as he looked at her face. “You’re serious.”

Completely. And since he wasn’t getting out of her way, she went around him, reached for the driver side door. He caught her wrist.

“You can’t. He’s human. It’ll break the Rules, and the Guardians will have you. You’ll be the next one dead.”

“I don’t care.” She didn’t.

“Then care about this: You’ll be breaking your bargain. Getting killed isn’t helping me find Madelyn.”

“Fuck that.” The response sprang so easily to her mouth. “Release me from the bargain.”

“Fuck that.” His hold tightened and he whipped her around, shoving her back against the side of the SUV. “You break away, you break our bargain, you’ll end up in that frozen field. You want that, Ash? Tortured for eternity, all for a little piece of shit?”

Not for the piece-of-shit boyfriend. For the parents. Not even her parents. Ah, God—and the pain was coming back now. She could feel it welling up, closing her throat and stinging her eyes.

A wail of grief poured out.

Nicholas’s eyes widened. He clapped a palm over her mouth, cutting it off. “Stop that.”

She couldn’t. She stared at him over the top of his hand. Heat itched over her cheeks. Crying. Crying. Why?

Nicholas jerked his hand away as if her tears burned. He stared at her in shock.

“Let me go,” she whispered hoarsely. If he didn’t, something was going to break. Maybe his hold on her. Maybe the Rules. Maybe just something inside her.

“Shut up.”

He set his crossbow on the hood and shoved her face against his neck. Hard warmth wrapped around her shoulders. Was he holding her? Nicholas? The kindness hurt almost as much as the rest. She let it come up, the inexplicable rage, the grief, sobbing it out against his throat.

And when it was over, she was exhausted again. Her body strong, but something inside her just . . . tired.

She tried to pull away, but Nicholas wouldn’t let her. Still afraid she’d take off for the county jail? That had passed. Now she just felt the cold coming in all around her.

“You have to be freezing,” she said.

“Actually, no. You kept me warm.” He drew back just enough to look down at her. “You don’t remember the Boyles. Why do you care so much?”

“I don’t know.”

His thumb swept the lingering wetness from her cheek before he met her gaze again. “I won’t believe these are real. Not from a demon.”

Was he reminding himself or her? “Right now, I wish that you were right. I’d rather feel nothing than this.”

A strange expression passed over his face—humor and sadness, all at once. “I’ve thought that before. Revenge is better.”

“Then let me have it.”

His gaze dropped to her lips. “Johnson isn’t going anywhere. You can come back after our bargain is finished and do it.”

She could do that. “Or maybe a quick death is too good for him. Maybe I could spend the rest of my life making his a living hell.”

Nicholas grinned. “Now that’s a demon talking—and it wouldn’t break the Rules. Though I’m disappointed that your first good plot isn’t designed to ruin me.”

“Oh, me too.” Ash laughed. Oh, that felt better. So much better. “I’ll have to come up with something that —”

His fingers tightened and his expression changed so quickly that Ash was left reeling. Abruptly, he let her go, grabbed his crossbow from the hood.

“Get behind me, Ash.”

Why? She turned, scanning the field. Nicholas had frozen beside her, his gaze fixed on a point at the edge of the driveway. In the dark, she easily made out the shape of the man standing on the wrought-iron fence, his feet balanced on two points.

Ash blinked. Dark haired, handsome, and slickly dressed, he could have been Nicholas’s brother. Except Nicholas’s blue eyes didn’t turn crimson like that. Fascinating.

Her heart leapt as she realized: This was a demon. He might have answers. He might know who she was. Unless . . .

She edged back behind Nicholas. “Is it Madelyn?”

No, Nicholas didn’t think so. Demons were creatures of habit, and that included the genders they preferred to adopt in their human forms. This was someone different . . . and he didn’t want to wait around and find out who.

“Get in the car, Ash.”

“In the car?” The demon hopped down from the fence. “Oh, she won’t be safe there.”

Fuck. Nicholas swung the crossbow up, the explosive bolts ready. He couldn’t control the pacing of his heart, but as long as the pounding didn’t shake his aim, he didn’t care if the demon heard it.

Heedless of the weapon pointed at him, the demon walked forward. “I’ll admit, when I felt your grief from across the city, I wondered what had struck one of my brethren so. A demon, pained by loss? I thought it might be a trap. But now I see it is worse. It’s pathetic.”

Oh, Jesus. Ash had brought this thing here? “You didn’t shield your emotions?”

Her back pressed to the side of the rig, Ash shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Shit. Shit. That meant the Guardians probably felt it, too. Though right now, that