I’d met a few full-blooded messengers. They weren’t as saintly as Shay and her brother. I was convinced something had gone wrong in their birth. The full-blooded messengers were dicks.
“What’s up?” I asked, before seeing who else was with him.
God.
I mean, not Him. Shit.
Devil.
No. That didn’t have the same effect.
I’ll stick with what I know—hell.
Damien wasn’t alone. I hadn’t noticed them. Why would I? They were ants, as I mentioned. But these were Damien’s fraternity brothers. He cared about them the way a human would care for a pet.
“What’s up with you?” Damien frowned at me.
I frowned back. Oh—I’d already been frowning. So, I glared.
Shay liked to call me on my look of death. I guess I was letting it fly now, but good for me.
Shay didn’t think I missed killing humans.
I did.
A dark, sensual pleasure came from crushing one of those ants. And the more, the merrier. It’d been too long since I’d wreaked havoc.
I eyed Damien’s frat brothers. They seemed like idiots who could be easily pulled a certain way. Maybe I could get them to sell their souls to a demon, have them go back on their deal, and I could be sent after them? Or hell, I’d just go after them. I’d turn vigilante for my kind, no problem.
No demon would care.
“Shay’s coming.”
Right. Fuck.
I slammed my shields in place. I’d kept them down, but I needed to fortify them now. Shay had been distracted. She’d been in class, but now all she’d need to do was walk toward me, and she’d be able to tell something was up.
I kept her out when I was feeling extra murder-y. That vibe tended to upset her, and who could blame her? That was the messenger side of her. Also, that was just Shay. I loved her. I couldn’t pick her apart. She accepted me, so I wasn’t a hypocrite. That’s something non-demons were, but not us. We demons were upfront and honest about our dark side.
“What’s going on?”
I bit down a curse because that was her—her voice in my head—and I could feel her concern. She’d connected to me, so she knew something was up.
I added a second and third layer of walls, keeping her out.
I could sense her internal gasp. “Why are you doing that? What’s going on?”
“It’s finals, sis.” Damien had picked up on our dialogue. “Brings out the evil side of all of us.”
Shay rounded the bend in the hallway, coming from her building to where we were standing. Damien and I both watched, waiting.
His friends looked between us, then down to where we were watching.
One’s eyebrows furrowed together. He’d been drunk the night of Halloween, but me appearing from the black mist in front of him must’ve stuck. He knew something was off, but he didn’t ask any questions today. Instead, he just paid attention. The other friends were ranking girls as they walked by.
“That’s a five, but man—those tits. Good handful. I could make them bounce. They could jiggle so good—”
I tuned out his thoughts, and Shay turned the corner.
I felt knocked back on my heels. It happened whenever we were in the same room. Our connection sizzled, strengthening as she approached, and I felt her nudging at my walls. “What’s in there, Kellan? Why am I concerned?”
I gently moved her back. “Just the holidays. I’m okay.”
She frowned, still coming toward us. Other students were walking around her, passing in front of her, but I only had eyes for her. She was the boat in the waves. She came to a stop in front of me, ignoring her brother’s presence as she looked into my eyes.
She lifted a hand, caressing the side of my face with her fingers.
Her touch was soft, loving.
“What’s in there? Why are you keeping me out?”
I shook my thoughts clear, feeling the last of the rage slipping away, and I lowered the shields. As I did, she came in, looking around. I reached for her, my hand going to her waist, and drew her to me. I leaned in to touch her forehead softly with mine, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was still looking in my head, reading my thoughts, feeling my emotions.
Finding nothing—or nothing I hadn’t wanted her to know—she pulled back a little, still frowning. She tipped her head back and dropped her voice. “I don’t like secrets.”
I shook my head. “No secrets. Not from you.”
“That’s a lie—”
My mouth was on hers, and as I knew it would, the kiss pushed her little resistance aside, distracting her completely.
I was a demon. We’re all assholes.
STILL KELLAN
“Kellan, dude.”
My blood froze. The human was not talking to me.
I looked.
His mouth moved, grinning as he stuffed a rolled-up piece of pizza inside. “What are you and the missus doing for Christmas?”
It was.
He was talking to me.
Damien’s pet gestured toward Damien, who had frozen beside him. “This one just says you all are going home for the break but won’t say when.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Did this child not have any sense of self-preservation? Did he not realize what could happen if I was in a bad mood?
Damien shot me a look.
I’m sure Shay would be miffed if I turned this human into mist, but I entertained the thought. This was the human who seemed to be getting an indication there was something not of human descent about the three of us.
Crowman, they called him.
Crowman was stupid.
I leaned forward and held up my hand. “I could break your neck with the snap of my fingers.”
He stopped chewing. His eyes lifted to study me.
Study. Pfft.
He should fear me.
I was going soft. I’d been around too many humans, been in love—no, not that. This wasn’t Shay. I loved her with everything in me, the good and bad, but I was a demon. I’d been ignoring my roots for too long.
A bit of the rage from before began swirling inside of me.
It crept in through cracks I’d ignored, and it began filling me.
Shay gasped in my head.
Shit.
She was in here. I tried to push her out, but—
“No, you won’t!”
Damien’s eyes went wide. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
The darkness had nearly engulfed me. At Shay’s discovery, it pushed faster, coming with more ferocity.
I did want to kill this human.
Kill him. Kill him.
I did. I actually wanted to do this.
There was a faint sound of chairs scraping in the background, but I was focused on him. He froze completely. I had a hold on him. He couldn’t move, not an inch. His eyes rolled in their sockets. I could smell the frantic fear on him, and if I were letting him move, he would’ve run by now.
I sensed others leaving the dining hall. The room was fast emptying.
Other humans had better life instincts than this one.
“Kellan!” Shay’s nails sunk into my arm, and she wrenched it from the table. “No!”
She yanked me out of whatever spell I’d been in.
I looked around and realized the black mist wasn’t just in me. It was all over the room, filling it up, going into every corner.