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“Back off, Killian,” I yell.

He steps back but I can see reluctance in every movement, his tail low down, teeth bared. But he clears the space between me and the beast. This time when it leaps, I don’t hesitate, I spring into the air to meet it, already swinging. Nightfall takes its head, and I land lightly, the body crumpling to the ground in front of me. The head rolls across the rough ground and comes to a halt in front of Zayne.

I sigh, then turn to find a furious black wolf growling at me.

Chapter 4

I Killed It. You’re Welcome

Ihonestly don’t know what Killian is so pissed off about.

They’re dead, aren’t they? Isn’t that what he wanted?

I crouch down to examine the body of the beast. It’s big—huge—with a powerful muscular body and long legs ending in gigantic paws and vicious claws. The coat is black, as black as the void. I reach out slowly and touch it. The body is already cold to the touch, or maybe it was never warm. I breathe in and catch the faint sting of sulfur in the air—a foul stench I’ve come to associate with the shadowguard.

Just what are these creatures? Did Lucifer create them as he created the shadowguard? I know the shadowguard were originally guardians who Lucifer lured over to his side withthe promise of immortality. Everlasting life—he just failed to mention how shitty those everlasting lives would be. But the guardians were half Astrali, and they’d inherited certain powers from their fathers, including the ability to shift. Maybe these are the shadowguards’ animal forms. But how—

“What just happened?” Zayne interrupts from above me.

I straighten and consider my answer.

“That was...” He doesn’t seem to know how to finish that sentence.

I notice he’s holding the head, gripped in his hands. It’s big and no doubt heavy. The crimson has faded from its eyes, leaving them dull black windows into nothingness.

“You want to put that down?” I suggest.

He drops it and wipes his palm down the side of his jeans. Beyond him, I can see the wolves milling about. They’re hovering over the still form of the white wolf. I hope she’s not dead. Maybe I should have moved faster, got in there before they were attacked, but I didn’t know what they could do. And they clearly hadn’t wanted my help.

As I watch, the air trembles and they are people once more. Killian stretches, arms above his head as though releasing the kinks from his body. I know shifters usually recover from most wounds once they make the shift. But they all took a beating, and wounds from a supernatural creature can be tricky. He looks a little tense as he talks to his people. Laura, the young girl, lies on the ground where the white wolf had lain. She stirs but then rolls over, hugging her knees to her chest. She’s clearly still hurt. Daniel leans down and picks her up in his arms, and they all disappear down the track we came along.

All except Killian.

He heads over to where Zayne and I are standing over the dead beast.

“What the fuck just happened?” he asks. He’s staring at me as though he doesn’t quite know what I am.

Hey, join the club.

I try and work out in my head what to tell him and decide, in this case, that the truth works best. “They’re like the shadowguard,” I say.

“Go on.”

‘When you kill them here, they don’t actually die.”

“The fuck they don’t.” He really doesn’t sound happy about that.

“Well, I suppose they die here, but they re-manifest back in Hell.”

“That’s why there are no bodies,” Zayne says, putting it together.

“Exactly.” He’s a bright boy. I almost reach across and ruffle his hair, like I would with Josh, but decide he wouldn’t appreciate it in front of his new friend.

Killian reaches out with his foot and toes the dead body at our feet. “Except there’s a body now. And it’s definitely real.”

“That’s because you need to do a...” I hesitate,reallyreluctant to say the word, as it’s only going to lead to more questions. Questions I’m not sure I want to answer right now. But there’s no other way to say it. “…a spell,” I finish.

Killian snorts in disbelief. “Right. A spell.”