Page 15 of Hellish Witch (Playing with Demons #3)

Chapter 14

M y heart fluttered as I stared down the pack of hungry bone-kin.

We were fucked.

Even a wingless mutt like me knew Killian couldn’t take off with wet feathers in dead air carrying my dead weight before we became dinner.

“Kill…go,” I whispered, voice cracking. “Leave me.”

“Never.” His voice was soft, barely audible over the bone-kin, snapping and snarling only a few paces away on the grassy bank.

Any second, they’d go fishing for their meal.

A yowling roar pierced the low snarls.

Blood and darkness collided with the pale monsters, tumbling in a ball of flashing fangs and fur, knocking three bone-kin aside before they could escape.

My mouth popped open.

A familiar hellcat tore into the bone-kin like one of the chocolate chip cookies she’d stolen from me.

Growls layered over the pained keening, and I sucked in a breath as several of the pale beasts finally took the plunge. Killian roared, surging to meet the creatures in the water head-on with nothing but his claws and fangs.

A hair-raising howl added to the chaos, and Alpha tore into the melee, his paws of lilac flame bright in the gloom. The hellhound snarled, snapping sharp teeth at bone-kin before they could reach the hellcat. The two fearsome creatures fought on the raised verge, blood and fur flying in their wake.

Killian didn’t even flinch as a bone-kin bit down on his forearm. He angled his head and rammed a horn right through the monster’s glowing eye socket. The beast screeched, releasing the incubus and rearing to get away.

I staggered in the water, fighting my own battle.

Tendrils of violence coiled through me. I gritted my teeth, stuffing the ravenous darkness as deep as I could, willing it to leave me alone. There were even more allies to protect from myself now.

The last beast slid off Killian’s claws, collapsing into the water with a splash. It bobbed lazily as the river carried it off downstream, a wet ball of white fur stained with inky blood.

A hush descended over the night, broken only by the gentle rush of water.

The hellcat yanked her tail stinger out of a downed beast with a squelch and bared her fangs in a smug feline grin. A deep gouge through her foreleg closed before my eyes, her ability to heal herself as unexpected as her appearance.

“Thank you,” I said, unsure what to do with the fact that two near-mythical creatures had saved me and Killian. “I’ll give you both all the cookies and belly rubs you want.”

What was the proper etiquette to thank near-mythical creatures?

Killian inclined his horns at our unlikely rescuers onshore. The ends of his wings glided through the water as he turned to me, silvered eyes sharp as they trailed over me, checking for injuries.

I returned the favour.

My gasp drowned out his relieved breath.

“Fires, Kill. You’re tenderised meat!” I hurried towards him, wading into shallower water until only a pace separated us.

The shadows in Killian’s wings dissipated, retreating like smoke to leave behind white feathers stained red. They were scratched deep, oozing blood in places where the water hadn’t yet reached.

Claw-marks and fang holes pierced his muscular arms. His inked chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, despite the pain from multiple lacerations criss-crossing his skin beneath the shreds of his top.

Unlike at last night’s party, none of his wounds appeared too deep. At least I’d not caused them all this time either.

My hand shook as I ran it through my damp hair, pushing the slick strands back between my stubby horns. “That was close,” I muttered. “Too close.”

Killian smirked, too unfazed by his brush with death. “You’re right. I was about three seconds from shoving you downriver. You’re lucky your furry friends were here to save you the swim.”

I cast him a sour look. “You wouldn’t have dared.”

He shrugged his wings, feigning innocence. “I would have fished you out after I’d dealt with the bone-kin. Your safety is my priority.”

Right. Of course it was.

Because he’d been sent to babysit me by my overprotective brother/uncle/king.

I eyed the hellhound waiting regally onshore. Killian wasn’t the only one on babysitting duty.

“I’m going to heal you,” I whispered, throat tight. I lifted my palm to hover over Killian’s chest, shooting him a questioning look.

The darkness inside me writhed, scenting fresh blood. I swallowed thickly, trying not to panic as saliva pooled on my tongue until I wanted to gag.

“They barely scratched me.” Killian shrugged, the tips of his wings dipping lower in the pink water.

Of course he’d tough it out as usual. The stubborn boar never let me heal him.

No part of me wanted to battle the hungry beast that lived inside me, but for Killian, I would. This wasn’t the first time he’d stepped between me and danger. I owed him more than I could ever repay.

Steeling my nerves, I reached for my magic. Slowly. Tentatively. I felt down for the well of light in my chest. My warm, cosy magic. The one good thing my father had given me.

Darkness reached back.

I slammed the connection closed, breathing hard, and wrenched back from Killian. I shook my horns fast enough to make myself dizzy, clutching my chest where something evil lurked.

Killian watched me with a quiet understanding I didn’t deserve. I swallowed the lump in my throat, unable to face his intensity.

“It’s okay, Eve. Really. This is nothing. You’ve seen me more battered just this week. I’m barely even bleeding,” he murmured, edging closer.

I edged back. But he was right. Killian was no stranger to pain.

And I hated it.

“You shouldn’t have to suffer. Not for anyone, and especially not for me,” I muttered, running a hand through the pink water, like it could wash away the sensation of something crawling beneath my skin.

His eyes bored into me, silvery flecks through the stormy blue, some intensity I couldn’t name filling them.

I looked away first. “At least I didn’t rip you apart any further.”

He chuckled. “At least you’d be touching me.”

“Really, Kill?” I levelled a flat look his way. “What happened to ‘you shouldn’t touch me’?” I did my best impression of his raspy, lilting voice.

He smirked, unapologetic and incessantly flirty. A true incubus. “That was before .”

“Before what?”

His lips split into a wide grin, showing off wicked fangs and more than a hint of crazy.

“Fine, be all cryptic and weird.” I barely suppressed an eye-roll. “There’s a salve in my pack that should kill off any nasties from those bone-kin claws. We just need to find it back in the woods.”

His smile turned wry. “Sure, kid. If you insist.”

My eyes narrowed on the infuriatingly calm demon.

Alpha yipped, drawing my attention back to the hellcat and hellhound watching us. They stared like we’d been putting on quite the show.

Alpha’s canine features pinched like a disapproving parent. His fiery eyes bored into me, seeming to judge my reckless behaviour. Somehow, the hellhound was both stern and sarcastic, all in one look.

Cookie just grinned, loaded with pointy fangs and smugness. I couldn’t tell if the stalker cat was mocking me or not.

Probably safe to assume she was.

Killian grabbed the black cloth wrapping his torso and ripped the shredded remains free, chucking the material onto the bank.

Thick muscular pectorals and carved abs revealed themselves in my periphery. I did everything in my power not to react.

Inky tattoos graced his slate-purple skin, flowing into stunning predatory birds in flight, their feathers wrapping his ribs and up over his chest to grace his neck and shoulders. Scars accented the feathers, adding a texture that only made them more realistic. Silvery chains of ink wrapped around his forearms, a reminder of his past.

I’d seen him topless before.

It never failed to floor me.

I battled to hold back my attraction to him, but desire wisped through my mental grasp, an intangible pull on my reserves as I unintentionally fed Killian my desire. His eyes glowed brighter, the silver so piercing it stabbed my heart.

He moistened his lower lip, forked tongue tracing it erotically slow. I swallowed thickly, battling to think unsexy thoughts as I greedily drank in his powerful frame and sinful features caressed by moonlight.

Just when I thought I’d combust from need, he dipped below the surface, the pink river swallowing him entirely.

My cheeks flamed as reality bitch-slapped me. He knew how much I craved him. He could literally taste my desire for him. There was no doubt about how I felt.

But I’d never once sensed his desire leak towards me.

Except for the one time he’d given me energy when he rescued me from the hunters, I’d never fed from Killian.

Because he clearly didn’t think of me in that way. I was just too stupid to learn the lesson repeatedly smacking me over the head.

The demon’s unique white horns broke the surface of the water, followed by his pearly wing arches and the arrogant smirk of a sinful incubus.

“Get cleaned up, Eve. I’ll grab your bag, and we can set up camp for a few hours to rest,” Killian said. He eyed the dead bone-kin on the grassy bank. “Upstream.”

He eased to the edge, hauling himself out with a fluid grace that shouldn’t be possible with the weight of hundreds of soaked feathers at his back. The pretty water seemed reluctant to let him leave.

He straightened to his full imposing height on the grass, raining heavy droplets.

I raised a brow, ignoring the way my need for him spiked as I traced the wet tendrils snaking their way over his broad shoulders and down his chest. His white horns gleamed under the moonlight with more droplets, like pink diamonds studded their patterned rippling lengths. He should look like a soggy pigeon. Instead, he was dipped in crystalline drops with that sexy wet look that made zero sense.

He turned his wings on me, passing the watching creatures with a respectful nod, and the shadows between the trees welcomed him into their embrace.