Page 8 of Hellish Witch (Playing with Demons #3)

Chapter 7

I bolted upright.

Heavy covers pooled at my waist. My breath laboured in and out of my lungs in a harsh rhythm like I’d run from a pack of rabid hellhounds.

The familiar sight of my bedroom greeted me, but the sexy demon of my dreams wasn’t hiding amongst my overflowing laundry pile.

Disappointment squeezed my chest. I was all alone in my bed, oddly energised like I’d been shot up with more than just the adrenaline of a rude awakening.

The sun peeked through the windows with the early rays of dawn, trying to pierce the towering darkness of the Bloodwood. My cabin rested beside the forest, much to Rex’s dismay. Being close to nature had always soothed me, though, despite the dangers it held.

The sound of breaking clay yanked me fully from sleep’s groggy hold. I shoved my blanket off and lurched out of bed, stuffing on my fuzzy slippers and hurrying towards the source of the noise.

Adrenaline dumped into my veins, leaving me jittery yet hyper-focused as I rushed out of my bedroom, into the short hallway.

I lived alone.

Anyone here this early in the morning, smashing the place up, was an intruder.

Or a monster.

My claws ached with the threat of oncoming violence as I swept into the kitchen, homing in on the noise.

I screeched to a halt just inside.

My mouth dried up, all moisture heading south.

Killian stood in my kitchen, topless, cuddling a vicious hellcat to his broad chest.

The lean beast reminded me of a black leopard I’d seen in a human realm zoo once, complete with black fur and almost invisible darker rosettes. She was about the same size but sleeker, with intelligence burning in familiar blood-red eyes. A darker crimson tufted her triangular ears and tail tip, the tail fluff hiding a deadly stinger loaded with venom.

Some said they’d seen hellcats with their own magic, like how hellhounds could play with fire. Given the felines were a lot more elusive than their doggy nemeses, the rumours weren’t widely confirmed.

Well, they were meant to be elusive.

This particular hellcat, with red accents and a notch in its left ear, had been terrorising me since I’d freed her four days ago. She’d broken into my cabin a handful of times, causing havoc and stealing whatever took her fancy before sauntering back out.

“It’s okay, pretty girl, I’ve got you,” Killian cooed, stroking a clawed hand down her back.

The traitorous death kitty purred .

I blinked rapidly, sure I’d lost my fires-damned mind.

But the vision before me didn’t change.

Not only had that stalker of a hellcat found me again, but the demon I’d just had a sex dream about…

Was. Right. Here.

“Um…” I trailed off, meeting Killian’s mirthful gaze. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t you remember last night?” His voice dropped to a sinfully husky purr.

Every muscle in my body locked up. My heart was about to slam its way out of my chest.

Did he mean…?

Surely not.

Right?

Unless…?

“You fainted in my arms.” His upper lip curled as if he tasted something bitter.

I tried not to let his obvious distaste get to me, but little claws of hurt scratched at my chest anyway.

“You shouldn’t touch me.”

His brows rose as his gaze dipped to take me in.

I blushed furiously. Apparently, I’d slept in the slinky minidress from the party, still spattered with blood, and it had ridden dangerously high up my bare legs.

Paired with fluffy pink cat slippers, it was quite the look.

Thoughts of what Killian had done to me in my dream flashed through my mind, offering me visions of the sexy incubus pinning me beneath him and devouring me with a fiery passion only my alcohol-fuelled subconscious could torture me with.

The worst thing was, as a sex demon, he could sense my arousal. I had a little of the ability, being only half-succubus, but like Zahara, he was a hybrid of two sexual types.

As if confirming my thoughts, he shot me a knowing grin.

My cheeks flamed as red as my hair.

I fought the urge to squirm in the tense silence, layered with that damn hellcat’s purring.

If a monstrous feline could lap up drama, that was exactly what she was doing, evil mirth in her bright eyes.

Killian scratched the beast under her chin, barely missing the lethal sabre-like fangs that jutted down past it. Her purrs increased to the rumble of stampeding unicorns.

I cleared my throat, gesturing at all of him. “And now?”

“Your kitty knocked my coffee over, so I thought I’d encourage her to leave the rest of your things alone before you had to drink directly from the pot.”

Broken shards of painted clay littered the island’s countertop. He’d already picked them up, and the idea of Killian not only in my house, drinking my coffee, but cleaning up sent my mind into a tizzy.

Why was it so hot for a topless guy to cuddle a fluffy animal and clean for me?

I cleared my throat, trying to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Thanks… Um, that’s not my hellcat. She’s a menace that’s been breaking in and stealing my food. But I meant…what are you doing in my house, Killian?”

He smirked, but the lazy mirth didn’t soften the intensity in his dark eyes. “After you passed out on me, I carried you home, but I couldn’t just leave you, kid.”

Kid.

The reminder of how he’d seen me was like a pail of ice water, snuffing out the lingering fantasy from my dumb dream.

A dry chuckle forced its way up my throat, just this side of bitter. “Oh. Well, um, thanks, I guess.”

Yeah, real smooth, Eve.

His sinful lips twitched, and he placed the monster kitty down on the counter. She rubbed her head against his hand, as if she couldn’t resist one last snuzzle, and turned to me with what I swore was a smug expression.

She sauntered to the edge of the rough-hewn marble top. Her sinuous tail smacked into the tower of mugs beside the coffee machine, rattling them ominously.

The hellcat sat back on her haunches, lifted a huge paw, and looked me dead in the eye.

“Kitty, no! Don’t you do it…,” I hissed, watching her from the other side of the island, too far to do anything.

Her lips peeled back to reveal a vicious maw of pointy teeth. A feline grin.

She smacked the tower of mugs, wicked glee burning in her eyes. My cups crashed to the floor with a harsh shattering.

I gaped at the destruction. “Why!?”

Her eyes seemed to scream, “You know why!”

She lifted her snooty tail, daintily picked out a cookie from the somehow lidless jar next to where the tower had been, and leaped off the counter with the silent fuck-you grace only a feline can possess. The psycho sauntered off into the living room. Probably to get crumbs and fur all over my sofa.

“Ugh, stop stealing my damn cookies, you monster!” I yelled at her retreating cat butt.

No wonder humans thought Hell was a place of tortured souls.

It was a hellcats’ world. We just tried to survive it.

A husky chuckle drew my attention back to the winged incubus dominating my kitchen, and I finally allowed myself to take in the rest of him.

My jaw slackened. “What the fuck happened to you?”

Bloody gashes tore through Killian’s impressive chest, slicing the avian tattoos across his torso and arms. The bleeding was down to a trickle for most of the wounds, some almost healed, but damage littered his body.

The amount of pain should have been excruciating, yet he’d had a casual chat with me about the ungrateful feline who’d been bullying me.

A sardonic grin curved lips pouty enough to make a succubus jealous. “I’m an enforcer, kid. I was enforcing. Or did you forget what I do for your uncle?”

His insistence on always calling me “kid” and referring to Rex as my “uncle” irritated me to no end. Sure, he and Rex were years older than me, but that didn’t mean I was a child.

“He’s more like an overbearing brother,” I muttered under my breath, even though I called Rex “Uncle” to his face all the damn time to get under our king’s thick skin.

I was already reaching for the light I kept inside me as I rounded the counter towards the stubborn demon. Getting close to Killian was like stepping into the shadow of a mountain: dark and awe-inspiring. Nothing could draw my attention away for long.

I met his piercing gaze, fighting not to squirm under his intensity. Especially after the dream I’d just had.

The warm light of my healing magic swelled within me, and my relief was immediate. I blew out a breath as I watched my palm glow. I hadn’t been able to heal anyone properly since I’d returned. Only the occasional minor injury, if I was lucky.

A wave of tiredness washed over me, and my glow flickered.

Killian stared at my hand, a worried crease between his brows. “It’s happening again, isn’t it?”

“Everything’s fine,” I blurted, struggling to leash the monster hunting through my veins, hungry as it stalked my healing energy.

The glow at my fingertips reddened. Or maybe it was my vision, tingeing at the edges.

Killian hissed through clenched fangs, the wounds across his chest gaping wider.

My heart pounded erratically as I pulled back, stumbling away before I could hurt him any more. “Fuck!”

Guilt nipped at me as my vision cleared. Killian grabbed a tea towel from one of the cabinet drawers, somehow knowing exactly where it would be, and used it to casually staunch the bleeding across his abs.

His eyes met mine, a steady anchor in the chaos swirling around me. “It’s going to be okay.” His voice pitched low, like he was trying to soothe a wounded animal.

“I’m meant to be healing you, not whatever this is!” I hissed, and the fresh burn of tears pressed behind my eyes.

I was the healer of this kingdom. It was my purpose. The one thing that made me valuable.

And I couldn’t even get that right.

A warm palm cupped my cheek. Killian tipped my face up to his, thumb tugging my lower lip out from where I’d been ruthlessly biting it.

“We are going to figure this out.” His lilting voice burrowed down to my soul, wrapping around me. “I promise.”

The way he said “we” almost had the tears spilling over.

Somehow, he had a way of making me feel safe, no matter what chaos was going on. But this wasn’t his problem.

I didn’t want to be another issue for the enforcer to fix.

I pulled my face from his warmth, ignoring the pang in my heart.

His cuts were healing at a rapid rate, meaning he’d fed recently. Gorged himself, in fact.

“This is how you killed that idiot the other night?” he asked, gesturing to his bloodied torso. “It’s happening a lot?”

I stuffed down the truth, spitting out a lie instead. “No.”

His navy eyes churned like an ocean in the moonlight, dark and dangerous. He arched a perfectly shaped brow. “Don’t make me bend you over my knee.”

I practically choked on my own tongue.

My desire saturated the air.

But nobody else’s did.

Killian’s nostrils flared as he inhaled my scent and drew a few wisps of my energy into himself. His navy eyes glinted silver.

I ruthlessly shoved the lust down, cutting him a glare. “Fine. It’s happened a couple of times since I returned from my…visit topside.”

“Who else knows about this?”

This time, the truth came easily, despite the tightness in my throat. “Nobody.”

He nodded, looking contemplative. “It’s something to do with your human magic, isn’t it?”

My gaze dropped, tracing the inked feathers twitching on his throat with his steady pulse. The winged birds looked alive as if they took flight across his skin, refusing to stay as mere tattoos.

“You need to speak to the queen,” he said, pushing my chin up with the sneaky tip of his tail and forcing me to meet his depthless eyes.

The “or I will” was left unspoken. My brother’s most ruthless enforcer never made empty threats.

I pulled back, annoyed he was treating me like a kid. Again.

“You threatening to tattle on me, Kill?” I quirked a brow, batting aside his silken heart-tipped tail and crossing my arms.

He smirked, a deliciously dark twitch of his lips, like he found my defiance amusing. My quip felt more petulant than sassy now, and it pissed me off even more.

“I don’t need to, Eve. Here I am the law, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect this kingdom.”

“Stop bleeding all over my kitchen and get out,” I huffed, pinning him with a stern glare. “Apparently, I’ve got a witch to see.”