Queen of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #3)

Chapter 1

One

BECKS

The floorboard beneath me creaks, loud as a gunshot in the stillness. Talon glances over his shoulder, and I tamp down the impulse to return his sharp look with a one-finger salute.

It’s not like I did it on purpose. At six-two and over two-hundred and twenty pounds, I’m not exactly a small guy.

Stepping lightly isn’t my strong suit, especially in a place this old, where creaky floorboards are a given.

In fact, with the busted-out windows, dust-covered cobwebs, and sagging ceiling, I’m shocked this building hasn’t been demolished yet.

Talon is almost as large as I am, yet somehow moves like a ghost through the crumbling building.

But whatever. I wasn’t raised in a shady secret society like he was or trained to be a shadow.

Invisible. As the former dragon heir, I was groomed to stand out.

To be seen and heard. To command attention and respect.

Not slip through the darkness unnoticed.

This cloak-and-dagger stuff? It’s all new to me.

Talon tips his chin toward the room at the end of the hallway, and I nod in return. With my enhanced senses, I smell the blood too. I scented it the moment we reached this floor, and it chills me because of what it probably means.

Another dead girl.

We take careful steps forward, readying ourselves for whatever we may face in that room. We’re not carrying any weapons. We don’t need any.

We are the weapons.

Even though Talon doesn’t use his magic often, I grudgingly admit he’s still a force.

I get why he’s stingy with it. He was taught to hide what he is from an early age, and that kind of conditioning sticks.

But I think it’s a mistake. Our magic gives us an edge, especially in the human world.

It’s the exact reason why Talon and I are the first ones to step into the line of danger.

Kade and the other humans in the Silent Order are formidable, but not the way we are.

I draw my power to the surface, holding it taut, ready to unleash a blast of fire should we finally come face-to-face with the entity we’ve been tracking for weeks.

The demon.

The monster that’s left a bloody trail of female corpses all over the country.

The scent of blood intensifies as we near the room, stealing any remaining hope that we made it in time to save someone’s life. The door is cracked, and Talon moves cautiously forward, slipping inside. I follow close behind, alert to every sound and movement.

Talon stiffens at the same time I spot the figure in the middle of the space.

I lock up too, hit by a mix of dread and horror.

The hair. The eyes. The petite build. The delicate features. Even the smattering of freckles across her blood-splattered face.

She’s familiar.

For a moment, I can’t breathe. All I see is Locklyn lying in a pool of her own blood, her guts ripped out and yanked from her body, strewn about the room in a chaotic sprawl that looks more like a slaughterhouse than a crime scene.

Then I blink and it’s not her, just someone with similar features and coloring.

A shameful wave of relief hits me, loosening my muscles and making them weak.

Trying to shove Locklyn from my mind, I focus on what’s true.

Finding the dead girl means the demon hasn’t found Locklyn’s sister yet. Because if it had, she’d still be alive. At least for now. It needs her too badly to kill her just yet.

But that doesn’t bring me any comfort, only rage. Because a girl still died. Needlessly.

There’s no joy to be found here. No real silver lining.

Even as my skin heats and ash taints the air from my faltering control, a cold creeps through the room.

My gaze cuts to Talon. You wouldn’t know he’s affected by looking at him. His expression is almost clinical as he surveys the room and the dead girl at our feet, but the chill in the air betrays him. His ice dragon powers slip through.

And I know exactly why.

It’s the same reason I’m struggling to keep my magic tamped down as well: the girl’s resemblance to Locklyn. More so than any of the others. She looks so much like Locklyn she could pass as her sister, maybe even her twin.

But for better or worse, she’s not.

She’s just a creature who had the misfortune of looking like her and catching the wrong type of attention.

And it got her killed.

So Talon’s allowed to unravel over a dead girl who looks like Locklyn, but I’m not. Not anymore. Because Talon’s her husband and I’m not.

I’m just the guy she used to love who’s trying to move on.

I shake my head, disgusted that I’m actually feeling sorry for myself when the corpse of a girl slaughtered before her prime is lying at my feet.

There are bigger things in the world than my battered heart, so I shove my trauma deep into the recesses, far enough down that I’m sure it won’t pop back up uninvited anytime soon.

As the smell of smoke dissipates, I take a step forward, letting my magic settle back into my core. We’re too late; there’s no threat here anymore. Just like every other time, the demon is long gone.

As I near the girl, there’s no question about what kind of creature she was. In death, any glamour she might have used to conceal her true form from unsuspecting humans has faded, revealing her pointed ears that mark her as fae.

It makes me wonder, not for the first time, what type of creature Locklyn’s sister actually is.

None of us know. After years of intermarrying between humans and various creatures, it’s anyone’s guess.

We know only that Locklyn was born without magic, but her sister wasn’t.

In some ways, they are two sides of the same coin. A coin that the demon needs.

One girl to release the monster from its cage. The other to release its wrath upon the world.

The only thing we know for sure is that whatever magic Locklyn’s sister has, it must be potent if it has the potential to make something already capable of this kind of brutality even stronger.

This carnage before me isn’t Locklyn’s sister’s fault, but in a way, it’s because of her. The demon is getting desperate. It didn’t need to kill this fae, but when it found the wrong girl, another dead end, it clearly took out its rage on her.

I shake my head, still having a hard time grasping that this is happening.

Demons are little more than myth in the creature world, but they exist in the human one, just not in the flesh.

They corrupt from the shadows, spreading chaos through influence.

They poison minds, twist intentions, and leave ruin in their wake, but they can’t physically harm humans or creatures living in this world.

Except this demon.

When it was released from Shadow Striker, it was juiced up on power it collected from the dagger over the years it was trapped inside it.

Our theory is that all that stored power has somehow given it the ability to take a semi-corporeal state.

Otherwise, how would it be able to brutalize its victims like this?

But apparently, it’s not satisfied with that. It wants what no other demon has.

A physical body.

And in order to get one, it needs Locklyn’s sister.

Which is why we have to find her first. To stop that from happening.

My stomach churns as I survey the girl. She wasn’t just killed, she was butchered. Torn apart. The look on her face is one of horror, indicating she’d been alive for at least some of the torture.

Our failure to find her in time slams into me.

Hard. Stealing my breath. If this is what the demon can do in its partially physical state, I don’t even want to imagine the destruction it could wreak if it ever ascends and gains what it’s been chasing for millennia.

According to the prophecy, if that happens, it will be unstoppable.

I sense movement at my back and glance over my shoulder just as Kade steps into the room. He and some of his Order members entered the building behind us, letting Talon and me assess the situation first, and sweeping the lower floors for anything we may have missed.

It makes sense. Talon and I are two of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, dragon shifters of our generation. That’s no small thing, and the head of the NYC Silent Order is smart to use the resources in front of him.

Kade’s dark eyes flash as he takes in the gruesome scene. He crouches in front of the girl and mutters a curse under his breath.

“It’s the fifth one this month,” Talon says unnecessarily.

I want to snap back at him that we’re all painfully aware of how many dead girls there’ve been, but that won’t accomplish anything, except maybe make our already tentative alliance feel even shakier.

It’s not exactly normal for the ex to hang around the guy he was passed over for, but most days I grudgingly like the guy.

On second thought, “like” might be too strong of a word. I respect him, at least.

Still, the stress of this newest murder has frayed my nerves, making me want to lash out, and Talon’s an easy target. Instead of giving in to the urge, I cross my arms over my chest and press my lips together.

“Let’s just try to focus on there not being a sixth,” Kade says as he rises to his feet, his gaze still locked on the girl.

“Did you find anything?” I ask, and Kade finally tears his gaze from the body to look at me, his dark skin dulled, his eyes haunted.

Kade sighs. “Besides signs of a struggle, not much. There are some blood spatters and hair. We found a ripped-off nail as well, but nothing from the demon besides some claw marks on one of the walls.” Kade’s eyes drop to the body. “She was a fighter.”

I shake my head. There’s nothing else to say. We failed. Again.