Chapter 44
GAELAN
My mouth hangs open in amazement as Ari slowly starts to turn white. Her clothes are ripped from her body as she grows; more markings cover her skin in gold. Scroll writing like before, but a lot more symbols cover every inch of her skin, making it look like she has a tight catsuit on.
Her tail is long, with a gold fluffy tip; her hair falls long to the ground around her and is white as snow.
Her eyes are glowing the brightest gold I’ve ever seen.
She looks purely animalistic in her stance and how she scans over everyone who is surrounding her.
Her top lip curls back with a snarl. Slowly, she stands, and the net that covers her melts into her body as she absorbs its powers.
Trelor snaps his head to the side; he is just as shocked as I am. He growls low.
“She has a daemon. How?” Trelor asks.
“I have no idea,” I whisper. Part of me is shocked, the other is so turned on that it has my cock twitching in my pants.
She looks fucking beautiful.
She smelt different after she got her powers back; stronger, an edge sweeter that made me want to possess her and bend her to my every carnal desire. That must have been her daemon scent. That pull is why there are so many daemons here with us now.
The Book Reader has always been sweet to smell—now, she is purely intoxicating.
“Rose?” I edge forward slowly, holding my hands out to her, trying to keep her calm.
She is breathing hard, her chest moving up and down, making her tits bounce with each breath.
I’m trying my hardest not to get distracted, but Trelor is not.
His need for her is so strong that it makes a shudder run down my spine.
I can feel her fear, her confusion, and I don’t want her to run away from me. A daemon in its proper form, loose and topside, is dangerous. They are blood thirsty and have no laws.
My Rose, as a new daemon, is going to be deadly.
Her eyes snap to mine, glowering as if she is trying to work something out, wanting to understand. “Rose,” I call out again, hoping she will come to me. She hisses and then snaps her teeth.
Fuck, she’s stunning.
Trelor wants to claim his mate, but we need to be careful; she now has the power to shimmer, and we don’t want her to get lost up here.
She lifts her chin as if daring me to come closer to her. Growls low, she casts her eyes over the daemons who have been frozen in shock, staring at her.
They are wondering what she is.
“You hurt us. You do not live.” She declares, her voice soft and sweet, like a melody on a summer’s breeze, but I hear her deadly undertone. A darkness that makes everyone listen intently.
She lifts her hands fast, fists them, then lowers to the ground, punching it.
Gold lights move along the ground like a river toward each daemon.
As each golden burst reaches them, it wraps around them and squeezes tightly, making them scream.
I watch in fascination as they begin to shake; the gold glow gets brighter, almost too bright to look at.
Each daemon makes an odd gurgling sound before it bursts into tiny pieces, like confetti.
It shimmers as it rains down, turning to dust before littering the ground.
She slowly stands, and the air fills with a sinister giggle.
“She is more perfect,” Trelor whispers in awe.
“Ari?” I whisper. Her head snaps to me, and she just stares, her eyes blinking fast as if she is trying to work out who I am.
Ari’s daemon must have been given to her when she got the book back.
She has never had a daemon before in any of her lives.
This scares me. A daemon is evil by nature; it took me years to master my control over Trelor, and he still hates me a little for it.
Ari is going to need time that we don’t have.
Trelor pants in my head; the excitement he has is unequaled. He isn’t thinking about what this means for our Rose and her powers; He’s thinking about marking and making her his.
She lifts her head and sniffs the air again before growling.
Leah comes running into the square, her steps falter as her eyes shift to me in fear and confusion.
Leah spins fast, her spear appearing in her hand before she throws it toward Ari.
I jump, trying to snatch it out of the air, but it fades from my grip.
Ari hisses. I turn and watch as Leah’s spear appears in her hand.
Ari steps forward, lifting her hand to hold the spear up.
Her head sways from side to side as she assesses the weapon.
Ari’s top lip curls; like a light switch, her mood goes from curious to deadly in seconds.
She rears back, then throws it lightning-fast back toward Leah.
“Rose, no!” I shout, using Trelor’s voice to amplify mine. She narrows her eyes at me as she steps back, lifts her hand, and the spear turns to liquid gold, dripping to the ground
Ari will be in there somewhere; I hope she isn’t too scared and that her daemon listens to her.
It’s an odd feeling when our daemons take control.
“I am Lexus.” She says. Her eyes begin to glow, her markings look alive, shifting slightly on her skin. She smirks as she shimmers from sight.
“Shit!” I rush forward, hoping to see her appear somewhere else in the square, my head snapping to different directions. Waiting. Hoping.
Fisting my hands in my hair, I grip it tight as I hiss in frustration. My mate is nowhere to be seen. Again.
“Fuck!” I say as panic ignites in my body, Leah rushes over. “My lord, I’m sorry. I didn’t know she had a daemon.” She sounds worried. I place my hand on her shoulder and squeeze, giving her the reassurance I wish I had right now.
“Neither did I.” My words are forced, as I'm unsure of what else to say.
Daemons need blood; our mates typically are enough to keep our daemons fed, but Lexus doesn’t know any of this. Trelor and I had to feed on human females when our Rose wasn’t with us.
I cast my eyes over the square, trying to feel for her—trying to use my mate’s senses to find her.
I get nothing.
She is in daemon form and not hiding it. As soon as someone notices her, the Topside daemon hunters will be out in full force. What they won’t understand is that Lexus isn’t a low-level daemon; she is something else entirely.
I curse under my breath, then shimmer back into the house. I walk into the living room and switch on the TV, flipping through the channels, I find a news station and watch it, waiting for news of gruesome murders or of any surge of power. Something to tell me where she is.
Leah comes rushing into the house, followed by two of my guards. One of them crouches down by Mekhi as he starts to wake up.
“Fuck! I’m never drinking again,” he groans and tries to stand up slowly.
Whatever Rose did to him has worn off, which worries me that something may have happened to her.
“Where is Hitch?” he asks, sounding a bit pissed.
I turn to face him, not really knowing what to say.
He looks me in the eyes, then down at the TV, and then at the guards surrounding me; his eyes narrow.
Brax gives me a slight nod and takes Mekhi’s hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Hey, baby boy, let me help clean you up.” Mekhi opens his mouth, but closes it as he checks out my guard.
Brax is handsome; his long dark hair and killer orange eyes contrast with his pale skin.
Mekhi runs his eyes over him before turning back to look at me.
“If you're trying to distract me with this—” he waves his hands up and down in front of Brax, “—fine hunk of a man, it’s working, but when I come back, Hitch better be here.”
“She will.” I lie. When I get my Rose back, she is not leaving my side or my castle again.
Mekhi looks doubtful, knowing something is wrong. Ari told me that he avoids all supernatural things at all costs; he worries his lips before turning and walking out of the room. Brax follows close behind him. Brax loves women, but he also loves men just as much.
“We haven’t had a daemon hunt in a long time. Have we, Max?” The lady on the TV starts to speak.
Quickly, I spin around and turn the sound up. The newscaster shuffles the papers on her desk with a smile. Her cubby co-host grins, “We have not. This isn’t just any daemon, either; this is something else.”
The screen switches to a vast park, and Rose stands in the middle. Her white skin now covered in blood, piles of dust scattered around her. From the looks of it, she killed another group of low-level daemons. She is breathing hard and hissing at the crowd gathered with nets and rope.
My hands fist, Trelor growls low and deadly in my head. “Let me out, tiny daemon, they hurt mate. She is scared.” I shake my head. If I let him out now, he is going to kill everyone on his way to her. “Let me the fuck out, Gaelan!” He ripples under my skin, pushing so much that I hiss in pain.
“You will wait. We need a plan.” I say firmly. He growls at me, testing me. My markings flash. “Keep pushing me, Trelor, and you will never come out again. Do you understand?”
“And she is gone.” The lady on the TV says, and her co-host laughs smugly, trying to impress the redhead.
“She has, but Cindy at Sweetville has her by the river,” the co-host informs.
The screen changes to a riverbank lit by streetlights.
Lexus is situated by a bridge that appears to be constructed from old stones and moss.
She is dancing around, giggling, throwing what looks like red paint and goo all over the ground.
I look closer and see a dead daemon at her feet, its chest and stomach have been sliced open.
Lexus bends down and pulls his inside out, squashes them in her hands before throwing them.
She is somehow stopping them from turning to dust. Lexus is enjoying this. It must be a spell of some kind.