Authors: Cindi Madsen
Her blood heated, running fiery trails through her veins. She could feel the power and rage in her rising, and she let it wash over her. She took a deep breath and attacked, unleashing everything she had on the demon. She sent her foot into his stomach. Ducked his swing and drove her fist into his face again and again. Her knuckles hurt from his tough hide, but she didn’t stop. She dipped low as he took another swipe at her. She punched his gut, his ribs, then brought her knee up, into his groin.
He fell back against the wall, holding himself. Those red eyes flashed on her. He tucked his head and with a yell, ran at her.
Persephone dodged left. She brought her elbow down on the back of his head as he passed. He stumbled forward and she leapt on his back. He reared up, backpedaled, and slammed her against the wall. She barely maintained her hold on him as all the air shot out of her lungs.
He struggled, clawing at her arms. Re-gaining control of her body, she put one hand on the top of his head, winding her fingers through a handful of his stringy hair, the other on his chin. And jerked.A loud, grinding crack filled the air, and the demon slumped into a scaly pile. Persephone fell to her hands and knees, struggling to catch her breath.
“Persephone!”
Looking up, she saw Jax running toward her. She took another deep breath and pushed herself to her feet.
His eyes widened as he neared. “How bad is it?”
Blood ran down Persephone’s arm and dripped onto the sidewalk. “It looks worse than it is.” Actually, it hurt like hell, but she knew he’d freak out if she said that.
The world tipped, and she had to put her hand on the wall to steady herself.
Jax was a little blurry, but those blue eyes of his stood out, and they were studying her with fierce intensity.
“I’m fine,” she said, because he looked so upset. “No weapons and I still killed him. Come on, you’ve got to admit that’s impressive.”
He glanced at the demon. “Impressive, but you don’t look fine.”
She let go of the wall to show how fine she was. Then clamped onto his arm as she started to tip.
He gripped her arms and guided her to the ground. He dug into his bag and pulled out a small first aid kit.
“Don’t worry, I heal fast.” The three gashes in her arm had already stopped bleeding. They were deep and ugly, but she took the clotting as a good sign. “By tomorrow it’ll just be scratches.”
“Not if you bleed to death now,” he said. Usually she couldn’t avoid his gaze, but now he seemed to be avoiding hers.
“How did you find me anyway?”
He pushed up her sleeve and pressed gauze over her cuts. “I’ve got good instincts.”
“Instincts? You instinctively thought to look for me somewhere I don’t usually go?”
“One, I can feel demon presences, and two…” He ripped the tape with his teeth, stuck it across the top of the gauze, and finally looked at her. “I can feel you, okay? If I focus hard enough, and if you’re in danger, I can feel you.”
“You can feel me? That’s weird.”
“It’s necessary.” He ripped another piece of tape and continued to secure the gauze over her cuts. His movements were fast and precise—obviously he’d done this before. The muscles in his jaw clenched. “Protecting you would be a lot easier if you didn’t fight it.”
Persephone was light-headed, but she didn’t miss the angry edge to his voice. “You’re mad?”
His eyes locked onto hers. “Yeah I’m mad. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been this mad before.”
“I bet if someone tried to take away your free will you’d be even angrier.” Persephone jerked away and then immediately regretted it. Searing heat shot down her arm and hot tears sprung to her eyes.
Jax ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not trying to take away your freedom, but like I keep telling you, it’s my job to keep you safe. How can you still not understand?”
“You think I don’t understand?” To her dismay, her voice cracked. “I’ve got to guard an object that got my family killed. I have all these rules, all this responsibility, and I don’t want it. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to crack under the pressure.”
He covered her hand with his. “That’s why we’ve got to work together. So neither one of us cracks.” He glanced at the demon, then back at her. “With your bare hands, huh?”
“I used my legs, too.”
The start of a smile hit his lips, but faded in the next second. “Now that they know where you are, we’ve got to go somewhere else.”
“They don’t know about the dagger,” Persephone said. “It was just one of those wrong time, wrong place things. But he was going to kill a woman, and I couldn’t let him.”
“I guess that’s something to be glad about—the dagger. And you saving a woman’s life. Now as for your shoulder, I did what I could, but I think you’re going to need stitches.” Jax leapt to his feet. “We better get you to a hospital.”
Hospitals weren’t exactly equipped with her blood type, not to mention all the questions about where her legal guardian was, so that was the worst idea ever. “No need. I’m telling you, I heal really fast.”
Jax frowned, looking like he was going to argue, but then seemed to think better of it. He shrugged off his jacket and draped it around her. He walked over to the demon, lifted it like it weighed nothing, and chucked it into the alley where it would decompose overnight.
His expression was all business when he squatted next to her. “Promise me you won’t do anything like this ever again.”
“You know I can’t,” she said. Jax opened his mouth, and she put a finger to his lips. “But I promise I’ll give you a break and I’ll keep you updated on where I am. It’s a pretty good deal, so I’d take it if I were you.”
He sighed. “That’s good enough, I guess. For now.” He helped her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist.
The way he looked down at her sent butterflies through her stomach.
And then the guilt crashed into her again, mixing in with the throbbing pain in her shoulder.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Persephone felt self-conscious trying to eat her cereal with Jax watching her so closely. First thing this morning he’d asked how she was and she said fine. He wanted to check the cuts on her shoulder, but she’d reiterated that she was fine. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her since.
“Like what?” Jax asked, an innocent expression plastered on his face.
“Like I’m a fragile girl who’s about to break.”
“Just let me look at your shoulder. I worry that we should’ve gone to the hospital to get you stitched up. We still might need to.”
“I heal fast, I checked them out, and for the hundredth time, I’m fine. See…” Persephone lifted her arm to prove how okay she was. Her shoulder was stiff, but if a little movement got him to leave her alone, the momentary twinge was worth it.
“I know you’ll claim you’re fine even if you’re not, so until I actually see, I’m not dropping it.”
Milk splashed out of her bowl as she plunked her spoon into it. “Fine. I just want you to know that you’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”
He grinned like she’d given him a compliment, then came around the table. He thought she was hiding because the cuts were bad. In reality, she didn’t want him to see how fast she healed.
Persephone pulled up her sleeve.
Jax peeled back her bandage. His brow furrowed and he leaned closer. “I can’t believe how good it looks. You said you heal fast, but I thought…How?”
Demon blood did have a few advantages. No way she was going to tell him that, though, so she fudged the details. “Athena blessed Sentries with healing powers to help us with our task.”
“So that’s how you’re able to handle the dagger. I always wondered how she’d done it.”
Persephone didn’t correct him. Let him think that was all it took.
“Well, you’re lucky. Those cuts would take most people out for a long time.” He put his hand on the back of her chair. “I’m glad you’re okay, and even though you heal fast, let’s not push it.”
“Actually, my training’s gotten a little lax, so I was thinking we should do some together.”
“Before we even think about that, we should work to reinforce the house. I looked into alarm systems and—”
“An alarm system isn’t going to keep demons out,” Persephone said. “That’s what the wards are for. I keep telling you that if they come near, all they’ll see is the projection of an empty lot.”
“But how do you even know the spell works?”
Because having demon blood running through me makes it hard to find my own house.
The entire structure flickered in and out of view, so she had to really concentrate to see through the projection. Even then, she’d tripped up the steps a few times. So she’d gotten used to counting how many paces it took to get to them, then to get to the door. Once inside, her vision cleared.
She couldn’t tell him any of that, though. “I’ve seen it work. My business is guarding the dagger, and trust me, I take it very seriously. But I also take the fact that demons are out there killing innocent people seriously. It’s our job to protect them, and I think we should start going out there and slaying as many of the bastards as we can.”
“Slaying demons and protecting people is
my
job. But right now, keeping you safe is more important.”
She’d known it was going to be a hard sell, but she couldn’t let it go. The more she thought about it, the more determined she became. “Protecting me protects the rest of the humans, right? That’s the basic theory?”
He narrowed his gaze, a suspicious glint in his eye. “Riiight.”
“But if we let them all die, we’re just as bad as the demons. I’m strong, and last night, yeah I was scared, but once I started fighting, I felt strong. I felt in control of my life for the first time.”
Not only that, she needed to fight them. Fighting them meant she wasn’t on their side—wasn’t one of them. She grabbed his hand. “You know I can help. You saw what I could do, unarmed and everything.”
Jax sighed. “And it was impressive, it really was, but I can’t take you out there and put you in danger every night. It’s counterintuitive to my main objective, and it’s not happening.” He straightened, apparently thinking this discussion was over.
Persephone stood, so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck so much to talk to him. “I’ll tell you why I’m right about this. Together we can take out more demons, which means I’m safer in the first place, and because I’m out there fighting with you, you’ll be more protected, which means I’ve still got my protector at the end of the night.”
She locked eyes with him. “You really think we can live like this for years, you never letting me breathe, me hiding out, all while the demon problem is getting worse and worse? And wouldn’t you feel better knowing I’ve had the training I need to defend myself, no matter what comes at me?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyebrows drew together, and she could tell she’d gotten to him.
Before he could over think it, she nudged a little more. “Wouldn’t fighting demons together be easier than fighting each other all day every day?”
A smile played on the corners of his mouth. “I don’t know. Fighting with you is kind of fun sometimes. Plus, you’re cuter than most demons.”
She smacked his arm. “Most?!”
He laughed and rubbed his arm. “All, okay, all.” He shook his head. “You win. We’ll do some training. And we’re going to have to do a lot of it before we can go out and start kicking some demon ass.”
Excitement bubbled up in her and she threw her arms around him. “You’ll see, we’re going to be awesome together.”