Page 14 (1/2)

"Don’t worry I’enesis is complete After that, only other demons need fear me"

"Other Seminus de the washcloth into her hamper beside the bed She’d trash it later Burn it,are always h every individual shares soed a sheet up to cover herself, because the way he atching her made her feel like a science experiged "Shade can turn to shadow in the presence of a shadow Wraith possesses extraordinary speed and needs to ingest blood to survive I suffer from a terrible sense of fair play that nate hu these questions as though they were bonding over beer and peanuts, but hey, the more she knew, thewith humans results in cambions Sterile half-breeds We need to mate with other demons to keep our species from extinction"

"And these other speciesthey don’tbirth to yours?"

The bed creaked and sagged beneath his considerable weight as he stretched out beside her, uncomfortably close, as if they were lovers Real lovers and not the most mismatched pair of fk buddies ever The wolf and the rabbit The predator and the prey

A shudder shook her because she was dangerously underesti him They were both predators

"They enesis is complete, we have the ability to shapeshift into the male of any species"

"So you’re parasites who trick the fe sx with you"

"Essentially The females have no idea what they’ve slept with"

"And what happens when Junior pops out and he doesn’t look like Mo to do with the job and everything to do with her curiosity She found it interesting that demons scammed other de are abandoned, slaughtered, or eaten within hours of birth" She could have sworn his expression softened with sadness for a one by the time he said,

"Less than 10 percent survive to adulthood"

She winced "Harsh Is that why soabout are dead?"

"Most of theenesis? What happened to his, like angrytheir fei"

Shit She should have seen that one co "I, ah--"

"Don’t," he said softly "Don’t say you’re sorry, because you aren’t"

She wasn’t sure she had been going to offer condolences, but she was glad she hadn’t When she’d told him about her mom, if he’d said he was sorry, she’d have blown a fuse Yeah, a change of subject would be good right about now "Your brother said you weren’t raised togetherso how do you kno many brothers you’ve had?"

"We feel the their lives, and we feel theaze "Every death leaves a hole"

For the first ti Her h her soul, and Janet’s death had cut it deeper Tay had known foster kids who had been beaten to death, street kids who had ODed, Guardians who’d been torn apart, but she’d never allowed herself to feel sorrow Not until Janet Now Tayla encouraged the pain, intentionally h she and Janet hadn’t been close, her death had been Tay’s fault

"Have you ever met your father? Your real father?"

"He was killed when I o, shortly after Wraith was born" She didn’t want to ask, afraid he’d say The Aegis was responsible again, but he seee for what he did to Wraith’s mother"

This time she did want to ask, but her mind had already moved onto the math calculationsEidolon had said he had over forty siblings, twenty born before he wasso if the father died when he enty more had come between Eidolon’s birth and his second year

"Sounds like your species is pretty prolific"

He folded his ar "Exactly That’s why, once the s’genesis is cole nate as ed, went low, and soe "It’s all we can think about And yet, we still face extinction"

"That would be too bad"

He narrowed his gaze at her with such intensity that she sucked a harsh breath "Be careful, little killer The Fates can fk with you in ways you can’t even is off the bed and started to button his pants The muscles in his back and arms flexed, and she adrasped her handy-dandy steel pipe--she had a duffel bag full of fancy weapons, but nothing felt as good as heavy piece of basic metal in the palm

He was beautiful, terribly beautiful Which made what she was about to do that ht the pipe down on his skull It cracked sharply, and he slumped to the floor

"Looks like the Fates really fked with you, Hellboy" She peered down, al sorry for him, but she tucked that foolish sentias done"

Ge the call had been a hoax The broken vase filled with her mother’s prize orchids and the blood on the floor in the for room said otherwise

"You sons of bitches," she whispered to no one in particular, though er was directed at herself

If only she’d taken the threat seriously If only she hadn’t answered the phone the first time the bastards asked her to cut for them If only she hadn’t told them no when they called back three days later If only

Didn’t e had been done