Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“The power from a human sacrifice.”
My nails pierced half-moons in my palms, coating the tips of my fingernails in blood. Eyes darting left and right, I looked for a way out—something. Anything!
“But first...” Taking a step closer, Kazuya popped the top button of his scorched blue polo shirt. “I’ve been fucking cunts with fish heads, monkey tails, rat claws, and cheap glamours for too long. Today”—his red eyes flashed—“I’m having the real thing.”
The baying of dozens of greedy, slobbering voices fighting to rape me pummeled my ears. I shook—eyes filling as I looked into Kazuya’s and saw that it wouldn’t matter if I begged, if I cried, if I pleaded, or if I appealed to the humanity he didn’t have. This was a dead and empty husk before me—devoid of compassion or empathy.
This... was a demon.
Kazuya closed the distance and reached for the top button of my bellbottoms.
I smashed him across the face with my phone. “Noooo!” I screeched, and flashed out—kicking him square in the chest. “Get away from us!”
Kazuya rocked back—the surprise hit popping him off his feet.
Flying back, he flipped in the air and skidded across the ground on his soles—recovering quick and fast like the cat he was. He launched off his haunches, a furry humanoid missile that I had no chance to avoid.
He slammed into my chest, knocking me back into Dora and blowing us both off our feet. “Pravat, hold her legs! Bruno, get the sister!”
“No! Leave her alone!”
Bruno snatched Dora by the hair, dragging her screaming away from me.
I scrambled after them when a hard, vicious blow struck my stomach—knocking the wind out of me and shocking my system to the core.
“Agh!” Red bled into my eyes, pain singing all the way up my abdomen. There was no time to recover before one hundred and seventy pounds of tiger demon sat on my chest—pinning me firmly to the ground.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Get off! Get off of me!” Desperation shredded my voice. “Let my sister go! She didn’t do anything to you. Leave her alone!”
Hands grabbed hold of my legs and tore my pants down. Kazuya wasn’t listening to me. None of them were. My cries fell on the most uncaring, sociopathic ears.
Bruno yanked Dora onto her feet, only to slap her across the face. Her head snapped around and she spun like a top—collapsing to the ground once more.
“STOP IT!” I went nuts—thrashing, clawing, kicking, and punching. “Get off,” I screamed, pummeling Pravat’s back and smashing the phone into his spine.
He didn’t even react, and in that moment, Ronin’s face flashed before my eyes.
I didn’t hesitate another second. I turned it on and dialed the only saved contact.
He picked up after a single ring. “This is a surprise. What do—?”
“Yes!” I screamed into the phone, blood swallowing my vision. “Yes! My answer is yes!”
Kazuya’s long, sharp teeth shredded my underwear.
“Stop it! Get off!”
Dora’s screams battered my eardrums.
“Ronin, help me! Oh, gods, please, help me!”
Something hard and wet pressed against my entrance.
“HELP!”
“Charlotte, where are you!” For the first time since I met the perpetually bored and sleepy demon, urgency laced his voice. “Tell me where you are!”
“The courtyard with the goat-head man!” I kicked wildly, connecting with something hard and fleshy and ripping a grunt from Kazuya. “Where the first five demons were killed—!”
Boom!
Light exploded in the courtyard—carried on a tidal wave of heat and static charge. I could’ve almost thought it was lightning if not for the fact that I’d never seen a single rain cloud or anything approaching a weatherly atmosphere since entering hell.
No. This wasn’t the light and fury from Zeus.
As Ronin dropped from the skies—the force of it crumbling the stone beneath his feet and lighting the fire in his eyes—I knew one thing with absolute certainty. There were no gods in this courtyard... and none were coming.
Electricity sparked and crackled off Ronin’s skin and horns—black and unnatural as the dark magic running in his veins. Before my eyes, his tempting, handsome wrapping melted away.
Gone was his perfect nose, pouty lips, and booby-trapped ruby eyes. And in their place, was a beast.
Ronin exploded out of his human-safe wrapper. Ripping away the handsome visage, a hairy, almost bat-like face snarled down at us. Pale skin darkened to a dark, mottled gray that grew and rippled under grotesquely huge muscles. Claws ripped from his fingertips, and burst through his boots. Hair that was once long and lush became scraggly, limp strands hanging around foot-long, lethal-tipped horns. He was horrifying. He was terrifying. He was—
“Argh!” Roaring, Ronin swung his massive hand and slapped Bruno, Kazuya, and Pravat aside—sending them flying into the stone wall.
Their skulls burst apart on the unforgiving surface, leaving nothing but black blood and brain matter.
He’s amazing.
A heavy, profound silence settled over the courtyard—as if hell itself was acknowledging all the blood that had been spilled in this place in my name.