Page 58 of Silver Claw
On the contrary—he pushed back his hood, then shoved his robe off his shoulders and tossed it behind him. And then he slid his bare feet over the wet floor, bathing his soles in the splashes of fresh blood that pooled there. Some of that blood was mine.
I shuddered. Regular demons were bad enough. A demon elder took that badness to a whole new level.
“Kait,” Joe pleaded. “Don’t fight that asshole. They’re not going to hurt me.”
Kronor’s laugh floated from deep inside him, and beneath the darkness was an undeniable joy. Or maybe glee would be the better word. He was enjoying himself.
Demons drew energy and strength and happiness from causing pain and fear in others. Just as a human might feeljoy from puppies and kittens, or a supernatural might find happiness in helping those who needed them, demons got that same feeling from causing chaos and terror and agony.
And it was magnified by a thousand.
I took a deep breath and forced my fear away. I wouldn’t let him feed off a single emotion if I could help it.
“You are mistaken, little vampire,” Kronor said to Joe. “You have been given to me. And I will hurt you. I will hurt you a lot, but I can promise you that you will grow to crave it.”
It might have been strange for him to call Joe “little vampire,” but Kronor was enormous. Next to him, Joewaslittle.
And I was like a skinny branch standing next to a massive tree.
The elder seemed to grow larger by the second. He was dressed only in a sort of loincloth situation, its lush green color contrasting with the ruddiness of his skin. His body was on full display. He was old, true, but his body had been born in fire and ash, and it was never going to show the markings of old age.
“Why do you want to fight me?” I asked him, genuinely curious. “You’re a powerful council member, and I’m just a wolf. So why do you want to fight me?”
“Ordinarily,” he said, surprising me by answering, “you would be beneath my notice. But you have something that belongs to my world. To me. It irks me to see it in your possession.”
I clutched my demon blade, and immediately, it responded to my touch by getting hot, releasing a hot, swirling mist, and glowing with magic.
My blade was still a mystery. It continued to change, and it kept growing stronger. And it wasmine.It was all the magic I had left, and I would die before I’d hand it over to the bastard.
“I will release your vampire to you,” he told me, “and I will walk away and let you leave with only the wounds you are currently attempting to heal.” He gestured at my blade. “Give me the blade. It never belonged to you anyway, little thief. Give me the blade, and I will release the vampire.”
He couldn’t take it from me, for some reason. He wanted it, craved it, maybe even dreamed about it. But he couldn’t take it unless I freely gave it to him. I didn’t know why, but I knew it was true.
“Trade,” he said. “His life for the blade. Surely you do not put a knife above his life?”
“Kait,” Joe murmured, horrified. “Don’t you do it. Don’t you do that, boss.”
“Trade,” I whispered. “Open the fucking door, and I will give you the blade.”
That was how, after protecting it, losing it, finding it again, and keeping it close as the only bit of magic left to me, I lost my blade.
It was back with the demons, and worse than that, a demon elder had a piece of me. He could call me to hell if he wanted, and I wouldn’t be able to fight it.
But I had Joe at my side when we left the council building.
And that was worth everything.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Joe’s injuries were already healed when we left the building. Mine were well on their way. But my mind, in a bad place since Anika’s attack and the loss of my magic, was not doing well.
I realized how easy it was to lose everything, and though I’d gotten Joe back, I could just as easily have lost him forever. I couldn’t even muster up some anger. I just felt tired. Tired and sad and lost.
My blade was gone.
That pain was worse even than losing my magic, somehow.
Frowning, worry in his eyes, Jared pulled me into his arms. “What happened?” he asked.
