Page 1 of Knight’s Salvation

Chapter 1

“Lookslike we’re taking the stairs,” Rocco said and scowled at the out of order sign taped to the elevator.

Zenon looked at the other knight and shrugged, trying to appear unaffected when he was anything but. He still didn’t know why he’d come, why he’d forced the issue when Chaos had tried to discourage him.

Zenon never went on retrievals. Ever.

But this morning something had hit him—Christ, immobilized him—and then he’d felt…something. He was used to pain, but this, the feeling that had him crying out, tearing him from sleep, was different. Nothing like he’d felt before.

Fuck. This was a mistake. He should have stayed behind.

Rocco kept with the jaw flapping as they took the stairs, grinning, treating him like he was just another male, like he could be Lazarus or Gunner or Kryos.

Any one of his brothers.

Yeah, they were all knights of Hell, demon hunters, made up of the same basic DNA, but that’s where it ended. Because other than that, Zenon was nothing like them. Never had been and never would be.

Even now, after all this time, he expected the males he lived and fought beside to suddenly cry uncle, to realize the mistake they’d made, and kick his worthless ass to the curb. Or worse, back to Hell.

It hadn’t happened yet, and until it did, he’d fight beside them, with them, in a world that still felt foreign, a world touched by warmth and light instead of unrelenting darkness and pain.

He was a knight, not by choice but by birth—the fucked-up result of an unholy union between fallen angels and Kishi demons.

“Shit, this place is a dump.” Rocco stopped in front of a scarred wooden door, a frown on his handsome face.

Zenon couldn’t say one way or the other. His entire focus was centered on the weird vibes coming out of the apartment in front of him.

Something wasn’t right; something more than the usual shit anyway. But with every step he’d taken toward that door, the tingly, prickly sensation at the base of his spine had intensified.

Rocco released an exaggerated breath. “Can you unclench your jaw or something? Jesus, you look like someone’s giving you a wedgie.”

Zenon would have told him to go get fucked, but for Rocco that was a given. And since speaking wasn’t an option right then, he pinned the other knight with a stare that said everything he couldn’t.

“Just a thought. But if you’re okay with the whole nuts-in-vise look you’ve got going on, then so am I.” Rocco gave him another head to toe, shook his head then knocked.

Zenon held his breath.

At the sound of several locks releasing, he reached back, wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the blade he had concealed under his jacket, and braced for what might be on the other side.

The door opened a crack, then wider, and the female demi-demon they’d come for poked her head out. A pair of big blue eyes lifted to meet theirs and her pretty pink mouth dropped open, followed by a kind of strangled sound in the back of her throat.

Zenon released his knife and took a startled step back. Like a champagne cork popping, the weird sensation he’d woken with shot up his spinal cord and nailed him in the back of the skull with the force of a fucking two-by-four.

Whatever this female’s power was, it was seriously messing with him.

His fight or flight instincts fired to life, and zeroed in on the defenseless female in front of them. She was no threat to him—he knew this—but right then he wanted to turn around and get as far away from her as fast as he could.

It took all his strength not to turn around and leave a Zenon-sized hole in the wall in his rush to get the hell away.

Which was screwed up and made no sense whatsoever.

Rocco stepped forward and introduced himself. The guy plastered a smile on his pretty face and some of the tension left her shoulders. Rocco had a way with females. They liked him. A lot. This one was no different.

Her bright blue gaze darted to Zenon then back to Roc, and she opened the door wider. “I’m Mia. You, ah, got here fast.”

“I would never leave a damsel in distress,” Roc drawled, and the female blushed.

For some reason, seeing her respond to the other knight’s easy charm had Zenon fighting the urge to introduce Rocco’s forehead to the wall.