Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(24)

That seemed to surprise him. He pulled back, brows high, and shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Everyone has Jax pegged as the bastard while you walk around with your head held high.” I could see the hurt in his eyes and that wasn’t my intention, but he needed a dose of truth. Maybe it was the recent brushes with death, but it felt like the truth didn’t get enough attention around here and it pissed me off. I reached around and popped open the door. “You’re not a bad guy, but you’re not perfect. Just like Jax isn’t a perfect guy. Maybe he just needs the people he loves to have some faith in him.”





Chapter Eleven




Jax

I strode down Sixth Street, coat blowing behind in the gusty wind. I was doing my best to ignore the painful pressure in my muscles and the ache that came with it. When the demon didn’t get what it wanted, it made things difficult. When the need became too much, usually I’d stalk the streets looking for a fight. I kept to the seedier parts of town, which generally made it easy to find some deserving bastard to unload on.

Unfortunately, Harlow was a small place. Everyone knew everyone else. I wasn’t eager to go kicking the crap out of people. I’d been taking little bits from random sources. A portion of anger here, a nibble of sadness there. Soon though, the demon wouldn’t give me any choice. The longer I went without feeding it, the stronger it got. Backward if you asked me. The damn thing should get weaker when denied its twisted little snack.

I’d barely roughed up the demon on the cliff, and never even got to take a swing at the other—not that I had any idea what would have happened. I’d never fed on another demon before. Didn’t even know if it was possible.

The sooner I got this wrapped up the better. Being in such close proximity to Chase was bad for everyone’s health.

Then there was Sam. While the demon forced gruesome scenes on repeat inside my head, I could only focus on her. On what had happened tonight.

On what I’d done.

The demon had never spoken to anyone while in control. Tonight, watching it approach her, hearing it say her name, terrified me. How the f*ck was I going to explain everything?

After I left home Sam moved on with her life. School, a job, other boyfriends. It was hard to watch—and I did—but it was the only way to keep her safe from my world. I kept tabs on her every step of the way, dropping in and secretly stealing glimpses just to be sure she was safe and happy. I’d always felt like a bastard for doing it. Like some sick creeper stalking the one thing I knew I could never have. Until the night of the party.

Really, after what happened to her parents, her reaction of leaving school after the attack was understandable. They were killed in a home invasion. She’d seen the whole thing from the closet in her parent’s bedroom. The kicker was, it had been the bastard’s second attempt. The first time, Mr. Merrick was able to scare him off and call the police. The second time around, he hadn’t been so lucky.

Now with multiple attempts on her own life I couldn’t imagine what Sam was going through. And she didn’t even know the half of it. The demons on the cliff had thrown me. Was the person who attacked her at school a demon? I wasn’t sure how I could have missed it. I’d been right there and would have smelled the thing on her for sure.

In places like the club it was much harder to zero in on a specific source. All those people crammed into one place was like a traffic jam of emotion, all knotted together. But out in the open air, it’d be hard to miss. Still, it was the only explanation.

Demons didn’t mix well with humans. There was little chance that a human stalker had contracted demonic hit men to off a single girl. Most people had no idea they even existed. I’d been so preoccupied with the attack that the fact it’d been perpetrated by a demon had totally slipped past me. That was the only other possibility.

The big question now was, could I take care of it without having to tell Sam the truth? Like the rest of the world, she had no idea these things existed. I wanted to keep it that way.

I rounded the final corner and the Viking came into sight. The club was closed, but the small dive bar across the street was still kicking. It was a smaller hunting area than I normally liked, but time was running out. A deep breath told me that while it wouldn’t satisfy the demon completely, or take away the pain, I’d find exactly what I needed to maintain control.

The place was small and run-down. There were several people at the counter, and a few more scattered around the room at tables. At the bar, a girl shrieked, the sound almost entirely drowned out by the pumping music coming from various speakers on the walls. She yelled at the bartender for a refill, holding up her empty glass when it became obvious that he couldn’t hear her.

It didn’t take long to find a target. In fact, I found the perfect target. The demon that pushed Sam over the edge was seated at a table in the corner with a few of the bouncers from the club laughing and doing shots and carrying on. Other than the brief scuffle at the cliff, I’d never fought another demon. I had no idea what to expect—but I was eager to find out.

I settled at the bar and waited. Patience wasn’t a virtue me or my demon possessed, but in this case it was worth the effort. It took a while, but after six shots, the bastard headed for the restroom.

The demon writhed beneath my skin as I stood and made my way into the hall. Starving. It was starving. The sudden severity scared the shit out of me. What if this had nothing to do with Chase or Sam? What if, as I got older, the demon’s hunger grew? I consoled myself by sticking to people who hurt others. Drug dealers, child molesters, men who beat their wives… The black stains on society had sustained the demon all this time.