The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(57)

Rohan grabbed my non-pitching arm, but I shook him off.

Asmodeus lit up as my blue voltage covered him, his flesh smoking. “Is that all you can do?” His laughter boomed, echoing off the trees around us. The demon wasn’t shielding shit. He was fearless, taking everything we threw at him without batting an eye.

Rohan swore and jumped back in the fray.

Thunder ripped across the sky, crashing over us. My heart jumped into my throat, and as the skies opened up, my power went into overdrive as if in response to nature’s call. The rush was insane. My body tingled, like the explosion of energy inside me needed a way out through my skin. I reached for the electric moisture blanketing me. The rain ran over me in velvet rivulets, dancing over the magic pouring out through every pore.

Everything took on a surreal, dreamy quality–even Asmodeus, swinging back and forth dodging our dual-sided assault. Despite his injuries, he fended us off pretty well, looking almost amused by the entire encounter. Demons were such dicks.

Asmodeus feinted left to avoid Rohan and snatched me up by the back of the neck. That fucking hurt. The sweet release of my magic cutting off mid-stream hurt more. Like having a giant shit suddenly reverse course. My entire body convulsed in wave upon wave of needle-like stabbings.

“Motherfucking, limp-dicked, piece-of-shit,” I raged at Asmodeus.

“The first two contradict each other,” he said with infuriating condescension. “Watch it, puppy. Keep snapping and you’ll get nipped by much larger teeth.”

Rohan leapt for me, but Asmodeus backhanded him with a hard crack, winging him halfway across the park to wallop against the post of another brick archway. Rohan crumpled to the ground.

Asmodeus’ strength, his compulsion abilities were demonic power on a terrifying scale and I was in his grasp, powerless and unable to stop my shallow panting.

He stroked my cheek, my red-hot agony morphing to a molten heat that consumed me, and lifted me up so that I was eye-level with him. I squirmed, driven by a deep-seated compulsion to do anything he asked of me if he’d satisfy the knife’s edge I teetered on. My lips parted in silent plea.

The demon tilted his bull and ogre heads, studying me. All four eyes widened, as if surprised. His bull nostrils flared with a soft snort, he tightened his grip, and the world swung sideways with sudden sharp violence.

Dizzy, unable to summon my magic, I screwed my eyes shut, praying he didn’t toy with me too long before I died. Missing the good old days when the loss of a purple bra was the sum total of my worries.

“You want… so much.” He touched my face. “Peel back the false layers and embrace your deepest, darkest desires.”

Syrup slithered through my bones. Yes.

I opened my eyes.

A monster had me. A nightmarish image with too many heads and a horrific mashup body, smirking as I struggled in his grasp. “Help me! Heeeeelllllp!”

A dark-haired man charged us, arms raised. His fingers ended in blades, glinting in the moonlight.

I screamed again.

“Nava!” the man cried out. He skidded to a stop before us. How did he know my name?

I screwed my eyes shut, whimpering, stuck between a nightmare and another nightmare. Wind whooshed against my legs and I was dropped onto the ground.

I cracked an eye to find the man battling the monster. Not on the same team, then?

“Use your magic!” the man barked at me.

I stared at the crazy stranger. Then I did what any sane person would do and ran screaming into the night.

Behind me, I heard the man swear, and the monster laugh.

The stranger caught up with me in the middle of the road. I glanced over my shoulder but the monster was gone.

“Let me go.” I tried to tug free.

“I can’t.” The man’s face was tight with frustration. He no longer had blades. Had I imagined them? Imagined everything of the past few minutes? Trying to remember events leading up the monster’s appearance left me clutching my head in agony.

The stranger ignored my distress, hauling me back toward the park. I doubted he’d saved me just to kill me on his own terms but a girl could never be too careful. Another man had scared me recently. This one? I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t remember.

Running had gotten me nowhere and there was no one else around to help. I really needed some time to process what the fuck had just happened. Preferably at chez Katz because if my knocking knees gave out here, I suspected I might just curl up in the fetal position and be done.

“I’m super grateful for your assistance, but how about we call it a night and go our separate ways?” My feet slid in a puddle of something that didn’t match the clear rain water falling around me. I leapt onto the grass.

“I’d love nothing better, Nava,” the stranger snapped. “Seeing as how you’re a royal pain in my ass.”

“Excuse me?!” I planted my hands on my hips. “I have no clue how you know my name but you obviously haven’t spent any time around me because I’m a delight.”

The bastard actually laughed.

I punched him in the chest hard enough to illicit a satisfying “oomph.” Cool. That one kickboxing class I’d taken last year had really paid off.

He grabbed my wrist. “You can do better than that, Rasha.”

Rasha? And what was with his tone of voice? Like a taunt? A challenge? No, an order. Big surprise this jerk bossed people around. I tried to break free but he simply stood there, my arm caught in his grasp, one eyebrow cocked arrogantly at me.