Sinister Secrets Book. 3

❅ Chapter 13 ❅

He only stared at me, a war blazing behind the topaz of his eyes. "Bash..." I tried, and his face shifted. His lips, once thick were now ashen and wan, pulled over jagged fangs.

Fangs.

My heart stopped mid-beat. It's not possible. He's human. But what I was looking at was definitely not human - far from it. I took the moment to take him in, and bile burned a path up my throat.

He was emaciated - his clothes torn and hanging loosely over his thin frame. And what was once tan skin thick with muscle, was now sickly white flesh pulled tightly over his bones like a sheet. Below a rip in what was once his shirt, I got a glimpse of his ribs. Even his face had shifted and changed into something more dire.

It slipped from my lips: "What happened to you?"

Again, the war behind his eyes, as if he was coming to terms with something. The mist that clouded his eyes lifted. His fangs were still barred, but something grumbled out of his throat.

"You."

He took a step forward, and though his body showed me a weak animal, his stealth screamed dangerous predator. My heart began to pound in my chest, and as if they heard my silent scream my wolves shouted in my mind.

Danger...

Demon...

Kill...

But despite the terror slinking through my veins, I couldn't let them attack him. I couldn't. Not after what he just said...

NO!

Three massive blurs of black bore into the clearing, their claws tearing up the moist earth beneath them. They halted at my command, but their coal-like eyes stayed glued to Sebastian. Three sets of canines glinted in the fire's light.

I caught Sebastian crouch lower to the ground out of the corner of my eyes, as if he was sizing up his target. And perhaps he was. While he took in my Familiars, I studied what I had assumed was mud caked to his clothes. But as he crouched lower to the ground, his fingers curling into the soil for support, the mud on his clothes, face and hands shone with a purple-blue hew. And in the mix, a reddish-brown.

Two types of blood, human and fae a like.

On his face.

In his teeth.

Splattered all over his shirt and the remainder of his pants.

I took a quiet breath to slow my heartbeat, trying not to panic. But no matter how controlled my breathing was, I couldn't stop that sick, twisting feeling gripping my gut in its claws. I clenched my fists, easing ever so slightly through the fold of the tent and towards my fighting leathers.

A knife, that was all I needed. No magic, no brute force. He would see the threat and back down. He wouldn't hurt me.

This better work.

A low, reverberating growl stopped my out-stretched hand. Turning slowly, I came face to face with him.

I could smell the death on his breath. I could only imagine what had slid past his lips and down his throat. It was enough to make my stomach heave.

"What's wrong, Princess? Not at the top of the food chain anymore?" The voice... It wasn't him. Ice dripped down my spine as I looked into the eyes of a monster. They were his, of course. But something beneath them, the energy... I could taste the hate that oozed from his pores and threatened to drown me. It was almost as if the second entity inside his skin knew who I was - or at least some part of me. And it hated me.