Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,108

like a boa constrictor.

She toppled onto her hands and knees. Her black hair fell over her face, and she brushed it back, giving Lyka a murderous look. As those inky locks pulled away from her forehead, they took with it a flap of skin that covered a gaping maw filled with wicked teeth and a single, weeping, bulbous eye.

Suddenly, the woman wasn’t so beautiful. She was all demon.

Treszka ripped the sheet from her legs as it if had been tissue paper. The hem of her velvet skirt was shredded. Her black eye burned with hatred. “What are you?”

“Fifty percent Slayer, fifty percent Theronai, one hundred percent Gonna Kick Your Ass.”

“Guards!” Treszka screamed, and lifted both hands. Every loose object in the room became a projectile weapon, flying right toward Lyka’s head.

Chapter 39

Joseph wasn’t going to make it in time to save Lyka’s life.

He used every trick he knew to fuel his body and give himself a boost of speed. Both she and the demon had moved far faster through the woods than he could, putting him at least a couple of miles behind her.

His lungs burned. His legs were on fire. His body was covered in hundreds of little cuts that branches and brush had left behind. He knew his blood was calling every demon around for miles, but there was no time to slow down and bandage himself.

As it was, he’d already wasted precious seconds calling for backup. His only hope was that other allies in the field would be closer to Lyka than he was and would make it to her in time.

He kept trying to get her to tell him what was going on, kept trying to see through her eyes, but she didn’t understand what he wanted, wasn’t able to comply or didn’t want to. All he got from her was an occasional pull on his power and a whole lot of emotion. Fear, shock, fury.

Whatever was happening to her wasn’t good.

Joseph did what he could to feed her the energy she needed so she wouldn’t have to work so hard. With each passing minute he drew closer to her, easing the strain of drawing strength from him over a distance.

He should have taken more time to teach her how to use his power. He should have insisted that she let others find her brother. He should have found some way to control her before she’d bounded off into the woods, hot on the trail of a demon.

At least Joseph knew where she was headed. The tracker Nicholas had installed had worked like a charm—right up to the point that the signal vanished altogether.

Joseph hoped that the signal loss was due to the demon going underground rather than to the tracker being destroyed.

He slowed just enough to check his phone again and make sure he was still headed in the right direction. The screen was bright in the darkness of the forest, drawing a tiny swarm of bugs within seconds.

The last known location of the tracker was just up ahead, on the other side of a hill.

As he cleared the hilltop and looked down into the ravine below, he came to a dead stop.

There were demons down there. At least a dozen of them, all pale and naked, wielding those rustic swords. They scrambled toward a narrow opening in the rock like someone inside had wrung a dinner bell.

That wasn’t good. Based on Nicholas’s tracker, this was where that demon had gone. And that meant Lyka was inside.

Apparently, she was dinner.

Chapter 40

Eric grabbed Lyka’s arm and jerked her back behind the heavy bed. Several bits of wood, metal and stone embedded themselves in the mattress. A small knife slammed through and gouged into the bedpost, sticking there.

He tugged it free and looked at the choker his sister wore. “Let yourself get collared, did you?”

“I did it to save your hairy ass, so keep your opinions to yourself.”

Another volley of magic hit them, shoving the bed a few inches closer to the wall. There was no room left here to maneuver anymore. They were trapped, easy targets for Treszka to finish them off. They had to get out before she could do the job.

“You call this saving me?” he asked.

When she showed up, he’d never been so happy to see anyone in his life. And then he realized what it meant: she was stuck down here with him, too.

“Working on it,” she said.

“The bitch has dozens of demons under her control. I’m in shitty shape for a