Hell's Belle - Eve Newton Page 0,71

when I shift.

I walk forward and let the feeling wash over me. The anger that these idiots have tried to take what’s mine. The fear that I felt when Shax said he was leaving me. The guilt over my Dad. It all wells up and I feel the first signs of the shift descend.

I flap my wings and take flight, the urge to annihilate clawing at me. Cloven hooves, a spiky tail, a goat’s head, all appear. I must look hideous, but also quite terrifying. The Demons are looking up at me in surprise, almost as if they didn’t know I could do this. I stop the shift, knowing that it can go so much further now than I ever thought. I want to. I want to go as deep as I can, but I know that eradicating all of these Demons underneath me in one fell swoop would be foolish. It would take a long time to recoup the losses.

The power of the Devil rises up in me and I let out a bellow so loud, they cover their ears and fall to their knees.

“Bow down to me!” I roar, bringing orbs of fire to my hands.

Most do, but there is always one fucker who thinks he is better than everyone else.

He is usually the one that dies first.

This time is no different. I throw the Hellfire at him and he screeches in agony as he burns away, his essence torn from his body to disappear into the Wastelands.

“Any more of you who think you can beat me now?” I taunt, hoping that someone does. I need to destroy, I need to annihilate, I need to obliterate everything in my sight. Especially as Killian is watching. I think he needs a lesson in being humbled by a greater power.

Sadly, no one does, but just to please the Devil inside me, I let out another roar, this time pouring Hellfire from my mouth, catching the Demons closest to me with it and eradicating them to the Wastelands as well.

“Let this be a lesson in who rules you!” I yell. “I am the Demon Queen and you will not have mercy if you rise against me again.”

I’m practically talking to myself as the would-be battlefield has emptied so damn quickly, it’s disappointing.

I turn around and fly back over to Killian, landing next to him and shifting, fully clothed again in my black leather pants and jacket.

“Nicely done, Your Majesty.” He gives me a mocking bow.

“See how long it lasts,” I mutter. If my Dad’s words were anything to go off, in a few years I’ll be out here again, but next time I will sate the beast within.

“Hmm.” Killian murmurs and then turns on his heel to march away.

I follow him on foot, chewing my lip. We haven’t resolved the Elijah issue and now is as good a time as any.

As he strides across the courtyard, I call out to his retreating back, “I will have him, you know.”

He freezes for a second, then he turns towards me, his face grim. “Why do you want him?”

I don’t answer that right away as I don’t have an answer. At least not one that I can put into words. “There’s something between us,” I say eventually. “I wish that I could explain it to you, but I can’t. I feel something for him and if you knew anything about me, you’d know that ability doesn’t come along with every Demon, or human,” I growl before he can say anything about Gregory, “that I cross paths with. In fact, it simply…doesn’t. Except in the case of the males upstairs.”

“You’re rambling,” he says.

“I know. But I’m trying to make you see that I’m not out to hurt him. It’s the last thing I want to do. Yes, he is an arrogant asshole that needs a kick up the ass to let him know I’m the boss, but deep down, underneath that…” I let out a breath. “I see how he is with the hounds,” I add gently. “I know the arrogance isn’t all that’s to him. I want to get to know him.”

“The way I know him,” he says.

“I don’t want to come between you…”

“You already have. We’ve both given him ultimatums.”

“What did he counter with you?” I venture.

“That I ask to become a part of whatever the fuck you’re doing upstairs.”

“And will you?” I hate to say it, but if he says no, I’ll be disappointed.

“I don’t ask for pussy,” he states darkly.

“What do