Rage (Her Monsters Book One) - K.A Knight Page 0,87
both rush to follow after me.
One of Carmichael’s family, as he calls them, drives me back to the airstrip. I nod my thanks and watch them drive off before turning back to the plane. Frowning, I eye the dead beast. No lights are on inside, no whirring of the engine, no crew waiting. It looks deserted.
Slipping my swords from the sheath at the base of my spine, I stride up to the aircraft and whatever is waiting inside for me. I should have known the witches would have a back up plan up their sleeves, but they did one thing wrong—got in the way of me and my mate.
I climb the stairs and step into the plane, and sweep my eyes around, my night vision allowing me to see easily. The pilots and flight attendant are tied up in the cockpit and gagged, their eyes are wide and filled with fear as they look beyond me to where the darkness is almost impenetrable at the back of the plane.
Almost, but not quite.
“Demon,” I greet and it hisses. The black mist, which occurs when a demon is summoned and contained with a space, swirls and starts to burn as a man breaks through the darkness.
The lights flicker before coming on, remaining dimmed above him as he smirks at me.
“Minotaur,” it mocks, its voice distorted for a moment as he flickers back to his true form before settling into that of a middle-aged, attractive male. Probably one of the souls he has killed and kept.
Demons can appear in whatever form they want, depending on how powerful they are. Lower ones can only appear in their hellspawn form, but the more powerful they are the more forms they have. This one is clearly powerful, and it wants me to know it as it steps forward, changing to that of a brown-haired woman in the same breath.
“It seems you have pissed off the witches.” It spits the name, no happier than I was to have been trapped by them. Demons live on a different plane, they are content enough to stay there with the odd break through to ours, but witches, the summoners, learned how to harness their powers and actually call them through the breach. The first couple of times the demon killed the summoner and returned to their own world, but the summoners soon got a handle on it and now they are theirs to control. I should know, it was my queen who ordered them to do it.
“It seems you are their slave,” I respond, turning so my back is to the cockpit and I brace my legs. Demons are unpredictable, forceful, and a fucking pain to try and kill.
There are only three ways. You break the bindings and sometimes they will let you live. You kill them, which only a magically enchanted blade can do. Or you send them packing back to their world, which only witches or magical beings can do. Seeing that I don’t have a blade and I can’t send them back. That leaves me with the first option—negotiation. Something I hate on the best of days.
His face morphs back to its true form before settling back into the man, but that flash tells me all I need to know. It hates being trapped and it hates the witches.
Stepping forward, I meet it in the middle. It watches me curiously, its snake-like eyes flickering.
“I’m betting they summoned you and trapped you in their coven, their own fucking monster to kill for them,” I say conversationally, and the fire that starts in its eyes lets me know I am right. “I know, because they did the same to me.”
“What are you saying?” it asks, tilting its head.
“I am saying, I will break your bindings, but you will not attack me or any on this plane. You will go back to the witches who imprisoned you and kill them all,” I offer bluntly and it laughs, throwing its head back as the sound echoes around the space like nails on a chalkboard. I hear the humans cry out and I feel blood drip from my own ears, but I don’t move to wipe it away. I let it fall as the demon looks back at me with interest in its eyes.
“You would trust me not to kill everyone on this plane?” It laughs.
“No, I would make a binding with you,” I inform it with a snort.
Its eyes widen before they settle and a grin stretches across his face. “You