Fang went ramrod stiff as he heard the raspy voice of a demon. "Alastor." He didn't know how he knew the creature's name, yet he did.
His body went straight into the demeanor of a lethal predator. Fang lowered his head and watched the demon closely with his peripheral, ready to strike him down with deadly precision when the time came.
Small and wiry, the demon was ugly and gray-skinned. Worse, he stank of sulphur and blood. His hook nose and bald head made him look like a gargoyle. In the darkness of his dream, something silver flashed.
Fang reacted on instinct. He caught the demon's hand to see a dagger held there. Laughing at the audacity, or more to the point the stupidity, he wrapped his other hand around the demon's throat and lifted him from his feet.
The moment he did, he saw Alastor's thoughts in his mind. Heard his own mother telling the demon to kidnap Vane's mate and bring her to his mother's pack so that Bride couldn't complete the mating ritual with Vane. It was a pact his mother had made with the demon to capture all of their mates to prevent them from having even a small chance of happiness.
Or more to the point, to keep them from procreating and spreading their animal natures that his mother despised so much.
Raw fury exploded inside him.
"You rotten bastard," he snarled as his demon's bloodlust ripped through him and the demon inside him roared to life. It wanted him to rip the demon's head off with his bare hands and feast on his entrails. Never had he experienced anything like this.
"I was just doing as I was told." The whine in the demon's voice was like a chair scraping across a floor. It made the hair on the back of his neck rise and did nothing to curb his blood fever.
Before Fang even realized what he was doing, he sank his teeth into the demon's throat so that he could taste his blood.
Stop!
The sound of his conscience succeeded in reaching him. Choking on the thick liquid that tasted like warm metal, he forced himself to step back. Alastor slid to the ground, holding his neck as he pathetically begged for his life.
Part of Fang demanded he kill the sniveling beast at his feet. It was what he deserved. But the part of him that was wolf refused to kill for pleasure.
Katagaria only killed to protect or to defend. They never killed for amusement.
At least not often.
But the wolf in him also couldn't let the demon go while Alastor posed even the hint of a threat to his family-that wolves killed over without remorse. "You hunt any of us or those we love again and so help me, I won't stop until I've pulled you into so many pieces, you'll think you've been through a grinder."
Alastor bowed low to the ground as he thanked him for his mercy. "I will never hunt again, master. I swear it." He vanished instantly.
Fang wiped at his lips that were still coated in the foul demon's blood. He cursed at what he'd done. But worse was the desire still in him to cause pain and to kill.
The demon was strong within him and it was hard to resist.
"I won't do it," he snarled at himself.
Ever.
He was a Were-Hunter, not a demon, and he wouldn't cede himself to this hell. He wouldn't become one of them. Not for anything. No matter the temptation or hunger. He would stand strong.
Wake up!
He couldn't. Cold panic consumed him as he staggered through the darkness that had no form or substance, seeking something to return him to his room. Had Thorn relegated him back to hell after all?
No, this was worse than the Nether Realm. There were no caves or anything else here. This reminded him of walking an endless desert that had no sides or borders. The landscape was obsidian and there was no respite.
"Fang?"
He heard Aimee calling to him, yet he couldn't find her in the oppressive black. That was even more terrifying to him than being locked in here. "Aimee?"
"Fang? Wake up, sweetie." That precious, siren voice . . .
If only she could find him again.
"Aimee!" he shouted until his throat was raw, but she didn't seem to hear him this time.