Touched by Fire (Demons of New Chicago #1) - Kel Carpenter Page 0,12

milk-colored skin turning the color of bone.

“You’re a—” he started to say. I lunged forward and sunk my fangs into his neck. Blood touched my lips, and a ravenous hunger threatened to consume me. I bit down hard, and then snapped back, spitting. A chunk of his flesh hit the cold pavement.

The warlock lifted a hand to his throat. Shock running through him.

He collapsed to his knees and then toppled sideways, bleeding out.

I raised my eyes to the girl before me.

In her fear, she didn’t even try to stop me.

It was the greatest mistake she could have made.

I rushed her, and she lifted her hands in surrender.

“Please don’t eat me,” she cried.

I narrowed my eyes, seeing my own reflection in her dilated pupils.

Blood covered my lips and ran down my chin, splattering my coat.

I looked like a monster.

But I suppose I was one.

Just like them.

I backhanded her hard enough that her body half whipped around before her head hit the alley wall. She toppled to the cracked pavement, unconscious.

I sighed. To carry her, or to drag? Hard question. I was still mulling over the answer when an inhuman roar shook the very ground I stood on. Not wasting time, I bent my knees, slipped one arm around her back and the other beneath her knees. Hoping like hell she didn’t wake up, I took off down the alley, as fast as my legs would carry me.

Heads turned as I bolted down the main road. My energy was flagging, and fast. I didn’t usually tap into my other side. While powerful, it was draining.

Not to mention unnatural, my brain inserted. All magic had its price, and the price of using mine took its toll on my body.

Slowly, the red faded from my vision, and with it, the strength and speed I’d possessed.

This mission had been a complete and utter shit show.

I’d unleashed a demon on earth for nothing.

I’d let those bastards live for nothing.

I took a ragged breath, the girl in my arms still unconscious.

“Not for nothing,” I muttered. I lifted my head and surveyed my surroundings. I was a block away from an L station. New Chicago kept the old metro system, but what was once public transport powered by electricity was now just another part of my past controlled by magic. While I usually avoided it like the plague, my options were limited if I wanted to get out before the demon found me. I may already be too late.

Screams sounded in the night. They were coming from the direction I’d just escaped.

I glanced over my shoulder just as the demon stepped beneath a streetlight.

I swallowed hard, and my feet took off. The soles of my boots thudded against the cobblestone as I veered right and headed for the station.

In the old days, you presented a card to enter and your money was subtracted. These days, the method of payment was infinitely more and less, depending on who you were.

At the sliding gates, instead of a reader for a card, a single needle jutted out.

My eyes flicked between it and the train approaching.

A shrill whistle blew, and people crowded the doors. I took one look behind me.

The demon was a mere twenty yards away.

His silver gaze burned into me.

Shifting my hold, I clumsily held the witch’s body with one arm as I lifted her hand and stabbed the fatty part of her palm down on the needle. It was probably a bit overkill, given that the payment required was only a single drop of blood, but I didn’t have it in me to feel bad.

The barrier flashed green, and I bolted to the other side.

I sensed more than saw the demon run for me. I pumped my legs as the train let out a second shrill trill. My foot just touched the train floor as the doors started to close. I stepped inside and turned around.

On the other side of the plastic window the demon lifted his hand and blasted the entire machinery apart that controlled the entry and exit of the trains. He started for me, that black fire in his eyes threatening to set me aflame.

Then the wheels started moving.

A slow smile curled up my lips as we gained speed. He ran beside the train, keeping pace with my window until we hit the tunnel. Darkness took over. The metal contraption shook. Bodies were packed in. Men and women pushed up against walls. Children cried, and the homeless solicited acts of entertainment for scraps of food or