Page 120

I tensed, waiting for an attack, but she merely went back over to her little alcove for more wine.

Again, my eyes ran over the items in there, searching for the talisman that I’d need in order to destroy her and which might hint to her demon’s true name. Not that I knew the names of true demons off the top of my head. I should’ve spent more time in the library. Fuck, I should’ve spent more time talking to Dante. Apparently, he had the 411 on all things witches.

I swore to fuck, if I died because I didn’t spend enough time with Dante fucking Fields I was going to come back and haunt that fucker for the rest of his life.

Of all the things in that little alcove, one thing caught my eye. A locket. It looked older, vintage, like something a grandmother might give as a gift or family heirloom. Even as I focused on it, the thing seemed to throb. A tickle of warmth kissed my neck. An instinct, telling me I’d found what I needed. My breathing quickened, but I did my best to keep my heart rate steady. Who knew what kind of power Shay had, what she could sense from me. I had to be cautious—something I wasn’t very practiced at.

“Colton doesn’t deserve what’s being done to him.” I shifted my attention to Shay as she turned around—so she wouldn’t see me staring at the anchor to her demon and the beginning of her destruction. “Why are you doing this to him? Why are you torturing him?” Though I was pretty damn eager to kill her, I wanted to know.

“Torturing him?” She laughed. “I’m freeing him.” She tapped her fingers against her glass, the claws against the rim making a metallic, singing sound. “Granted, it’s taking longer than expected.”

I frowned at her in confusion. “I don’t speak crazy witch bitch. English please.”

Her claws curled around her glass, and her black eyes focused on me with the promise of death. A spearing pain erupted in my forehead, and it took all my effort not to double over. More warm blood trickled from my nose. I ignored it, not breaking my gaze with Shay. It took every ounce of my considerable willpower not to whimper. The pain was close to unbearable.

She took a long gulp of her drink. “Colton is a decent guy. A good guy. He used to talk to me in high school. He’d tell off the boys who were giving me a hard time.” She pursed her lips. “Not the girls, though. And can’t they do the most damage?”

Her tone was cutting, showing all of her visceral hatred toward me that she’d expertly buried. I was a villain in her story. Go figure.

“Colton was a good guy, that’s what made me fall for him in the first place.” Shay sauntered around the small space. “That’s what made me angry enough to find a way to make him see what you were. What you all were.” She waved her hand at me dismissively. “Vapid. Shallow.”

So she … loved Colton? Or at least nursed a girlhood crush that she’d managed to turn into a demon curse?

“I don’t disagree with you,” I told Shay honestly. “But most high school nerds get their vengeance by using their intelligence to become millionaires while their bullies get fat, go into debt, and have generally unhappy lives.”

When she scowled at me, I felt a prickling upon my skin, a thousand tiny needles poking into my flesh. I restrained the urge to flinch, though a thin sheen of sweat covered my upper lip.

“When I got the power, when I was shown the truth of what the world was, the gift of seeing the potential in others, I also saw Colton,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I saw the beast inside of him. The shadow. And I saw a future. Of what we could be. A power couple, if you will. Much better than any prom king or queen.” Her creepy tongue darted out, sliding along the front of her teeth. “And that’s where the idea for the curse came from. Wake the beast but alienate him from his little pack of do-gooders.” She rolled her eyes. “I figured it might take a little. That was okay. I needed to build up the power. I’m patient. I’ve got eternity, after all.”

Interesting. She considered herself to be immortal. Maybe that was technically true. Again, it was tempting to remind her that there was a demon somewhere who would eventually come to settle his bill, but I didn’t want to piss her off enough to kill me just yet.

I was still eyeing the locket, trying to hobble together a plan.

“So you’re waiting for what?” I asked. “Colton to turn evil? That’ll never happen. If that’s what you think, you don’t know him at all.”

She smiled, flashing her disgusting pointed teeth. “After everything you’ve seen, you still think he’s the hero, the good guy? Even with his body count?”

She knew. Somehow, she knew about me facing off with Colton in his beast form, me coming upon his fresh victim.

“That was you.” I wanted to lunge from my seat and throttle her, my nails biting into my palms instead.

She shook her head playfully. “No, that was him. The curse does nothing but awaken a side of him he’s denied, a part he pretended didn’t exist. Well, and a few other nifty things I’m sure you’ve encountered.”

I wanted to ask her what exactly she meant, wanted to ask her just how much control she had over him. I’d been so sure Colton was good. In the back of my mind, I knew it was the curse that had done this to him. But doubt crept in like a black cloud, shrouding my certainty. What if Shay saw shadows? Evil lurking inside him? What if some of this truly was him?

Then even after she was dead—assuming I could kill her—he’d remain a threat to humanity at large. He’d need to be put down.

I couldn’t think of that right then, and the gleam in her eyes told me she was reveling in awakening my doubt, turmoil. She wanted me to question Colton.

“And when did you figure out I was a hunter?” I pushed up from the sofa, unable to sit for a moment longer. It was also time to execute a very stupid plan.

Shay watched me with sharp eyes, but she wasn’t tensed to attack. She wasn’t threatened by me. Something I could use to my advantage.

“I’ve known the whole time.” Shay shrugged a sharp shoulder. “You really think we don’t talk?”

“Who is we?” I inquired.

“We the bad guys.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “Those you righteous hunters seek to eradicate because you think you’re doing some kind of holy work.” Her eyes narrowed as she spoke, the air getting hotter with her infuriation. Safe to say she didn’t like hunters.