Chapter 2 Chapter Two

Riven’s POV

Not once had anyone ever outsmarted me. Not once had the amulet failed to suck in a demon, so I could trap them in my gould. So what the hell happened?

I stood in the room, my gaze bouncing about the empty hall. I was more stunned by everything than I was by her escape.

I touched my lips carefully as if reminiscing about the kiss.

I hated demons and lived to take away their corrupted existence from the world. Yet when one kissed me now, a part of me had craved it, when she rubbed her thighs against my legs, my cock had stiffened in erection.

I glanced down at it, and I grunted in irritation. Something must be fucking wrong with me to have even felt a shred of desire for that vile being.

I spat out the kiss. If that were possible. I made for the door. I had to find the demon. A demon had never escaped me. She wouldn't be the first.

The women who had pressed themselves to the door sneaked out into view now as I dropped down the porch.

The awkward stares that glided my way told me they had watched everything. Watched the demon kiss me and watched her fucking escape. Fury bit deep into my soul. Not at anyone but myself.

“Has she escaped?” the eldest of the women asked, voice low and tone cautious. Quivering in fear of me as they did of the demon. “Have you lost her?”

“I haven't lost her," I snapped. I realized my tone was loud, and I cursed myself under my breath, especially as she started back, with eyes trembling again.

It took much effort to tune my voice lower. This wasn't their fault, but mine. “I will capture the demon and get back your sister,” I assured.

“But are you sure you—” The other woman was saying. I shifted to her. A look at my eyes, and her lips pressed close.

“I said I will bring her back, and I will. Now…” I paused, deepening my voice so they feel the threat in each syllable. I took a step closer to them, rolling my shoulder with a display of menace.

They retreated from me just like I wanted. I didn’t mean to scare them, but fear was the only thing that made humans obey. “No one gets to hear about what happened here today. Whatever you saw that happened in the hall didn't happen. And the demon never escaped," I said. “A word gets out, and you would have more than the demon to deal with. Is that clear?”

I made sure to get a nod of confirmation from both women, and I stepped back. I forced a stiff smile. “That's good then.”

I wouldn't have anyone believe I lost to a demon. I turned, and I traced away just as much as the demon would have traced.

I landed in the woods, minutes away from the village. I leaned out my nose, and I hunted for her scent as I scanned the area for her footprints. She had to have landed here somewhere.

Unlike vampires, demons couldn't trace far. She couldn’t have just waltzed off into oblivion. She had to stop to rest somewhere.

The evening sky was a cast of gray and black, but light trickled down between the damp leaves and tall trees just enough for me to still see clearly with my human eye.

I still kept the other one well cloaked with my hair.

The damp smell of the earth after a mild rain that afternoon disrupted the scents, but at the same time, it made the footprint visible.

I didn't have to walk long into the woods before I picked up on the small, feminine prints pressed into the damp soil.

I followed the prints, my boots squishing against the wet soil. I stopped when the footprints stopped, and I dropped to a squat to check it out.

Even when tracing, the direction of the footprints can still tell the direction taken. The toes tilted west on the soil, and I traced fast in that direction.

The metallic scents of blood hit me even before I landed on the deeper terrain of the forest.

Her feet squished on the soil as she turned to me. “You still haven't given up.” Her bloodstained face dissolved in that same irritating grin that caused my nerves to drum with fury.

“Yeah,” I growled. “Not without you out of that body and trapped in a hole you can never escape from.”

I drew my sword. “Should we do this the easy way or the hard way?” I asked her. “I am open to both. Your choice.”

“How about you tell me what you really are first?" She said, her brows rising up, tugged by curiosity.

“You don't need to know.” I checked her out slowly.

The moonlight bathed her in silvery suffusion, making the blood of the kils she was draped in glow faintly.

I didn't know what lay inside the human container she had on. But I still couldn't believe I had kissed her, and a part of me had enjoyed it.

The human was beautiful, with a slim waist, rich blond curls, and a face beyond the average farm girl's, but knowing I had enjoyed something that wasn't real appalled me. It was the highest betrayal to myself.

“So the hard way then, demon?" I asked when she said nothing.

Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something again. She stopped halfway, her lips thinning into a wry grin. “How about the fun way?” she said, and she disappeared like a blur into the trees.

I grunted as I sheathed my sword. “The hard way then.”

I waited until she landed ahead, and I traced after her. I lunged for her shoulders and had almost latched my hands onto her when she twisted her body away, with a quick, expert movement, and traced off again.

Damn it. I grunted through clenched teeth. I was going to make her fucking pay for putting me through all this trouble when I finally caught her.

I traced again and reached for her, but again, she escaped with some quick, graceful movements.

Ahead of us, a castle sat under the glow of the moonlight, surrounded by overgrown trees, without even a flicker of light coming from that direction.

She nudged her eyes to it and grinned, and I knew exactly what she was about to do.

Once she was in the cover of that much darkness, it would be harder to get at her.

I lunged faster for her, and she twisted again, as expertly as before. This time, I was prepared. I caught her wrist just before she could trace away, and I traced with her.

I spun her around to face me as we crashed into the dark room. A loud gasp of pain escaped her lips when I threw her against the hard wall.

I trapped her against the wall with my body, sealing off any space through which she could escape.

“Now, I have got you, demon.” I raised my upper lip in a mocking smirk.

“Don't be so sure.” She gasped breathily.

I saw the knee jab for my groin from a mile away, and I knocked her legs down with mine. “As I said, I have got you this time,” I growled.

My eyes strayed down her body as I moved low to tie her up again, and for a moment, they stopped at her breasts.

Her breasts heaved as she breathed, low and slow. I whipped my eyes away. Focus. The body is just a container. It isn't even hers.

I was reaching for her wrist when I smelled the extra presence.

I turned sharply, pressing the demon to the wall with one hand, and I sheathed my sword with the other.

I raised it in the direction the careful totter of legs came from.

He stepped into the flush of moonlight from the window. His fangs were the first thing I saw before I did the knife buried hard in his chest.

A fucking vampire. I sneered, disgust staining my face. Another variant of the evil needed to be removed from the world.

His eyes darkened, hooded, and narrowed on us. He appeared completely oblivious of the knife buried deep in his heart. “What are you?” he roared. “And what are you doing in my home?”