Death Lord

5

“I don’t give a f**k if you don’t believe me,” he said, as he tore off his cloak and tossed it aside, giving me a better view of his large, muscular body. “But over the last few months, crime has been increasing in New Orleans, and most of it has come from shifters. I’m only protecting my city, taking out the criminals that can’t be stopped by the police. Can you imagine a human police officer going up against a shifter? It would be carnage.” “Why didn’t you kill me, then?”

Belial’s mood shifted in an instant. He’d been resonating a low-level threatening aura this whole time, setting my teeth on edge and making my hair stand on end, but it suddenly intensified. He didn’t so much as move, but something shifted in the air. “That’s a good question.”

Before I could say anything else, he rushed forward and grabbed my throat.

4

BELIAL

I

’d thought that it was just a fluke, but when I wrapped my hand around Eira’s throat again, there wasn’t so much as a flicker of hunger.

Ever since I’d become Death, I’d been completely insatiable. It had changed me as a person, and I didn’t like who I was becoming. My need to steal life was all-consuming, and on some nights I could hardly control it, like trying to contain a hurricane with my bare hands most days. All I could do was direct it toward the evil in the city, taking out the other murderers to hopefully spare other lives. If I had to kill, I would protect the city I loved at the same time.

But the moment I touched Eira, it all changed. The raging and howling in my head for the death of every living thing around me quieted, as if I’d snuffed it out like a candle. I tightened my grip around her throat and tried to drain the life from her. I sucked and sucked, but I couldn’t draw a single drop of life from her.

I leaned closer, letting go of her throat and drew in a deep, long breath. She smelled like shifter and fae, a rare hybrid for sure, but nothing that would explain my unusual reaction to her. Beyond the lack of hunger, there was an incredible pull I felt toward her, and nothing I could do to slow it down or halt it. I wanted her. Badly.

“Why?” I murmured, only half-aware of what I was saying, as I breathed in her wonderful scent. “Why are you special?”

Eira didn’t answer. She was holding perfectly still, possibly with fear, or maybe just as caught up in this as I was. I opened my mouth to ask her something else, but then she drew in a deep breath and slammed her head into me as hard as she could. She jerked her limbs against me all at once, trying to push me away, or topple me over so she could escape, but it didn’t do any good. She had no idea who she was up against.

I gripped her chin and shoved her head against the wall so she couldn’t move. I smiled, amused that she was still fighting me. Somehow she thought that she could actually kill Death.

“You think you can get away so easily?” I asked, enjoying the feel of her so close to me. I wasn’t sure why I’d brought her here, I’d just known I couldn’t let her go—not until I learned more.

“I was hoping you’d be distracted,” Eira growled.

“Keep trying,” I said, as I caressed her chin with my fingers, pressing my body against hers. I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to be closer. “Who knows, maybe someday you’ll manage to beat me.”

“Or you could just let me go,” she asked, her voice disgusted. But I noticed she didn’t try to fight me again, and she leaned into me too, like she couldn’t help herself. She inhaled sharply and her eyes dropped to my mouth, and I spotted desire flickering across her face. She wanted me too, despite her fear and her hatred. What the f**k was happening to us?

And it only got worse with proximity. I could hardly hold myself from back from nosing along her exposed neck, from tasting the sharp beat of her heart and her soft, smooth skin. I wanted to bite her, to consume whatever part of her was so alluring just to make it stop. Or maybe the only solution was to taste her somewhere else, like between her thighs, before I plunged my c**k into her. I grew hard just thinking about how much I needed that. Needed her.

“What do you want from me?” Eira asked breathlessly, breaking the spell. I blinked, realizing that I’d nearly pressed my mouth to her neck, and I pulled back slightly so I could look her in the eye.

I didn’t have a good answer for her. There was no reason for me to keep her, except that I couldn’t let her go. For one thing, she wanted to kill me, and I didn’t want to have to pull ice spears out of my back all the time. But that wasn’t why I’d really brought her here. I had to find out why she was different, why I couldn’t drain her life, and why she soothed the raging hunger inside me for death...and awakened another kind of hunger. Then, once I figured out what the hell this thing was between us, I could stop it. The last thing I needed was a distraction. If I was smart, I’d pull back and leave her to stew for a bit, and maybe that would cool her awful temper so she could talk to me in a calmer state. But when I looked at her, the overwhelming urge to kiss her washed over me. Lust, I could understand, but this was deeper. I wanted to devour her. How long had it been since I’d felt that particular urge?