Page 46 of Her Demon Mate
He stops at a small alleyway bar, taking a seat at one of only five tables situated outside a discreet door. I unsheathe my knife as I silently make my way down. Soon, I take cover behind a large waste bin, peeking over it to spy on my target.
There is only one demon beside him, passed out and hunched over another table, so I won’t have to worry about damage control. I’m about to run at Zephon when another xaphan enters the alleyway. Cursing, I return to cover.
“Hello, Zephon,” greets the newcomer.
“Zetatron, you’re late.”
“Apologies, I got lost on the way here.”
“I suppose I cannot blame you for that. Soon though, we’ll be out of this shithole, returning to New Solas with a fitting heroes’ welcome.”
“That’s if this case is solved. Do not forget that we are to remain here until we catch the killer. We cannot return to New Solas without them.”
“That is precisely what I plan on doing,” snarls Zephon. “Something big is unfolding, mark my words.”
“I don’t know,” remarks Zetatron. “You saw all the reports of killings in this city. There’s certainly far more here than there are in New Solas, but none of them have ever quite been in the same fashion as our killer would have done. Do you really think our murderer is at large here?”
I want to yell ‘yes’ and make my presence known, just so I can see the surprise on their faces before disposing of them.
“I know they are,” snickers Zephon. “I have a suspicion as to who it is.”
“You do? Tell me!”
“No, I don’t want you claiming all of the credit for this one. I will bring the killer down myself and make them pay for all their wrongdoings.”
Not if I get my hands on you first.
“What makes you so confident?” asks Zetatron.
“I have an informant that I’ll be meeting tomorrow night. They’ll pass me the information I need to track this bitch down.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Zephon. We may be diplomats here, but that won’t stop any lowlife demon goon from killing you. These people aren’t reasonable.”
“That’s why I’ll be convening with them in a much quieter part of town.”
A quieter part of town, hm?
“Enough talk about work,” hisses Zephon. “Let us have a drink.”
I sheathe my knife and make a quick but silent escape from the alleyway. As driven as I am to take his life, I need to be smart about this. Executing the xaphan in a quieter part of the city sounds like the perfect opportunity to kill the son of a bitch.
It pains me to walk away and let him live another day, but he’d better enjoy himself tonight because it’ll be his final one. Only his death will bring my mom and I the peace that we deserve.
22
AZRON
Sweat pours off of me, pools of it accumulating on the floor below as I push through a grueling training session. I need to punish myself and put my body through this.
Because of this whole situation, I’m more pissed off than I’ve ever been. At the very least, it makes for good fuel for exercise.
There is only one other option I have if I want to release all of what I have built up inside of me. That would be going to the bakery. There’s no way I’m going to do that. At least, that’s what I keep trying to tell myself.
Should I just suck it up and go?That’s the question playing on repeat in my head.
I glance at the counter, where the bag of pastries from Elia lays. I never got around to eating them all, but now I don’t think I can stomach them. By now, they’ve gone stale but even then I can’t bring myself to throw them out.
I should just go…