Ringed with heavy black eyeliner, her green eyes were the color of deep emeralds.

She smiled at him before she chucked him lightly on the chin. “Close your mouth, baby, you’re drooling.”

He probably was. Any normal heterosexual fifteen-year-old would. “My baby is h-a-w-t!” Then he remembered the masquerade trick. “You are my baby, right?”

She handed him his sword and grimoire. “Yes, I am.”

Only the real Kody would have known to bring those to him, and where he kept them. Grateful she knew him so well, she took his weapons, then heard the sound of something beating loud and fierce in the sky above them. “Where are we?”

“The Fringe Realm.”

She said that like he should know exactly what she was talking about. But, he had no clue. “I don’t understand. Where’s the Fringe Realm?” What’s the Fringe Realm?

“Think of it like a protective membrane that keeps the worlds within their respective boundaries.”

Nick placed one hand over his ear as the sound became louder. “And what’s causing that?”

Before she could answer, that attacked. They were like flying monkeys that had mated with dragons. Their bodies were more humanoid, yet their faces were dragon-shaped and their pale tan skin made of scales. Large fangs curled like tusks out of their mouths.

Kody flipped around his back to catch the first one that reached them with a sword stroke. The others descended on them rapidly.

Pulling his sword hilt out, he held it in his palm and imagined it the size of a Scottish claymore. It quickly shot to that size so that he could fight. His heart pounding, he stood at Kody’s back as they fought against the beasts.

“Don’t let them separate us,” Kody warned.

“I’m not letting them do anything.” They definitely had the home team advantage, and were making use of it. I’m not going to be kibble today.

At least that was the intention. But intending something and being able to do it …

Much easier said than done. Nick crouched low as one of the dramonks came at him. He rose up and stabbed it in the middle of its chest. Screaming, it twisted around and reached a huge claw toward him.

One second, he thought he was a goner, and in the next, Kody pulled him back and was between them.

Instead of it grabbing him, it got her. She cried out in agony and anger as it snatched her from the ground and launched toward the black sky, clutching her in its claws.

In that moment, a rage he’d never felt before came over him. His vision dimmed as words formed themselves in his mind. When he spoke them aloud, they came out as a guttural growl, in a language he knew without ever having been taught it.

She is mine. Let nothing touch her save the Ambrosius Malachai.

The words rolled out like a sonic boom that shook the air around and ground beneath him. He let the words continue to fill the ether until he merged with it.

The ether is yours to command. Breathe, Ambrosius, breathe. Let it empower you. It is your blood. Your lineage.

Your Right.

Nick felt it seep inside him, thick and heady. Something entered his mouth. It tasted like blood, but instead of repulsing him, he craved it. Leaning his head back, he drank his fill. And with every swallow, he became stronger and stronger.…

Death is my friend. He walks to my right. War walks to my left. I am their commander and I am the one they serve.

And Kody was his chosen one.

No one took from him. Not without paying with their lives. Lowering his head, he threw his arms out, spanned his black wings, and launched himself toward her. One of Noir’s larger pets came at him. He shot a blast of fire at it. With one shrill scream, it burst apart.

Nick ignored everything as he closed the distance between him and Kody.

Kody saw the shadow that darkened the creature clutching her. She looked up, expecting another enemy.

What she found was so much worse.

Nick had converted to the Malachai. His skin was black and red swirled together into a beautiful pattern that faded into his ebony wings. His eyes were a vibrant reddish yellow. And yet, he was still incredibly handsome.

In that instant, she saw the real reason why he had to be saved.

He was unique. His mother’s blood and his father’s. He was a creature unto himself.

A creature of hatred nurtured by love.

One who would fight his own to save her life. No other Malachai would ever do such.

Flying with incredible speed, he grabbed the gritale by its head and snapped its neck. It let go of her. Kody fell through the dark sky.

Until a hand caught hers. Her heart pounding, she stared into the face of ultimate death. Into the blazing eyes of a creature known for its merciless cruelty.

The Malachai has no heart. It can feel nothing but hatred. It thrives on it. It seeks to feel it even when it shouldn’t. That is its mother’s milk. Its only pleasure comes from consuming the blood of its enemies.

For the first time, she feared him.

Nick placed her on a ledge above the cavern they’d been in. And as he rose, jet-black armor covered him. Dark gunmetal spikes glistened from the shoulders. His hands were now vicious claws. From his left shoulder, there were three pendulums that fell down the front of his body. One for the past, one for the present, and one for the future. The epaulettes came down to the juncture of his biceps, where they formed a sharp point. And in the middle rose a deep, bloodred stone. A stone that had been named the eye of the dragon. They charged him and kept his armor invincible.

He’s even conjured the suit.…

Nick was too young to know how to do that. It normally took a Malachai years to master this much power.

And when the others came in to attack, Nick exploded them with his fire blasts.

When the last creature had disintegrated, Nick turned toward her. In the dim light, she saw his eyes flash red. His features perfectly formed, he didn’t look fifteen. She saw the man he would soon be.

No, she saw the Malachai. Eyes that flashed from red to yellow to blue and back again. Until they finally settled on their human blue.

Ironically, that was more eerie than when they’d been yellow or red.

It made him look human. Vulnerable.

Things the Malachai could never be.

He stalked toward her with a hatred blazing in those eyes that left her trembling. She braced herself to fight, but just as she would have lifted her sword, it went flying from her hands—torn out of her grasp by an unseen force.

“Nick?”

He tilted his head as if he didn’t understand her. Flashing his fangs, he seized her by the throat and shoved her back against the rock wall. Kody grabbed his wrist, trying to force him to let go. Shrieking, she used every piece of strength she had.

It wasn’t enough.

Help me.…

Nick smelled the blood of the woman he held. It was stronger than human. Heady. Sweet. He wanted to sink his fangs in and taste it. To hear her beg for his mercy.

We don’t hurt people. That voice … it was vaguely familiar.

Like the woman he held.

Kill her!

He tightened his grip.

“Nick,” she choked out. “Nick … please.”

Nick. He looked at his hand. The skin was a swirling pattern of red and black. No. Not his hand. A stranger’s hand …

Confused, he frowned at the woman he seemed to know. Memories surged. Or were they dreams?

He wasn’t sure.

Until she reached up and laid one tender hand on his cheek. That one, soft touch, light as a feather’s kiss, shattered the anger and hatred he felt.

His eyelids were suddenly heavy. But as he lowered them, he remembered her touch. Her taste.

“Kody,” he breathed her name like a prayer even though his demon’s voice rattled like thunder over the river. He allowed her to pull his hand away from her throat. Bracing himself for her attack, he felt his hatred surging again.

Until she kissed the hand he’d had around her throat.

Kody knew she had to move slowly. In this form, Nick was little more than an angry toddler in the body of the most lethal being ever born. At this stage, the Malachai controlled him and not the other way around.

He trembled as he cupped her cheek with his clawed hand.

“You remember me?” she asked.

Nodding, he dipped his head toward hers. Even in his demon’s form, Kody welcomed his kiss. She should hate him, and yet, even like this, she saw the real him, and it wasn’t a monster. Her Nick could love, and most of all, he held her heart.

Nick breathed her in as she kissed him, and his senses reeled. He was a creature of hate and brutality.

She was a creature of light and tenderness. It was in his blood to destroy her kind.

Only he didn’t want to. Especially not when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him close against her. And then she started singing to him in a low tone, her breath tickling his ear. A soft berceuse like his mother used to sing to him when he’d been a child. He let the sound of her voice and the softness of her hand in his hair wash over him. It bathed him in something even warmer than his hatred.

He was fully content to stay here.

Until a sharp, stabbing pain bisected his chest.

Kody pulled away with a gasp. As soon as she did, she saw the spear that was shoved into his back so deeply, it protruded from his chest.

Nick staggered. The agony was unlike any pain he’d ever known. It drove him to his knees.

“Baby?” The horror in her green eyes told him that she wasn’t a part of this attack.

For some reason, that strengthened him. Turning, he saw the one who’d stabbed him.

His father.

Growling, he lowered his head so that he could hone in his demon’s sight on the one who’d wounded him.

Adarian put his thumb on the center of Nick’s forehead as he’d done before. Only this time, Nick didn’t feel the piercing pain. “Sorry, son. But I need—”

His father didn’t get to finish that sentence. Nick had broken off the blade protruding from his chest and used it to stab Adarian.

“Never underestimate a backwoods Cajun in a fight, old man.” He shoved Adarian back.

Gaping, Adarian caught himself. He looked down at the gaping wound Nick had left in his abdomen, then back at him. His own blood covered his hands.

Nick licked his lips as the smell hit him. Whenever one Malachai consumed another, he took his powers. His strengths, but none of his weaknesses. If he were to mix Adarian’s with his …

He laughed. No one would ever be able to command him then. He wouldn’t have to fear Noir or anyone else.

With that thought foremost in his mind, he took a step forward.

Adarian turned and vanished.

Nick started after him. But just as he spread his wings to take flight, he felt that precious hand on his arm.

“Let him go.”

Still, he didn’t listen.

Not until her lips grazed his. That shattered his bloodlust and started a new fire inside him.

Kody smiled at him, then grimaced as if something pained her. It was only then he realized that his father’s spear had gone straight through him, into Kody.

No …

Not her.

“Nekoda?”

Her legs buckled.

Nick scooped her up in his arms. Her blood was smeared across his armor and her beautiful skin. Her features paled.

She lifted her hand to touch his lips. “Your blood is poison to my kind.”

His stomach shrank. “I’ll get you help.”

“You can’t. I can’t go to a human doctor.” She closed her eyes.

“Stay with me,” he growled fiercely.

A small tear fell down her cheek. One that ripped him apart. She was always so tough and larger than life that he forgot just how tiny she was. She barely weighed anything in his arms.

“You’re a creature of death, Nick. You can’t command me to live. That power doesn’t belong to you.”

Unimaginable grief tore through him as he thought about living without her. The hole it would leave inside him. It was bleak and painful …

He couldn’t breathe.

And it was then he knew the truth.

He loved her. She was the strength that got him through his hardest days. The sound of her voice … the touch of her hand. Those were what he craved most. Not her blood.

Her life.

I love her. Now he understood what people had tried to tell him. This was what love felt like. But it wasn’t pleasant. It stabbed him with more ferocity than his father had done. Gah, it sucked to realize that someone else meant more to you than you did. No wonder Acheron disdained it so.

The Atlantean was right. You gave a part of yourself to another. A part you couldn’t reclaim. And it was gone before you even knew it.

He had no idea when or how he’d given her his heart. But he couldn’t deny the desolation inside him with the thought of losing her forever.

I have to find help.