Chapter 39

I stood in place for several moments, letting her get as much distance as she could on me. She wouldn't make it back to Theron or Alessi. I was happy to let her play her best game of hide and seek like she had any hope of evading me.

I should have killed her right then and there, but the frustration she'd been pulsing through my entire nervous system had, perhaps, left me feeling a touch sadistic. I couldn't bring myself to give her a swift death without looking her in the eye first, no matter how illogical and emotional the reasoning.

I'd earned one last hunt before I took her head off. Devil knows how badly I needed the release.

If I was honest with myself, I might admit that in this singular moment, during this event every year, while everyone was in my Labyrinth, I reveled in being in control for once. If I killed her too quickly, we'd all go back to mundane routine, and I wasn't ready to give this up yet. The tracking marks were gone, Jericho couldn't reach her, the other demons were asleep, and it was purely just me, the girl, and the most delicious bout of fight or flight I'd ever felt as it pulsed directly through my adrenaline banks. Her spiking fear tingled through my body, and her desperation was rippling new pleasure down my spine.

I'd been letting my anger get the best of me as of late. This situation with the blood bond had left me feeling trapped in my one and only time of freedom. I deserved to reclaim my birthright in whatever way I deemed fit.

So, I'd let her run, then I'd hunt her down and finish the job just as I should have done in the Senseless Forest.

I was near shaking with her relentless distress, and I readied myself to start the run.

Then her consciousness was gone.

Completely. Fucking. Gone.

A loud rattle echoed off the tree canopies.

My fingers rolled slowly into fists, and I clenched so tightly, my knuckles turned a deadly shade of white.

Oh, no no no no no. Not today.

Not in my Labyrinth.