Not that I think they had much, if any, he thought, eyeing the cooling corpse of the feyrunner dispassionately. No sophisticated outfit came to retrieve stolen cargo with a single bolt gun. Especially when they were going up against a demon, mated, and in his prime.
With that thought in mind, Dom turned his gaze back to Millie just as she let out her last creaking breath, the skin of her face and strained neck a pallid, mottled green. The whites of her eyes, fully exposed as she stared sightlessly out toward the treeline, were a deep yellow.
It’s a predator eat predator world indeed, he thought. Too bad Millie overestimated just how much she could chew when she took on his mate.
With both the threats now fully out of commission, Dom forced his form back into his other shape. One was not better or more natural than the other, necessarily, but navigating the wider world was easier when people didn’t flee at the mere sight of him.
A cold shiver of dread worked its way down his spine as most of his shadows curled inward, retreating to the solid core within him. Would Charlotte fear him now that she’d seen his other shape? She didn’t hesitate before, but she was also flush with adrenaline and anger. When that wore off, would she look at him as her mate, or as a monster?
After a moment of terrible doubt, Dom decided it was a problem for later.
Gently rearranging her so he had one arm looped under her knees, he stood up from his crouch. “Let’s get out of here and find a place to hunker down on the other side of the border, hm?” He rumbled a soothing purr for her. “Everything will be fine. I’ve got you.”
Charlotte nodded against the side of his neck. Her little claws pricked at the skin of his back through the tiny holes she made in his t-shirt. Her voice was muffled when she asked, “What about Millie?”
Dom hesitated, one boot lifted in a frozen step toward his truck. His first instinct was to lie, but he wasn’t a liar. He was a direct sort of demon, even when it bit him in the ass. And besides, he wasn’t about to start lying to his mate twenty-four hours after finding her. She could handle the truth.
“She’s dead, glowbug.”
“What?” Charlotte wheezed, whipping her head around to peer at the twisted form on the ground. A high, shocked sound left her throat. “Did I do that?”
Dom amped up his rumbling purr and turned away from the grisly scene. Charlotte craned her neck to try and keep Millie in her view, but he broke her line of sight when he circled the truck and tucked her into the passenger's seat. He was strapping her seatbelt across her lap when she asked, voice warbling, “What about the bodies? Won’t someone care that there are two dead people in the parking lot?”
Clicking the mechanism in place, he pulled back enough to look his mate in the eye. She was pale and shaken, but her eyes were clear. No shock, then. She was just rattled by the adrenaline drop and the knowledge that she’d killed a person.
Mindful of the small scrapes on her cheeks, Dom cupped her jaw with both of his hands and assured her, “You’re safe, glowbug. They’re gone. As soon as we leave here, some creatures you don’t want to think about too hard are going to melt out of the woods and do what they do best. The bodies will be gone in a couple hours.”
Well, he inwardly amended, maybe not Millie. The scavengers and beasts of the woods had noses for fouled food, after all.
Not that it mattered. In the New Zone, people died and disappeared every day. In the same way anyone could come into the neutral territory to make a new start, it was the perfect place to disappear unnoticed. Even if he wasn’t confident the world was better off without the likes of Millie and her feyrunner companion, Dom was certain no one in any position of authority would think to look for them once a body was discovered.
Rumor was that the Syndicate, the interconnected and often feuding web of vampire clans, were the real power behind the New Zone. They weren’t exactly saints themselves, and if push came to shove, Dom knew that a vampire would understand his need to protect his mate at all costs. They weren’t a forgiving race, but they were just as viciously possessive of their beloved anchors as demons were of their mates.
But he didn’t need to say all that to his shaken mate. Dom was a rough sort, but even he knew that some things you just kept to yourself.
Stroking her cheekbones with the pads of his thumbs, he asked, “You gonna be okay until we can find a place to stay the night? We still have a drive ahead of us.”
Charlotte stared at him with wide, dark eyes. Her lips, soft and plush in ways he would stay up at night thinking about, trembled for only a moment before they pursed with determination. “Yes,” she answered, firmer than he expected her to. “I-I think so. Just… just don’t leave me alone for a while, okay? I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
His fierce little mate knew how to hurt him. Dom swallowed hard, recalling the things she said to the feyrunner, all that raw pain in her voice. My mate has been alone too long.
He’d see to it that she never felt that kind of pain again.
Stroking her short black hair back behind the small points of her ears, he said, “I’m yours, glowbug. I’m not going anywhere.”
She dipped her head silently, and he knew instinctively what it was she asked for. Cupping the sides of her face, he leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to her forehead. “You’re safe.” He whispered it against her skin one more time, just for good measure. “I’m here. They’re gone.”
Her voice was a naked rasp when she asked, “But what about the tracker?”
Dom slipped one hand down to massage the back of her neck. “We’ll figure that out when we’re over the border. You heard what she said, right? The feyrunner was a sigilworker. My bet is they went low-cost, low-tech, and just put a rudimentary tracking sigil on you somewhere. We just have to find it.”
Her nod was jerky. Dom lingered there, crouched half in the truck and half out, for as long as he could before he began to feel the press of instinct again. Get her safe.
That was his priority. Get her over the border, then get her home to his territory, where he could…
Well, he wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do yet, but letting her out of his sight wasn’t an option.
Pressing one last firm kiss to her temple, he regretfully untangled his fingers from the silky strands of her hair before rising to close the door. His skin prickled as he circled the truck to climb into the driver’s side.
Scanning the tangled woods ringing the edge of the rest stop, he knew without actually seeing anything that the creatures within watched him, just waiting for their departure so they could descend on the bodies left behind. The man in him didn’t feel any remorse for what they’d done, and the animal didn’t either.
He protected his mate. Now the natural order of these things would follow. The world would go on, as it always did, and hopefully be a tiny bit less cruel for the loss of two people who cared so little about the lives of others.