Chapter 1
KYA
Blood sprays as a guy in a white mask nails an ogre hard in the face with a right hook. Beautiful form, but sloppy footwork. That could cost him.
I can’t see his eyes from this angle, so I have no idea what he is. I can see the blond hair creeping out from the bottom of the backwards hat he’s wearing, though.
He’s leaving himself exposed, and all it would take is one hard hit from that ogre to—
That predictable punch lands in the unknown guy’s side before my thought can be completed, but he doesn’t even flinch before hitting the ogre again, forcing the beast of a man to fall into the ropes.
Holy fucking shit. Who is that guy?
The crowd roars, chanting something about fury, and I try to push my way around to see his eyes. I want to know what he is.
The ogre pushes up from the ropes, and the white mask guy slips around him, punching him in the gut again. The ogre flips forward, and just when I get to a better angle, the guy in the mask turns his back to me again.
Damn it!
“Fury! Fury! Fury!” the crowd continues to chant.
The fight rings have recently been reopened. I’ve never come to one before, but I kept hearing about this guy who is destroying everyone. We could use him on our team before we face the Master, even if Slade doesn’t realize how badly we still need more muscle and power.
It’s then I realize they’re calling him Fury. He definitely seems to have a following, and no one has ever even seen his face, according to the gossip. I’ve only heard him referred to as the ‘guy in the white mask’ until now.
He’s shirtless, and my eyes slowly travel up all the contoured lines of muscle and ink that stretch across his back. Most of the ink is protective symbols to ward against various things. For some reason, the placement of the tats and the body look very familiar.
A fist seems to clench inside my stomach when I realize where I’ve seen that body before.
No... That makes no sense at all. There’s no way in hell that can be him.
I’ve studied everything about them—all of them—making sure I knew how to take them on if they ever hurt my sister. But I have to be remembering wrong, because Fury can’t be Chaz. No freaking duster can fight like that or take a punch from an ogre without even flinching.
Hell, I don’t know any creature who can, besides maybe Slade.
More blood sprays, and the ogre drops to the mat, unmoving as his eyes roll back in his head. The duster couldn’t have knocked out an ogre. Impossible.
His dark, ripped jeans have blood all over them, as though he wears them with previous stains. Probably to intimidate the competition.
He turns around slowly as the crowd erupts into frenzied cheers, and he holds his hands up to announce his victory. My eyes slither up his torso and chest, taking in all the ink he wears there, and my breath catches in my throat. There’re a line of stars that dip down to his waistband, and a dragon is inked on his chest.
It is the duster.
My eyes dart up to find his gaze burning through me, and my knees almost collapse at the impossible combination I see. No...
There’s no way Karma has seen him, not after how they reacted to the red jinn. Red jinn and the others mixed together... They’d fucking kill him before he could kill them.
Panic has me snapping out of my shock and looking for an escape. I turn and shoulder my way through the crowd, racing toward the exit door of the old factory as fear grips me. Just as I break through it and reach the street, a hand clamps over my mouth and I’m slammed back against a wall.
Those wicked eyes stare into mine, and I struggle against his hold. My magic doesn’t zap him or even expel from my body, and I know it’s something he’s doing.
“I figured this day was coming,” the fake duster says on a sigh, but I feel as though he’s toying with me. “Now let’s discuss how good at keeping secrets you are. I’d hate to hurt Karma’s sister.”
I struggle again, but my power remains dormant despite the current supply I have. He holds me against the wall with ease, smirking as he pushes closer.
Just as I find a gap to pull my knee up, I’m submerged into spiraling darkness. My breath leaves in a rush as dizziness sets in with a ferocious attack, and I realize belatedly that he’s just done something far different than a simple dematerialization.
A weightless sensation hits me with a sickening punch. I don’t have time to figure out what he’s doing to me before we’re suddenly being spat out of whatever that was and I drop to the ground, rolling onto my back.
In the next instant, Chaz is coming down on top of me, and his mask is back on. For some stupid reason, that thing scares me worse.
He pins my hands above my head, and fear grips me when he straddles my body, firmly securing me in place.
“Relax,” he says, as though I’m actually going to listen. “I don’t want to have to hurt you. And don’t get any ideas...” He glances down at the way our bodies are intimately placed before looking into my eyes again. “This is just to keep you from attacking me. Nothing else.”
His eyes slide over my breasts, making me regret the decision to wear something that exposes so much cleavage. His gaze lingers for a fraction of
a second too long, but he jerks his eyes away at last.
“Unless you want something else,” he says while cocking his head, and I swear I can feel his smirk even though I can’t see it.
The mask is solid, other than the eye holes. The eyes are what I find so terrifying, because I can see everything he is.
“How?” I whisper. “You were born before purgatory was unleashed. Hybrids couldn’t exist then. You can’t exist now. How—”
“What I am is what shouldn’t exist. I know this. So does my mother—the mother who raised me, not the one who birthed me. You don’t know a damn thing about me, Kya. If I was a threat to anyone, I would have already struck. Don’t you think?”
There’s a bitterness to his tone that I don’t understand.
“What... Just tell me how this happened,” I say on a shaky breath, trying to wrap my head around him and the abomination he is.