Crimson Covenant (Onyx Assassins 1)

“Alek!” Avi cried, her slim figure racing toward me.

“Avi.” I swept her into my arms and clutched her to my chest, cradling the back of her head. I’d lecture this one later. Right now, I just wanted to feel her breathing.

Guilt was heavy and sour in my mouth. How the fuck had I let myself get distracted with that human while Avi was in danger? I’d almost let my parents down. Let our entire species down. The loss of one female was tragic, but the loss of the princess? Unforgivable.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, cupping her cheeks and looking into her eyes. They were pale blue, just like mine. Just like our mother’s.

“I’m fine, I promise.” She gave me a shaky smile.

“Benedict is almost here with the car,” Lachlan told me quietly as Ransom argued with Avi’s bodyguard about the safety of the park.

“We need to get out of here before someone reports the gunshot,” I told Avi. Humans were a nuisance, not that they could even tell the difference between demons—

The breath froze in my lungs.

She had. Cinnamon and vanilla. Blonde. Green eyes. Impossible. But she’d seen him. Even told me what he’d looked like.

A human had seen the demon’s horns. Horns that by demonic nature, were hidden from human eyes by glamour.

I took a deep breath.

“Fuck.” The distance of her scent told me she was long gone.

But I also knew I’d be able to track that scent anywhere in this city.

And I would.

2

Lyric

“How many times have I told you not to walk home through the park at night?” Valor’s tone was anything but library approved.

A few aggressive shushes were thrown toward the mahogany desk we occupied—the one tucked into the farthest corner of the massive campus library. Red and blue and brown books filled the row of shelves to our right, reaching all the way to the high, arched ceilings. The campus library had become my second home since I’d started my collegiate career, and now I was only a few months away from scoring my doctorate.

“Oh, bite me,” Valor hissed over her shoulder at the other students who’d shushed her.

I pressed my lips together, shutting the old text I’d been pouring through. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you,” I teased, shaking my head. In reality, I told her everything. She’d been my best friend since freshman year.

Valor glared at me, her pale green eyes as hard as gemstones.

“I’m joking,” I hurried to say. “Obviously. But you’re a tad overprotective, don’t you think? I am a grown woman, fully capable of walking myself home at night—”

“Who gets mugged by some creep in a demon costume?” She cut me off, crossing her arms over her chest. Her long red hair fell in a braid that swept over her shoulder.

I swallowed hard, chills racing over my skin. “I wasn’t mugged,” I said, my voice a few degrees softer, and not because we were in the library. Something had been off about the jerk who’d plowed me over.

I glanced down at the tiny slash on my forearm—nothing more than a scratch, really. The screams of the girls he’d been chasing had haunted my mind since last night, but not as much as the image of…well, whoever he’d been. Not the creep, but the man who’d knelt to check on me.

My fingers absentmindedly massaged my wrist, a soft tingling itch I hadn’t been able to rid myself of since yesterday.

Those eyes, blue-gray and emanating a glow so real it could’ve been starlight.

I couldn’t get those eyes out of my head, or the dark hair, strong jaw, and spectacular build either. He’d been so brutally beautiful and just this side of terrifying. But he’d tried to help me before he’d chased after the girls.

Embarrassment flushed my skin, and I rolled my eyes at myself. It wasn’t unusual for me to stumble over my own two feet, especially while hauling a load of rare texts from the library, but this? Why’d it have to happen in front of easily the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in my life? And the most terrifying? Another chill danced along my spine. The timbre of his voice had been enough to freeze my blood and heat my core. The primal demand in it, as if I’d owed him an explanation of my well-being.

I blew out a breath, scanning the library behind Valor. I straightened in my seat when I caught sight of a pair of glowing blue eyes. My lips parted open as I craned my neck around Valor to see—

Nothing.

Nothing but rows upon rows of beautiful books, and a few scattered students rocking midnight hours for finals.

“What?” Valor asked, spinning in her seat to follow my line of sight.

“Nothing,” I said, hating the disappointment in my tone. God, I’d seen the man all of thirteen seconds, and I couldn’t get him out of my head. So much so that I was manifesting him in the campus library.