And then he was going to die.
CHAPTER TWO
Stretched out beside his mate as she lay on her stomach, Knox stroked a hand over her long, sleek, dark hair and played with the gold ends. Although her cuts had faded to pink lines and the tears in the stems of her wings had partially reknitted, anger still blazed inside him. He took a deep, controlled breath, inhaling her warm, honeyed scent. She was alive. Safe. Healing. But rage was still a living, breathing, clawing thing inside him.
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His demon's anger didn't show any signs of abating either. How could it? Their mate had been attacked, for fuck's sake. Attacked in her own studio, a place where she should have been safe. He'd been the one to convince her that she would be safe there. She'd relocated her studio at his request, believing he was right, and he'd been far fucking from it.
His eyes fell closed as he remembered the moment he'd heard her telepathic scream. The panicked, pain-filled sound kept replaying in his mind like a broken record, and he knew he'd never forget it. Similarly, he'd never forget the sight of her there in her office; eyes clouded with pain, limbs trembling, and her skin glistening with a fine sheen of sweat.
His demon had almost lost it; had wanted nothing more than to rise and wreak havoc, but Knox had only given it dominance for a short time. He'd needed to check on Harper, had reminded the demon that she was more important than their revenge – something it luckily agreed with. The entity was selfish and merciless, but it would always put Harper first.
The dark entities that lived within demons couldn't love; they simply weren't capable of that emotion. But they could form attachments to people. It wasn't something they did often or easily, but it was always permanent and always intense. Knox's demon had claimed Harper as its mate. It had "collected" her and was every bit as possessive and protective of the little sphinx as Knox was.
Shiny, defiant, and unique, she'd instantly captured his demon's interest the second they met. Knox had been just as fascinated. She was an intriguing creature. Smart. Stubborn. Complex. Elusive. There weren't many things that Knox found unpredictable, but Harper often managed to surprise him. That was something he liked.
It sometimes amused him that someone so small had so easily upturned his life. Innately sensual with mouthwatering curves and a plush mouth that he'd never tire of biting, Harper was a package that he hadn't been able to resist. He craved her on every level – mentally, physically, and even emotionally. She was indelible to him, as both his mate and his anchor.
Demons came in pairs; had fated psychic mates, or "anchors", that could make them stronger and keep them stable enough to prevent them from ever turning rogue. It was impossible for demons to control the dark entity within them, but it was possible to resist the entity's persistent attempts to completely take over if a demon linked minds with their anchor.
Knox hadn't planned to claim his anchor, since he was powerful enough on his own. The whole thing had seemed unnecessary and complicated to him. He didn't allow people in his life, but there was no way a person could maintain a distance between themselves and their anchor. Especially since they found it mentally uncomfortable to be separated for long periods.
Although the anchor bond was only psychic in nature as opposed to emotional or sexual, anchors still tended to be close friends and they always protected, supported, and were loyal toward each other. Knox didn't consider himself a person who needed friends, even though a numbing loneliness had begun to plague him back then.
Still, when he'd first stroked Harper's mind and realized what she was to him, he'd thought Mine. He hadn't been able to walk away from her. He'd relentlessly pursued her both psychically and sexually. Only once he'd fused their psyches had he understood that she truly was the only thing that could ever keep him stable. For all his power, he could never have been enough to keep himself from turning rogue.
Just like, for all his power, he hadn't heard her calling for him tonight.
The hunters had cut her, sawed at her wings, tried to steal them from her … and he'd been talking with Levi, completely oblivious. Knox had made her promise to call out to him if she was ever in danger. Stubborn and protective, Harper rarely did so – refusing to lure him into dangerous situations. The fact that she had reached out to him showed just how scared she'd been. It gutted him that she'd suffered so much pain and had feared that he wouldn't come for her.