Knight's Salvation (Knights of Hell Book 2)
Page 1
Knight’s Salvation
Knights of Hell, Book 2
Sherilee Gray
Copyright © 2018 by Sherilee Gray
All rights reserved.
Cover Design by Cover Couture
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Editor: Andrea McKay
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Knight’s Salvation - Sherilee Gray - 1st ed
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Contents
About Knight’s Salvation
Follow Me!
Also by Sherilee Gray
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Coming next…
About the Author
Also by Sherilee Gray
About Knight’s Salvation
Demon hunter Zenon lives with a dark secret. When he escaped Hell, he didn’t leave alone—and he’ll do anything to keep the shameful reason hidden. But when an intoxicating demi-demon, new to her powers, has him breaking all his own rules just to be near her, he knows he’s in serious trouble.
Painfully aware of being different, Mia Westbrook has always kept herself apart from others. Yet her new demon life comes with strings attached, namely one scarred and broodingly seductive knight who storms into her world—and her heart—and may just be her perfect match.
But a formidable evil has been watching, and is determined to tear them apart. They want Zenon back in Hell, with them, where he belongs…
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www.sherileegray.com
Also by Sherilee Gray
Knights of Hell
Knight’s Redemption
Knight’s Salvation
Lawless Kings:
Shattered King
Broken Rebel
Beautiful Killer
Ruthless Protector
Glorious Sinner
The Smith Brothers:
Mountain Man
Wild Man
Boosted Hearts:
Swerve
Spin
Slide
Axle Alley Vipers:
Crashed
Revved
Wrecked
Black Hills Pack:
Lone Wolf’s Captive
A Wolf’s Deception
Stand Alone Novels:
Breaking Him
Chapter 1
“Looks like we’re taking the stairs,” Rocco said and scowled at the out of order sign taped to the elevator.
Zenon looked at the other knight and shrugged, trying to appear unaffected when he was anything but. He still didn’t know why he’d come, why he’d forced the issue when Chaos had tried to discourage him.
Zenon never went on retrievals. Ever.
But this morning something had hit him—Christ, immobilized him—and then he’d felt…something. He was used to pain, but this, the feeling that had him crying out, tearing him from sleep, was different. Nothing like he’d felt before.
Fuck. This was a mistake. He should have stayed behind.
Rocco kept with the jaw flapping as they took the stairs, grinning, treating him like he was just another male, like he could be Lazarus or Gunner or Kryos.
Any one of his brothers.
Yeah, they were all knights of Hell, demon hunters, made up of the same basic DNA, but that’s where it ended. Because other than that, Zenon was nothing like them. Never had been and never would be.
Even now, after all this time, he expected the males he lived and fought beside to suddenly cry uncle, to realize the mistake they’d made, and kick his worthless ass to the curb. Or worse, back to Hell.
It hadn’t happened yet, and until it did, he’d fight beside them, with them, in a world that still felt foreign, a world touched by warmth and light instead of unrelenting darkness and pain.
He was a knight, not by choice but by birth—the fucked-up result of an unholy union between fallen angels and Kishi demons.
“Shit, this place is a dump.” Rocco stopped in front of a scarred wooden door, a frown on his handsome face.
Zenon couldn’t say one way or the other. His entire focus was centered on the weird vibes coming out of the apartment in front of him.
Something wasn’t right; something more than the usual shit anyway. But with every step he’d taken toward that door, the tingly, prickly sensation at the base of his spine had intensified.
Rocco released an exaggerated breath. “Can you unclench your jaw or something? Jesus, you look like someone’s giving you a wedgie.”
Zenon would have told him to go get fucked, but for Rocco that was a given. And since speaking wasn’t an option right then, he pinned the other knight with a stare that said everything he couldn’t.
“Just a thought. But if you’re okay with the whole nuts-in-vise look you’ve got going on, then so am I.” Rocco gave him another head to toe, shook his head then knocked.
Zenon held his breath.
At the sound of several locks releasing, he reached back, wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the blade he had concealed under his jacket, and braced for what might be on the other side.
The door opened a crack, then wider, and the female demi-demon they’d come for poked her head out. A pair of big blue eyes lifted to meet theirs and her pretty pink mouth dropped open, followed by a kind of strangled sound in the back of her throat.
Zenon released his knife and took a startled step back. Like a champagne cork popping, the weird sensation he’d woken with shot up his spinal cord and nailed him in the back of the skull with the force of a fucking two-by-four.
Whatever this female’s power was, it was seriously messing with him.
His fight or flight instincts fired to life, and zeroed in on the defenseless female in front of them. She was no threat to him—he knew this—but right then he wanted to turn around and get as far away from her as fast as he could.
It took all his strength not to turn around and leave a Zenon-sized hole in the wall in his rush to get the hell away.
Which was screwed up and made no sense whatsoever.
Rocco stepped forward and introduced himself. The guy plastered a smile on his pretty face and some of the tension left her shoulders. Rocco had a way with females. They liked him. A lot. This one was no different.
Her bright blue gaze darted to Zenon then back to Roc, and she opened the door wider. “I’m Mia. You, ah, got here fast.”
“I would never
leave a damsel in distress,” Roc drawled, and the female blushed.
For some reason, seeing her respond to the other knight’s easy charm had Zenon fighting the urge to introduce Rocco’s forehead to the wall.
She invited them in, and ducking so they didn’t brain themselves on the doorframe, they followed.
Her place was sparsely furnished, and what she did have was worn out and old. She didn’t have any of that knickknacky crap Kryos’s and Lazarus’s mates had scattered all over their apartments either.
She stood in front of them, waiting expectantly. Zenon retreated a few steps. Better Rocco did the talking. Communication of any kind, dealing with humans—or any species for that matter—was not where his skills lay. If he tried, he’d just mess it up.
“We have a room all ready for you at our compound, and the plane to take us home will be touching down in an hour or so,” Rocco said.
He and Roc had flown the old-fashioned way. Wing power was still the quickest way to fly, but when they transported new demi-demons they used a plane. Not just because carrying someone while flying was an extremely intimate act, but because most new demi were freaking the fuck out, and holding onto someone fighting and screaming was just too dangerous. Something the knights used to do for a lot of years before humans got it together and came up with alternative options for transportation.
Demi-demons like Mia—half human, half demon hybrids—were a hot commodity among full-blooded demons, and were bought and sold as slaves for their unique abilities. A new demi’s powers reached a peak exactly one month after they developed, when all that unstable energy could no longer be contained and escaped in a rush. An inbuilt sense, kind of like an alarm going off, alerted the knights when that happened. It was their job to get there first before they could be captured by rogue demons or, worse, taken to Hell where suffering took on a whole new meaning.
But this morning Mia had called them, asking to be picked up, which had surprised the hell out of all of them. And for some fucked up reason, he stepped forward. Unsurprisingly, he’d received more than a few worried glances from his brothers.
Zenon kept all contact with the demi-demons they rescued to a minimum. He fought, he hunted…and he killed. He wasn’t good at putting people at ease, wasn’t good at small talk. Not like Rocco.
Rocco’s gaze softened, waiting for the meltdown that would come next. Not many handled leaving everything they knew behind and never looking back well. But Mia just nodded with a small lift of her lips. “I’m all packed and ready to go.”
Zenon didn’t usually pay much attention to the females he encountered, but this one was, well, she was different. He couldn’t work out how, there was just…something. She was short—five-six, maybe five-seven, but then most people seemed short to him. Being well over six feet that was a given. Her body was rounded, soft, and her skin—her skin looked pale and smooth. His fingers twitched at his side. What would it feel like?
He frowned at the uncharacteristic thought.
She wore jeans and a pale green sweater that highlighted a narrow waist. And her long red hair—shit, it glowed. Yeah, she was—lovely. There was no other way to describe her.
He couldn’t sense what type of demon had sired her, but whatever it was had resulted in delicate facial features and a pink heart-shaped mouth that Zenon thought might taste sweet, like cotton candy.
He tore his gaze from her.
What the hell? Cotton candy?
He studied the tiny apartment, looking anywhere but at the pixie-featured female smiling openly at Rocco. People didn’t like it when he looked at them, especially females, so he fought the unfamiliar impulse to do just that.
“I’ve heard so much about all of you from Chaya,” she said.
Rocco smiled back, charming as always. “Your sister did a good job teaching you to block that initial rush of power, Mia. None of us sensed you this morning.”
Zenon shot a glance at the other knight. What was he talking about? He’d woken up, gut in knots, skin tingling, more than aware of the new demi-demon throwing out enough energy to light up every apartment in Roxburgh. Whatever she was, he’d never felt anything like it before.
“I thought I’d be okay on my own. Chaya was going to see me through the transition, but I, well…I think I’m going to need more help than she can give me.” She lifted her hand, and Zenon sucked in a breath as delicate flames licked across the tips of her slender fingers. Her waist-length red hair lifted and flew around her face and shoulders like she was surrounded by a mini tornado.
“Jesus.” Rocco looked back at him. “You seen anything like that before?”
He shook his head, making sure to keep his gaze on Roc and not Mia. She’d been darting glances at him since they’d arrived, but he knew it was more morbid curiosity than genuine interest.
“Your and Chaya’s father, do you know what breed of demon he was?” Rocco asked.
The fact that this female had a sister was an oddity, one they’d never encountered before. Demi-demons were usually conceived through the most despicable act of violence, but from what Mia had told Chaos over the phone that morning, their mother had loved the male who’d sired them.
She dropped her hands, and the wind stopped. Her straight glossy hair drifted back into place, settling at her waist. “No, and our mother never told us.”
“Do you know where we can find him?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. He disappeared when I was a baby.”
Her phone started up, the ringtone “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves.”
Roc snorted, a grin spreading across his face.
She raced to the tatty old couch in the corner and rummaged through her bag. Face flushed, she answered. “Chay?”
There was a pause as she listened. “Yes, they’re here now.” Another pause. “It’s Rocco and…um.” She glanced up at him, brow scrunched, and he realized he hadn’t told her his name.
He remembered Chaya at the compound a year ago. Their features were similar, elfin, delicate. Their figures, too—voluptuous, rounded…soft. But where Chaya was dark, her sister had fair skin and vibrant red hair.
Rocco cleared his throat. “You gonna tell her your name or glower at her all morning, Zen?”
The phone at her ear creaked, like she’d tightened her fingers around the thing. Mia bit her lip and blinked up at him. Afraid.
“Zenon.” It came out a growl, and she flinched. He quickly averted his gaze so she wouldn’t have to look at him.
“Jesus Christ,” Rocco muttered.
He tried to shrug it off. Her reaction to him shouldn’t matter. It sure as hell wasn’t anything new. He had that effect on most everyone. But for some reason, her fear pissed him off. He could smell it, bitter and dark. Fear usually fueled him, but he didn’t like it coming from that female. He didn’t know why he gave two fucks, but he did, and that just made him angrier.
He turned his back on her and stared out the window in an attempt to pull his shit together. And as he suspected, with his ugly mug facing the other direction, the bitter smell faded, replaced by her own wholly unique scent.
She repeated his name to her sister, and his stomach clenched at the sound of it coming from her lips.
The feeling was foreign, odd. He couldn’t name it or place its source, but it moved up, squeezing behind his ribs in the center of his chest.
Maybe he’d burned his energy stores already? He thought he’d be okay for another couple of weeks. Yeah, the pain was there, but it was always there. He knew from experience it would only be a matter of time before it became too much, until he could barely walk, his skin burning like acid, like his flesh was being flayed from his bones. Then and only then would he go groveling for what he needed.
A crawling sensation traveled across his skin at the memory of the last time. Cold, grasping hands tearing at his skin…pain, humiliation.
Relief.
Hatred.
He sucked in a breath and forced the memory from hi
s mind, allowing his senses to return to the female at his back. She’d been quiet for a long time. But he didn’t need to hear the conversation to know Chaya was warning her sister about him. The demi they rescued and took back to their compound were trained to block and control their new powers so when they were released back into the world they would remain safe, undetectable to the demons that would hunt them.
Zenon wasn’t on the training schedule. In fact, he barely interacted with the demi there unless he had to. It was counterproductive. They took one look at him, or heard his voice, and lost their shit.
A demi with untrained powers could wipe out an entire town if left to their own devices, and after several incidents he’d been encouraged by Chaos, their leader, to take a step back. He’d only relented and allowed Zenon to come today because they had another retrieval elsewhere and were short a man.
He didn’t give a fuck what Chaya thought about him, but for some reason her warning Mia to stay away from him pushed him close to the edge, drew his demon to the surface, and sent another lance of anger tearing through his gut. He gritted his teeth.
Keep it the fuck together.
“Okay, Chay. I will…yes…I promise…love you, too.” There was a rustling sound then silence.
“You ready to head out?” Rocco asked. “Gunner should be landing shortly.”
He tried to fight it, but he couldn’t stop himself from turning to look at her. She smiled, but it was forced. “Absolutely.”