Released (Eternal Balance) - Jus Accardo Page 0,2

sliced through the air was like a gong going off right next to my ear. It connected with the beast’s head, eliciting a violent howl, then bounced and hit the ground. The pressure against Azi’s grip vanished, and the carnivus whirled and charged.

“Shit!” Sam screamed before scattering in the opposite direction.

Seriously? What the fuck had she expected to happen? I strained against the confines of my flesh-covered cage, terrified that if I didn’t get to her, she’d be killed. But it didn’t matter. No matter how hard I tried, regardless of how franticly I pushed, I made no headway in gaining back my body.

Get up! That thing is going to rip her to shreds!

The demon leaped to my feet and sprang into action. A rush of fury poured from the demon and my body soared over the charging beast and landed in a graceful crouch a few feet in front of Sam. Azi whirled and faced the bastard’s onslaught just as it pounced.

We collided in mid air, and the demon twisted my body with a violent jerk and redirected the carnivus sideways, toward the wall. The thing collided with the brick, and a thundering crash echoed through the small space. The creature howled in pain.

But it didn’t last. The carnivus shook off the setback and climbed to its feet, scaly hackles rising like spikes along its back. Azi positioned me protectively in front of Sam, bracing my body for another round. But the carnivus didn’t attack. It matched our steps—us back, it forward—but made no move to instigate further violence.

“Get rid of it,” Azi snarled at Sam.

She made a choking sound. “Get rid… How? Am I supposed to offer it a cookie or something? Give it a damn belly rub? You get rid of it. You’re the demon badass.”

“You’re a Pure,” Azi fired back, my voice laced with venom. The demon’s patience was waning, but underneath that, I felt concern. The carnivus was, unlike other things on this plane, a very real threat—one that shouldn’t exist outside hell, and one my body wasn’t really made to handle. “You are unbound. Use your energy.”

The canine-like creature snarled and snapped its massive jaw, but it still made no advance. “What’s it waiting for?” Sam gripped the back of my shirt. I felt her fingers skim my skin as they wrapped themselves around the thin fabric.

“These are not creatures known for their intelligence. They are soldiers, bound by the commands of their masters.”

However this thing had come to be here, it couldn’t have been acting on its own. Azi was very familiar with them, having used the monsters in its own army during the Great War. That made me an expert as well. These things had brains the size of horses.

“It isn’t acting of its own free will,” a man said from behind the beast. He emerged from the shadows, approaching as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He plucked what looked like a peanut from the small brown paper bag in his hand, tossed it into the air, and caught it between his teeth before chomping down.

The carnivus froze, its low-throated rumble silenced mid-growl.

“Abel.” Azi pushed the word past my lips as if it left a bad taste in my mouth. “Your timing is impeccable.”

The man gave a small bow, then nodded a greeting over my shoulder to Sam. “Azirak. Please, call me Heckle.”

Sam sprang from behind my body and pushed past, eyeing the suddenly immobile carnivus with caution. Red tinted the air around her shoulders as she tightened her fists. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to find you for over a week now.”

Heckle’s eyebrows lifted. He glanced down at the carnivus, then back to her before popping another peanut into his mouth. “For?”

The waves of red smoke spiraled upward and sent shivers of excitement through my body. The demon’s metaphorical mouth was watering—and so was mine. “The last thing you said to me was that there was a way to separate Jax and Azi. Then poof. You dropped off the face of the planet.”

“As I recall, it was you who said that. I never confirmed it.”

The red smoke thickened, and Sam clenched her fists even tighter. The demon was amused. It wanted to see what would happen if she laid one on Heckle. I had to admit, I was interested, too. Sam was a fireball. She’d give the cocky shit a run for his money.

“You implied it,” she said. Her voice was deadly, and