“They hurt her,” it rumbled, as if he just wasn’t getting the point. “Tied her down. Slapped her. Cut her with scissors. Sliced her open.”

Barely managing not to snarl at what had happened, he reminded it, “And you killed them. You protected her. She’s safe. You’re both safe. You don’t need the flames anymore.”

It blinked.

Feeling a little desperate now, he said, “I need her.” In more ways than he’d ever imagined it was possible to need someone.

The demon cocked its head.

“Let Harper come to me. I know you want her safe. She’s safe with me. You know that.” He slowly covered the small space between them. Just as slowly, he took a chance and reached out to curl a hand around its chin. “She’s tired. Don’t make her keep fighting you. Just let the power go. You don’t need it anymore. Trust me to keep her safe.”

For a moment, it did nothing. Then the entity did a slow blink, and he had glassy forest-green eyes staring back at him.

Thank fuck. He quickly looped an arm around Harper as the power left her system in a rush, causing her knees to buckle. She gave a drowsy moan. “Shush, baby, I got you.” Almost dizzy from relief, he lifted her up, careful of her injuries. She weakly curled her legs around his waist. “Good girl.”

Closing his eyes, he kissed her temple. He had her. She was alive. Injured but healing. His heart was still thundering, and his chest was still tight with fear. The demon inside him shot to the surface just long enough to rub its cheek against hers.

The moment his demon retreated, Knox turned and retraced his steps through a fire that was now beginning to ease. The flames were thinning out and lowering, though the heat was still a bitch. Walking out of the flames, he found his sentinels waiting, their expressions anxious. All four of them rushed forward.

“Is she all right?” asked Larkin, panicked. Her face tightened as she saw some of Harper’s wounds. “Fuck, what did the bastard do to her?”

Knox suspected that Crow, the son of a bitch, had intended to operate on her. “It looks like she fought him hard. She has some injuries, but nothing she won’t heal from.”

“The flames have eased,” Keenan pointed out.

So had the flames on her feathers. “Her emotions were feeding the fire. She’s unconscious now.” Which meant that the storm inside her was over, but it had left a fair amount of damage. Most of the salvage yard was gone, and the ground looked like a blackened, dry riverbed. It was also sprinkled with red ashes – residue of the flames of hell.

Knox tightened his hold on Harper. “Let’s get her home.”

He knew by the tensing of her shoulders that she was waking – finally. After Knox had brought her home, he’d carefully cleaned and checked out her wounds before giving her a quick shower. She’d been so wiped out that she hadn’t once stirred. He’d then put her to bed and lay beside her.

For the past six hours while she’d slept like a log, he’d stayed with her. Listened to her breathe. Watched the rise and fall of her chest, assuring himself that she was fine until the fear taunting him began to ebb away. It still lingered, but it didn’t have a tight hold on him anymore.

Now that she was finally awake, he wanted to hold her, taste her, and soothe her, but she couldn’t even look at him. He understood why, because he understood her. She didn’t like that she’d lost total control of her demon, and she was embarrassed that she’d been unable to fight it into submitting.

Knox brushed his thumb over her bruised cheek. The bruise was now yellow and fading fast. “Do you judge me for the times I’ve lost control?”

After a moment, she mumbled, “No.”

“Then don’t judge yourself.” But she still didn’t look at him. “Come on, let me see those eyes.” Finally, her lids flickered open. Shadowed gold eyes met his. He smiled. “Hey, baby.”

“My demon… it’s not usually like that.” She licked her lips. “It’s protective of me and it’s vicious and cold, but it doesn’t get a kick out of destruction. Earlier, it would have happily watched everything around it burn to the ground.” And it wasn’t feeling in the least bit apologetic about it, to Harper’s utter annoyance. It felt fully justified in its actions.

“Your demon was bloated on a power it’s never before tasted.” Knox tucked her hair behind her uninjured ear. The other was healing but would probably be sensitive. “It got a little carried away.”

She shot him an incredulous look. “Carried away?”

“I thought your demon handled it pretty well, all things considered,” he said, paraphrasing something she’d once said to him after he’d been the one to lose control. Her mouth kicked into a reluctant smile. “That’s my girl.” He kissed her, greedy for a long, thorough taste of his mate. He breathed her in, filling his lungs were her scent. Something in him settled, and his demon relaxed a little. “You scared me when you disappeared.”

“I was kind of scared too,” Harper admitted in a whisper, biting on her lower lip. She detested that those bastards had made her afraid.

“Why didn’t you answer my telepathic calls?”

“I couldn’t. It hurt whenever I tried.” The headache was thankfully long gone, so Harper reached out to touch his mind with hers, glad to feel no pain slicing through her head. “The bastard sucked so much psi-energy out of me that I couldn’t even use a compulsion on him.” Her stomach churned as she remembered the helplessness and terror that she’d felt as —