Free The Catalyst by Zoe Winters Page A

was
heady. But she knew there must be things he wasn’t telling her.
There seemed to be a nudge-nudge, wink-wink in there she
wasn’t grasping.
    “What’s the catch?”
    “You don’t think that’s the catch? My, my Miss
Tanner, how you ever ended up here is a great mystery.”
    “Mrs. Riley,” she said, annoyed.
    “Last I checked, werewolves don’t get married, so you
are Miss Tanner according to our books and scrolls.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Demon me up. I need
to get back to my mate and child.”
    The angel smiled. Not a friendly smile.
     
    ***
     
    Cain was in his tent draining the life from a woman
when he felt another of his kind enter the world, fresh and new. He
shoved the girl to the floor and stood, alert, looking around for
his pants.
    “Well, you just got a reprieve. I suggest you stop
following strange men home from here on out,” he said, spotting his
pants behind the large cushion he and the girl had been sprawled
on.
    The woman’s eyes were still glassy, the lust he’d
induced in her not yet abated. She looked like she was going to
cry, desperate for him to keep touching her.
    Oh for God’s sake. “Enough,” he said. He
hadn’t been hungry. He wasn’t sure why he did this. On the outside
he was a happy hedonistic incubus, but inside, empty. And all the
demon gluttony in the world wouldn’t solve it. But now wasn’t the
time for self-pity. He had a new demon to initiate into his
world.
    The anger boiled inside him. Fucking angels. They
turned demons and left them to fend for themselves with no
knowledge of what to do or how to survive—messes for Cain to clean
up.
    The memory of his own turning—eight thousand years
old as it was—still burned fresh in his mind. Nobody had been there
to help him. He’d had to figure it all out on his own. The only
thing they’d given him was directions to his newly-created
dimension, intel they chose not to share with any other new demon.
No, that was the burden they’d always make Cain bear, finding them
and bringing them to safety.
    He glanced down at the woman on the cushion with
disdain. She crawled toward him, reaching for him.
    “Stop it, we’re done,” he said. When she still seemed
hypnotized by his erotic thrall, he reached for a glass of water
and threw it in her face. That brought her back to her senses.
    “You asshole!”
    “Yeah. That’s right. I’m an asshole. Stop going home
with pretty monsters, you stupid trollop.”
    Sure, he’d used the thrall, but not until he’d
already had her by more natural means. If she hadn’t followed him
out of the bar like some lost puppy, he might have left her alone.
Probably not. But maybe. There was that thin hope. She’d still
followed him of her own free will outside into the darkness with no
witnesses. That was stupid, and Cain felt compelled to punish
stupidity.
    She reached for the brandy and was about to chuck it
at him in her temper tantrum over the idea that she wasn’t the most
important thing in his world after only an hour in her company. Oh
no she didn’t. That was the good stuff.
    “Sleep,” he commanded. She slumped onto the cushion
and the alcohol dropped safely out of her hands and onto the soft,
fluffy fabric.
    On his way out of the tent, he scooped her up and
passed her off to another demon, ordering her to be returned to her
town. Beyond that, she was on her own. If some other nasty got her,
well, that’s what happened when you went home with dark and
alluring strangers. Let that be a lesson.
    Considering the fact that he’d just pulled her
memories of the night with the order to sleep, she’d be right back
in that bar acting stupid again tomorrow night. Maybe he’d just
kill her. Such a waste of DNA. No one needed her to reproduce. It
would be his gift to humanity. Survival of the fittest was
yesterday’s story. How about survival of the smartest for a
change?
    He grabbed a blanket on his way out of the dimension.
He never knew the state the new