A sharp pain in my stomach jolts me awake. Opening my eyes, I flinch back at the sight of someone dressed in all black, wearing a ski mask.

A ski mask? Really?

I peek down at my stomach and try not to react to the pain that the dagger in my gut is currently causing me. The masked figure puts a finger to my lips and says in a distorted voice, “This is your punishment.”

“Hunter!”

The figure disappears from my sight the moment Hunter teleports into my room. Breathing deeply through the pain, I moan, “You just missed them.”

“Shit,” he hisses, coming to the side of my bed. “I just told Parker and Talon to let them know you’re hurt and to find a healer.” He places his hands on my waist, holding me still, so he can examine the wound.

“Weren’t you in here when I went to bed?” I ask, between pants.

He glances up at me, his expression apologetic. “I was. But I left because Parker and Talon wanted to speak to me about asking my dad about what we found. Luckily, I didn’t get that far before you called for me. I wouldn’t have made it in time if I had.”

“Sorry,” I murmur.

The door slams open, and Talon and Parker come in with Farrah directly behind them.

“What the hell happened?” Farrah demands, pushing her way past her brother, Talon, and Hunter to be at my side.

“Can we chat . . . after we get this thing out of me?” I moan.

Farrah nods. “Of course, sorry.” She grips the daggers hilt. “This is going to hurt,” she warns. Without any other warning, she pulls.

“Son of a goddamned hairy monkey-ass bitch-ass motherfucker!”

Farrah raises a brow at me. “That was definitely something I have never heard before. Hold still.” She places her hands over my wound, and I sigh in relief as the healing starts to numb the site as it knits together.

“I didn’t know you were a healer,” I say once the wound is shut.

“It’s not well known,” Farrah mutters as she focuses on healing me.

Most likely in response to my questioning look, Parker explains, “Vampires aren’t healers. There’s never been one from what anyone knows of our history. We don’t know what it means so she’s kept here to be safe.”

“Prisoners-R-Us,” she mumbles.

“You can’t blame us for wanting to keep you safe,” Parker says, flashing an exasperated look at his sister.

“Sure I can. I don’t have a life because you guys are so fucking paranoid.”

“I’m not having this conversation again,” Parker sighs.

“Good, neither am I,” she snaps as she withdraws her hands from my midsection. “Alright, you’re good now.”

“So, what happened?” Parker asks as he digs through the dresser drawer.

My brow furrows as I watch him. “Well, I woke up to a dagger being shoved into my gut, in case that wasn’t exactly obvious. What are you doing?”

“Looking for a shirt for you.”

“Uh yeah, I’m out of clean shirts,” I say, looking at the blood-soaked fabric of my shirt, fingering the hole.

Farrah rolls her eyes, but the knowing smile on her face is enough to show me that she knows why I’m already out of shirts. Freaking assholes ripping my clothes. “I just sent one of my guards to get you a shirt of mine that you can wear.”

“Thanks Farrah,” I mutter.

“Can you explain what else happened before I got here?” Hunter asks, pulling us back to the conversation before.

“Um, they were using a voice distorter thing, so I couldn’t tell if it was a female or a male. Whoever they were though, they said that this was my punishment.”

“Punishment?” Talon asks, moving to sit beside me on the bed.

“Yeah, I don’t know what exactly that means.”

“Anything else happen?” Hunter asks.

“Um, they teleported away at the exact same time you teleported in here.”

His brow furrows. “Are you sure? I couldn’t sense that anyone else had teleported in this room.”

“Um, yeah, I’m sure. They went poof.”

“Just because they went poof, doesn’t mean they’re gone,” he says, his lips curving slightly.

“Well, since I’ve never heard of anyone actually going invisible and staying invisible while moving, I didn’t really think about that.”

“Kai can do it if he focuses hard enough,” Parker says, deep in thought. “Although, from what I understand it’s not easy.”

“Maybe we’re dealing with a witch?” Talon suggests.

“But why would a witch want to hurt me? The only witch I know is Kai.”

“Maybe it’s not a witch who wants to hurt you, but someone just hired the witch?” Farrah says.

“Hiring a witch makes a bit more sense,” I mutter.

“Do you think it was Torn?” Talon asks Hunter.

Hunter shakes his head. “I don’t think so. Torn doesn’t normally make someone else do his dirty work.”

“Okay, well it was a punishment.” Parker looks at me. “The other question should be, what did you do to warrant that kind of a punishment?”

I shrug. “Who knows? I piss people off on a daily basis.”

Farrah snickers. “That’s true enough from what I’ve heard.”

“What do you mean?”

“My dad’s pissed at you, my mom’s pissed at you, and if I remember correctly you’ve got Chelsey and her little girl squad pissed at you.”

I roll my eyes. “Nothing new.”

"How're you feeling?" Talon asks, rubbing a hand across my back.

"Better," I say softly leaning against his shoulder. "I am tired, though," I mutter, my eyes drifting shut.

Talon chuckles softly, and I feel his lips brush against my hair. "Sleep, Mercy."

* * *

"Mercy," says a dark, chilling voice, echoing in my head. "You can't run from me."

Looking around, I frown when I see I'm just at my house that I've shared with my mom for the past several years.

Wait, didn't Roderick say that the house was torn apart? Why am I here?

"Mercy," that voice whispers again. "Running is pointless."

"Who are you?" I shout. The voice is vaguely familiar, I just can't place it.

A dark laugh echoes in the air and a figure dressed in a dark cloak exits the shadows of the house we're standing outside of.

I tense, automatically reaching for my dagger at my hip. My hand touches nothing but clothing. There's no dagger for me to use. No weapon.

"What do you want?" I ask, doing my best to keep my voice steady.

"I want you, little demon," the voice hisses as he walks closer to me.

"Why?"

The figure is directly in front of me now, and he reaches up to the hood that's currently covering his face.

"Because," he says as he lowers the hood, revealing Torn wearing a twisted smile, "you're mine. You can never run from me."

Gasping awake I sit up quickly and frantically look around the room, making sure that I was just dreaming and that Torn isn't actually here.

"Hey, you okay?" Hunter asks, rolling over in bed and wrapping his arm across my lap.

I rub a hand down my face before pressing the heels of my hands in my eyes. "I don't know. I guess . . . I just had a really weird dream."

Hunter presses a kiss to my shoulder after he sits up, keeping me firmly wrapped in his arms. "You wanna talk about it?"

I turn my head and meet his eyes, suddenly feeling vulnerable. "It was your brother," I finally whisper.

He tenses. "What about him?" He keeps his voice soft, soothing, but I can still hear the tremor of fury in his voice.

"I-I was in front of the house I lived in with mom before I came to the Order. He wasn't visible at first. It was like he was hiding in the shadows, but I could still hear his voice as it echoed around me. At first I thought it was in my head, but it wasn't. He didn't show his face at first either. He waited until he was right in front of me to reveal himself to me."

"Was it just a dream where you saw him? Or did he actually speak?"

"He just kept repeating that I was his, and I can't ever run from him." I look down for a moment before meeting his eyes again. "Hunter, he looked similar to how he looked at Payne's. He didn't look as young as from my childhood. Is," I swallow hard, "is it possible that he can dream walk?"

Hunter's arms tighten around me as he thinks about it. "It is possible if he had the help of a witch."

"Do you think your brother is responsible for who got into my room last night?" I ask quietly.

Hunter presses a kiss to my temple. "I think it's entirely possible." We sit in silence for several minutes before he speaks again. "Come on, let’s go do something, get your mind off this crap."

"Like what?"

He smiles wickedly. "Well you've asked me before to reveal what kind of demon I am, are you no longer interested?"

I grin. "Seriously? You're actually going to tell me?"

"I'm going to show you, Doll," he mutters before taking my lips in a hot kiss. "Get dressed," he murmurs. "I'll meet you out in the courtyard."

"We aren't going together?" I ask, brows furrowed.

"No. I need to go check on the guys, make sure they have everything and make sure that War and Kai are on their way back."

"Okay," I agree, leaning forward to press a light kiss on his lips before climbing out of bed. He smirks before disappearing, making me roll my eyes.

I quickly get ready, thankful that Farrah had the guards bring me a few extra outfits with them when they brought me a t-shirt to replace my bloodied one. I'm even more thankful that they're the comfy kind.

Dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a black tank top, I throw a hoodie over my head and make my way out of the room to the courtyard.

"Hunter, I know you're there," I call out, a smile in my voice. "I can sense you, you know."

He steps out from behind the tree in front of me and grins. "Only because I let you."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever." I rub my hands together and my lips spread into a large smile. "So, you gonna show me, or what?"

He chuckles. "You're so damn impatient." He cocks his head to the side. "Any guesses before I show you?"

I purse my lips. "Hm, I doubt you're an archdemon, though you're definitely powerful enough to be one, you just don't seem to be one. You're not a fallen angel either, besides those two guesses, I've got nothing," I admit with a shrug.

He chuckles. "Not bad guesses. Close, but not quite."

I frown. "What the hell do you mean close?"

"My brother and I are the same breed of demon. We're the same breed as my father. My father has many other children. Torn and I are the only ones who are the same breed."

I glare at him. "I can't believe I actually have to ask the damn question. What are you?"

He grins and a mixture of flames and shadows surrounds his body, seeming to pulsate around him. I take a step towards him without conscious thought then stop because the shadows and flames seem to have melded together, to make Hunter's skin. Unlike with kadorika demons, who can look extremely ugly in their real form if they're not using a human skin to morph their body that way-essentially just partially shifting-the way his skin is formed is almost mesmerizing.

It blends so well, and if you look long enough, you can see the flames and shadows pulsate on his skin. Before I can even say anything a set of flame and shadowed wings push out of his back. The wingspan alone has to be similar to that of an angel or fallen angel. Although, I've never met those in person, it's still a guess because his wings are much larger than my kadorika wings are.

One thing I do know from the power that's emanating from Hunter right now is that he's always been holding back his power, he's been hiding it. Another thing I know? I have no idea what kind of demon this makes him. I've never heard of one with these abilities and I've never seen one.

"What are you?" I repeat my question and Hunter grins around a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, similar to what a kadorika has.

"I'm a zhiagnor," he says calmly.

My jaw drops. I apparently have heard of his breed. A zhiagnor demon is thought to be a legend, not real. They're also rumored to be more powerful than an archdemon, or a fallen angel. That would explain why they don't just tell people willy nilly what kind of demon they are.

In the blink of an eye, Hunter is back in his normal human-looking body.

"You okay?" He asks, a faint smile on his lips.

I nod my head. "Sure. I'm great. Just found out one of my protector, boyfriend, guys," I scowl at him. "I don't even know what the hell to call you guys!"

He chuckles. "Boyfriends works," he mutters against my mouth as he pulls me into his arms.

My scowl stays firmly in place. "Anyways, I just found out that one of my boyfriends is one of the most powerful demons in existence. That wouldn't shake anyone up, would it?"

His smile widens. "Oh, Mercy, if you think other demons can't sense the kind of power you've got welling up inside you,all untapped, you're sadly mistaken."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, your power has been growing ever since you've been able to control the hellhounds. I've been able to sense it and I'm sure War has been too." He looks into my eyes, likely seeing the panic there. "I thought you already knew."

I shake my head. "No, I didn't know. I figured my powers were still just the same."

"We'll need to find out later what all has changed, yeah?" He asks quietly.

"Sounds good," I mutter, wrapping my arms tightly around his midsection. "Hey, Hunter?"

"Yeah, Doll?"

I look up into his blood red eyes and smile. "Thank you for telling me what you are."

His lips twitch. "You’re welcome, though you don’t need to thank me."