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The monster shoved at Cain, wanting to go to her. Soon, he promised it as he turned to the other Ancients. Like him, they sported plenty of injuries—some minor, some edging the state of serious—but they stood tall.
“He’s finally gone,” Azazel said to Cain.
Yes, the male who’d played a big part in ensuring that Cain’s childhood was one of complete misery was now literally dead to the world. Maybe it hadn’t truly hit Cain yet, because he felt none of the insanely sadistic triumph he’d expected to feel. “I’ll have my aides collect his body.”
“Can we send it back to Adam in tiny little pieces?” asked Azazel.
Cain pursed his lips and inclined his head. “It’s an idea I’ll certainly entertain.” For now, he just wanted to go to his witch.
As they stalked down the hallways of his Keep, Wynter slid the broody Ancient beside her a sideways glance. When she’d told him what had happened earlier with Saul and Demetria, the last thing she had expected was that Cain’s mood would plummet. But now he was all growly and frowny and shit.
“I would have thought you’d find this a good thing. Two of your jailors died tonight. Two.” And she was thoroughly pleased—actually, it was more like overjoyed—that freaking Abel was now firmly out of the picture. “That essentially means you’re two steps closer to freedom.”
“Of course that’s a good thing,” he said. “What’s not good is that I bought Demetria’s lies; I believed Saul was gone. It should have occurred to me that something was wrong when I didn’t catch sight of you leaving the manor earlier. But I thought you’d already put yourself into position before I arrived.”
A reasonable assumption, in her opinion. “I’d have done the same, in your shoes. Come on, Cain, you were hardly going to assume that Saul must in fact be in the city and had chosen that moment to come at me again.”
“Because, like I said, I believed he’d hightailed it out of Devil’s Cradle.” Cain ground his teeth. “I know better than to take someone’s word when it comes to shit that serious.”
“It wasn’t simply Demetria’s ‘I had a vision’ claim that made you believe he’d left, though, was it? No one had been able to find him, and he hadn’t tried to come at me even once when he could have hijacked someone’s mind to force them to kill me.” Probably in the hope that they’d believe he’d fled.
Cain sighed but didn’t respond.
“We had every reason to suspect he’d left,” she persisted. “The oracle’s claim only added weight to our belief. But even when she seemed to have confirmed it, you didn’t pull my guards away. You played it safe.”
He grunted, apparently not appeased. “Did your monster make her and Saul suffer?”
“If you count tearing them apart and eating them while they were alive and screaming, yes. I can’t give you a more detailed account of what happened—I completely black out when my monster takes over. You’re aware of what’s going on when your creature’s in control, aren’t you?”
He fired her a look that said he knew she was simply aiming to change the subject. “Yes. I’m in the backseat of the car; I’m observing what’s happening, but I can’t get to the wheel. The car only stops when my creature decides to switch off the engine.”
“How’s your creature doing right now?” she asked as they reached Cain’s chamber. “I mean, it’s been quite a night.”
Cain opened the wooden door and waved her inside. “If my monster could, it would be knocking back shots of tequila and blowing party poppers.” Following her into the chamber, he shut the door behind them. “It hated Abel with a passion. Though not quite as much as it detests Adam, which I can relate to.”
The motherfucker would soon be gone too.
Cain ushered her into the bathroom and grabbed a pair of tweezers out of the vanity unit. “Before we shower, I’m going to pluck all this gunk out of your hair or it’ll block the drain.”
Good call. “So . . . you doing okay?”
“If you’re wondering if I’m struggling with the knowledge that I ended Abel’s life, the answer is no.” Using the tweezers, he let a meaty chunk that might have been brain plop into the trashcan beside the vanity. “I’m not sorry I killed him. I don’t even regret that I’m not sorry. I’m glad he’s dead because he wasn’t worth shit; he would have killed you, and now one more of my jailors is gone. But I’m not internally celebrating either.”
She silently winced as the tweezers tugged at her hair. “You thought you would?”
“I expected to feel more—Shit, you have an actual tooth in your hair.” He dropped it in the trash and then said, “The moment Abel died, I felt a sick satisfaction for sure. A satisfaction that ran deep and cold. A sense that unfinished business was now addressed. But that’s about it. I can’t call up much more emotion about it.”
“Why would you? You mostly shut off from what Abel made you feel when you were just a kid. Plus, you might have craved vengeance and freedom all these years, but you didn’t nurture your bitterness and anger at him. You mentally shoved him aside. You lived your life. You focused on you. It’s what helped keep you emotionally stable while imprisoned. It’s a good thing, and it’s the reason you’re not overflowing with a bloodthirsty satisfaction right now. He cast you into the role of antagonist, but you didn’t do the same to him.”
“No, I didn’t.” Cain dumped yet more gory bits into the trash. “If Abel had killed me, he would have felt like he’d ‘won.’ For him, we’d been in competition all our lives. It was never like that for me.”
“Adam was the one you focused all your loathing on,” she understood.
Cain nodded. “Abel was just his mini-me.”
“And therefore not a good substitute for killing Adam—it’s him you want. So I think we can both agree that it’s little wonder you’re not feeling as smug as your creature is. What have your aides done with Abel’s body?”
“Stashed it in a pit in my dungeon.”
