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Pulling back, he caught her face in his hands and simply looked at her for a long moment. “You have more guts than most people I know.” He gave her a soft kiss before she had the chance to respond. “I have to take care of something. Will you wait for me at the Keep?”
She could see he wasn’t so sure that she would; that he wondered if she’d claim to need a little space. Dumbass. “I’ll be there.”
Warmth and satisfaction bloomed in his eyes. “Good girl.” Another kiss, and then he was gone in a blur of movement.
Turning to her coven, she swept a hand down her face and then whistled low. Jesus Christ, that was intense.
Xavier blew out a heavy breath, his eyes wide, and put a hand to his chest. “Shit, my heart is pounding right now.”
“My nape has a cold sweat going on,” said Anabel with a shudder.
Delilah, now back in her human form, rubbed at her throat. “So Cain has a monster of his own, huh? Did you know, Wyn?”
“I’d sensed it,” replied Wynter. “But I didn’t know what it was. Still don’t.”
“I think we can safely say it’s serpentine in nature,” said Xavier. “And highly venomous, given that its bite put down Saul. Do you think he’s dead?”
Wynter shrugged. “No clue. Can’t say I care if he is.”
Anabel hugged herself. “You’re gonna want to be careful around Cain, Wynter. Real careful.”
Hattie, no longer a crow, frowned. “There’s no need to freak out that he has a monster, or that it’s serpentine. Some familiars are snakes. Basilisk shape-changers are a thing.”
“But they’re just people who change shape,” Anabel pointed out. “They don’t have an inner entity that can take over their body.”
“Demons do,” said Delilah.
“Cain’s not a demon,” said Wynter, shaking her head. “He’s something else.”
Xavier lifted a brow. “‘Else’ as in ‘darker?’”
Wynter swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah, darker for sure.”
Cain walked into the dungeon of Azazel’s Keep just as the Ancient secured an unconscious Saul to the wall of a cell. The other Ancients stood back, observing. Their gazes cut to Cain as he joined them.
“Everything all right?” asked Azazel.
Knowing what they were really wondering was if his monster had lost control and bitten Wynter, Cain said, “My consort is fine.” And plain astounding. She truly amazed him.
He hadn’t known what to expect when it came to how she’d react on being finally confronted with his creature. She had rock-steady nerves and wasn’t easily fazed, true. But he’d seen fully grown, battle-experienced men pale and back away in terror when finding themselves the focus of his monster’s gaze.
The creature wasn’t in the least bit surprised that she hadn’t run. It hadn’t believed that she would. It saw no reason why she’d be repulsed, since it lacked in self-awareness. The only reason it had tested her was that it had sensed Cain’s anxiety and sought to prove that his worries were senseless.
“When I realized she was in the woods and that your monster had spotted her, I figured she’d either run like hell or freeze in fright,” said Seth. “Remarkably, she did neither.”
“She did not seem shocked by its existence at all,” commented Inanna with a slight frown, suspicious.
“She’d sensed it before now,” Cain explained.
Ishtar froze. “She knows what we are?”
He shook his head. “Only that I have an entity inside me, the same as she does.”
“I was impressed with how well she handled your creature,” said Lilith.
“Same here,” Azazel chipped in. “She didn’t run, didn’t scream, didn’t recoil. A lot of other people would have done.”
Dantalion nodded. “Your consort has won my respect, Cain. Given how she reacted, I will not object if you want to give her the truth of our history.”
