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With no Zander to be found, I wanted to go back to the vampire lair. Though the vamps despised me and I them, I’d rather be with them than the demons. Markane and Abacus were tolerable somewhat. But at least Victus was taking Dawn.
Get your shit together. You’re one of the superiors of OA. You came to save Zander and kill Asmodeus. You have a goal.
“Promise me.” I matched his stern gaze. “Don’t hurt Dawn, please.”
Victus regarded me and for a moment when his expression softened, I thought he would agree. Instead, he jolted out of his seat and offered a curt nod to Asmodeus. “Thank you for your hospitality, but we must be on our way.”
“Very well, King Victus. I’ll have Levia give you a chest full of rubies.” Asmodeus leaned back into his seat and jerked his chin to the soldier by the cage to release Dawn. “It was a pleasure doing business with you. We must do this again. Hopefully not too soon.” He let out a dry fake laugh.
Victus strutted away in silence. His tall and muscular stature commanded attention. His shadow grew five times his size, cast by all the candlelight on the wall like a formidable warrior.
Abacus and Markane looked at me with kind eyes for the first time, as if they knew they would never see me again, then followed their king.
Levia walked behind them but kept her distance.
Two soldiers opened the cage and dragged Dawn toward the door but kept the cuffs on her wrists. The three demon lords bid farewell to Asmodeus with a kiss on his rings and left.
Dawn looked over her shoulder just before she crossed the threshold, worry on her stricken face.
I lowered my head. I couldn’t look at her, for I had failed her too. But what would become of me and Zander?
Chapter Thirty-One
Zander
Evangeline
Only Asmodeus and I remained in the room. No hematite cuffs on my wrists. No soldiers guarding me. It was my chance to slice his throat or gut him. I slowly lowered my hand to my boots.
As if he knew what I was thinking, he adjusted his golden crown and said, “Don’t try anything. My soldiers will be running through the door at my command. I just want to talk to you. If you behave, I’ll let you see Zander.”
Asmodeus knew how to play me. If entertaining him would get me to see Zander, then I would do it.
He picked up Victus’s full goblet and sniffed. “It’s too bad that a vampire's primary form of sustenance is blood.”
“They deserve their punishment.” I pushed back Victus’s plate of cake he hadn’t eaten.
The goblet thumped on the table. “Then who punishes OA?”
I stiffened. “How dare you say such a thing.”
Asmodeus’s features contorted as if I had grown a horn, then the lines on his brow eased. “You’re not all knowing. And nobody’s hands are clean, not even your angels.”
“What do you know?” I pounded a fist on the table, the candlelight flickered. “Stop this mockery. You are nothing but a damaged soul who stole a body from some helpless human being.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw and his fingers with gemstone rings curled inward. “A soul had to be already damned to be taken. So I did him a favor.” He placed a hand on his chest. “This body and soul were going to the abyss anyway.”
I scoffed. “You’re full of shit. You expect me to believe you?”
He swiped an arm across the table in one swift move, barely missing the candles. Dishes shattered and goblets clanked as they tumbled to the tiled floor. “I have no shame in what I did to get here!” His voice rose as he stabbed my forehead with a finger. “You have been blind. You only see what you want to see.”
I was tired of him badmouthing the OA. There were no beings above them. No one truer and braver. They were the law.
“It is you who are blind.” I rubbed at the lingering sore spot where the ruby pendant burned on my chest. “I feel sorry for you. For you will never see the light.”
Asmodeus chuckled with no humor and ran a hand down his face. “And you need to see the darkness. Do you know how vampires were created?”
I scooted the chair to the side, gaining some distance from him, and crossed my legs for easy access to my dagger. “Your scientists created vampires. You tried to fashion a stronger generation to bring down the angels but failed. Instead, you bred monsters you couldn’t contain. Their blood lust spread like a plague.”
