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Despite the overwhelming heat rising from the pits below, every ounce of the warmth leaked from my body until there was nothing but an icy husk left behind. I lifted my jaw slightly. “Marcillo would never lower himself to the same level as a bastard child.”
Fallen angels were one thing, but a Nephilim was seen as the bottom of the barrel with absolutely nothing beneath. Even humanity stood one ring higher on the fucking ladder. Right now, there was only one walking the earth. It was probably the only thing demons agreed on with angels. The damn thing didn’t deserve any standing within the paranormal world.
A ragged laugh escaped Gabriel. “Marcillo…is desperate…to remove you…from the throne…He’s desperate…to eliminate…your father. The alliance…may be…temporary, but…he will stop…at nothing…to see your bloodline…wiped out. Just like…his.”
“His?” It was the first time Nico had chosen to speak throughout the entire conversation. When I threw a quick glance in his direction, his crimson eyes were locked on the broken angel. “There are no more demonic bloodlines. Jerk the prince around and I’ll cut out your tongue, here and now.”
Although blood continued to drip from all his severed limbs, he managed to recover enough energy for his laughter to echo off the walls. “How curious…isn’t it? The original…bloodline…completely erased…from history. Not that…it matters…You’ll all fall…one by one…until Marcillo…will take back…what is rightfully…his.”
A searing heat tore through my veins so fast that I was ready to draw blood. I jerked out of the chair with a wild snarl. “Give him to the hounds, Nico, before I toss him down there myself. His usefulness is at an end.”
The demon lord responded with a question in our tongue, yet the words never reached my ears. His voice merely grew muffled with every step I took away from him, blending in with Gabriel’s laughter and the screams from the pit down below. Eventually, it all faded into an agonizing silence.
This time, I didn’t resist the pull back to my own home. I simply allowed my magic to take me. The prince within me was fully aware of how much I was risking my pet’s life by being in her general vicinity while the beast was struggling to maintain control over our wild rage. So much of it haunted me that in the end, I couldn’t resist the call.
I just hoped that my control over the beast inside didn’t slip and take out the one thing that might actually hold me together.
QUINN
“Are you going to pace the whole time he’s gone?” I wrinkled my nose as Mateo continued to pace in front of me. All of my nerves had become a frazzled mess when the demon lord appeared in the living room seconds after the prince departed. There was a part of me that had anticipated the original one that had wanted to kill me.
Was it better that it hadn’t been? Not in the least.
There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that this one had Russian origins just by his stance alone. The way his skin was covered with various tattoos only emphasized my unspoken guess. He was downright intimidating. Add in the way his aura swirled with a rage of its own, he was just as dangerous as his red-eyed lord.
Mateo had been content to ignore me for the most part. During the next two hours that passed, he spent the majority of it at the bar with an open bottle of bourbon. His demeanor changed out of nowhere, and he was currently trying to work a worn path into the smooth wooden floor. It certainly didn’t help me when he refused to say a damn thing the entire time. Now that I’d snapped at him, those piercing wide eyes swung my way. He released a low growl.
It was the closest I would get to a verbal answer.
Although the noise raised the hair on the back of my neck, his irritation wasn’t enough to leave me curled up in a ball beside the far wall. Something had changed dramatically since the moment I’d woken up in the club and now. The demon lord’s reaction left me weary, sure, but I wasn’t going to be growled into submission now. I raised my chin defiantly and remained on the couch.
His steps faltered long enough for him to realize I hadn’t cowered away. His eyes narrowed into thin slits, but he didn’t utter a word. He simply tore his gaze away with a scowl and continued pacing. Neither of us spoke for several minutes. The demon lord’s pacing ceased the moment the energy in the air shifted dramatically. As soon as Asher’s body materialized by the bar, he stopped cold. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense.
All I had to do was shift my gaze before I understood why he was weary. There were far too many emotions swirling within Asher’s aura to tell them apart. Swallowing, I eased off the back of the couch and settled on the cushion. I was growing used to the way his behavior would shift, but this seemed to get thrown straight over into extreme. I honed in on his hands as he retrieved a bottle of wine that had been abandoned at the edge of the bar.
Mateo’s lips thinned. “Something wrong, boss?” His voice was soft.
“Leave.” Asher poured himself a full glass. Turning away, he started to chug it.
The demon lord disappeared without an ounce of protest.
I stiffened. As soon as the demon was gone, my body became aware of how alone I was now. While I could feel a wetness already beginning just from his scent alone, I was aware that this wasn’t the prince that I was accustomed to dealing with. There were sparks of rage that were quickly followed by agony, and I had no idea what would happen while he was in this state of mind. My heart pounded in my chest as I struggled to contemplate the best way to approach this situation.
A part of me was eager to remain right where I was and let him stew in his own rage until he cooled off. The rest seemed to know that the emotions probably wouldn’t die down until the turn of the century. Something had set him off. Whatever it was, it was clearly a sore subject.
Asher had yet to acknowledge me, keeping his body turned toward the window.
Nibbling on my lower lip, I eased off the couch and slowly made my way toward him. Every foot that I closed between us, I could feel my body threatening to give out. My legs grew rubbery beneath me and my lungs refused to take as much air. “Did something happen?” I murmured.
He turned his head slightly, uttering a guttural growl. It was a warning, one enough to stop me cold. Those golden eyes didn’t stray toward me. Instead, they remained fixed upon the drawn curtains as if his life depended on it.
I remained still for a minute while I waited for his thoughts to stray again. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that this move was absolutely reckless, yet I couldn’t convince myself to head in the opposite direction. This horrible brew of emotions drew me to him just as much as the hunger we shared did, except I yearned to ease this pain that haunted him. “What can I do?”
The muscles in his jaw flexed. “You can return to your room and leave me be.”
The attempt to soften his voice was noticeable, and the small hint of concern within his voice simply ensured my body wouldn’t allow me to abandon him now. Drawing in a deep breath, I reached out and rested a hand against his back. The only thing I had expected was for him to tear away from me, snarling the command again. I didn’t anticipate him to simply drop the wine glass, jerk around, and seize me by the throat. My vision went hazy as he slammed me against the window.
The glass shattered at our feet while the prince leaned forward to hiss in my ear, “I told you to leave me be. Could it be that you are still trying to force my hand so that I will kill you?”
