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“She’s been hit by death orbs,” Keenan told him.
“I know. Raini explained everything.” Maddox glanced at Khloé’s pale form. “If you want your imp to live, you need to let me act now. She won’t live much longer.”
“You’re so sure he’s not here to hurt her, Raini?” Teague asked, his eyes narrowed.
“I’m sure.” The blonde sighed. “Look, we have nothing to lose by letting him try to heal Khloé. If we don’t, she’ll die anyway.”
Fuck if she wasn’t right.
“I say we let him,” Penelope immediately piped up. Others agreed while some remained silent, unsure.
Sensing that all eyes were on him, Keenan nodded at Maddox. “But if you harm her, you die.”
“And you die hard,” Teague added.
Looking unaffected by the threat, Maddox walked to the bed and took Khloé’s free hand. He didn’t hold it. He held his palm flat to hers, just as Eric had done.
Keenan’s demon coiled inside him, ready to pounce and attack Maddox if he made a wrong move. Keeping her other hand tight in his, Keenan tensed as the descendant’s palm began to glow with a blood-red light. That light seemed to shoot into Khloé, illuminating her veins; pumping through them like a transfusion of some kind.
Power snapped the air taut and heated the room, making his skin prickle and every hair on his body lift. Hope and skepticism still played havoc with his system, causing his stomach to cramp and his muscles to tighten.
Keenan’s heart leaped as the pulse beating against his thumb steadied and strengthened. The rise and fall of her chest was no longer so gentle or subtle. A little color returned to her face, making her look haggard but not near death’s door.
As the red glow spread to the veins in her face and scalp, Khloé’s back bowed almost violently. Her eyes snapped open, and she took a shaky breath.
His heart thudding, Keenan sat on the edge of the bed and squeezed her hand. “Baby?”
She blinked at him. “Feel like I got hit by a freight train,” she rasped.
Relief shuddered through him and made his throat thicken. Keenan lifted her and set her on his lap. Pressing his mouth to her hair, he curled his arms tight around her, holding her close as everyone crowded and fussed over her, some still crying.
Penelope tried taking her from him, but Keenan wasn’t having any of it. Yeah, it made him selfish, but he could live with that.
“It’s good that I came here when I did,” said Maddox. “She didn’t have long left.”
Keenan stared at him. “How were you able to do that? To heal her? You’re not an archangel.”
“Far from it,” Maddox easily agreed.
Sensing the male wasn’t going to elaborate, Keenan said, “I owe you.”
“No, you don’t.” Maddox’s gaze cut to Raini and gleamed with possession. “But you do. Don’t forget our agreement.”
The succubus lifted her chin a notch. “I won’t.”
With that, Maddox left, his arm brushing Raini’s as he passed. Khloé frowned. “What agreement?”
Ignoring the question, Raini came closer and gently rubbed Khloé’s leg. “How do you feel?”
Taking stock of herself, Khloé replied, “Like shit, but … alive.” More alive than she’d felt in a while. She let out a shaky breath. “He really did heal me. The infection is completely gone—I can feel it.” Her demon leaned into Keenan, relieved and tired.
“Well, thank the holy mother of fuck for that,” clipped Ciaran, scrubbing a hand down his face.
“No, we have Maddox to thank,” said Khloé. And after feeling a taste of his power, she could confirm … “He’s far from holy.”
Knox took a step toward Raini. “You said you went to find him. Why?”
“I heard from someone that a small number of archangels fell from heaven a long, long, long time ago,” replied Raini. “I heard that they fell and copulated with demons, much like normal angels did, and that they produced children. Those children grew up among the Nephilim, but they were different; stronger; more dangerous.”
Khloé felt her brow furrow. She hadn’t heard of that.
Raini went on, “I thought that maybe Maddox might know someone who descended from archangels—it seemed a slight chance that they’d have the power to heal or fight the essence of death, but I figured it was worth asking.”
“And it turns out that Maddox has that power,” said Jolene, her eyes narrowed.
Raini swallowed. “It would seem so.”
Harper sidled up to the succubus. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
Raini nodded. “He just said that he could heal Khloé; he didn’t explain why. But it can only mean that he’s the descendant of an archangel.”
“A very, very powerful one,” said Levi. “Add in all the demonic blood that flows through his system, and it makes him seriously fucking dangerous.”
“More dangerous than we’d previously imagined,” added Tanner.
He wasn’t wrong there. What had surged through Khloé was archangelic power with a dark twist. “He didn’t fight the death essence with pure life. He fought it with something else. It had life—so much life—but it wasn’t pure. And it was so much more potent than the death orbs that Enoch hit me with. I could never have expelled out of my system whatever Maddox just sent into me.” Not with Ciaran’s aid, not with anyone’s.
