I folded my arms over my chest. “I hate catering to this species.”
“It’s what must be done if we’re going to get them to leave here. And you might think about catering to at least one of them a little more, given your Chosen is more human than not.”
My lip curled back and Shax backed cautiously away from me. “Fine,” I snarled. “I’m going to speak with Mac. She needs a shower; take her over there,” I commanded Bale.
“I will,” she said.
“Shax, Corson, come with me. The humans like you best.”
“That’s what comes of leaving them in one piece,” Corson muttered.
I glowered at him, but turned on my heel and led the way down the hill toward the town. I didn’t bother with trying to clean myself up. I was tired of pretending to be more human than we were. If this species was going to survive, they had to trust and work with us; they had no other options.
Humans scurried to get out of my way when we arrived at the main road and I strode toward the house at the end. Mac answered the door before we arrived there. His gaze raked over my bloodstained clothes before he stepped aside to let me enter.
***
River
The man who had been working on hand-to-hand combat with a lanky tall woman took a step back and accidentally hit my foot, knocking me off balance. “Sorry!” he yelped and jumped away from me.
He had to easily be two hundred pounds of solid muscle, yet he backed away from me and shot a look at Kobal like he weighed no more than a five-pound Chihuahua. I scowled at him before shooting an infuriated look at Kobal, who merely smiled blandly at me in return. He held his palms up toward me in offering to be my sparring partner.
Instead of going at him and finally releasing some of my pent-up misery by beating at those palms and his infuriatingly enticing physique, I turned away from my newly assigned sparring partner, Corson, and stalked across the clearing to the cooler of water on the side.
I poured myself a cup from the tap as I listened to the grunts, heavy breathing, and thwacks of flesh on flesh while the group of fifty handpicked soldiers worked together. We would be leaving in two days, and I could feel the sand running through the hourglass of my life. None of the soldiers had done any training with me. They either avoided me like I had the plague or treated me as if I were more fragile than glass.
Either way, I’d officially become an outsider all the way around. I didn’t fit in with the humans; they were petrified to brush against me. The demons were mostly protective of me, but distant. Bale and Corson had started to have more interaction with me as they’d been assigned to replace Kobal and work with me in private on my ability to wield life.
I didn’t comment on the fact Kobal had told me to keep it a secret. We may not be speaking, but I knew he wouldn’t do anything to endanger me. He trusted them, and I was beginning to trust them more too, though I kept how good I was really getting at it from all of them.
Kobal and I continued to avoid each other like the mature adults we were. Well, I wasn’t sure if being over fifteen hundred years old qualified him as an adult, maybe an ancient would be a better term for him. Me, I had mastered the art of ignoring him when all I wanted was to throw myself into his arms. The marks on my neck were fading, and the more they did, the more freaked I became over the knowledge they would one day be gone for good.
The realization robbed my breath from me and caused my chest to clench so fiercely I couldn’t draw a new breath. I needed those marksback.
I wanted to feel loved and cherished, even if it was in the demon way that could result in human head removal.
I shuddered at the reminder of Eileen’s warm blood splattering over my face. I wanted to know I wouldneverbecome like Lucifer, or that I couldn’t be used as the one weapon he’d never had against Kobal. Kobal had said a demon would still recognize me as his if the marks faded from me, but perhaps without them they wouldn’t think of me as a weapon. They would think of me as the Chosen who wasn’t. I could hope anyway. I’d rather die than be the one who brought him down.
And then there was Lucifer’s gift. Every night I lay away thinking about it, quaking in dread and yearning for the security of Kobal’s arms. What could the gift possibly be? Nothing good, of that much I was certain, but how awful would it be? And when would it come? I had no doubt I’d recognize it for what it was the second I saw it.
I didn’t look at Kobal when I felt the heat of him against my back. My body tensed as longing and suffering tore through me, shaking my muscles and burning my eyes.It’s for the best,I reminded myself for the thousandth time.
It did little good.
“You have to get back on the field,” he said gruffly.
Finishing off my water, I placed my cup down next to the cooler and turned away. I walked across the field toward Corson. He’d always been the most approachable of the demons with his easygoing smile, handsome face, and the shiny earrings dangling from the tips of his ears. He smiled at me now before glancing at Kobal.
I didn’t follow Corson’s gaze; Kobal’s face had been emblazoned in my mind in the three days since our fight. I couldn’t look at him right now without crying, and I couldn’t think about the fact Bale had stayed in the main tent last night instead of him. My heart had been sliced open and shredded by the possibility he may have returned to the fire last night while I’d cried myself into a fitful sleep.
You’re the one who told him to get out.
And he’s the one who told you you were acting hysterically after tearing the head off of someone.
The same someone who tried tokillyou.
Sometimes I really hated my inner voice.
