She tried to grab at the tubes again, but I pulled her hand away. “You must leave them in. Relax, you will be fine.”
She had better be fine. I had no idea why this woman fascinated me so much, but I’d found myself unable to leave her side since I’d brought her in. The others had tried to pull me away and offered to sit with her, but I’d ordered them all to leave.
Leaning back, she relaxed into the pillows. She looked pale against the white sheets surrounding her, the black of her hair a stark contrast I found myself unable to resist. She watched me as I lifted a strand of her hair and slid the silky length of it between my thumb and index finger.
“You should have told me you were injured. I would have put a stop to it,” I told her.
A small smile tugged at her lips. “Apparently, I wasn’t hurt too badly. I finally managed to get one in on you.”
“Badly enough that you ended up in here, with these tubes coming out of you.” Those tubes and the mortality they represented for her made my skin feel too tight. I could recall the panic that had squeezed my chest when the humans had pulled her from my arms and wheeled her away from me. I’d stalked the medical personnel through the halls, refusing to let her out of my sight as they’d worked on her. “Things could have been much worse if I hadn’t gotten you here in time.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Hmm. Howdidyou manage to land a blow against me?”
“I’m a fast learner and I’ve been well trained,” she replied flippantly.
My fingers stopped their movement over her hair, but I didn’t release it. I found myself unable to part with this small piece of her. “How, River?”
She turned her head away, her eyes focusing on the ceiling. “I just knew. I don’t know why it happened, it never has before, maybe it was because I was in pain, maybe because I was sick of being dumped on my ass, but my ability to see things came over me and I saw each move you were going to makebeforeyou made it.”
The breath froze in my lungs when her eyes came back to me. There was a defiance about her I’d never seen before, a look that dared me to doubt her, but I didn’t; I couldn’t. I’d seen her on that field. It was my chest she’d hit.
“How did you move so fast? You were keeping up with me. I wasn’t at full speed, but you shouldn’t have been able to stay with me.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “I didn’t realize I was.”
“River—”
“I really didn’t realize it, not until you just said so. I knew I was moving faster and was somehow able to deflect you, but I didn’t think it was that fast.”
Releasing her hair, I leaned back in my chair to study her as I contemplated her words. I never doubted that she’d kept some of what she was capable of from me, but I didn’t think she was lying about this. She hadn’t known she could move with such speed and see her opponents moves so clearly before they made them until today, which meant there might be far more she didn’t know she could do.
Since my creation, I’d known only one thing—I had to defeat Lucifer.
If River was the one we’d been searching for, there was a good chance she could be the key to accomplishing that, or at least be of some use in closing the unnatural gateway again. In over fifteen hundred years, I’d never been this close to a secret weapon against Lucifer, one he most likely knew we were searching for, but one he may not be able to protect himself against. I’d never been so close, and I found myself wishing I could keep her from the destiny that could be awaiting her.
“Can you at least tell me, this person you’re looking for, what is it you expect them to be able to do?” she asked.
I couldn’t imagine living in the dark as she did, residing in a world of unknowing, away from her brothers and the home she’d spoken of with such reverence. I wanted to give her some shred of an answer to her question, but I couldn’t.
“I cannot tell you,” I replied.
She inhaled a deep breath and then winced.
“Are you okay?” I demanded as I leaned closer to her.
She tried to lift her hand to her side but the needle embedded in the top of it stopped her from getting it off the mattress. “Fine,” she muttered. “Kobal?”
“Yes.”
“Why do all the demons look so different?”
Some of my tension faded away as I relaxed in the chair again. I kept waiting for her to turn on me, to become incensed with my inability to help her and tell me to go away. Instead, she continued to surprise me. She may never be told why she’d been brought here, but she was determined to learn everything she could about her situation.
“There are many different types of demons, and sometimes their Chosen is a different kind of demon. If that is so, they create new breeds and versions of demons.”
“What is their Chosen?”
