Page 136 of Sorrow & Strangers

“I’m fine, promise. Just a slight mishap!”

She lifts a brow and pointedly looks at the blood trail that I’ve left on the floor. I smile placidly and slip into my room, but the minute I pass the threshold, I fall through a gaping hole in the floor. I try to scream, but the void steals all sound from me.

Chapter Sixty

The Stranger

Stubborn fool. She provoked a demon, and not just any demon but a freshly Fallen one. Opening the portal beneath her feet, I watch her drop through it. I let her fall for a long moment before catching her. I wait until her heart slams with fear, thinking she will fall forever, before I snatch her out of the air. The portal on the ceiling connecting our homes snaps shut with resounding finality.

Summer struggles on instinct, throwing punches and kicking out. I dodge the blows easily, but have to shift her in my arms to keep from dropping her. She looks up at me with wide, panicked eyes, but she stops fighting once she realizes it is me.

“Reckless,” I admonish her, already drawing a healing rune on her skin as I stride down the hallway to the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” she asks, glaring up at me, finally having found her voice.

Ignoring her, I put her down on the counter, getting to work on her arm. Wounds from a Fallen’s claws are not something she will heal from, even with her powers. I doubt either she or her adopted brother knows that a demon’s claws are poisonous, and there are very few creatures that possess a natural immunity to it, most being allies of Hell. Certainly not light fae.

Even now, tiny black threads are spreading from the wounds, and she will soon lose feeling in her arm, then her torso.

Foolish.

I mutter curses under my breath, tossing a glare her way every few minutes. Yanking some suture thread from the first aid kit, I drop the avatar from around my hand so I can cut my finger. Willing the wound to stay open, I drag the white thread through my blood, soaking it through and dyeing it crimson. Summer meets every glare I cast her way with a stubborn, defiant tilt of her chin, but she doesn’t say anything. I wait a few minutes for the thread to dry a little before carefully stitching the wounds closed with Infernal runes. It is the only way to save her from the poison coursing through her.

Summer hisses at the pain, and I snap my teeth at her. She provoked a newly Fallen with her power and darkness. What did she expect to happen?

“What were you thinking?” I snarl, the words that have been snapping and roiling inside me finally breaking free.

“What?” she asks as I finish stitching her wounds with the blood thread and begin to wrap her arm.

“Provoking a Fallen like that,” I snap, anger making my avatar tremble.

Her eyes narrow on me as I yank the gauze tight. “How the fuck did I provoke him?”

Is she serious?

“I wish he’d let me watch,” I say, hurling her own words back at her. “He is a demon. He feeds on malevolence.”

Demons exploit emotions like anger and rage in their prey. They heighten them, breaking down the safeguards we put in place to keep everyone around us safe, and once that darkness is let off the chain, the demon feasts.

She pales. “You were listening?”

“You were in the kitchen,” I say with a small shrug.

She’d just revised the oath between us and allowed me access to the kitchen. She should have known I would be watching. That I am always watching.

“Why weren’t you sleeping? Like a normal person?” she demands.

Because I rarely do. The last time I slept, truly slept, was in Hell with her. But I won’t confess that weakness. She already has enough power over me.

“Why weren’t you?” I counter, ignoring her question by asking one of my own.

“Because I am an idiot who made a deal with the devil.”

She made a deal? Fool!

“Lucifer?” I ask.

“No, you moronic asshole.” I narrow my eyes at her and yank the gauze tight on purpose, making her flinch. “Ouch!” she yelps, and I snap my teeth at her. “What the fuck is your problem?” she yells, trying to push my hands away.