Page 39 of Realm of the Wicked

And there was no way that was even a possibility.

14

DAMIEN

Eight Years Ago

‘Watch it, man!’ The man who shoved his way past me positively reeked of cheap gin, enough so that I was certain if I lit a match near him, he’d ignite.

I pursed my lips, thinking. It honestly wasn’t the worst option I’d considered. Besides, from the way he was swaying, he should absolutely not be driving, and yet here he was, stumbling toward a car, a set of keys in his hand. Fuck knew how many people he’d hurt tonight on his little innocent bender.

But before I could consider snatching the keys away from him, or revisit the whole setting-on-fire idea, he had piled himself into the car and screeched out of the parking lot.

I sighed, leaning back on the cool brick wall. Such was my life. As much as I’d learned the patterns of people who deserved to be punished and those who deserved a second chance, I couldn’t save them all. I’d spent too much time trying, once I’d come to my senses, and it only ever brought me failure.

The more I’d try and protect, the more I’d lose. In the long run, it wasn’t worth it. Humans were going to be humans, and I’d have to let them play out. I didn’t have the emotional capacity to try and sort through them myself any more. Didn’t have the strength to try and save them.

Except for her. She deserved saving. Maybe more so than anyone else in this forsaken world.

I tried to do my best, protecting her when I could. I was more successful sometimes than others, but I couldn’t watch her all the time, as much as I wanted to.

Stella. I heard her name for the first time when her sister raced toward her at the hospital they’d brought her parents to, even though they were far past saving. I heard a nurse say to another that she’d insisted, just in case there was a chance.

Even then, she always believed there was a chance. There was hope.

I wasn’t there for her parents. She came from good people, people who loved their children with their whole hearts. I was at the hospital that night for someone else, a waste of space, not worth the small amount of brain power it would take to bring him back to Hell with me. When Grace ran through the halls, calling out Stella’s name like a prayer, it caught my attention. Stella reached for her sister, still a child really, and I watched as she carefully tucked away any of her own feelings, leaving herself a blank slate for Grace.

That amount of power, the amount of emotional control it took to be the master of your emotions like that, struck me where I stood. I shook off the feelings the best I could, but I found myself drawn to her, time and time again. I told myself I was waiting for her to slip up. There was only one way off this decrepit ride, and that was with me dragging her with me to Hell.

Except the slip-up I’d been waiting for never happened. My captivation turned into an obsession. How could a woman who’d experienced so much heartache still stand? How did she not turn to a life of darkness?

I helped her along the way when I could. Little things, really. Found lost keys for her. Helped her lawyer ‘discover’ money when there was none. Which was how I found myself here tonight, at a dingy bar I really didn’t care to be at. I spent so much of my time around terrible humans, I didn’t want to add to that any more than necessary. But in the last month or so, I’d noticed a change in Stella. She was slipping more often, her perfect mask cracking in places it hadn’t been cracked before.

She was losing herself. I’d been waiting for it to happen, biding my time, and now that the moment was here, all I wanted was for her to find herself again.

I’d wasted enough time. I pushed off the wall, brushing the thick smoke out of my way as I walked past the bouncer with a glare that had him backing away.

The smoke wasn’t any better inside the bar. Loud music with zero soul pulsed through the room. People pushed up against each other at the bar, impatient for service, and still more danced under the colored lights on the small dance floor. I was certainly the only sober one here.

I hated it.

Someone ran a hand over my arm and I jerked my arm away in response. ‘What the fuck?’

The woman next to me was entirely unfazed by my attitude, a bright smile on her face as she said something I couldn’t hear over the awful noise they pretended was music.

I shook my head, ready to walk away from her. But she stopped me with her hand on my arm again. It took everything in me not to snap her hand off at the wrist for touching me.

‘My friend thinks you’re cute!’ she screamed in an attempt to be heard over the noise.

I cringed. Great. This again. I picked her hand off me, and brushed her aside. Cute. Would they still think I was cute if they knew my day job? Fucking imbeciles.

I needed to find Stella. She’d been in here for a while now, and I wanted to make sure she was okay.

The bright-red top she’d been wearing didn’t stand out to me at the bar. I scanned the dance floor next, not seeing her there either. Fuck. I dragged my hands through my hair. Had she slipped out without me noticing? If I missed her leaving because of Too-Drunk Teddy, I was going to use everything in my power to track him down and drag him back to Hell with me. She could’ve left with anyone. I didn’t trust those supposed friends of hers to keep her safe.

Stella seemed to orbit on the outskirts of them, and from what I’ve seen on other nights out, they were far too quick to leave her behind for a guy, or whatever else seemed to catch their eye.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by human nature any more.