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“Let’s go.” I pushed myself up, my heartbeat returning to normal. We could analyze today’s events later. Right now, we had a mission.
“Tell me you’re not allowing her on another hunt.” The annoyingly grating sound of Adam’s voice caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up straight. “Not after this.”
“I’m fine,” I shot back, clenching the muscles in my jaw. No one got to bench me.
“Fine?” He swept his gaze up and down my body. “Fine? You just collapsed in the middle of a demonic extraction. Next time, it could be during the middle of a fight. You’re a liability.”
My lips formed a snarl as Gabe’s arm reached out to stop me from advancing forward.
“This is my team,” Gabe said, his voice steady. “If you have any concerns with how I run it, you can voice them at a later time.”
“Later doesn’t work for me.” Adam crossed his arms in front of his sculpted chest. A cocky grin formed on his face. “And I don’t think Luke would appreciate hearing how you risked his daughter’s life when she’s so obviously in need of rest.”
Ashley and Raquel glanced back and forth between us as Adam and I stared each other down. He’d used his wild card in this argument and he knew it. Luke had been Gabe’s mentor long before I came into the picture. He worshiped my father and followed his every command. There was no way he’d risk his anger, not when it came to the safety of his daughter. It was a struggle just to get Gabe to loosen the reins on me once in a while. Add in the will of my father, and I was sunk.
“Maybe he’s right,” Gabe said in a low voice from the corner of his mouth.
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I sighed and rolled my eyes. Just what I had expected.
“Fine. Bench me.” I glared at Adam, wishing my gaze could burn a hole through his thick skull. “Thanks a lot.”
“Hey, I’m just looking out for you.” He threw his hands up in surrender, a lopsided grin on his lips. “That’s what friends do.”
Turning on my heel to walk away, I wrapped my hands around my waist and fumed. Some friend he was. Since I’d met Adam, he’d tried to kill me, pull his brother and me apart, and managed to annoy me in every way possible. If that was his idea of friendship, then he had more problems than he knew.
The sound of footsteps following me brought an unbidden smile to my face. A familiar hand pressed against my side, pulling me into his muscular chest. The scent of dark woods and spice filled my nose as Gabe leaned down to whisper in my ear.
“I love you.”
His warm breath tingled against my neck, sending shivers down my spine. I welcomed the feeling, closing my eyes to soak it in. Warmth flooded my gut as his hand slowly descended to my hip. But we couldn’t stay that was for long. Too soon, his touch was gone and he left to finish with the business of the priest. I remained alone at the back of the church, worry flooding back into my heart.
What if my demon was right? What if she really was getting stronger? There was only so long I could hold out before she took over everything. Would I become a prisoner in my own body?
Or would she kill me first?
Chapter Four
My feet thread the familiar path through Westward Manor to Luke’s office, the wooden box we’d confiscated from the priest tucked under my arm. Down elaborate hallways with heavy tapestries, intricately carved wood paneling, and artistic interpretations of angelic figures.
Once in a while, I liked to slow my pace and study those angels. Most of them featured winged cherubs with chubby cheeks and golden ringlets. But that was far from the image of an angel I had in my mind. Part angel, part human, my Nephilim family were warriors of the fiercest kind. Some of them appeared so beautiful, they were hard to look at. I couldn’t imagine what a real angel looked like. It would be a fearsome thing to behold.
Today, I whizzed past the artwork and headed straight toward my father’s cozy office in the second floor of the east wing. The team had dropped me off not an hour ago and headed to their next location. I know Gabe had expected me to argue with him—to fight to be a part of this next demon hunt. But I’d jumped out of the SUV willingly, kissing him on his concerned face before I ran off. My recent episode with my own demon had left me shaken and nervous.
Adam was right. I was a liability.
What I needed now was a good logical conversation with my Nephilim father. Luke knew how to objectively tackle an obstacle. If anyone could figure out how to deal with the demon in my head, it was him. I needed help. I needed my dad.
I turned the corner to his office and breathed with relief when I saw the door already swung wide open. Light streamed from southern windows through the open door frame and onto the faded paisley carpet. Picking up my step, I sprinted into the office with a grin plastered on my face.
But instead of my father, I found his similarly gray-haired sister standing behind his desk with a wastebasket and a file box. She jumped as I screeched to a halt and we stared at each other for a long moment.
“Where’s Luke?” I asked, finally finding my voice. Eyeing the full trashcan in front of her, I rounded the desk. “And what are you doing?”
“Lizzy Redding, you are a twenty-two year-old woman. You don’t need to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” She pressed a hand to her chest and sighed. “You could’ve given me a heart attack.”
I grinned. “Nephilim don’t get heart attacks.”
