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With a sharp nod, he stood and began pacing, reminding me of a caged lion. “I’ll call my cousin Silas, see if his wife Natalie can help. Perhaps she can put us in contact with the Siren Coven. They stopped Lucifer once before. They might be able to do something.”
Everything was making a horrible, grim sort of sense. The demons coming after me. The wards reacting to me and not Alek. Why I’d never met my mother. Why she was asking me to free her.
Crap. I was the literal spawn of Satan.
“I... oh, God, Noah. I can’t be here. I can’t...” My breaths came in harsh gasps as panic clawed at my throat, my blood humming with anxiety.
Noah pulled me into his arms, pressing his lips to my forehead as he murmured reassurances against my skin. “It’s going to be all right, dove. I don’t bloody well care who your parents are. You’re mine, and I won’t give you up. Not even for the ruler of the underworld herself. We will figure this out. We will keep you safe.”
It was hard to miss the plural there, and his intentional usage of it warmed me. I wasn’t alone. I may not have Caleb, but I still had three other mates willing to stand at my side and protect me.
“I think I’m calling the demons to me. It’s not safe for you to be near me. None of you. You should lock me away in the well until we know how to stop this. I’m a risk to be around.”
“No, Sunday. Absolutely not. You are not a threat to anyone. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“But—”
“No. If anything, you are a victim. Locking you away and leaving you unprotected is the worst thing we could do. I won’t hear of it.”
“Noah, if I’m the literal Antichrist, I think I should be treated like a dangerous ticking time bomb, not a victim. Handle with care, but also wear a bomb-resistant vest.”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, I’m pretty much bomb-proof. I think I’ll take my chances.”
A frantic giggle escaped me. “God, we’re like the beginning of a bad joke. The Antichrist, a vampire, and a priest walk into a bar...”
“We’re the beginning of a beautiful forever, dove. There’s nothing bad about what we have.”
“How can you say that when—”
He shut me up with a kiss, proving with his body what I wouldn’t hear with his words.
He loved me. He believed in me—in us. He wouldn’t listen to anything else.
I melted against him, some of the fear ebbing in the wake of his unshakable faith. “Okay. I’ll trust you for now, but at the first sign of this going tits up, I want you to lock me away. I don’t want to hurt anyone or be the reason they get hurt.”
“Sunday—”
“Promise me, Noah. Promise you’ll do it.”
He sighed, looking like he would rather do anything than agree. But eventually he did. “Fine.”
His arms tightened around me, lips ghosting over the crown of my head as he held me close. Then he stiffened, his head turning, focus on the bank of windows to his left.
“Something’s going on outside,” he murmured. “Stay here.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said, rolling my eyes and following him.
When did that ever work? Was there any situation in any reality when someone didn’t go see what was causing the ruckus?
The instant I glanced out the window, I wished I wouldn’t have. Derek and Chad, wolves I knew ran with Kingston often, were carrying something across the grounds. They were both stained and battered, covered in blood and dirt.
“Oh, my God, Noah. What happened to them?”
“Demons,” he answered grimly. “Two of them this time.”
I didn’t question how he knew. His hearing was far superior to mine, and with all the conversations happening down below, there was little doubt he’d overheard them. A sickening twist in my belly had me fighting the bitter taste of bile in my throat.
“But how?”
He shook his head, his expression tight when he looked back at me. “That’s not the worst part. Sunday... it’s Kingston.”
“What? No, it’s not. He’s fine. I’d know if...” But even as I stared down at the bundle they carried, wrapped in bloodied cloth, I knew the truth. The blanket covering him fell away just enough a part of his tattooed chest came into view, a ragged slice cutting through skin, exposing bone. “No.”
“Go. He’ll need his mate. Go to him now, dove.”
He didn’t need to tell me twice. I was already running for the door. My heart felt like it had just been ripped from my chest for the second time that day.
Don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.
I can’t lose you too.
