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I try to command my feet to turn me around, but I can’t move. Vincent twists his fingers, tightening the invisible chain he locks around me until I gasp and heave. I fall to my knees on the tan carpet and hang my head.
“I didn’t move,” I manage to spit out, my lungs tight and stinging with each shallow breath. “I was kidnapped.”
“Then I suppose it’s a good thing I found you. We don’t want to risk you dying without me. I’m sure you would prefer not to risk a monster devouring your soul before I have the chance to properly reap it.” Sitting up, Vincent swings his legs over the edge of the bed and gets to his feet. His skeletal-like frame freaks me out even more with him towering over me, his sunken eyes looking ready to fall into his skull. It sets off the sensation that has turned me into an excellent hunter, because it’s like I have a sense for evil, and when I can see it coming, I can strategize how to fight.
Too bad for me, I can’t send this dickhead, lying, despicable bastard back to Hell without risking him dragging me down with him. Instead, I do the only thing I can think of. I turn on the balls of my feet and sprint away as fast as I can. If I can keep distance between us, maybe someone will come back and intervene. I hadn’t wanted to make a deal with Raven’s soul keepers, but now that I have and now that I see they aren’t chaining me up, I will fight to stay.
“Wicked hunter, there is no point in running. This is the house of the devils. I’m stronger than ever graced with the darkness that clings to everything. How very lucky I am to have your soul to grant me access. It makes this far easier.” Vincent grabs me by the neck and lifts me off my feet.
The sudden theft of my breath slackens my body, my chest and lungs wanting nothing more than to just give up. I know if I put up a fight now, Vincent might collect my soul early. I never added that in my contract the same way I fucked up and didn’t include anything about where the lung cancer would go once my best friend and most trusted confidant was healed of this terminal disease.
My eyes bug out with the agony. An image of Preston comes to the forefront of my mind only to have it obliterated with Raven and her bright soul, the perfect reflection of mine. I close my eyes, my body going slack. This is it. I’m going to Hell. I’m going to be Vincent’s slave for all eternity, and this stunt guarantees the worst punishment. Had I just accepted things and acted like an obedient bastard, he’d have gone a bit easier on me. My soul wouldn’t be moments away from discovering if taking a pounding from behind wouldn’t require the training Dante teased me about. The bastard. Fuck him. He and Kase should’ve been here. Raven and the new devil Micah should’ve been here. Now I’m going to die alone and in misery, with an eternity of regrets.
Just when shadows try to steal my vision, the constriction on my throat loosens, and I hit my knees to the floor. I gasp in deep, painful breaths, but I’ll take this new torment over what Vincent surely has in store.
“Elias, shit. Shit.” Raven’s gentle hand rubs between my shoulder blades, warming my skin. “Can you get up? We need to move.”
I swallow the burning in my throat, trying to speak, but give up and nod my head instead. An ear-piercing roar quakes across the hallway, rumbling the floor with its vibration. Jerking my attention in the direction, I nearly shit myself at the raging boar-like beast charging after Vincent in his grotesquely bloody skeletal form—all bones and tissue without the skin.
“Hurry,” Raven says, squeezing my hand. She wraps her arm around my waist and takes some of the weight off my aching body. “We need to get to the safe room.”
“Safe room?” The words sound hoarse coming from my mouth. And fucking A. Why didn’t anyone tell me there was a safe room in this gigantic house? I’d have spent my night in there rather than just screwing around everywhere else.
“It’s at the end of the hall. Last door on the right.” Raven nearly drags me the remaining dozen feet to the metal door that swings open by her presence alone. “I’m sorry no one told you. I just found out myself from Micah.”
“The bastards,” we both say in unison, and I can’t stop the smile cracking across my face.
This isn’t a happy moment, and as quickly as my smile comes do I force it away, but I feel so damn relieved watching the metal door swing closed, locking us in an...apartment-like suite. The studio setup looks ready to accommodate us for weeks with the non-perishable groceries waiting to be put away on the counter, the king-sized bed made and looking inviting as fuck, and a sectional couch with a TV in front ready to melt our minds.
“Here, let me help you to the couch,” Raven says, half-carrying me forward as my body chooses now to give up on doing anything other than just hanging on to the last fragile strings of my life.
“Darlin’, can I lie on the bed? I feel like I’m dying,” I mutter, forcing my feet to work. It makes me feel pathetic as fuck with Raven needing to help me.
“You better not be,” she responds, tightening her...bloodstained features.
I stare at her in shock for a moment, drinking in the state of her clothes covered in blood. My eyes automatically search for injuries, but with the amount of blood? There is no fucking way she’d be hauling my ass around if it belonged to her. The amount looks like it came from a fatal injury. Spattering across her skin like she was aggressively stabbing someone.
I snap out of my thoughts and motion at the front of her shirt. “Where the fuck have you been and what the fuck were you and the raging asshole doing? Sacrificing virgins?”
She laughs in exasperation and pushes me a little too hard toward the bed. I lose my balance and land face-first on the comforter. It steals the giggles from her mouth. Sucking in a breath, she hurries to flip me over, my body relaxing under her touch. The second she bows forward, hovering her hands over me as she ensures she didn’t cause more damage, I realize how thankful I am that the bastard angels denied my request for salvation at her expense. Her vibrant aqua eyes capture mine, and she swallows and wets her lips. I experience a moment of déjà vu, looking up at her like this with the light haloing the world around her soul.
Reaching up, I comb her hair behind her ear and say, “I’m okay. I promise. You didn’t hurt me, darlin’. I’m still reeling from Vincent.” I open and close my mouth, surprised by my ability to say his name. Maybe it’s because we’re alone and we’re far more connected than I realized.
“I’m going to rip his insides out and strangle him with them when my devils catch him.” Her eyes narrow at the thought. “He’s going to regret ever getting within an inch of you.”
My brows pinch together as the weight of her words sink in. I would’ve thought she’d gut the demon because hurting me put her eternity at risk. Hearing her say she’d go psycho hunter on his ass really digs into me in a good way. I’m used to being the one protecting people and not the other way around. It’s fucking hot. It takes everything not to pull her onto me and kiss her. She even leans a bit closer like she wants me to. And damn. My cock hardens with the lust she awakens in me. I shouldn’t want her like I do. It could be the end of me on more than a physical level with how dominating her soul keepers are. But the stupid, reckless part of me that makes me a good hunter thinks it’s worth the risk.
But then my dumbass coughs, fucking ruining the moment.
Raven pulls me up and plops beside me, rubbing her hand along my back. It does nothing to chill my body out, and I swear to fucking God if my lungs collapse and I die with a damn boner, I will figure out how to give the universe Hell even if I’m a demon’s little bitch.
“I don’t know how to help you,” Raven says, her voice lowering as she tries to hide her frustration. “I feel helpless.”
I clutch her leg and remain hunched over, concentrating on slow, shallow breaths. It’s getting harder and harder to inhale and exhale, my chest hurting with enough pain to make my eyes water. Fear rises the longer it takes to get myself together. What if I die right here and now? What kind of end would that be?
“Elias? Hey, Elias. Look at me.” Raven shifts off the bed to kneel between my legs. “Elias.”
My vision blurs with my slowing breathing. I blink me eyes dozens of times, trying to clear the haze, but nothing helps.
