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“God, how did this become my life?” I muttered, falling back against the armchair.
“I don’t think he’s going to answer,” Nathaniel deadpanned.
I chose to ignore that.
For the next hour, Nathaniel inspected my apartment, opening every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, walking through both my and Kylie’s rooms, checking the locks on every window, and leaving to check out the rest of the building.
I let him do his thing, not bothering to get up from the armchair.
I couldn’t believe he wanted me to tell Kylie the truth. The truth was crazy. Then again, how could I lie to her? And if Nathaniel wanted her to know the truth, all he had to do was show her his wings. It was hard to deny what he was when he had six-foot wings coming out of his back.
“What did you do with the stake?”
I jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn’t heard him come back into the apartment. “Um, it’s in my bedroom.”
“Are you going to be more specific, or do you want me rummaging through your drawers and whatever other hidey-holes you have in there?”
I glared at him. “I’ll get it.” I really didn’t want him going through my dresser, and even if I could tell him exactly which drawer the stake was in—which I couldn’t—it would still require him to see some clothing I wasn’t planning on showing him.
He followed me into my room, and I could feel his eyes on my back as I retrieved the stake.
“Here you go.” I held the metal thing out to him. His fingers brushed mine as he took the weapon from me. Like when he had grabbed my wrist earlier, his touch was warm and not at all unpleasant.
“You got this from the angel the demon killed, right?” he asked, turning the stake over in his hands.
“She was an angel?” I thought back to the raven-haired girl. She hadn’t had wings, but that didn’t mean anything. I’d never guess Nathaniel was an angel looking at him now. “Do all angels bleed gold?”
He gave me a flat look, and I knew he wasn’t going to answer me. “This stake is made of iron. It’s deadly to demons; even a scratch if it’s deep enough can take out a low-ranking demon. But to take out a high-ranking demon, you have to hit the heart to kill them.”
I nodded. “She told me to aim for the heart.”
“The fact that you succeeded makes you incredibly lucky. I’ve never heard of a human offing a lord of Hell before.”
A jolt of shock made my eyes widen and my jaw drop. “Lord of Hell,” I repeated dumbly.
“Do you ever focus on the important things?” He let out a frustrated growl.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “And what do you consider to be important?”
“Not what color I bleed or the title of a demon you’ve already killed.”
He advanced on me, and I had to resist the urge to shrink back. His hands closed around my forearms, and he manually uncrossed them. He placed the stake back in my hand, curling my fingers around it.
“My job is to make it so you never need to use this. But you should still keep it with you at all times. Best practice is to always go for the heart if you get the opportunity, but even just slicing the skin could do damage. Far more than any gun will.”
His hand was still covering mine on the stake, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
We both heard the door in the living room open and close, and Nathaniel pulled back, disappearing from my bedroom a second later.
“Shit.” I didn’t have a good way to hide the stake on my person, so I kicked it under the bed before dashing after Nathaniel.
I was too late.
Kylie’s shriek pierced my eardrums just before I rounded the corner between the hall and living room. Maybe I should have kept the stake. I wondered if stabbing Nathaniel in the heart with it would kill him.
“What the hell is going on?” Kylie stood with her back pressed against the door, staring bug-eyed up at Nathaniel.
Nathaniel made me feel about as tall as a toddler, and I had a few inches on Kylie.
