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“I am one of the princes of Hell. I’ve roamed this plane for thousands of years. I have seen things that would make you question everything and nothing all at once. The man who tried to take you from me has been hunting my kind and destroying us.”
“Us?” I was trying so hard to suspend my disbelief and follow his explanation, but the new pieces of this puzzle were jagged in my foggy brain.
“Demons. The Fallen.” He finally stepped away and took a pained breath. “My brothers.”
“Why didn’t you just kill him? If you’re so powerful and your name should be feared, then why didn’t you just destroy him before today?”
He glanced down at the book then back up at me. “There are a lot of reasons, but you’re holding one. I needed that book to give to someone I owe a debt to.”
I held it out in front of me like it would speak for itself. “Is this why we came down here?”
“No,” he said simply. “I came to talk to an old friend who I suspect is somewhere in that church, slain. But I have no doubt that the book will still be valuable to whom I’m going to deliver it to. As for Alessio—the priest—it remains a mystery if he is still a danger without it.”
A blurred moment came into focus. “You tricked me into giving you my soul?” I blurted. “You forced me into it, didn’t you?”
“I need you.” He cocked his head, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of something inhuman in his eyes.
My spine straightened, and my skin went cold. “Why?”
“At first—” He took a step closer, and I held the book to my chest again, knowing it was the only weapon I had against him. “I needed a human shield to keep Alessio away from me.”
The prickle of angry tears swelled behind my eyes. One fell to my cheek, and I cursed myself for allowing his words to hurt me.
“But then we spent that first night together.” He looked down at his feet as if allowing me to cause him to feel emotions had defeated him. “I fought it as long as I could. I didn’t plan on you becoming a weakness.”
He took another step closer and cradled my jaw in his hands, bringing my chin up for our eyes to lock. His thumb swept away the shameful tear I’d shed.
“I didn’t foresee you becoming my reason to fight for what I had been running from.”
His lips brushed over mine, and the strength I’d been holding in my chest faltered. My adrenaline had saved our lives, and now that it was wearing off, I could feel the abuse my shoulder had taken when I landed on it.
I had been so sure I was going to be murdered after having to watch Ezra die before my eyes, and having him standing in front of me, safe and whole, was bringing up more than complicated emotions.
He’d wanted to use me. But he hadn’t been the only one running from responsibility in a life full of sex, freedom, and distractions. How long could we have outrun our paths?
And could we walk them together?
I didn’t know the answer to either question or the dozens more running circles through my head. What I did know for sure was that when I finally allowed him to touch me well into the night, I melted into him and broke.
My body was in so much pain, but with my head on his chest, I could hear his heart beating and the tears came harder.
When I’d gotten free from that sadistic maniac and made it to his side, he was barely holding on. The beautiful clear blue of his eyes had turned to a stormy sea as the light dimmed. But when he heard me begging him to stay, he had. For me.
Was it more telling that he was willing to die for me or willing to survive?
14
Gaap
After we showered, I ordered room service. When I called Ipos, he confirmed that the Leviathan had been executed by Alessio. The local police were calling it a hate crime and a failed satanic ritual. More fear for the masses.
During the hours we’d spent baring our souls to one another, Pru told me more about her family. How her mother had used her as a pawn against her father in their divorce. Being the child of a socialite and a solar energy mogul had made her prey for the scum of Los Angeles.
“I was fourteen the first time I was given coke,” she recounted. “By the time I turned eighteen, I’d already been to rehab twice. But it wasn’t until I got into Stanford that I knew I needed to get my life together if I wanted to see graduation day. I’ve been clean and sober for six years now.”
She’d been taken advantage of as a teen by B-list celebrities who’d kept her addicted to them by giving her booze and drugs. I added their names to a mental note to take care of later.
In exchange for her confessions, I gave her my own. She took the complicated web that held the Fallen and Hell in power here on Earth and sat with it for a long time until I explained how I’d become part of her life before meeting her.
