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That wasn’t remotely true, but her response revealed the truth all the same. Whatever I’d done to draw those cursed tears from her, it wasn’t physical.
A fact that made me feel even worse.
Another booming knock echoed through the room. “We need to go,” Leo called through the door. “Security is on their way back here.”
Never swiped the tears away, straightened her clothes, and gave me one last heart-wrenching look before she turned and opened the door.
Leo’s expression was glacial when he glared at me over her head, but none of us said a word as we moved through the club. He gathered their things from a small closet manned by a petite woman who wore a seductive smile, while Never ducked into a restroom. It was all I could do not to follow her in there. Now that I’d found her, I didn’t want her out of my sight for even a second.
The image of her tears and the wounded look on her face replayed in my mind, and I forced myself to give her space. I reclaimed my cutlass at the door, tipping a nod to the guard on my way out.
The night air was thick with humidity, but blessedly cool compared to the heat of the club.
“I have so many questions,” Never said, pulling her jacket tight around. “But before we get into anything, I want to check the site of the attack earlier.” She said the last part more to Leo than to me.
“Attack?” I asked.
“Walk and talk.” She headed down the wide sidewalk. “I’m guessing you already know this, but the bitch demon’s shadow hitched a ride when Matty and I zapped ourselves home.”
She reached up and fiddled with the pendant hanging from her neck as she spoke. The way she rolled it between her fingers made me think she did it often, and that maybe she wasn’t entirely aware of what she was doing.
Had that piece of me become a sort of worry stone for her? The thought made my bruised heart swell.
“Only, instead of showing up like Leo did, as himself, or herself, the shadow somehow took over my brother.” Never cast a quick look my way before turning her attention back to the concrete path she was leading us down. “We’ve been tracking him as best we can. Earlier today, we finally caught up with him, but he’d killed at least three people before we got there.”
I shot a sideways glance at Leo. It was hard to look at the man without rage bubbling to the surface, especially when he met my gaze with a challenge glittering in his own.
“I’m assuming the shadow escaped,” I said.
Leo’s eyes rolled back, and he shifted his attention forward without answering.
Never, on the other hand, let out a bitter chuckle. “Yeah, they got away.”
“They?”
She nodded. “Matty’s still in there. I’ve seen him. Twice now, actually, and both times he’s fought his way forward to keep that evil bastard from killing me.” Her hand dropped from the necklace as she drew to a stop. “I’ve got to find a way to get that thing out of him, and I need to do it before it kills more people.”
That was easier said than done. Exorcising a demon required an enormous amount of power and a very specific spell.
Not to mention another demon.
That was the key thing god-fearing humans often got wrong about exorcisms. For thousands of years, they’d believed their own holy men and women could drive a demon out. Maybe they could, with the weaker demons. Petra wasn’t weak, and her shadow possessed far more power than most of the other damned creatures that called the human realm home.
Never filled me in on what she knew of the shadow and what it had been up to as we made our way down one street after another. The site of the attack was cordoned off with brilliant yellow tape, and even now, hours after the event, the area was bustling with activity.
She wasn’t exaggerating; it was a bloodbath. Even from a distance, it was clear the demon had torn its victims to shreds.
“What I can’t figure out is what the hell it’s looking for,” she said, keeping her voice low.
Power. It was always about power with Petra. Maybe it was only obvious to me because I’d shared the creature’s prison for so long.
I should have shared that thought, but I didn’t trust myself to speak without inflicting more harm on her.
Then there was Leo.If he looks at me like that one more time...
I let the thought die.
Millennia. That was how long I’d been around. Plenty long enough to learn how to keep my emotions in check. Yet, when I was in Never’s orbit, her mere presence chipped away at my control.
