Page 52 of Touched By Death

“Are they two separate entities?” Ronan asks, straightening from the wall.

Dmitriy never takes his eyes off Daemon. “Think of it like this. Take a candle and use its flame to light another candle. Are they still the same candle? Then take the two candles and combine their flames. What have you got?”

Daemon blows out a frustrated breath. “I don’t get it.”

Beside us, Aurelia, Genesis, continues laughing on the bed.

“You don’t have to get it, Daemon.” He points at the angel again. “Don’t fall under her spell. Aurelia is gone.”

“What do you mean, ‘gone’?” I ask.

His gaze skates to me, thick with regret. “The darkness in her has taken over. Aurelia is lost in the shadows.”

“That’s not possible,” Dari whispers with an edge of desperation in her voice. “She can’t just get lost in the shadows.”

“Can she not?” His eyes burn with determination. “Remember those first few angels who walked out of Heaven. We all know some of them lost themselves to the shadows.”

“But there has to be a way out.”

“It’s all in her mind, right?” I interject. “The shadows? The doorways?”

“Of course it’s in her mind.” Daemon sounds frustrated enough to start trashing the place. “Everything is in our fucking minds. Fire magic, for fucking starters.”

“She mentioned the tear in the veil, and how Amenadiel helped her.” Dari’s eyes widen. “Maybe he can enter her mind through the veil and bring her back?”

Daemon snorts, chuckling under his breath.

“None of us are powerful enough to do it,” she points out. “The only angels with that kind of power are…”

“Amenadiel and Lucifer,” Ronan finishes for her.

Releasing an angry growl, Daemon makes a beeline for the bed. He grabs the angel by the throat and snarls in her face. “If this is a game and you’re not this Genesis,” he spits out, sounding disgusted, “now is the time to come clean before I tear you to pieces, limb by limb.”

Her sickening laughter goes on and on, until, overcome with frustration, he jostles her.

“It’s no use,” Dmitriy speaks up, causing Daemon to growl threateningly. “This was Genesis’s plan all along. Hide in the shadows and let us all fall for Aurelia.”

A beat passes.

A beat in which his words sink in with the heavy weight of an anchor colliding with the seabed.

“Don’t you get it? We can’t hurt her. None of us can.”

I look at him, a frown marring my forehead as I take in the thin line of his lips and the crease between his brows. “You’re in love with her.”

Sucking on his teeth, he doesn’t deny or affirm it, and that’s all the answer we need.

Daemon lets go of Aurelia and turns so fucking slowly, it feels like an eternity has passed by the time he sets his stormy eyes on Dmitriy’s stoic face. In a few short steps, he closes the distance between them and grabs Dmitriy’s T-shirt. “If you ever put a single finger on her, I will cut you up and feed you to the dogs in the underworld. I don’t give a shit about your feelings, cousin. You will never touch her. Understood?”

A muscle works in Dmitriy’s cheek. “Yes, I hear you loud and clear. Cousin.”

Daemon drops him and steps back. With a look over his shoulder at the angel on the bed, he runs a hand through his hair. “We need to speak to my uncle.”

Curious as always, Dari approaches the bed, swaying her hips with every soft, seductive step. “I don’t like bitches who play games,” she says when she nears before placing her hands on the mattress. She brings her face close to Aurelia’s. “Listen to me very carefully, Genesis. Aurelia once said to me that no one came for her when she found herself trapped in Eden.” Tongue tracing over her bottom lip, she chuckles darkly. “If you think you can keep her from me, you have another thing coming.”

She reaches out and strokes Genesis’s hair behind her ear. “I will find my angel, and I will bring her back to me. That’s a fucking promise. Then, when she’s back, and her cum coats my lips, I’ll find a way to kill you so painfully that Hell’s own hellfire resembles a spa trip in comparison. I don’t know how or when, but I’ll catch your little flame alone, and I’ll snuff it out.” Leaning in close to the angel’s ear, she breathes out loud enough for us all to hear, “Maybe it’s true that your death birthed Hell, but you’ve never spent a day in this playground, sweetheart. The kids here are mean. Don’t go throwing rocks unless you’re willing to take a severe beating.” Straightening up, she adds. “And lose.”

With those words hanging in the air, she walks out of the room.

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