Page 81 of Soul Food

“Ruth.” So I wasn’t surprised when I heard him call my name, but the adrenaline that raced through me was part fear and something else.

I ignored him as I pressed the elevator button and waited.

“Shouldn’t you spend time with your mom?” he dared to ask me, knowing I couldn’t ignore it.

I whipped my head around causing my curls to smack my lips as I did. I pulled the curls out of my lip gloss and glared. “You’re unbelievable.”

He stepped next to me and tucked his hands in his pockets. “You’re running out of time.”

I scoffed. “How can you say that to me? I would still be alive a month—a year from now—if you’d leave my soul alone.” The doors opened, and I rushed inside. Of course, he followed. “What are you doing? You could at least respect my wishes and stay away until then.”

“This is my building. I respected your words and left you alone at home, but you come here and you’ll see me.” His gaze flicked over me leisurely.

I studied him, the way he continued to look at me, lips drawn down a little, eyes sad—almost in yearning? But that couldn’t be right. “You’ve been waiting on me to come here, haven’t you?”

“You should know,” he ignored my question, “the band you hang out with are not who they say they are.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“They’re demons too.” I staggered, and he tried to catch me. I moved back before he could. “They won’t hurt you. I’d never let that happen.”

His words brought tears to my eyes. So many times I thought he cared so much over the past few weeks. But now he was the one causing me all this hurt. The doors pinged open, and I wiped my face. “Stop pretending to be a human. I hate it. Can’t you see the only one causing me pain is you?”

“Ruth…” I hated when he said my name that way, so soft and piercing—regretful.

I almost ignored him as I walked out the doors, but I couldn’t help myself from looking back. When I did, I saw the flowers at his feet. “Why do you leave the Red Graces everywhere? So many times over the years, I’ve seen them.”

He looked down at his feet and saw them too. When he raised his head, his gray eyes were burning red. “Because you’re slowly killing me.” My heart thumped once, twice—I stopped counting since it was better not to think about why it thumped. I was afraid. I felt betrayed. But I wished that were all I felt.

“And you’re about to kill me.” I pushed my feet away from the demon, but the moment I did, I slowed back down and thought about what he said. Were Liam, Pete, and Steve really like him?

By the time I made it to the recording room, I was hesitant. I tapped on the door instead of entering like I usually did. “Come in, Ruth.” Liam’s voice was a smooth as ever. I found it hard to think he was a demon like mine. I refused to call him by his name anymore. He was simply a demon now.

When I opened the door, I was greeted by three wide, handsome smiles. These boys were tall and lanky almost—they did have some muscle on them I noticed, but they were extremely beautiful people. Especially Liam. I connected with him right away. I thought him to be a friend. All of them. Only to realize that maybe instead of letting one demon in, I brought in four.

Liam placed his guitar down and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“This is going to sound weird…” I trailed off. “But why do you guys hate the president?”

“You mean Amit?” He laughed. “There’s no way we’ll get along with someone like him.”

“They have a sense of superiority,” Pete added.

“They?” I caught that and pointed it out.

The guys looked at one another. “Just the higher ups. You know… Presidents, bosses, guys like that.”

I knew a lie when I heard one. I took a deep breath. “I know all about him. He told me what you guys are.” He didn’t tell me what they were, but they didn’t know that. If he was lying, I’d know. Either way, I was getting an answer.

Three smiles became slightly warped and tilted like they didn’t know where to go from here. “What did he say?” Liam asked slowly, eyeing the other two before pinning his gaze on me.

“You’re demons.”

“Might as well come in,” Liam hollered at someone on the other side of the door. I knew because that was the direction he was looking in—behind me. “Can smell your stench from a mile away.”

The door opened, and the soul reaper stepped in. My nerves ramped up as the door clicked shut. “Oh, my God,” I whispered. “So, it’s true.” I turned around and reached for the doorknob. The soul reaper let me, but Liam was there the next second, blocking my way. “Let me leave,” I gritted out, unable to meet his eyes. How did he move so fast?

“Ruth, we’re harmless. We don’t tell any humans because we just want to live in peace.” He glared at the soul reaper. “Why did you tell her we were vampires?”

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