Page 48 of Sin and Salvation

Of all the things I’d come to expect, Maxime sending his lackies to charge right into the heart of Black Hearts territory was not one of them.

And with every shot fired, the shakes grew worse. I didn’t want to sit here and do nothing. Every sense was heightened, so that I heard a soft grunt from Crow even over the music that was still pulsing, and the ear-shattering crack of pistols.

My fists curled into tight balls at my side, and I closed my eyes. Something was tugging at my power, but it wasn’t the guys.

I reached out, feeling for that faint sensation, and almost reeled back in shock when I realized what it was.

I felt my enemies’ magic, the lifespring of power within them. I’d never deliberately tried to reach out for another demon’s power before unless I was trying to gift my own energy to them.

I leaned against Kylaea, flinching a little as a bullet slammed into the wall in front of me, and reached out again.

Twenty bright sparks of life flared in my mind. Their power tasted like almost nothing; like mentally chewing paste.

This time, instead of trying to give myself, I wrapped a mental finger around their power andpulled.

Several gasps reached my ears, and I kept pulling, unspooling the power within them. There were clatters, several exclamations of surprise, but still I reeled them in.

The power coiled inside me like a spool, gleaming with shades of bruised purple and sickly green in my mind’s eye.

I coiled it tightly, and fed it into the font of energy deep within myself.

My magic absorbed theirs, reaching out and greedily sucking it up. The sickly colors vanished into my own wellspring, until nothing was left. The sounds of violence faded.

I opened my eyes, taking deep breaths. My body was trembling from head to toe. I felt like I was going to either be sick or completely explode.

Someone finally had the presence of mind to shut off the music. Once again the club was filled with mutters bouncing off the steel walls.

“Venus?” Aeron’s voice was right next to my ear. I jerked in surprise, and Kylaea wasted no time in throwing herself into Brody’s arms. The bouncer gripped her tightly, burying his face in her hair.

“I’m okay,” I whispered. “Are you?”

“Crow was grazed.” The hellhound stroked a hand through my hair, studying my face with a concern I didn’t think this situation warranted. I’d been hiding behind a wall the entire time, for the Devil's sake. “Zane’s already taking care of it.”

On legs that felt like they were made entirely of rubber bands and jelly, I stepped out of the hallway and back into the club.

Several of the Black Hearts demons were on the floor, faces white, as Zane leaned over them. I felt his silvery healing power ripple in the air as he extracted bullets and closed the wounds left behind.

But most of the bodies on the floor were in dark suits. I stopped dead in my tracks, amazed and disgusted.

Twenty healthy, vital demons had infiltrated the club.

Twenty shriveled, desiccated mummies were now sprawled where they’d died.

My throat tightened as Aeron looked at me. “Did you do this?”

I nodded silently. “I thought… after I gave you all my power, that maybe I could take it away, too.”

And it had worked, beyond a shadow of a doubt. One of the dead demons was facing the ceiling, giving me a good look at his face; his blue skin had faded to a deathly gray, the dry flesh clinging to his bones. His corpse looked sunken within his suit.

“Wow. Well,” Aeron said, his eyes roving over the bodies. “Looks like you can do that, too.”

I was a little nervous of the reticence I heard in his tone.

I’d always known that my ability to work as a battery made me a desirable commodity, but this… what if this was too far?

What if the same power now made me a liability?

But as if he sensed what I was thinking, Aeron wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. My nose smashed into his jacket.

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