Page 95 of Legendary

I was impressed with Nick, but I was also nervous for him because unlike me, he didn’t know that Dimitri preferred this form he was in, this body. He was handsome and likable for the most part, but before this, before the club, he presented himself in a different form. It was a form that never scared me but would throw any unsuspecting new arrival off guard. Blood dripped from Nick’s hand as he exhaled sharply, looking at me as I leaned away from the desk. Dimitri touched his face delicately and licked his lips. “She doesn’t have you on as tight of a leash as I thought. I should really keep you around. Drain you of all that dark energy you keep feeding.” He tipped his head towards Nick, who was instantly surrounded by Dimitri’s men. They had him down on his knees and pressing their fingers into his wounded arm before I could blink. They had him by his hair, tilting his head back, exposing his neck. Dimitri narrowed his eyes at me, his grin growing bigger, and it was like his old form and this current form started to morph, one would flash in front of me and then the other. “No wonder you keep him around, he must be an utter delight to feed off of, retain all that darkness from him. It has to be a calling to you, pretty girl, it will show Lilith your loyalty. It will showmeyour loyalty. A moment in the Leviathan bathroom with this—” He waved over to Nick, "won’t make up for all the years we spent, right? We can do it together, make sure he’s wide awake to watch…”

I was grossed out and done. I didn’t let him finish, when I lunged over his desk and grabbed the lapel of his jacket. I yanked him down and close to my face. “I will never stand by you.” I threaded my fingers into his hair, pulling up and then slamming his face into the desk. I pulled him up and did it again, making sure the burnt part of his skin slid across the wood. I looked behind me noticing one of Dimitri’s men was aiming to slit Nick’s throat and I manifested my dagger, throwing it in his direction. It lodged into thetall henchman’s throat as he staggered back, my daggers shadows wrapping around his head. I felt someone at my back as I willed my weapon back towards me, shifting my stance so that I turned around, continuing to press Dimitri’s face into his desk as I plunged my dagger into the demon who was trying to catch me off guard. He fell against the chair, blood coming from the gaping wound in his chest.

Nick shot out light stream after light stream when the demons were occupied. He extended his fist upward, propelling one of them backwards as they hit the wall, slumping against it. He bent down and shot his leg out, tripping one of them and throwing his elbow back, connecting it with the face of another demon before pounding his fist into the demon on the ground in front of him in one fluid motion. I picked Dimitri’s face up and his look of pure shock and anger almost made me want to maniacally cackle. I felt my shadows start to brew and rumble inside of me, felt that raging darkness wake up and want to take over my entire being. It wanted to blind me to anything else. He lifted his hand and tried to slice his nails down my face, but I willed my shadows to grab his hand and forced it onto the table, his own magic trying to fight its way out. “Let’s not try that shall we.”

I summoned my dagger to my side and brought it underneath his chin. “Tell Lilith she can kiss my ass.” My vision started to distort, and I knew I was losing my grip on reality. It was happening so much faster this time, so easily.

Dimitri snickered, blood coming from his nose. “Only if I get to as well.”

I curled my lips back in disgust, but he wasn’t finished. “Poor angel, too fragile to fight off his own demons.” I furrowed my brow in confusion when I heard Nick’s groan of discomfort. Dimitri was looking directly at him, but Nick couldn’t look away and he kept flinching, his eyes squinting, and his ears started to drip with blood. His head tilted to the side as if trying to get whatever was in there to leave. Dimitri’s eyes flickered as Nick grabbed his head and yelled. My vision danced between darkness and color as if his pain, Nick's pain, was pulling at that place in my chest and keeping me grounded. His hands glowed, but they weren’t as strong, they weren’t fighting hard enough.

I yanked Dimitri up further by his hair. “Make it stop!”

“Then put him out of his misery. This place will eat him alive if you don’t or Lilith will do it herself. Or you can make the choice to keep him pretty and side with the only home you’ll ever know.” He answered me through gritted teeth. Nick still wailed behind me, and the last two remaining henchmen hovered over him, smiling at his agony.

“My answer is none of the above. All this proves to me is that I made asolid decision siding with them.” I flipped my dagger in my hand and jerked him closer to me so that my lips brushed his ear. “And just so you know, his dick is so much bigger than yours.” I brought my dagger down, making a clean slice through his wrist, separating one of his tattooed hands from the rest of him. Blood sprayed out, red and speckles of black. It landed on my arms, my face and I felt an instant thrill at seeing the mess I’d made of my ex-fling. Nick’s agonized voice ceased as Dimitri closed his eyes and screamed out.

His henchman pounced on me, but I held my dagger tight and forced it into one of their necks, ripping it out and turning around to throw it right into the eye of the other. He stopped right in his tracks, blood dripping from his eye as he dropped to the floor. I rushed over to Nick, who was slowly picking himself up from the ground. He was shaking and his knuckles were bloody. He blinked and collected himself, all traces of what Dimitri had done was no longer present, at least on the surface.

“You should be so lucky that Lilith wants you alive, that I still know you’ll make the right decision. We can work this all out and you’ll be mine again, but I will insist that Lilith make slow deaths of every single person you stand with.” I heard growling, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. There were no windows in here and there was only one door. Dimitri could summon hellhounds whenever he wanted, but where they came from, I wasn’t sure. “Get out. Or I will be the least of your worries.” The growling got louder and more aggressive, like they were right behind us.

I tugged Nick’s arm to get him to move, but he walked forward towards Dimitri’s desk. His limp hand sat lifeless, blood slowly coming from the place where it should be attached to the rest of him. I stood next to him, wary of what he was about to do, but then he placed his hand over the removed appendage and light burst out of his palm, bright and white. Golden flecks spewed out and then they were gone. He lifted his hand away and Dimitri’s severed hand fell apart in a burnt mess. Ashes piled up and started to scatter along the desk. Dimitri’s true form started to appear along his face, the skin on his cheeks and forehead peeling away to reveal gray matter and bones. His eyes started to get more sunken in and his lips curled back, revealing his teeth getting sharper.

“She isn’t yours,” Nick said, something dark washing over his eyes for a second and then it was gone. He swept the ashes off the desk before turning around, walking over the dead bodies and opening up the door. The growling around us grew louder and I could have stayed and fought but it wasn’t worth it.

“Goodbye, Dimitri.” I turned on my heels and followed Nick, who wasfarther ahead of me than I would have liked. I gave Ian a shake of my head, telling him not to interfere if Dimitri came out rampaging. Once we were outside, I reached up and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around to face me.

“Are you okay? That was a lot and he—”

“Dani, I’m fine. Does everything always go from zero to one hundred here?”

“Yes. That's pretty normal.”

He rubbed the space between his eyebrows, hissing at the wound on his arm. The lines from Dimitri’s nails were embedded deep. His ears had lines of blood coming out of them, but the initial bleeding had ceased. I brushed my fingers around the still bleeding slashes on his arm. “Let’s get you back and get this checked out, okay.”

He didn’t say anything, just nodded. We got looks as we walked back to the hostel. Dimitri had a thing for getting into people’s heads. Being one of the sons of one of the pillars of Hell, he could do certain things that every demon thrived for. He had dived into Nick’s mind and pulled forward all the darkness that lingered. He filled Nick’s head with it, nearly wanting him to go insane over it. I’d seen Dimitri do terrible things with that power, but it had been so easy to do it to Nick. Maybe that darkness he had was worse than I thought, closer to boiling over.

I threaded my fingers through his and a sensation of familiarity ran through my arm, over my shoulders and down my back. This recognizable feeling wasn’t something I wanted to smile at. His darkness was greeting me with a more confident stance now. It was touching me and coaxing me. I looked up at the angel next to me as he looked ahead, not knowing what he was letting brew inside of him by letting his feelings stew from within. He looked like his normal handsome self when I simply looked at him, but Nick was so good at making himself seem so put together when he was falling apart piece by angelic piece. Dimitri had given the darkness a thread of power from a true source of Hell and even I knew his angelic light couldn’t fight that for long.

My night light would start to dim and dim and eventually it would be unable to create light anymore when it was suffocating in the dark. I wanted to help Nick, but a part of me wanted to pursue this dark takeover that was happening, the side of myself that I had pulled back in hopes of protecting him. Maybe it was that angelic part of myself that made me want to help him. Maybe it was the reason I felt pressure in my chest when he was in pain. Or maybe it was something entirely different that I wasn’t ready to admit at the moment. I had already told myself that I wasn’t a hero, and I didn’t wantto be. Nick was so good at playing that part and I would never take that from him.

The hero was broken now, so what exactly did that make me if I might want to save him?

DANI

Everything moved quickly once we got back to the hostel. Nick had walked in before me, his arm dripping with dark red blood on the floor. The patrons that were near the small lounge area and the front desk all turned to look at him and gawk. Beetee hustled over, grabbing his arm with enough force to make him wince. She had apologized and flicked her lilac eyes to me as if I would be able to sum up everything that happened in a matter of seconds. I had let my eyes fall to the floor, deciding that I would answer her later. Reese came bounding down the stairs and Elise came from around the corner in the dining room, both of them laser focused on the bleeding angel in front of me.

“What the fuck happened?” Reese asked, panic laced in his voice. I knew his question was directed at me, but he didn’t acknowledge me.

“It’s nothing, I’m actually fine,” Nick insisted, trying to push everyone away from him.

“You bleeding all over the fucking place means you’refine.” Reese deadpanned, rolling his eyes.

Elise had walked around the two arguing friends and pulled me away from them. Her face was stern and unmoving to the current situation in front of us. “Is he dead?”

She was wondering about Dimitri and there was a part of me that slightly wished he was dead. “No.”

Elise let out a breath. “Good. Killing a Son of Hell would literally cause more problems than we need right now.” She looked over her shoulder as Beetee started to usher Nick and Reese towards the recovery room, removing them from my line of sight. “I’m guessing your demon ex-boyfriend gave him that bloody parting gift.”

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