Page 66 of Sinner's End

What the hell am I going to do now? I know Mana can keep me out of Harken if he chooses. I grab my cell and dial Kaleb’s number.

Disconnected.

Fuck me. Mana works fast.

I have no way to communicate with any of them if they choose not to talk to me. And I am getting angrier by the damn minute.

“Fuck hellspawn asshole!” I yell at the empty room, hurling my phone at the wall.

“Breaking your belongings will have no effect whatsoever on Manashesh or his decisions.”

The voice startles me and I scramble to my feet, fear thrumming through my veins. I stare at the man standing in thedoorway. He looks exactly like Mana, all dark hair and pale skin, tall with broad shoulders, dressed in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit. The main difference is his yellow eyes, eyes that bore into my soul without asking for permission.

“Who the hell are you?” I ask, my voice softer than I intended.

He assesses me for long moments before speaking. “Perhaps this is a conversation better held in a less intimate setting. I haven’t fucked a human in over twenty years and you are rather tempting. I can see why Manashesh is willing to lose everything for you.”

A gasp leaves me at his words. Who the hell is this guy, and why does he think he can speak to me this way without any repercussions?

“I’ll wait for you in the kitchen,” he says before stalking away and leaving me dumbfounded.

I stare at the spot he vacated for long moments before making my way down the hall and into the kitchen. The moment I enter, I have a mini-stroke at the sight that greets me. My Daisy is wrestling on the floor with a dog twice her size. The thing that catches my attention is the fact that the other animal has parts of its skeleton exposed.

I want to call her to me, but the stranger cuts me off.

“Dogs need companionship, more than their master can offer,” he says casually, never looking away from the dogs as they continue to play. “I never have less than two at a time or they get lonely.”

“Are you lecturing me?” I ask.

The man laughs, a loud booming sound before looking at me. “Not a lecture, my dear. Perhaps just some advice. With you spending all your days and nights at Harken, Daisy gets lonely.”

I feel a pang of guilt in my chest. Daisy has been a lifeline to me for years and I have basically abandoned her. Taking a seatat the breakfast nook I stare at the stranger as he putters around my kitchen doing God knows what.

“To answer your earlier question, my name is Asmodeus. I am the sire of Manashesh, and a prince of Hell.”

At his words, a fresh wave of fear crashes over me.

“You’re Mana’s father?” I ask, trying to tamp down on the terror I feel.

He smiles at me and I know I am not hiding a single fucking thing from him.

“You could say that,” he replies, placing a cup of steaming, freshly brewed coffee in front of me. “You’re going to need it for the conversation we will have.”

I breathe in the aroma and allow it to soothe me for a moment.

“Why are you here?”

He chuckles. “Straight to the point. I like that about you.” He takes a seat across from me and steeples his fingers. “I have been keeping an eye on Manashesh. Theirs is a bond between a sire and his spawned. I feel his emotions on some level. And for the longest time the only emotions I felt from him were boredom and disgust. But that changed recently.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” he replies with a derisive snort. “In the past few weeks, I have been bombarded by fear, anger, lust, confusion, and love. Do you know how that emotion makes my fucking skin crawl?”

His eyes glow yellow, his chest expanding to twice its size in front of my eyes. I know instinctively that I need to be careful of what I say and do if I want to survive this interaction.

“No,” my reply is barely above a whisper.

“It’s a vile thing that all humans chase to their own peril. Love,” he sneers as he draws out the word like it’s a curse. “And now my spawn has fallen into the same fucking trap. I grantedhim this time to see what he would become. I watched and prided myself on everything he did until you stumbled into his orbit.”

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