Page 57 of Sinner's End

“And we do this how?” he grouses, ripping up lawn in a perfectly round circle.

“We do what she asks, of course.”

I study Lethe for a moment, running back through the accusations Addi leveled at us. What confounded me in the moment slams into me now a breath of clarity. If I were a praying man, I might offer gratitude. If I were a man.

That contemplation pushed aside, I focus on the task at hand—convincing our girl we need her for our survival. The longer I watch Lethe, the more obvious his faded glow becomes. Kaleb’s anger roils pathetically beneath his flesh, and me … I’m a bomb of malicious intent waiting to explode. Our absent number, however, worries me the most. I wonder if Lethe has picked up on that little morsel, but decide to keep the thought to myself for the time being.

“We need to date her?” I ask delicately. “She said no sex.” I keep my mouth in a straight line by pure determination alone.

“What I was trying to do when you busted in and fucked up my plans,” Kaleb butts in.

“But there was sex involved,” the Fallen drones, stealing the life out of the word.

“I had it handled.”

“No, you didn’t.” Lethe fixes him with a stare. “Neither of you did. And I trespassed on her private territory, took from her when she wasn’t even aware of my presence.” He meets my eyes, his face flushed with guilt and a heady amount of arousal at the memory that surfaces all too fast.

My instinct to feed from him rises. I shove the unheeded desire back with a mammoth effort that deserves the sort of medal to win my girl back.

She’s not a trophy.

But I fucking well deserve one.

“I’m impressed,” I mutter under my breath at Lethe whose gaze shifts to mine.

The faintest hint of a smile tilts his lips before the emotion is wiped from his face. “Not the point,” he berates me firmly.

My lips twitch, but I school my expression. “So, dates?”

He shakes his head. “No. It needs to be something more.”

Kaleb glares between us, dark circles appearing beneath his eyes. I need to get him back to Harken before there’s nothing left of him to return. “What, then, if not romance?”

I stare at the patterns he’s torn into the earth beneath his hands. A mimicry of angel language and hellspeak, the two tongues mingled in a blasphemy that appeals to my mutilated sense of existence right now.

“How well can you grovel, Kaleb?” Lethe whispers coyly.

I swear my dick hardens on the spot.So much for no sex.

My gaze raises to meet his in challenge. “An obsession.”

For the first time in over an hour, his hands still their destructive tendencies. Even Lethe perks up a bit from his odd version of eunni.

I mull over the term, tossing it around. It’s not what she would choose for us, but then, Addi’s preferences were tossed out the moment she rejected our love. No, this path suits us as a group.

Obsession will do.

Chapter Twenty-Six

How the Fallen will Rise

Bowen

Stab, kick, stab, kick. Stab.One extra stab.

I have a nice rhythm going as I work my way through Harken, taking out the remaining staff and whores Mana likes to keep around. My little pep talk with Addi didn’t really touch the surface. I did warn her but she wasn’t listening to me, hell-bent on having someone to blame. I mean, I get it, she’d just found out I set her up to fail more times than not. A good backstabbing isn’t just fun to pull off, it’s immensely satisfying to see the end result. At least for the five seconds until the high wears off. Then it’s back to the boredom of regular life. The guilt that eats me afterward.

Okay, not so much on that last part.

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