Page 95 of Infernal

I swallowed the thick lump in my throat.

This was bad. Like stupid bad. The worst part was, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to convince any of them to stay out of it. Ben was determined to save Taylor and refused to listen to reason. And Dominic…well, Dominic was going to fight by my side, no matter what. Sitting out on the sidelines was never his style. And even if I could convince Caleb to sit this one out, he wouldn’t let himself look like a coward.

Not when Ben and Dominic had already signed themselves up to go.

“We’ll take Caleb’s car,” I finally said and then hung my head in defeat.

Like I said, stupid bad.

35. KISS ME DEADLY

We had less than twenty minutes to come up with a stellar plan that wasn’t going to get the whole lot of us killed, or worse, set off the damn apocalypse. Dominic and Ben did most of the talking while I sipped on black coffee and periodically stepped in to try to convince them to stay behind and let me handle this by myself. Of course, none of them would hear any of it, though I did at least manage to get them to agree to remain hidden until I gave the signal. And really, that was all I needed, because little did they know, that signal was never going to come.

I had absolutely no intention of involving them in this fight. None.

This was my battle, my devil-sized cross to bear, and I intended to carry it alone. I was the one who brought Lucifer into this world, however indirectly it may have been, and I would be the one to take him out of it. I only hoped I’d stay alive long enough to make my plea, because not only was I showing up to All Saints sans consort, I was also bringing two Shifters and a Caster along for the ride.

Lucifer was going to be very, very unhappy, and that was never a good thing.

Climbing into the back of Caleb’s Camaro, I pulled my seat belt around my body and clicked it into place. My gaze veered out the window as I watched the rain streak against the glass.

Regardless of what Dominic had said, I had every intention of making a deal with the devil. I would agree to go anywhere with him, to do anything, with one very minor stipulation: that he release TaylorandTrace as his vessel.

At this point, it was the one and only card I had left to play.

And yes, I was well aware of the fact that I was pretty much dooming my own life to an eternity of misery and insufferable agony, but even an eternity in Hell with Lucifer was better than a life on this earth without Trace.

I wasn’t sure I could survive that, and I wasn’t interested in trying either.

A penny for your thoughts? asked Dominic to my mind.

He was sitting beside me with his legs pushed open as the shadows from the outside flickered across his face while Caleb and Ben rode up front, arguing over the best way to get into the ceiling vents at All Saints.

I shook my head and offered him nothing, though I couldn’t bring myself to fully meet his eyes.

We were bloodbonded, after all, and I feared he would sense something was off if I allowed him to look at me—to see me the way only he could.

I turned my gaze back to the window as I watched the outline of trees cast their shadows into the night. My mind switched to auto-pilot, refusing to think about Trace or what it would do to him if he knew what I had planned. He would try to stop me. He would try to sacrifice his own life in exchange for mine, and it would be easy for him. Almost as easy as it was going to be for me to do the same thing for him.

“We’re almost there,” said Ben, turning his head slightly in my direction. “Remember, Jem, you need to keep him talking long enough for us to find Taylor and get her out of there. Dominic will cover you until we come back.”

I nodded, playing my part as I pretended to go along with our plan. And then something occurred to me. “What if she isn’t there?” I met his eyes through the shrouded darkness. “What if he’s keeping her someplace else?”

“Then you back out. Tell him it’s no deal until you see she’s okay.”

I nodded again, hoping that she was there, and that he would agree to let her go…in exchange for me. I didn’t want to prolong this thing for even a second longer than it needed to be. The sooner we made the deal, the sooner Taylor and Trace would be free to go back to their lives. The lives they had before I strolled into town and ruined everything.

Dominic placed his hand over mine, stealing my attention back to him. “You’re shaking, love,” he remarked, his eyebrows gathered into a concerned knot.

I looked down at my trembling hand and swallowed thickly. “It’s just my adrenaline,” I said without meeting his eyes.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I was shaking like a leaf, but it was all he was getting.

“Angel…are you sure you’re ready to do this?” he asked, his tenor barely more than a whisper.

Was he doubting that I could?

Strange.It wasn’t like Dominic to doubt me.

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