Page 231 of Caelum

Either she was corrupting us or we were corrupting her. I seriously wasn't sure anymore, but no way was I about to complain.

She'd stunned me when she'd frozen us in place, controlling our souls as though we could be taken charge of like we were tuned into a remote. Even more so when she had beaten the shit out of a Ghoul by using an amputated leg as a missile and had somehow managed to slice a female Ghoul down the middle. Sure, that was all worthy of a Valium, but when she'd eaten their souls?

That was literally my mic drop moment of the night.

In fact, screw that, the year.

What the hell was she?

Female Sin Eaters existed, sure they did. But they didn't kill that way. In fact, male Sin Eaters didn't kill that way either.

They didn't start chanting in some creepy old language that made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on edge. They didn't sing along as they beat the shit out of a Ghoul.

Sin Eaters worked on downed Ghouls and entranced them. Although Eve might have been doing that with her singing, I didn't think so.

Yet another puzzle.

When the Ghouls were dead, and we were left with just under a dozen dead bodies in an alley, I was the first one to grunt out, "We're going to have to set them on fire."

It was more relevant than discussing just how weird Eve was, yet again.

We should really be used to her throwing this kind of shade our way, and there was zero point in even being huffy with her because I knew for a fact that she was as in the dark as we were where her talents were concerned.

Every day with her was like watching a toddler take their first step.

On repeat.

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, he’d never met Eve. We'd go around the bend if we ever imagined that Eve could be in any way normal.

"On fire?" she rasped, her nose wrinkling as she dumped the Ghoul on the ground as easily as another woman might puff up a cushion on the sofa. "That's gross. And what if it stirs more interest in what's happening?"

"You'd prefer the authorities to find a bunch of dead bodies in a back alley?" I retorted, folding my arms across my chest as I stared her down.

It was then I realized she wasn't coated in blood.

How the fuck she'd managed that, I wasn't sure.

Because that was suddenly more important than anything else, I spluttered, "Why aren't you covered in blood?"

She blinked then stared down at herself. "I don't know."

"The song," Dre rasped, and he was back in his human form once more, the bear having been as controlled by Eve as the rest of us. "When she started singing it, the blood went away."

Samuel frowned. "I feel fed."

Eren rubbed his eyes. "You mean to tell me she used the Lorelei's song to take the blood to you?"

"How the fuck is that even possible?" I rasped. Did that break the goddamn laws of physics?

"I don't know," Stefan admitted, "but it's damn handy."

I gaped at him. "That's creepy."

He shrugged. "I've seen worse shit on the streets."

Eve released a pained sound and she stepped toward Stefan, moving around corpses as though they weren't even there in an effort to reach him. She didn't stop until she was snuggled against him, and he stared at us, as bewildered as the rest of us as he curved his arms around her waist and held her tight. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that," she whispered.

He patted her on the back gently then smoothed over her hair in a way that seemed to soothe her. "It's all in the past," he crooned, then, after a few seconds, he tugged her ponytail around his wrist and, shooting us all a look, mumbled, "You shouldn't have done this, Eve."

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