Page 230 of Caelum

As I rushed forward, I felt my brothers heading deeper into the back of the alley, and with them at my side, I felt our terror surge into a mushroom cloud that almost choked us as we approached.

But we were stupid to feel fear because this was Eve, and even though she looked like butter wouldn't melt, and could still barely understand slang, she was a freak.

My kind of freak, becausethiskind of freak had one Ghoul's belly being pierced by a fuckinglegand had a female's torso slit from throat to gut like she was cutting through a cake with cheese wire.

The final male had backed into a corner, his hands raised as he covered his face, as though that would protect him from Eve's wrath.

I almost snorted because yeah, that wasn't happening.

Whether it was the blood, the sight of the horrors these bastards had reaped upon those innocent women, or the fact that this was her first encounter with a Ghoul, something had turned Eve into the predator that only appeared when she was threatened.

We'd seen it a few times, and I had to admit, even though it was creepy as fuck, it was also hot as hell.

Even on the battlefield, I'd never seen fledglings weep before. Yet here this motherfucker was, bleeding from his eyes. I shouldn't have noticed, considering he was covered in the humans' blood, but I did because that had dried on his cheeks, caking him like macabre makeup. His tears were fresh, and they coursed down his gaunt skin, rolling onto his throat where I could see them pool in his collarbones.

I wasn't sure anything could have stunned me more than what Eve had done this night, but when she began to speak in a language I didn't understand?

Yeah, that was definitely up there in the way to astonish the hell out of me.

As she spoke, she grabbed the Ghouls' hands and shoved them away from his face. Because of her proximity and because he knew he was about to die, he began to fight her. But with every move he made, Eve wasthere, preternaturally aware of each action as though she could read his mind, as though she knew, a second ahead, what his move would be.

When the bastard tried to kick her, she stomped on his foot and ground down until the scourge released a hoarse cry.

When the Ghoul’s wrist slammed to the left in an attempt to grab her hair? She fielded it, gripped his wrist, tugged it down, then arched it against his back so she could shove him around and push his face into the wall.

She pushed him against the brick fascia, not stopping until his face literally crunched with the force of the move. His nose had to be broken, and I could hear the creaking of his wrist as she didn't allow him to move even an inch from the position she had him in. When she raised her knee and shoved it into the bottom of his back, making the toxic piece of flesh grunt with the pain of it, I had to smile, and even began to relax. Though this situation was so beyond my pay grade, it didn't even matter because I knew Eve was two things.

One, she was safe. This situation was totally under her control.

Two, she was a freak. I already knew that and was coming to expect this weird-as-fuck shit she was capable of doling out on the daily.

Hell, I could even say I was proud of her. I'd imagined her being weak in these moments. Too frail to be of any help to us as we tried to free the world of the menace that was our natural enemy. Instead? She was a boon.

Her words grew louder then, and though I was sure it was a figment of my imagination, the wind seemed to whirl around us, seemed to swirl around her words too, drawing them toward the sky, making them louder, turbocharging them with a power I'd never experienced before in my life.

There was a whirring sound, but it wasn't mechanical, and as she spoke, I saw something I'd only ever encountered when I'd begun to eat the souls of the Ghouls we'd captured on the battlefield.

Out of their bodies, the toxic poison that made them Ghoul began to drift from them and straight into Eve's mouth.

The impossible had just happened.

Eve wasn't a Sin Eater, and yet she'd just eaten the souls of two Ghouls.

What. The. Fuck.

EIGHT

NESTOR

While I'd expected a lazy night after a shitty day of traveling, instead, I was watching my woman kick Ghoul ass Wonder Woman-style.

After landing and driving to our digs, I'd anticipated nothing more than getting a bath. I knew people said that shit was for chicks, but fuck that. I liked baths. I even liked bubbles. Not from the soap that smelled of flowers and old ladies, but the ones that smelled like fruit I could get with.

After an hour in the tub, I'd have contemplated getting into bed with Eve and carving out some 'us' time. Ever since Reed and Samuel had claimed her—I wasn't sure who was more shocked about how at ease Eve had been with that, and I thanked God for her Succubus every day—she'd become a lot more chilled about sex, and I was glad about that. Really glad because she did things to me that set me alight and had me reveling in the burn.

Case in point now.

Watching her take down three Ghouls, alone.

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