Page 3 of Give a Devil his Due
Beelzebub can start the questioning, even if it ends in his funeral.
I love my mate, but I definitely don’t have a death wish.
Helena
Well, apart from being a failure, apparently I am a coward as well. Something that becomes abundantly clear the moment I sense Eric getting close to the safe house as I come down from my perch on the roof. I hightail it to the first empty room to hide. Lucky for me, Raphael has taught me how to retract my wings inside my body when I’m not using them, so it’s easy to slip away unnoticed. Using my wings is a bit of a stretch, though, since I flop around like a half-dead pigeon a couple of feet above ground before I manage to lift in the air and every landing is with me ending up on my ass, but yeah. What I’m saying is I don’t bounce off walls and doors like a pinball machine while I’m walking. The tail is a whole different matter because there is no escaping it. Now I have it wrapped around my waist so I can wear pants, which I ripped at the seam, so the only thing holding them up is my belt. It’s a mess I have to live with.
I’m a mess.
“I can eat his face.”
My heart lurches, hitting the roof of my mouth when Narsi hisses from next to me. I forgot how silently my sidekick can move when he is not resembling a tall hill of a monster. Stupidly, I thought I snuck away from him, too.
“You can’t eat Eric’s face, Narsi.” Pressing the bridge of my nose does not help the headache throbbing at the back of my skull. “I kinda like it where it is.”
“Shadow makes you uneasy. I do not like my Mistress in distress.” My eyebrows climb up when he starts petting my leg lovingly. “I can eat half his face?” Those eyeless sockets lift to lock on my gaze. “Humans call it compromise.”
“Now you decide to adopt some human mannerisms?” Keeping my tone low, I mutter under my breath while keeping an eye on the front entrance of the safe house through a crack in the door, which is clutched in my white-knuckled grip. “This is not up for debate. How about not eating anyone for a while. Let’s start with that.”
Eric, his brother, and Beelzebub march inside the house with purpose, and that’s enough proof for me to justify my idea of hiding. They are up to something, and I’ll bet my horns and tail it has something to do with me. My suspicions are confirmed when the twins shoulder their way behind Beelzebub and shove him forward to lead the way. Oh, yeah. Eric is definitely planning to corner me if his arrogant, grumpy ass is willing to walk behind the others. Any other time, nothing will prevent him from finding me.
“Hel,” Beelzebub bellows from the top of his lungs, his boots thumping rhythmically over the hardwood floors. “I brought your mate back unharmed. He might’ve cried a couple of times, but nothing we can’t fix. Where are you?”
Lips pressed in a firm line, I stay quiet and watch them search for me, the doors opening and closing with more force the longer they come out empty-handed. Meanwhile, Narsi snickers gleefully next to me, his tiny body vibrating from excitement because they are getting angry. It’ll be a clusterfuck in less then five minutes, but I stubbornly refuse to face them. I’m doing great ignoring everything, thank you very much, and I’d like to keep it that way.
I know the jig is up when they get Raphael to join them.
Steeling my spine, I take a deep breath and yank the door open. “Oh great, you’re all back.” Stepping out in the hallway, I start backing toward the entrance when all four of them poke their heads out from different rooms. “I’ll go find George and Cass, and we can meet up in the common area in like an hour. Hold the forte while I’m gone.” I add two thumbs up for good measure.
Spinning on my heel, I bolt for the door, but Narsi is still clinging to my damn leg, so I almost faceplant before I reach it. My shriek is cut short when a familiar calloused hands wrap around my upper arms and pulls me to a firm, unyielding chest. When Eric’s scent fills my nose and my head spins from the instant need I have for him, I know my escape is not meant to be. While my brain screams for me to run and not allow them to drag me into a conversation better left alone, my body has a different plan. It turns pliant in my mate’s arms, molding to him like it’s meant to be in his embrace. Which I suppose is the truth of it.
“Eric, there you are.” Turning inside the circle of his arms, I plant a kiss on his soft lips, and his hold loosens around me. “You rest, lover, and I’ll be right back.” Ducking out of his embrace while he struggles to hold back his reaction, I take one step before he yanks me back.
“And where do you think you are going, Hel?” His deep voice raises goosebumps over my arms. “The hunters are on their way. We saw them from the sky when we were returning here.”
“Right.” I stop struggling and offer him a strained smile. “I’ll just meet them outside the wards then, just to make sure nothing is following behind them.”
The house spins around, and I’m thrown over a shoulder before I’m done talking. Narsi the traitor snickers when I lift my head to glare at him through the curtain of my hair, doing some deranged happy dance with his arms flopping as he jumps in a circle. One second he wants to eat Eric’s face, and the next he is okay with my mate manhandling me to wherever he feels I should be going. To add insult to injury, Eric’s hand connects with my ass with a loud smack, the sting of the slap rendering me mute for a second. It speaks volumes of my mental state that I don’t rip him a new one until he deposits me on my feet in the space we use for meetings.
The room is empty of everything but a long, wooden table they drug from what was left of Sanctuary and the mismatched chairs sprinkled around it. Maps marked with red and yellow lines connecting the closed and opened portals around Atlanta and her neighboring areas are spread all over it. Refusing to look at any of them, I fist my hands and stare at the spiderwebbed cracks in the empty walls above their heads. It’s easy to do because all four are blocking the door in case I try to escape again.
“Okay, fine. Let’s hear it.” When the silence stretches to the point of driving me nuts, I fold my arms across my chest. My damn tail twitches around my waist, and my butt cheeks clench from its movement. “Out with it.”
“Shadow is worried about you.” Beelzebub grins like a fiend, his red eyes glittering with amusement when Eric snarls at him. “You decided I’ll be the one to talk to her. I never said I won’t throw you under the bus for it.” One meaty shoulder rolls in the semblance of a shrug before he turns his focus back to me. “Now that I have made sure he is the one who will pay for this, I have to say we all are worried. Much as I hate to admit it, I worry about you too.” Squeezing the words through clenched teeth, I watch in fascination as a muscle jumps in his square jaw.
Raphael mentioned a few times that Beelzebub is not too pleased with his concern of my wellbeing, but until now, I thought he was just trying to add to my guilt for refusing to talk with them. Locked in the Archdemon’s red gaze, all my attempts to calm the galloping of my heart are futile, which doesn’t go unnoticed by any of them. But what can I tell them that they don’t already know? Apart from why Eric and Raphael are both standing in this room, they know most of what eats me alive.
“I have no idea what you guys want me to say.” Throwing my arms up in defeat, I stomp to the table and plop my ass on the edge. Narsi inches closer and reaches for my leg, but my glare stops him from touching me. The little shit needs to learn not to switch sides when it suits him. “We failed. No matter how you look at it, because of me, the human realm paid the price. Just look around you. Was I worth all the lives lost?”
“Yes,” all four answer in a choir and stare at me unblinking.
It becomes obvious I’m going to carry this weight alone because they don’t understand the gravity of our actions. For them, including Raphael, a human life is but a blink of an eye and not something to mourn. If I’m being honest with myself, I haven’t come to terms with my immortality yet, but I do remember all too well how aware I was of my mortal body and soul before my life turned upside down. Not long ago, I was one of the humans, regardless if that was true or not. I grew up believing I was one of those standing between them and all evil. Just because my concept of what is evil has changed doesn’t mean my sense of responsibility has. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory … they can all gouge their eyes out for all I care as long as they leave the human realm alone.
They didn’t.
“I’m sorry I can’t agree with you on that.” Rubbing my forehead, I blow out a deep breath through pursed lips. “I can’t see what’s left out there”—My hand shoots out, pointing in a random direction—“and think, you know what? I’m just happy that I’m alive. To hell with all the innocents who died in the process. At first it was Abaddon, then it was the jinn, but we all must face the truth now. It was us. We did this.” Swallowing the lump that formed in my throat, I don’t hide my anguish from them anymore. “I did this.”
“Hel.” Raphael doesn’t need to say anything else for me to know he is as tortured by everything that happened as I am. It’s clear as day in the tone of his voice.
