Page 9 of Give a Devil his Due
Eric spins around, snatching her in his arms, and I rush after him toward the back of the fight. Mutely, I watch as he runs his hands over her to check for an injury, but I can’t look away from her shoulder. There is no blood or marks on it. My own throbs where the demon yanked on it hard, and the pain dulls when I see her pressing her fingers on the same spot on her body. A tremor passes through me, yet I can’t understand what is going on.
“I’m fine, Eric.” She slaps his hands away with a scowl. “Will you stop?”
“Where did you see her hurt?” Lucifer’s son rounds on me.
“I was wrong.” I shrug, my eyes still locked on Helena’s hand pressed on her shoulder.
“Ladies, are you going to fight, or did you chip a nail?” Colt’s voice reaches my ears from a few yards behind us.
“I’m going to kill myself,” Helena groans, and I can’t help but smile. “I lived to hear that dumbass call me a coward.” With a roll of her eyes, she walks around Eric and tugs me along when she passes me. “Let’s go show them how it’s done, Raphael.” A wide smile pulls her lips up, and she turns to wink at me. “Play time, motherfuckers.”
It comes naturally to follow her, not just for me but for Eric as well. Her laughter bounces around as the three of us dash into the fray of bodies mashed together in a pile of kicks and fists. Helena’s tail flicks behind her every time she spins, and when she nears Satanael, it’s a beauty to watch them side by side.
Say what you want about the King of Wrath, but when his daughter is beside him, his full focus is on her wellbeing. While the number of demons dwindles and the rest of us make quick work of them, father and daughter dance in sync like they’ve done this for millennia.
Samael is a whirlwind of claws and wings around her, while she literally throws our attackers on her dagger. With a fierce expression, she stabs and cuts before moving to the next. The four of us gather in a group when only two are left, and we can’t look away from the end of the fight. Helena’s hair falls over her face when she slices the neck of the last demon and, panting, she and Samael grin at each other.
“Well. I’ll be damned,” Beelzebub grumbles under his breath for our ears only. “I never thought Samael cared about anything but himself, offspring or not.”
“She has that effect on everyone, does she not?” Pride swells inside me just watching her victorious. “Not even the Devil himself is immune to that.”
“That’s my mate you’re talking about, Archangel. I’d hate to pluck your feathers one by one,” Eric snarls from next to me, but there is no heat in it.
Helena turns her head to smile at us, and a hush falls over our group.
“Let’s get her out of here.”
With that, Eric saunters with purpose, swiping her in his arms. Samael shakes his head at the possessive display but follows them without a word. We are on their heels as well when unease prickles inside me. Especially when she looks over Eric’s shoulder and her eyes land on my still sore shoulder. Did she see me get hurt? Is that why she is checking? Because we had the same injury, or is there something more to it?
Purgatory is still messing with my mind. I’m imagining things.
That must be it, because the alternative is too frightening to consider.
Eric
“You will not pass, Shadow.” The damn Haltija puffs up his narrow chest, blocking my way to the bedroom. My bedroom, nonetheless.
“Step out of my way, Narsi I know Helena is there.”
For some stupid reason, I agreed not to hurt the Haltija, and now the little shit thinks it’s okay to stand between me and my mate. After we returned from Hell with Satanael in tow, we spread out to collect whatever we may need for our trip. According to Helena’s father, our search should start from the outskirts of Atlanta and go up north to Maine. From the few things he remembers while he was kept prisoner, the jinn liked to keep their celestial hostages on Earth. Not a bad idea if you ask me, since neither Heaven nor Hell will think to look among the humans for their missing residents. It’s not a far stretch to expect my father or Michael to go on a quest of their own making and return decades later. If the jinn didn’t go after Helena, no one would’ve noticed something had bee amiss for centuries.
That information doesn’t sit well with my mate. The fact that her mother has been close while she thought her dead fans the anger and guilt she forces upon herself, and it just makes everything worse. I hope it’ll be easier on her if she talks it out, but that backfires big time. The more she explains what’s been going through her head, the more she withdraws from all of us.
From me more than the rest.
I never want to use our bond to bend her to see my perspectives, but as I had once proven, I have the means to achieve that. Helena can be as angry as she wants, but she can’t control the reaction her body has to my touch. Shamelessly, I have every intention of using sex to bring my Helena back. The feisty firecracker who shot me to prove a point. I thought she just needed time to process everything after being snatched by the Fates, but I was wrong. Her fire is buried under all the unnecessary weight that’s not hers to carry, and all I have to do is just fan the flames.
I’m more than happy to do that.
“My Mistress does not wish to be disturbed.” Narsi’s eyeless sockets narrow to slits. “If you force me, I will eat your face.”
“You can’t eat faces, and Helena told you this.” With a sig,h I watch his small shoulders slump dejectedly. “And I don’t want to hurt you because she cares about you. So, unless you are planning to grow to full size, which will bring this house down and harm her in the process, get out of my way.”
“I don’t like you, Shadow.” The hiss is full of venom.
“Likewise, spirit. Now move.” As I push my way past him, I slam the door in his face.
My gaze finds Helena immediately, and the sight of her tightens my chest. She sits in the middle of the bed with her knees pulled to her chest and her cheek pressed on them. Lost in her thoughts, her eyes—although open—see things none of us can. Whatever memories fill her mind are not pleasant if the look on her face is anything to go by. It gives me a pause long enough to debate if I should approach her or go find Cass. Maybe her human friend can be of more help to my mate.
