Page 65 of Demon Kissed
“Oh. Why?” he asks as we crest the hill, and I can see our familiar little cloud garden ahead.
“I’ve got these…friends now. And they’ve got my back. They’re a little crazy, but mostly good-hearted, I think.”
“You think?” Ziel stops walking and turns to give me his full attention. His gaze warms me like the sun when he asks, “Why aren’t you sure they’re good-hearted?”
I contort my face like a ventriloquist and try to talk through my teeth, because as much as I always tell Ziel everything, I can already guess how he’s going to react to this news. “It’s the demons you warned me to stay away from.” I speak so quickly that the words blend into milkshake-like mush.
“What?”
I repeat myself slowly, avoiding eye contact.
Ziel doesn’t respond, and so eventually, I’m forced to cringe and send an eye upward to scout out his emotional location.
He’s not pissed. To my shock, a slight smile is tugging at the corners of his lips.
“So, you defied your parents. You defied me. And now you’ve got yourself a gang of demons at your beck and call.”
“They aren’t a gang!” I jump in to defend them. “More like a brigade? Squad? I don’t know the word for it.”
“And I bet they’re doing their best to ‘help’ you.” Ziel shakes his head. “You should be leery of demon help.”
“What? Why?”
“Because, at their cores, demons are very selfish creatures. What they want matters more than anything else.”
“That’s not true!” I argue. “They brought a guy back to life for me. Because I wanted it.”
Ziel steps in so that his feet touch mine. His massive armored chest is right at my nose. His hand reaches down under my chin and draws my gaze up, up, like I’m climbing a mountain. At the crest, his face is a view that takes my breath away.
But his face is dark as he says, “If they did what you wanted, you know the reason for that.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”
Ziel leans down until his face nearly touches mine. I can feel the vibration of his words against my cheeks as he snarls, “They wantyou.”
I think he meant to scare me. But instead of a shiver of fear coursing through me, a tendril of flame lights me up inside. And with a shaky voice, I say, “I might want them too.”
Ziel’s mouth opens to retort, but suddenly, I’m ripped out of the cloud meadow. I zoom through the darkness, and gasping, I find myself awake in my room with an arm on me. I jerk to the side only to realize that it’s Adam, standing next to my bed.
“Katty? Can I sleep with you?” he asks. “There was a monster in my dream.” His eyes are soft with unshed tears.
I toss open the covers and help him climb in. “Of course, big man. I’ll protect you.” I kiss the top of his head as he drifts back to sleep. “I’ll always protect you.”
21
Stacy findsme at my locker first thing Monday morning. “OMG. Guess what happened?”
Since she runs in much more popular circles than me half of the time, and since I’ve been on parental lockdown the entire weekend after my parents caught Raz bringing me home, I have literally zero clue what she’s talking about.
My bag is at my feet, only half loaded for the full morning run I have to do, since my locker is too far away for me to stop by until lunchtime. I turn, my Calculus textbook weighing down my hand, and notice that her blonde bangs look particularly good today with her cat eyeliner.
She doesn’t immediately spit out the information, but she’s bouncing on her toes. I can tell she’s trying to build up the suspense. She kind of looks like Adam whenever he asks me to guess what he wants for his birthday. He gets so worked up with excitement that he can hardly wait to tell me.
Did she do the deed with David?
I kind of assumed they already had. But whatever. Or is this about the winter dance?
She’s pressing her lips together and not completely deliriously giddy, so I assume not. I ask, “What?”
