Page 77 of Demon Loved
But it’s pretty damn hard to do that when I’ve just stabbed an angel with a paintbrush and am currently floating a few inches in the air. Something crackles just beneath my skin—something raw and feral and primitive. It stirs the hair around my head like a tornado is rushing through the enclosed hall.
Power.
So many questions run rampant in my head, but I can’t answer them. Not when the two angels—Lightning and Water, because I don’t know their real names—have both turned around to stare at me, murder emanating from their eyes.
Hopefully they weren’t too attached to the guy I just paint-kababed.
Raz and Van both move to stand protectively in front of me, Raz holding his sword and Van a pair of sharp throwing knives. Akor and Zolroth move so they’re surrounding the two powerful angels from behind. And Kastros? He appears stricken, his normally tan face ashen.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” the one I’ve dubbed Lightning inquires with a savage grin.
“This explains so much,” the other one adds, almost languidly. If he’s scared at all that he’s surrounded by five fierce demons, he doesn’t show it. His posture is almost nonchalant, as if he’s taking a leisurely stroll on the beach.
“This must be your little Center,” Lightning purrs, taking a step forward with his hand extended, as if he honestly expects me to shake it. Yeah. No, thanks. I much prefer not to be electrocuted painfully.
Raz and Van growl, the sound low and threatening, as they brace themselves on the balls of their feet. I don’t understand why they’re not fighting. Is it because these angels are more powerful than us?
If that’s the case…
Fuck a duck. I probably just made things worse by killing Bugs, didn’t I?
“Kastros!” Water slips an arm around my giant demon’s shoulders, as if they’re old friends instead of mortal enemies. “You didn’t tell us your Center is still alive. She’s a cutie.”
“I’ll gouge your eyeballs out with a rusty spoon if you call my cherry cute one more time,” Akor hisses darkly. He and Zolroth advance another step closer, until they’re only an arm’s length away from the angels.
“You know,” Water continues, almost conversationally, “the last time we saw your mate, it was just after the car crash.” He twists to smile at me, revealing two rows of perfectly white teeth.
His words are a metaphorical bucket of ice-cold water being poured over my head—fitting, considering his namesake. My insides twist into dozens of knots as I blink at him stupidly. The power thrumming through me recedes as quickly as it arrived, and I float back to the ground, staggering slightly.
Accident?
He couldn’t mean…?
“Honestly, I thought you were dead.” Lightning laughs, the sound grating on my already sensitive nerves. “I didn’t think a human could survive that much blood loss.”
“The woman in the driver’s seat certainly was dead,” muses Water. “Probably died on impact.”
They were…?
They were there? When my nanny, Ali, and I got into our car accident? The one that took Ali’s life?
Anger replaces the confusion, and it takes me a few tries to swallow it back down.
“You caused my accident,” I deduce, remembering flashes of a dark shadow illuminated in the lone streetlight…
They both cackle, throwing their heads back and clutching their stomachs. I turn towards Raz, desperation and confusion no doubt etched onto my face, but he seems just as confused as I am. No, not confused.
Suspicious.
“We didn’t cause your accident,” Lightning says once he has his laughter under control.
“Then what the bloody hell are you talking about?” Zolroth’s perfect features twist into a scowl as he takes another step forward.
Water claps Kastros on the back, and my vengeance demon winces. I swear he looks even paler than he did before. Desperation, fear, and horror emanate from his dark gaze as he pleads with me with only his eyes. But why? What is he trying to tell me?
“You didn’t tell her?” Water queries with another chuckle.
Kastros shoves the angel’s hand off of him as if his touch is poison steadily seeping into my demon’s skin.
