Page 22 of Her Deadly Angels (The Seven Sinners of Hell's Kingdom 2)

I straighten my shoulders. The bastard won’t get to me. I won’t let him. I’ve already been called an abomination. A demon slut. Nothing he can say will break me, because in the end, I’m breaking him. He will die and go to Hell by my hands.

“Before you go judging me like every other righteous, entitled bastard, you should know that Dante and Kase have been here for me when everyone else thought I was a lost cause. They’ve faced Lucian on my behalf and have lifted me up and taught me how to summon strength I didn’t know I had. So whatever the fuck you have to say about my affection toward them, you can shove it down your throat.”

“Were you always so hostile,” Elias quips, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

I just glare at him.

“While your assumptions about what I think of your...unholy relationship with these evil creatures aren’t wrong, you should know that I can’t blame you. We are in similar positions, except my deal with a demon derives from selflessness and not self-preservation. I’ve been also trying to do God’s work while you’ve been serving your soul keepers in body and mind.” Elias smirks at me, waiting for my reaction.

And fuck it. If he wants one, he’s going to get one. He shouldn’t play with the soul he ultimately damned if he doesn’t want me to drag him into the fire to burn right alongside me.

Climbing onto the bed, I surprise Elias by jumping on top of him. He struggles against Dante’s restraints but isn’t strong enough to break out of them. I lock my fingers onto his shirt and pin him in place. Raising my hand, I pretend as if I’m going to slap him. He flinches and closes his eyes. I stop short of his face and pat his cheek, enjoying fucking with his head. My devils were right. He deserves a little torture, but not in the way they see fit.

“Hit me already,” Elias mutters, peeking through his eyelashes. “Just kill me and be done with it if you want so badly to send me to Hell. I’m dying anyway.”

I press my hands into his chest, pushing myself off of him. A racking cough heaves from him, stealing his breath. His face reddens with the coughing fit, startling me a bit. I can’t help myself from trying to re-position him to sit up.

He groans and shakes his head, wheezing and clearing his throat. “I knew you didn’t have it in you. I saw how you handled killing that man. Be thankful I took care of the wreckage you left behind.”

His comment leaves me speechless, and I sit beside him, staring into his stormy gray eyes. He doesn’t look away. If anything, he uses it as an excuse to stare at me more intently. My whole body tingles under the weight of his gaze, and I shiver.

“I do what I have to do,” I finally say, rubbing my lips together.

The fucker rolls his eyes. “You didn’t have to kidnap me.”

“Actually, I did. My soul depends on yours not going to Hell, and with the way you’re acting like a lunatic on a mission of self-sacrifice trying to do the impossible, well, you’re staying here. At least, until we find the demon controlling your soul.” I poke him in the stomach, startling him. It’s like he can feel the same shockwave of my touch like I can with his. “So why don’t you make things easy and just tell us? I can help you.”

“Help me? Help me how? I think I’d rather take my chances with my soul keeper over yours. They’re pissed that I bested and outsmarted them.” He lifts his chin and motions toward Dante’s shelves of sex toys. “And by the looks of this room, my farts would sound like a fucking wind tunnel after what they’d have in store.”

Did he just really say that? I tip my head back and laugh in exasperation. I fucking hate that I find so much amusement in his comment. He cracks a smile like he can’t help it, knowing damn well what an absurd turn this conversation has taken.

“At this point, I doubt they will touch you with a ten-foot pole. They only show that kind of affection to people they like, so relax. Your ass—”

“Is only going to get kicked if you don’t listen and do what we say.” Kase crosses his arms in the doorway, resting his back on the frame.

“Kase, you said I could handle it.” I huff a sigh through my nose.

“You’re getting distracted, angel-girl. He doesn’t need ass-urance. He needs to know what the fuck is at stake and why he’s been targeted by a bottom feeder. His little trip and fall into humanity ruined him, and I don’t have the patience to ease him into knowing the truth.” Kase strides forward, and Dante takes his place, leaning against the doorframe. While Kase takes the lead, Dante backs him up, and they look ready to toss me out of the room to do things their way.

I get off the bed and block Kase. “This is my job.”

“And it’s my job to help you. I’m not putting your fate in the hands of the fucker who abandoned your soul once. I won’t put it past him not to do it again.” Red light flickers across Kase’s burgundy irises.

Elias rattles the restraints. “What the fuck are you going on about? I don’t even know her. I heard about her—”

Growling, Kase lifts me up and spins me around, setting me on my feet out of his way. Elias cowers under Kase’s towering threat, proving that he might act like a hard ass, but he’s just as human as I am.

Locking his fingers to Elias’s chin, he turns his head for him and points at me. “Do you see that soul—I mean, really see her?”

“It doesn’t matter what I see,” Elias says, scrunching his nose.

Kase blows a hot breath, sending a tendril of smoke wafting through the air. Pointing to Dante, he says, “Come on. Give him a little bite, Dante. Show him the Hell that we see when looking at the two of them.”

What is he talking about? Dante strides past, not giving me a chance to stop him. Elias hollers at the sight of Dante’s fangs, and I stand frozen and watch Dante sink his teeth into Elias’s arm. I gasp at the same time Elias does. Jealousy cascades over me at the sight of Dante’s mouth on Elias. It kicks my ass out of my state of shock. Locking my hand to the back of Dante’s shirt, I yank him back, summoning the strength of Hell.

“Hey, now. Those fangs are mine.” I wrap my arms around his broad shoulders, trying to lock him to me.

Pulling me up higher, he kisses my wrist, teasing my skin with his sharp fangs. I shiver, remembering how he left a mark on my thigh, which still makes me clench my vagina in anticipation if anyone gets near it.

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