Page 28 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

Part of me wanted to go after her, comfort her, confront her, but I was frozen, staring at the door. I just couldn’t. Why wouldn’t she tell me?

Murmur got up to follow Sarah, and Tabberius followed them a moment later. Good. They could make sure she was okay. I was sure that if I was needed, Murmur would send a message to Rune or come get me.

* * *

“This just makes so much sense!” Rune was still sitting next to me, his arms slung tight around my shoulders.

“What do you mean?”

“I knew you had to be one of us. There is no way that I would have noticed just another human, and it may explain why those demons attacked you in the park.”

“How?”

“Well, maybe someone from your demon family was looking for you?” Kylie offered, walking into the room.

“So, they send a few unwashed thugs to the park to accost me? I’m not sure I want to meet them.”

“Well, since you are one of us, consider bumping that self-defense training up to combat training. We could use a few more women in the field.”

Combat training? That sounded…amazing.

Becoming a badass who could not only protect myself, but other people too? Learning how to face the things that scared me? Where do I sign?

Rune scoffed. “I don’t know about that. You can see what happened to Tori last time she was in a fight.”

“You mean when three men twice my size jumped me in the park?” I asked. “Or are you talking about when Sarah and I fought off two men while keeping Vivi safe long enough for you to waltz in?”

Rune looked a little lost, like he knew he’d fucked up, but he didn’t know how to fix it.

Fuck him for bringing up my bruises.

Kylie laughed. “Yeah, I like her. She has some serious fight. She belongs on the field.”

“Okay, calm down,” Ulric interrupted.

I had honestly forgotten Ulric and Darrius were in the room watching all of this play out.

“Tori, this opens a lot of doors for you,” Ulric said, “both in and out of the field, if you choose to explore them. You should know that Sarah won’t have the same options.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Honestly, Sarah will probably want to forget about all of this and go back to work at the tattoo shop. She loves her work. I doubt anything could change that.”

“Heaven has a different governing system than Hell,” Ulric explained. “Hell doesn’t really care what Nephilim on Earth do. You are welcome to work with us, and we will provide aid if you need it, but your life is your life. Heaven is…” He looked at Matthew, who was watching everything with a bored expression.

“Less lenient,” Darrius provided.

“What does that mean?”I asked.

“Sarah will leave with us,” Matthew said. “She will report to Heaven, and they will test her to see where she can best serve. She has the privilege of being an angel and she will rise to that honor.”

He could not be serious. He couldn’t really take her against her will. Could he?

“And if she doesn’t want to go with you?” I asked.

“How could she not want to dedicate her life to supporting all of her kind?” His lip curled in disgust with the idea of anyone not being ready to drop on bended knee to serve.

“You don’t know Sarah,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter. If she refuses to go, we will clip her wings.”

---