Page 95 of Run Like the Devil

It felt real, and that made it all the creepier. It was like someone smiling while a plane went down.

I moved my tongue in my mouth, trying to wake my body from its slumber. I could do nothing if I couldn’t even fucking move.

I opened my mouth to ask about the men, but the sound that escaped wasn’t even close to words. In fact, if I’d heard it, I wouldn’t have thought it human.

Cain crouched beside me and ran his fingers through my hair, the touch almost kind. “Do not worry about them. They are not your concern any longer.”

I narrowed my eyes, wishing I could say, ‘fuck you,’ more than I ever had before in my life.

Still, he didn’t get angry, didn’t pull away. It was as though nothing I thought or said mattered. That was the worst of it—he wasn’t doing this because he hated me. If anything, the kindness of his touch implied he cared, in his own way, and it sickened me.

“They are alive,” he finally said with a sigh. “I have no wish to end more lives than I need to. Given the way they reacted to you, they may wish I had ended them rather than being forced to live on without you. That will be their choice, though. I will not take that choice away from them.”

The fact that they were alive, that he didn’t plan to kill him, allowed me to focus more. If I’d heard they were dead…well, I had no idea how I could have possibly pulled myself out of that hole. I couldn’t have kept struggling, kept trying knowing that they were gone.

Knowing they lived meant I had something to fight for, something to hold on to.

So I stared up at Cain as I wiggled my fingers and toes carefully, trying to gauge my control, to speed up the process without alerting him.

“I find you strangely relaxing.” Cain stroked my head, calming me the way a person would a frightened, wild animal. “Maybe it is because I know you are the key I have searched for. I don’t want to sacrifice you, have never cared for that method of success, but after so long…I can no longer see another way.”

Sacrifice? Boy did that not sound good for me.

What exactly was he planning to sacrifice me to?

A rustling to my side answered the question. A familiar tentacle shifted in the fog, as if making its presence known.

Well, if it isn’t my old friend? I sure hope you’re not holding any grudges over the whole stabbing thing.

What was a little stabbing between buddies?

“Try to be at ease,” Cain whispered. “Your sacrifice will grant me access to the Plains. After all these years waiting, after all I have given up, all I have lost, I will finally ascend to where I belong, and I will have you to thank for it.”

“What sort of metaphysical bullshit are you spouting?” I said, the words slurred but mostly understandable.

He offered a kind smile, one that almost made him seem like a different man. Was this who he had been before insanity had taken him? Maybe it wasn’t as obvious an insanity as others, not as explosive, but that didn’t change that he was just as crazy as any of the lunatics who had made their way back.

Fuck, he was probably even madder, given he’d stayed here.

“I told you that The Guardian is connected to Hubis. The way the world works is always the same—everything has a price. We sell our souls to gain what we want, we pay the price for what we are given. I knew The Guardian would require a payment, but no matter what I tried, it never accepted any gifts. You are the first thing it has focused on, which makes you the perfect payment.”

“You think you’re going to give me to that grabby octopus and that’s going to get you into Heaven? Thousands of years here and that is the best plan you could come up with?”

He let out a soft laugh, seemingly brimming with life. Then again, in his mind, he was about to get to Paradise. What was a little demon sacrifice to gain that?

“It will work. The others you came with will free themselves, allowed to do as they please.”

“And your followers? You’re going to just leave them on their own?”

“If The Guardian deems them worthy, if it feels the payment is enough, it will grant them passage as well. They fear The Guardian too much to come with me. They have to walk their own path, as we all do.”

“Except me? Who gets fed to the guard dog so you can get what you want?”

He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, the warmth of it sickening. “Be at ease, Loch. It will be over fast, and you will not have to suffer anymore either. You can pass from this world to whatever is next, and perhaps there you’ll find real contentment.”

Talk about empty promises.

A tentacle reached forward, through the fog, as if searching. It was slow, careful.

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