Oh! His words flowed down my back like warm honey and made my stomach flutter. What girl wouldn't want to hear that? But as much as his words flattered me, something about Azazel on the other side with his arm protectively slung around the beautiful girl threw me off. It wasn't that I thought he was cheating on Phoebe, the girl he had picked, my intuition told me that there was more to it.
I had a couple of character traits that had always seemed strange to me, that made it hard for me to feel like I was part of humanity, some of which I was kind of proud of, and some I would have rather lived without. One of them was my intuition. There had been several occasions in my life where my intuition saved me, and right now, it was telling me that whatever Azazel was doing with that girl wasn't part of Behlial's plan.
"Looks like he's about to seduce a Tainted," Seth remarked, still in a tone that questioned why I thought this was so important.
"She's not a Tainted," I stated with certainty.
Making Seth take another, closer look. "What makes you say that?"
"I just know," I said. Something about her… reminded me… of me.
Even though she was far away, I could tell she wasn't familiar with the ship; her skin was bronzed, as if she had been out in the sun a lot, something I hadn't seen on any of the Daemons. I was certain she was from Earth like me. Which meant she had been brought here against her will, but the way she leaned into Azazel for protection spoke of trust.
And the way he kissed her forehead so tenderly spoke of his attachment to her. This wasn't some dalliance. He was supposed to be with Phoebe, courting her to produce sons, not with some Earth girl.
"Shit!" Seth put his arm around me and pulled me back into the corridor. I barely got a glance at Azazel, whose red glowing eyes narrowed on us. He said something to the girl before he began running to one of the transparent tubes that connected the levels across the wide open space inside the ship.
"Take her back to my room," Seth instructed the perplexed guards who had followed us.
"What?" I didn't grasp right away why Seth was pulling me back to the elevators and pushing me impatiently inside.
"Go back to our room," he instructed.
"Seth?" Horrified, I watched the elevator doors slide closed with Seth on the other side. "Seth!"
He had already turned his back on me though.
"Let's do this, brother," Azazel yelled out just as the doors closed.
Fervently my hands pushed against the elevator's panel, but a strong hand stopped me.
"Don't touch me!" I yelled at the guard. And then I screamed, "Seth!" as I realized he was about to fight his brother.
But this wouldn't be a normal fight between brothers, this would be a fight of life and death. And he had sent me to our room like a petulant child.
"No!" My fists pounded the walls as tears of fear and anger ran down my face.
How could he do this to me? Didn't he know that I would go crazy being unable to help him, not knowing what was happening?
The guards' gargoyles eyed me warily, but I didn't even notice them anymore. My mind was too occupied with worry for Seth.
The elevator doors opened on the lowest floor; I hadn't realized we had reached it already. My blood boiled with anger toward Seth. If Azazel didn't kill him, I was certain, I would.
Tentatively I stepped out of the elevator, unsure of what to do. Even if I managed to break free from the guards and gargoyles, I had no idea how to operate the elevator since I had neither seen a panel nor did I know how Seth made it move.
"This way, Lady Lilith," the guard prodded.
I glared at him, which didn't seem to impress him much, as he simply waved me on with his arm.
We passed doors housing my fellowmaidens,and I wished we were given an opportunity to talk to one another. We were all in the same situation, we needed to bond and figure out how to help one another.
Determinedly I stopped in front of a random door and lifted my fist to knock on it. Before my hand made contact with the door though, my wrist was snatched by the same guard as before. He shook his head at me. "Contact between the maidens without the princes is forbidden."
I tried to stare him down, but again, my glare was lost on him. For good measure, his gargoyle snarled at me, forcing me to concede.
"Fine," I snapped and walked energetically down the corridor to our door.
"This one, Lady Lilith." The guard stopped me as I walked right past it, keeping a smirk from his voice.