It was the sound a predator would make before it struck.
It communicated that it was the king of the jungle, and you were nothing but prey.
I knew who was making that sound, and it still scared the crap out of me.
Demons landed. So many, I couldn’t count them. Samael’s wings spread wide, the sparks dripping from them glowing in the twilight.
His eyes met mine. His rage ran so deep it made me shiver, but I was so fucking glad to see him, my eyes stung with it.
His gaze took in the rest of my body, lingering on my knee, and Ben turned, firing his gun.
Oh, you idiot.
Samael raised his hand.
Time stopped, then started up again, this time in slow-motion. Every cell in my aching body seemed to have been jolted into action as I launched myself up onto my good leg.
Bruce’s smile flashed through my mind.Sacrifices must be made.
No.
No no no no no.
“Don’t touch him,” I screamed.
Samael waved his hand and Ben’s body turned to ash.
It was too late. Ben was nothing but the sacrifice. The lure.
Samael glanced over his shoulder at me. His gaze turned puzzled for a split second. Then a sick kind of acceptance slid into his eyes as they met mine.
“Danica.”
One word. I saw him mouth my name, but I couldn’t hear him say it over the sound of my own screams.
Samael’s wings began to fall to pieces, crumbling into ash. His skin turned gray as I stumbled toward him.
The Spell of Three.
Samael was the most powerful demon around. He’d never seen it coming.Ishould’ve seen it coming.
“Hold on. Don’t you dare die on me.”
The demons were losing their minds. Ag was roaring orders at every demon in the vicinity, while Lilith screamed out at someone to get the chains off me.
“You keep him here, girl,” she shook me as I crawled toward him, dragging my bad leg.
The chains were lifted away and I was suddenly free.
My power came pouring back, and I screamed as it burned through the last of the suppression spell. My hand reached for Samael’s, and our fingers linked, his eyes turning blind.
He looked like a gargoyle. His fingertips were turning to ash and a pain I’d never felt before swept through me, followed by fury.
“You don’t get to make me love you and then leave me here, you son of a bitch.”
I reached desperately for our bond,pullingit toward me. I could feel him at the end, no longer a raging inferno, but barely a brief spark. I held that spark between cupped hands in my mind, nursing it, keeping it alive as I wept. I fed it my power. All of it.
“Please, please, please, please.”
