Bryan kissed her on the cheek. “They’ll find him, darling.” He turned his attention to Vas. “Won’t you?”
“Yes. I’ll find him.”
Bryan narrowed his eyes at Vas. “And then you’ll kill him.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Jade shuddered. “Be careful. Please.”
Vas just nodded. Jade took a deep breath. “I need to call Jimmy. He said he was on his way, but…” She turned deathly pale. “You don’t think…”
Vas glanced at Samael, obviously having some kind of silent conversation with him. Samael nodded, and Vas wrapped his arm around Jade. “We’re putting guards on all of you until Daimonion is dead. Samael is putting the word out to locate Jimmy now.”
“You call Jimmy,” Bryan said. “I need to get in touch with the babysitter. Tell her what happened.” He glanced at Vas, who nodded.
“More guards are on the way for the kids.”
“Thank you.”
The couple stepped away. Vas’s eyes found mine, sad and hopeless. I was next to him before I was aware I’d moved. “Come outside with me for a couple of minutes,” I said. “Please.” I wanted him away from here just for a little bit. Away from the blood and the sickly scent of antiseptic. Away from that room.
Danica gave me a small smile and wandered over to talk to Samael. I took Vas’s hand and led him down the stairs until we were standing outside. Vas stared at a pond in the distance, his expression tormented.
“I can’t believe he died in this place,” Vas suddenly snarled. “Dean said he didn’t want his kids worrying about him falling and breaking a hip. But we both knew he never wanted to end up here.”
“Everyone ends up in this kind of place eventually,” I murmured soothingly. “Everyone human, at least.”
Vas went still. Still in the kind of way a predator did right before it struck. I froze. Vas wouldn’t hurt me, but my instincts told me to be very careful.
He turned and backed me against the outside wall. Then he leaned close. “If you think you’re ever going to check in to one of these places, that I would allow such a thing, you are wrong,” he said silkily.
I took a deep breath. Vas was the most human demon I’d ever known. I’d never heard him sound so remote. So…cold.
He raised his head, and I felt the blood drain from my face. That wasn’t the look a man gave a woman. It was the look a high demon gave a lowly human. And seeing it on his face made my chest hurt in a way I’d never felt before.
His hand came out and clasped my throat. Not tight enough to hurt. Not even tight enough to truly threaten. But it was there.
I needed to remove some of the tension. I considered several different answers and couldn’t find any that fit. I was a human. That was the reality. I would grow old, like every other human Vas had ever known. And one day, I’d be forced to leave him alone.
His hand tightened at my silence. Something like panic danced across his expression before it hardened in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“If you think you can die and leave me alone, you’re also wrong,” he warned.
I stared at him. Losing yet another person he loved had pushed him over some kind of edge. I needed to talk to Danica. She and Samael needed to know…
Vas seemed to be waiting for an answer. I took a long, shaky breath.
“I’ll never leave you alone, Vas.” I didn’t know if I believed in heaven, but there had to be something else after all this. And wherever I went, I’d keep an eye on my demon. I’d watch over him and do whatever I could to keep him safe.
He released my throat, and he lowered his head, nuzzling at my ear. “Promise me.”
Oh, Vas.
My heart twisted in my chest. From the moment he’d been born, the people he loved had begun dying on him. I took a deep breath. If I were a better woman, I’d bow out now, so Vas wouldn’t need to lose me, too, one day. But I had a feeling he’d never stand for it, and the thought made me choke on grief.
I’d make the next seventy-something years so incredible for him, it would all be worth it.
