Silence coated the room, and everyone took a collective step back.
I looked over my shoulder, finding impossibly huge wings protruding from my back. That was disconcerting.
“Is that all it takes to find my man?” the boho girl said with a snap of her fingers. “I just demand he turns up, and he growls and snarls ‘mine’?”
The air crackled with electricity. What now? Zombies? The apocalypse? A man materialized before us. Power rolled off him in waves, making my bones ache with how old it was. Knowing, challenging, weighing up your soul.
The blonde princess eyed him with appraisal while boho woman squealed and launched herself at him. “There you are!” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Deeply. Enthusiastically. Like she’d just found home.
He stood rigid for a heartbeat, then, with a resigned sigh, placed his hands on her waist and kissed her back. Not lovingly. Not passionately. More like a man performing a scientific analysis of human affection.
She melted anyway.
When he finally released her, she swayed on her feet, touching her lips. “That felt sinful,” she whispered.
“Floozy, stealing all the pretty ones,” the blonde said with a pout.
He glanced up at the ceiling as if begging the universe for strength. “Of all the realities where this could have happened.”
The bobcat transformed back into her human shape and huffed. She tapped her temple. “I think they lost their marbles trying to give Cora hers back.”
Who the hell was Cora? What a ridiculous name.
The new guy groaned and swiped a hand down his face. “As amusing as this is, I have places I need you to be and souls I need you to save.” He flicked his hand, and agony exploded through my skull as memories came crashing back.
I fell to my knees and clutched my head, screams tearing free of my throat until it broke. But through it all, my mate held me in his arms—not rescuing, not pushing, just waiting while I absorbed the pain. My heart broke into a thousand pieces, and the universe trembled as I fought to hold myself together. We felt pain for a reason. To warn, to remind us we exist, to push us to act.
I heard the warning, and I knew what my existence meant to Eloise Roberts.
Death.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
When I said I wanted to date an equal, I didn’t mean swallow the Devil and call it relationship counseling.
Tethered by my mate, I fought my demons and won—at least for now. Tomorrow might bring a new wave of horror as I processed everything I’d endured at the hands of a woman I onceloved. It was a deep betrayal, and as such, would take time for hate to set in and take root.
Eloise had proved everyone was expendable in her mission to rule the world. Family, loyal employees, supernaturals, and humans alike. If they were in her way, if they dared to challenge her belief that she was the only one strong enough to lead us into a new era, then they were her enemy.
“Do you need anything?” Lucifer asked as he leaned against the kitchen island in my apartment. Dayna had made a hasty escape after her kissing incident with both Sebastian and Lucifer, probably to wash her mouth out and seek spiritual guidance from Aunt Stella.
I shook my head and swallowed the last drops of apple juice. Sugar helped everything.
Hudson frowned as he sat back on his haunches, his hands on my knees. “You good?”
I handed him my empty glass and rolled my shoulders, trying to shake off the chill that had settled into my bones that still held the cracks of my torture. I could sense them, each hairline a memory that told the story of violence.
“I’m fine.” My gaze slid to the devil. “What I’m unsure about is why you are here?”
“Could it be to arrange a secret meeting with the super-secret supernatural club that I absolutely know nothing about?” Hudson snarked.
Lucifer raised a brow. “You told him.”
“You were warned.”
My uncle rolled his eyes. “That’s not why I’m here.”
Great, the devil was making a house call for a different reason other than me being some kind of mystical Eve reincarnation.
