The truth of those words spear through my chest. It twists around my lungs, stealing my air. The pain of it draws tears to my eyes and blurs his features.
“They wouldn’t want to be dead either,” I bite out through my teeth. “They wouldn’t want to be rotting in wooden boxes, but they are and I know they would burn this city to the ground if it were me lying in the chapel. They wouldn’t stop until the people responsible no longer existed. I don’t know why you’re fighting me—”
“I’m not fighting you, Lenora. I want this as much as you do, but trusting a demon—”
“Who says I trust him? I know what he is, but he can—”
“At what cost?” he growls. “What is he getting in return? Demons aren’t known for their kindness or generosity. They are monsters. Abominations cast out of Heaven to defile humanity. He is not helping you out of the goodness of his heart.”
I draw in a slow breath. “He already got it.”
Marcus isn’t a stupid man. He would have already noticed my lack of hymen. I expect his anger over not being the one to take it — although, in a strange way, he was — but he only shakes his head.
“He’s lying to you. As perfect as your pussy is, there’s more to this.”
“That’s fine. He can have it. There isn’t anything I want—”
“What about me?” He arches an eyebrow in a challenge. “Will you give me to him? If the only way he will finish your request is my life, would you slit my throat? How far are you willing to go, Lenora?”
I don’t answer.
Not because I don’t know the answer. I do and it’s a resounding no. I would never let anything hurt him. But I don’t know how to explain my arrangement with the demon.
“I would never hurt you,” I tell him at last. “Or let you get hurt. You’re all I have left and I love you.”
I watch his features soften. The anger in his eyes simmers to a gentle boil, but he no longer looks like he wants to kill me.
“Then let me protect you.” His hands frame my face and I’m pulled to him. “If you need this, I will accept it. I will stand by you, but only if you promise me that you won’t lie or keep anything from me.”
It’s a simple request.
The kind I should be able to make without thought, but I know it can never be that simple.
“I promise,” telling myself I mean it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Veyn
Imayhavetokillhim.
It’s a thought I toy with while I watch him scoop Lenora up against his chest where she burrows, soft and sweet. Her face nuzzles the side of his neck, and she shuts her eyes as he guides her through my shadows in the direction of the office.
He’s becoming a problem.
A thorn I don’t have the patience for. He tried to take her from me. I watched him, never thinking he would do something so … foolish, but he tried. I even waited to see if he truly was just taking her for breakfast. I knew that wasn’t the case when he kept driving. Taking her nearly too far, far enough that my abilities nearly — nearly — couldn’t reach them.
Such … nerve.
After I allowed him to have her. I made an exception and this is how he repays my kindness? It will not happen again.
The faint whisper of metal hooks clink somewhere behind me. They rattle, following in the metallic tinge of rusted copper and subtle drip of blood on stone, and I roll my eyes.
“Almost lost her.”
The taunt is thick and wet across my brother’s tongue. A tacky purr of someone trying to swallow around spoiled honey.
“She is none of your concern,” I mutter, watching my woman get kissed by the human she is so determined to protect.
