“But you didn’t,” I said gently. “We’ve been through this before, Eric. Demon. Living inside you. You need to get past it.” I reached over and took his hands. “I’ve told you before. That wasn’t you.”
“But wasn’t it? Wasn’t that the point? It was so deep inside of me that it was part of me? An essential, core part.” He drew in a deep breath, his face lined with pain. I wanted to pull him close and hold him, but at the same time some part of me was scared to touch him. Scared of what he was thinking, because dammit, I knew what he was thinking. Hadn’t I been thinking it too?
“After the battle,” he continued, as if in response to my thoughts, “before Rome, I mean, I thought it was finally, truly out of me. Maybe it is. But that doesn’t really matter now does it? Because that infected part was bound in me for long enough. Because it’s in Allie now. It’s part of her. Of my daughter. So you tell me, Kate. Did I screw it up for our daughter? Is she?—”
“She’s going to be fine,” I said again. “Allie is going to be just fine. She’s the same girl she’s always been. And that girl is wonderful.”
At the same time though, I couldn’t argue with him. Because he was right. Somehow the demon was in him deeper than we ever knew, and because of that it was in our daughter now. A geneticist would say it was part of her DNA. I wasn’t entirely sure what the Church would say.
I thought about Father Corletti. He knew the situation. Knew that Allie’s human-demon blood had the power to lock those gates to Hell. He knew, and he still loved her, still wanted her to be part ofForza. For that matter, he thought that she might even be the most important part.
But he was just one man. Father Corletti knew, but the Church as a whole didn’t. For that matter, neither did the other priests inForza. Only Father Corletti. Not even Father Donnelly, who was set to take over after Father Corletti passes.
And once Father Donnelly was running Forza. What would that mean? Especially since he had been among the renegades who’d worked with Eric’s parents to put a demon inside him in the first place, all with the goal of making the ultimate demon hunter. A noble goal, maybe, but they’d been playing with powers that they had no right to meddle with.
“Kate?”
Eric’s voice pulled me away from my thoughts.
“Talk to me,” he said. “We’re in this together.”
“We are,” I squeezed his hand. “Always.” Because no matter what, we were tied together by Allie.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“I’m not. It’s inconvenient as hell, but I do love you, Eric. And that makes it good to have you around, and terrible too. And all of that is notwithstanding this whole demon blood thing.”
He chuckled and for a second the moment felt lighter. “I appreciate that. But I meant Allie. I’m sorry this is happening to her. I’m sorry about my role in it. I’m sorry even though I know that there wasn’t a thing I could do to change it.”
I made a show of staring him down. “Except maybe not killing the demon who might have given us answers?”
To his credit, he nodded. “Yeah, except that. We’ll find Esther. Hopefully she’ll tell us. Maybe Henry didn’t even know anything.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I doubt he knew anything at all.”
We both know that wasn’t true. And that one single word,consort, seemed to linger in the cave between us.
“You should head on back,” he said. “I’m going to sit here for a little bit and get my head on straight, then I’ll walk home.”
“Eric, no. Let me drive you.”
“It’ll do me good.”
I glanced at his cane. “You’re going to walk all that way?”
“I’ll be fine. The break healed nicely, and I don’t even need the cane all the time any more. Fortunately, David was never going to be permanently injured. Except for the part where he died in that wreck. Besides, it’s only five miles. The walk will do me good. Really. I want to think anyway.”
I considered arguing, but knew I’d get nowhere. Instead, I simply nodded. I got up and gave him a hug.
Then I left him alone in the cave as I slowly walked back to my car.
Since the horrible grinding of our garage door going up and down was loud enough to wake the dead—though not literally, I hoped—I parked on the street and headed up the sidewalk to the front door. It was already well past eleven, and I turned the lock slowly, then pushed open the door with equal care, hoping the hinges wouldn’t creak.
Miraculously enough, they didn’t. I shut the door behind me, the used stealth tactics to lock the place up again. Then I took off my shoes and padded in socks toward the living room.
The only illumination came from the light in the kitchen. A dim light that I assumed originated from the single bulb above the kitchen sink. I saw no sign of Laura or Eddie, and I hoped that meant that Eddie was in bed and Laura was back at her house with Allie and Eliza and Mindy.
I headed down the short hallway to the living room, and as I did the lamp on the table beside the couch clicked on and I saw my husband sitting there, his eyes on me.
