“You should have left me to my fate. Then Aba would never have come across me. I have to go.”
“Nate, please—” She grasped his forearm, her other hand pressing against his chest, trying to connect to the part of him that drew them together. “You have to hear me out.”
He didn’t pull away, but his gaze, when it met hers, chilled her to the bone. His eyes were no longer the warm flame-gold she loved but blank—empty—as if every vestige of emotion had drained out. “The one time I open my heart to another, reality comes back and fucks me up again.”
“Nate—”
“I can’t do this now. I have to go. And you have company.” He shimmered and vanished, leaving her alone.
She pressed her fingers to her trembling mouth to stop from crying out.
“Ely?” Týr appeared at her side, his eyes glinting beneath the moonlight like nails. “What happened? What the fuck did the demon do?” Anger vibrated in each syllable.
“Nothing. Everything’s fine.” She swiped her tear-stained, feverish cheeks with the back of her hand.
“Don’t lie.” His stare bore into hers, and whatever he saw, he swore a blue streak as understanding struck. “Him? Hell, Ely! Why not a human or even a freakin’ Fallen? Why him—”
“Because he’s a demon?” she snapped.
“Because you deserve happiness, and he’s not it!”
“Týr, please. You’ve got it all wrong—”
“Then tell me you feel nothing for him, so I won’t go after the fucker and kill him for making you cry.”
“It’s not him but me. All m-me. I ruined his life. I ruinedeverything!”
“What the fuck?” He gaped at her like she’d punched him in the head. “Ely, I’ve known you for two years. You don’t have a vindictive bone in you.”
She shook her head and dashed at her tears. “I did something. It wasn’t deliberate, but it happened.” She swallowed hard. “I-I can’t explain now. I have to go.” She dematerialized and shot back to the Bowery.
The need to find Nate, make him hear her out, dug its claws deep into her.
Not now. He needs space. Give him time.
As hard as it was for her to tell him the truth, her revelation was a shock for him, too. And her heart squeezed in pain, hating that she was the one who’d inadvertently changed his life, giving him a worse one. She couldn’t see how he would ever forgive her. Still, she hoped he would and prayed he did…because they couldn’t end like this. They just couldn’t.
* * *
No, just no!Nate reappeared in another alley. He grabbed his head and sagged against the wall. No matter his denial, everything in him had shattered, and the fragments of happiness he’d experienced so briefly lay scattered around his feet.
Ely—hisEly—had left him to this fate.
His entire life, he’d hated what he’d become, merging with a symbiont that let its beast fuse with him, giving him this hellish life. He’d been eight years old, small for his age, and feeding off the demons Aba trapped for him so he could live. Those that dared to attack him, Aba had killed.
Despite not remembering his human past, what he did recall was awakening to agony and torment, reborn an abomination…his chest burning, agony stealing his breath, spreading as if tearing him cell by cell, and the screams echoing in his ears—his own. The frenzied feeding, the blood—
Fuck! He lifted his head to stare at the icy moon in the dark sky, its pale light painting the warehouse rooftops in a silvery glow, the color just likeherhair.
Agony gutted him. By the dark gods! He couldn’t deal with it right now. He had a job to do, a target to hunt, and this one he’d kill with relish.
Pangur, his sire’s old friend, had come through and found out who put the price on her head. Nate finally had a lead on the bastard. Why wasn’t he surprised it was Derrodus?
Regressing into the cold,immitisbastard all of the Dark Realm knew him as, Nate flashed back to the garage and strode into the workshop. With a wave of his hands, he opened the portal, revealing its ominous swirling, like fingers reaching out to drag one into an unknown hell. Except he knew his hell and lived it daily.
“Nate?”
He glanced back. Aba stood at the doorway. Whatever his sire read on his face, he hurried across to him. “You can work this out with Ely,cnati.”
