Honestly, Belial admired Valteri, though he’d never admit to that out loud. In spite of how hard others had kicked him down and spit on him, he’d risen above them all to become a true noble man. He’d let nothing and no one hold him back.
While they laughed in his face and had deliberately sabotaged his armor and given him substandard equipment to use in battle, he’d outfought them all.
Proven himself, time and again, to be the better warrior.
Now this little weasel was here, like all the others, plotting against him to lay him low.
Just like me.
That dose of reality stung hard.
And still the friar prattled on. “Will you help me, my lord, to expose the vileness inside him? Then the fair lady would have no choice other than to believe us.”
His stomach churning as his conscience continued to flog him, Belial sighed. “And how would you expose him?”
The friar pulled a vial out from a pouch he had attached to his rope belt.
Belial had to keep from laughing as he saw the holy water that would have absolutely no affect whatsoever on Valteri.
“A drop or two of this upon his skin and all will know of his true origins.”
Oh, to have that amount of faith in his own stupidity.
“And if your water has no effect on him?”
Edred’s brows shot up in shock and he crossed himself. “Could he be so powerful?”
“He could be… something.”
“Then I shall pray on it!” The friar scampered off.
Belial slid to the floor as sweat rolled down his cheek.
“You’re weak.”
He cringed at the sound of Shadow’s voice coming to him out of thedarkness that bastard called home. The shadows he’d been named for. “What do you want?”
“The head of my father delivered to me on a platter. My mother’s heart in my fist. Peace for all mankind… but I’d settle for you to just piss off.”
Belial scoffed at his old enemy. “We all want something. I’d settle foryourheart in my fist.” He grimaced as another wave of pain tore through him.
Shadow stepped into the light so that Belial could see the arrogant wanker. Dressed in a burgundy surcoat and chain mail that seemed so out of place on such a heartless creature.
At least when it wasn’t covered in blood and entrails.
Those eerie gray eyes were piercing with their intelligence. “Why don’t you head home? Why put yourself through this torment?”
With a shaky breath, Belial cut a menacing glare toward him. “You know why.”
“I do, but it won’t work. See, you keep thinking that you can buy goodwill from creatures who have none. They’re morally bankrupt and selfish. Doesn’t matter how much you give when they think they deserve. That’s an ever-sliding scale where you lose. I learned that a long, long time ago.” Shadow moved forward and squatted down beside him. “They’ll never be grateful because they think whatever you do for them is their due, and they’ll always demand more. Until they use you up completely, and you’re nothing but a shattered, hollowed-out husk they leave behind. Theywillsuck you dry, my brother. Sadly, they’re the real vampires. Not those made-up nightmares that mankind fears.”
Damn him for the truth he spoke. “I would slap you if I had the strength.”
He laughed. “I know you would.” Shadow reached out and brushed the hair back from his forehead. “You look like shite, brother. Want me to take you home so that you can rest?”
Belial knocked his hand away. “Why would you help me?”
“Because I was you, once. Angry. Pissed off and pissed on. Hating everyone and everything. Some days, I still am you. I know that irrational fury that drives you to lash out at the world and especially those who hate you for things you can’t help. For the things you are and aren’t. Those who really hate you for what you’ve bled to accomplish because they think it was given to you, while you know the scars you carry for having earned it. But hating them won’t bring you any more solace than sitting here and wallowing in your misery. So get up off your arse, demon. No one gives a fuck if you live or die.”
