I shook my head, then felt like an idiot when I realized he couldn’t see me. “The jinn, to those people, why would they do thattothem?”
“Like other demons, the jinn survive by feeding onsuffering.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the stark reminder of what he was and how hesurvived.
“The jinn feed on it more than others,” Corson continued. “Most demons survive solely by feeding on wraiths, but other demons like the jinn and canaghrequiremore.”
“Isee.”
I smacked into his back before I realized he’d stopped before me. A tingle of awareness slid over my nerve endings when my hand brushed over his before I stepped awayfromhim.
Does he infuriate me so much because I am so aware of him?I wondered. I’d noticed other men over the years, but none of them had riveted or unsettled me as much asCorsondid.
“It is necessary for demons to feed on wraiths,” he whispered. “It’s part of the circle of life. Without it,alllife would cease toexist.”
“Really?” I asked, hating that I found myselfintrigued.
Corson’s sigh caused his breath to caress my cheek. There was a smoky hint to his breath that I found surprisingly pleasant. “For someone with so much hatred toward demons, you know nothing of us. Our existence is necessary for yoursurvival.”
“And humans are necessary for yours,” I retorted. “Maybe I don’t know all there is to know about demons, but I know that much. The demons who follow the king, such as you, wouldn’t be fighting to preserve the human race if you didn’t need us for yoursurvival.”
Demons may not be as atrocious as I’d believed all these years, but they weren’t warm or loving either. They’d let us die without blinking an eye if they didn’t need us for something. Some of them were friendly to humans, but most were completely indifferent, and others couldn’t hide they found us as useless as a rudder on a duck’s ass and as annoying asgnats.
Corson was probably the most social of all the demons, except for maybe the skelleins. And the odd little skellein demons were as happy drinking the beer they brewed as they were chopping off an enemy’s head. Sometimes I believed they’d be as happy chopping offanyone’s head, enemyornot.
“Yes, humans are necessary for our survival,” Corson replied. “And the demons who follow the king are known as palitons. Those who stand against him, the ones who followed Lucifer and are now either scrambling to find a new leader or already have found one, are known ascraetons.”
“Oh.”
The softest footstep was the only sign I had that he’d started walking again. I hurried to catch upwithhim.
“Demons took everything from me.” I crashed into his back when he stopped walking again. “Stop doing that!” I snapped as Istumbledaway.
“Humanstook everything away from you,” he growled. “Your species was playing with things they never should have played with. Because of that, they opened a gateway into Hell, intoourworld. Their ignorance tore apart the intricate balance between Hell, Heaven, and Earth. A balance that took millions of years to form, yet they ruined it in aninstant.
“What happened after Hell opened was a result of the human’s actions. We worked hard to make everything right again by closing the gateway, but it was too late. There is no undoing what was done. I don’t think we ever could have fixed the destruction the humans wrought, not even if we closed the gateway seconds after itopened.”
He was right; I knew that now, but… “It wasdemonswho tore my mom limb from limb while I watched,” I spat at him. “Nothumans.”
When he rested his hand on my arm, I moved it away from him. I couldn’t deal with any sympathy from anyone while the familiar rage and sorrow over that memory swelled in my chest. Screams resonated in my head, and tears burned my eyes as the lump in my throat choked me. For the first time in years, the memory of her face, her fervent words to me on that day, and her love for me broke free to swirl throughmymind.
Afraid the grief would bury me, I shoved the memories aside and focused onthenow.
“Yes, humans screwed up big time,” I whispered, “but they weren’t the ones laughing as they poured my mother’s blood all over them and down theirthroats.”
“I’m sorry, Wren. You shouldn’t have had to experience that. No oneshould.”
I was glad I couldn’t see his face, because if I’d seen pity in his eyes, I would have punched him in the nose. I didn’t know why I’d told him about that day in the first place. What did he care what had happened to my mother, or anything about my life? Why had I revealed to him something I’d only ever told Randybefore?
I certainly didn’t trust him as much as I trusted Randy. I also loved Randy; I barely toleratedCorson.
Liar!There was that stupid little inner voice again, and Ihatedit!
It’s the dark and the possible concussion, I decided.That’s why I revealed thattohim.
I couldn’t see him; he almost wasn’t real if I couldn’t see him. Plus, these could be the last moments of our lives. Of course, I was thinking about my mother more now when I’d spent years trying to forget her and that day. I’d watched her die, and my death could be unfolding in these tunnels. For all I knew, my next breath might bemylast.
And after what I’d seen yesterday—or at least I thought it was yesterday, I had no idea how much time had passed since we’d fallen into the ouro’s trap—it only made sense the memories of my past would be closer to the surface than they’d been inyears.
