Heat rushed through me at his words. I blinked, caught off guard. He didn’t seem to notice what he’d said, and I knew I was reading far too much into it. You can love something about someone without beingin lovewith them. But still...the l-word had rolled off his tongue so easily, like he’d thought about this before.
Things had been so complicated the past few days. We rarely had time alone, and when we did, I was halfway toward becoming a monster. The kisses had been few and far between. Forget anything more than that.
“But,” he said, “I’ll be fine if something happens in there, okay? You need to trust me to take care of it, but I can’t do that unless I know that you won’t do anything to put yourself in danger. I need to be focused on the enemy. Not on your safety.”
I nodded, flushing. “I said I wouldn’t do anything, and I won’t.”
“Good.” He brushed a soft kiss against my forehead, stiffened, and then pulled back. I didn’t miss the dark flicker in his eyes when he turned away from me. My heart sank. I’d guessed as much. Even if Caim did still harbor feelings, it was all marred by the darkness inside of me. The part of me he hated.
He fell silent as we rounded the next block, entering a quieter residential street free of restaurants, pawn shops, and convenience stores. A plastic bag drifted across the one-way street, and the buzzing streetlights cast eerie, dancing shadows across the red-brick buildings. Something prickled the back of my neck. A silent alarm. A warning.
I was probably just imagining things.
Caim slowed to a stop at the base of a small set of concrete stairs leading up to a three-story walkup. Light peeked around the curtains, a signal that whoever lived here was home. Suddenly, nerves tangled in my belly. We had no idea what we were about to walk into here. If these were the witches who had been working with the newborn demons, they might very well try to destroy us both.
He seemed to note my sudden unease. “You sure you’re okay with doing this?”
“’Course I am.” I didn’t really have any other choice. Not if I wanted my humanity back.
Nodding, he shoved his thumb against the black buzzer. A distant ringing swept through the building, and one of the lights on the ground floor blinked out. I arched a brow.
“They really think we’re not going to notice they turned the lights off?” I asked.
Caim grumbled and jammed the buzzer again.
A long moment passed in still silence. And then we heard athumpecho behind the door. The jingle of iron soon followed, and then the creak of the door as it swung wide.
A girl with long dark hair, about my age, stood just inside the doorway with narrowed eyes and a crossbow lifted to her shoulder. My heart jolted up into my throat and stuck there as a sharp ringing filled my ears. Alarm bells jangled inside my head.
“I’d ask why demons are standing on my doorstep, but I’m guessing it has something to do with all that bullshit blasting on the news.” She inched forward, her crossbow’s arrow pointed right at Caim’s heart. “The recent attacks. You have something to do with that?”
Caim lifted his hands. “Easy. We’re just here to talk.”
Her deep brown eyes narrowed. “I asked you if you had anything to do with that.”
“No,” he replied in a deep voice that whispered across my skin like shadows. There was power in that voice, along with anger. “We’re trying to stop it from happening again.”
“Hmm. How can I be sure you’re telling the truth? You demons don’t mind lying, not like the fallen angels do.”
“Because if we were here for any other reason than to talk, we would have found another way in. One that meant you were on the other end of that weapon than you are now.”
I bit my lip as anger flashed in the witch’s eyes. Caim had told me to stay quiet, but he was making that pretty hard. Throwing around threats wasn’t the way to get her to open the door to us.
“You demons are all the same,” she hissed. “You think you can go around threatening people, and you’ll get what you want. Leave now, or I’ll shoot this through your heart. It’s not enough to kill you, but it will stun you. Long enough for me to rip your body apart.” Her eyes slid to me. “You feel strange. What the hell are you?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Caim let out a low growl. “Don’t answer that, Eva.”
Scrunching up my nose, I gave the witch a little shrug. “Can’t tell you that.”
“Hmm. Interesting.” She shifted the crossbow my way. “That means you aren’t a demon, even though something about you feels like one.” She cocked her head. “Why are you here?”
“We’re here to talk,” Caim said through gritted teeth. “Just like I said before.”
“Not you,” she said, ignoring Caim to focus on me. “I want Eva to tell me why she’s here.”
My heart thundered. How the hell did she know my name?
I could feel the tension radiating off Caim’s body. Even without looking at him, I knew he was two seconds away from losing his temper. The witch was playing with us, but I saw that as an opportunity rather than a hurdle. It meant she was curious. And curiosity was always good. We might have a chance of getting through that door.
