She just chuckled in response, glee rippling through her eyes. “You really have no idea what’s going on, do you?”
There was something about the way she said those words that put a tremor in my spine.
I swallowed hard. “I know exactly what is going on, which is why I can’t let you have any more of my blood.”
She leaned in, pressed her nose against my hair, and dragged in a long, weird-as-fuck sniff. I could feel her smile against my skin. “It isn’t your blood we need now. It’s something else.”
My heart banged. She’d said this once before, but I’d dismissed it. Could there really be more to it than my blood? But what? Nothing else made any sense.
“I said to let her go.” Caim hurtled toward Andrea so fast that I didn’t even register he’d moved. In an instant, he was behind her. He loomed over her, his eyes dark and full of rage.
And then he snapped her neck. The sound echoed down the quiet street.
I gasped and stumbled away, my heart thundering as Andrea hit the ground so hard her head smacked against the pavement. My feet couldn’t move. My eyes stayed locked on her face. Every hair on the back of my neck prickled in alarm.
Shuddering, I slowly dragged my gaze away from her slack body to see the demon standing before me now. Caim bristled with anger. His eyes were pools of black. There was nothing of the man I knew inside of them.
I took another step back as fear twisted my gut. Somehow, after all these years, Caim had snapped. Not like before, when he’d sat motionless. He’d truly lost control now, and the demon had taken over. The man I knew would never harm me. Not in a million years. But this was no longer the Caim I’d grown to love. That Caim was gone.
And there was no telling what this demon would do to me.
He’d just snapped Andrea’s neck. Sure, she’d survive, and yeah, she was kind of evil, but still...
“Caim,” I whispered.
He shuddered, whipped away from me, and took off into the sky. For a moment, all I could do was stand there staring after him. His wings pounded the air as he vanished into the clouds, and it felt like half of my heart went along with him.
I had to do something. This wasn’t him, and the Caim I knew wouldn’t want to be like this. I’d struggled so hard with the demon inside of me, and he’d been by my side every step of the way, bringing me back to him when I lost myself to the darkness. He needed me now. I had to find a way to get through to him the way he’d done for me.
Only problem was, I wasn’t totally a demon yet. And even if I was, I sure as hell didn’t know how to fly. I’d never used my wings. Did I evenhavewings? How did all this work? I definitely wasn’t immortal because I hadn’t completed the transformation. Did that mean I couldn’t fly yet either?
Well.
Only one way to find out.
I took in several slow steadying breaths while reminding myself that I really did need to get out of here as soon as possible. There was a dead demon at my feet. At some point, she’d heal and wake back up. She’d probably be very, very angry, and I didn’t want to be here for that.
And Caim needed my help.
Where was Stolas? I didn’t really have time to wait for him to come back. He might be off battling some rogue fae, and that could take awhile. Every moment that passed was another moment Caim got further and further away from me.
Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes. I’d only seen Caim do this a few times before, so I didn’t have much to go on. When he suddenly sprouted his wings, it didn’t seem like he had to do much of anything at all. They just spread from his back like they were always there, hidden by some unseen magic.
I concentrated on my back. As I drew deep breaths into my lungs, I focused on the image of black feathers flared against the sky.
Nothing happened.
I thought of those wings pushing through my skin and then reaching up toward the clouds.
Something sharp flickered beneath the skin on my back. I sucked in a breath and flipped open my eyes, and that sensation vanished just as readily as it had begun.
Focus, Eva.
Closing my eyes, I tried again. Feathers pushing against skin. Talons straining toward the sky—
A ripping sensation stretched down the left side of my back. Pain thundered through me, but I forced my mind to stay locked on the image of those wings. Another rip went through me—this time, on my right. As the pain flared through my entire body, my balance shifted. It felt like a new pair of arms lifted behind me. Arms that were very much wings.
I stumbled forward, gasping. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I spotted the enormous wings. They were almost as tall as I was and so wide that they almost spread across the entire width of the one-way street.
