Caim opened his mouth to explain, and my heart flipped. I’d been so distracted by his transformation and all the other crazy things going on that I’d forgotten what Andrea had said to me just before Caim had snapped. She’d said that it wasn’t my blood that she was after anymore. There was something else.
But what?
Caim’s eyes met mine. Did he remember that conversation? Or had he been too far gone at that point?
He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. And I knew. He did remember, but he wanted to let me be the one to share the bombshell with everyone else.
Closing my eyes, I sucked in a steadying breath. “So, here’s the thing.” I flipped my eyes back open to find every single one of them staring at me. “I don’t know what it means, but...Andrea said she needed me for something else. Something that isn’t my weird orb blood.”
Stolas stood and strode toward me. His brows were furrowed, and there was something in his gaze. Like I was a strange creature of curiosity that he wanted to dissect and pick apart. “Something else other than your blood? But what?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea, Stolas. You know as much as me. Hell, you knowmore. What else could she want from me?”
He paused and cast a glance over his shoulder at Valac, who had somehow found more shadows to stand inside. “Any ideas?”
The bleached-blonde demon merely frowned. “I can’t read someone who isn’t in the room with us.”
“Who, Andrea?” Stolas shook his head. “No, obviously not. But can’t you read Eva? Is there something about her that newborn demons might want?”
Gritting my teeth, I braced myself for the onslaught of Valac’s piercing gaze. I liked the demon. A lot. He was strange in his own little way, and kind of creepy at times, but there was something about him that called to me. Something that told me he would always be on my side. Ferociously so. I’d never seen him in attack mode, but I knew it wouldn’t be pretty. For the person on the other end of his rage.
And there it was. Something sharp scraped against my bones. I shuddered as his gaze swept through me, piercing my very soul. Tears burst into my eyes. Pain radiated through my skull. It felt like he was picking me apart, cell by cell. I would become a puddle of melted goo if he looked at me for much longer.
Suddenly, it was gone. The pain vanished, but it left me reeling. I bent over and gripped my knees, sucking in gasping breaths.
“Honestly,” I said through rapid puffs. “Your power is horrifying, Valac.”
“Thereissomething odd about her,” he said, vanishing back into the shadows. “I felt it before, and I still feel it now. She’s not normal.”
“Gee thanks,” I said with a frown.
“I don’t mean it negatively, Eva. Normality is highly overrated.”
Caim edged a little closer. “Odd how?”
“It has something to do with her illness,” Valac said. “But I can’t say more than that. Whatever it is, it’s been obscured.”
That got all the demons standing up a little straighter. They all exchanged knowing glances that I didn’t quite understand. Obviously, my illness was strange. Surely that shouldn’t be news to them?
Anya seemed to read my mind. She hopped up onto the bar top and furrowed her brows. “Why do you all look like you’ve seen a ghost? Hey, wait. Are ghosts real?”
“This is irregular,” Stolas said as he turned back to me. “Your illness. What can you tell us about it?”
“Look, this has nothing to do with my illness,” I countered. “I’m not sure why you’re all so worked up, but I was sick far before I met any of you. So was my mother. It’s what...” I swallowed hard. Even now, I struggled to say the words out loud. “You know.”
“Hmm.” Valac cocked his head. “Interesting.”
I shot him a glare. “Interesting what? That my mom succumbed to the same illness I currently suffer from? Because from where I’m standing, it’s not interesting at all.”
His eyes gleamed from his shadowy darkness. “I didn’t mean it like that, Eva.”
“Valac is right.” Stolas rubbed his jaw. “There’s something odd about your illness. What do they call it?”
My heart thundered in my chest. I didn’t like the direction of this conversation. We were here to find a way to stop the Cult of Lilith, not chatter about my diagnosis. My darkest fate. The death looming behind every step I took.
“None of that matters,” I said with a sigh as I plopped down into a chair. Maybe if we sat, and I got them drinking again, I could steer the conversation back onto what was important. And that sure as hell wasn’t my bones.
Anya and Sarah exchanged a weighted glance. Sarah cleared her throat, and then spoke. “It’s a rare illness. So rare it doesn’t even have a name. There are only a few cases in the history of, well,ever. None of them are particularly recent. Except for Eva and her mom.”
