“You’re okay,” he breathed as he dropped his forehead against mine. I sucked him in, all fire and smoke and musk. Even though I’d heard them winning the battle, the relief was almost overwhelming.
“You beat them,” I whispered back.
He nodded, his smile vanishing. “For now. They’ll heal. We don’t have long to...move them.” His eyes drifted to the cage behind me. “Did you do this?”
I winced. There was one thing I’d tried to ignore in my desperate fight to get free of that cage. In order to survive, I’d had to kill someone. Not a demon. A mortal man twisted by the words of the Cult of Lilith.
I had taken his knife and stabbed him with it.
My stomach churned, even as the darkness inside me tried to soothe my guilt. He’d been two seconds away from killing me. It had been self-defense and nothing more. So, why did it feel like I’d crossed a line I never should have even budged with my toe?
A tear leaked out of my eye and trailed down my cheek. “I...I had to. They trapped me in the cage and they wanted to kill me to use my blood. That one...over there...he was human still.”
Mr. Yankees Hat lurked in the back corner of the cage, glaring out at us. He didn’t say a word as Stolas and Phenex trailed over to the bars. They took in the scene, their eyes hard.
“It’s alright, Eva.” Caim wrapped his arms around me and pulled out the vial that I’d tucked into the pocket of my jeans. “It’s all over now. Take the cure. No one will ever be able to target you for your blood ever again.”
He pulled back and dropped the vial into my open palm. The darkness inside of me was silent for once. No arguments. No pleas. No shouted words. Just...silence. The way it would always be if I took this cure.
“The cult,” I whispered to Caim. “You said they’re defeated for now, but they’ll heal. What happened back there?”
Caim’s jaw flickered as he glanced at the others. “We killed them, but we didn’t destroy them. For now, we’ll lock them up in these cages while we decide what to do.”
“But...the only choice you have is to destroy them, right?” I asked, swallowing hard.Destroy. I’d always hated how that sounded. It didn’t seem right.
“You don’t need to worry about that, Eva,” Mia said kindly as she knelt down beside me. “Asmodeus will take care of it.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?” I asked, my voice hitching. “The thought of so much death and destruction? Shouldn’t we be better than them?”
Her shoulders slumped forward. “Of course it bothers me, but there’s no other way. If we keep them locked up in those cages, they’ll only end up escaping one day. Trust me, it would happen. And then what? They’d terrorize this city again. Many innocents would die. They’d find a way to turn more humans into demons, and if they kept at their goal, they’d try to find a way to reopen the hellgate. None of that can happen.”
“So, we destroy all of them.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Or,” I countered, pushing up onto my feet and wrapping my fingers around the vial. “We givethemthe cure. Not me.”
“What?” Caim’s entire body tensed.
“If they’re not demons, what are they going to do? They won’t have powers anymore.”
Mia opened her mouth to argue, but then slammed her lips shut. Turning to Az, she nodded. “It’s not a bad idea.”
Az’s eyes darkened. “You want to cure them and then let them go? After everything they’ve done to you?”
“Well, I don’t know about letting them go,” I said, a slight smile cresting my lips. “The cops have been looking for the Cult of Lilith members. A human prison sounds like a pretty good place for an army of demon-worshipping humans who can’t be trusted not to try to open a hellgate. Without any powers, they won’t be able to escape. Problem solved.”
It was a pretty damn good idea if I did say so myself. But Caim sure didn’t look too happy.
He reached for the vial, but I wound my arm behind my back and held it there.
“You can’t do this, Eva. This is your chance to become human again, to say goodbye to the darkness inside of you. You deserve to be happy and—”
I pushed up onto my toes and planted a hot kiss on his lips. A sigh escaped from his throat as he hungrily kissed me back. When I pulled away, he looked a bit dazed. I smiled to myself. Yep, I still had it.
“Iamhappy,” I insisted. “With you and the Legion. I’m happy just as I am.”
“But the darkness...”
