With a sniff, Graham reverted to his original preferred form and stepped back, raising his hands innocently. He sneered at Tammy. “I suppose we can count on your unwavering loyalty ifhe’sin charge, then?”
Cliff turned to Tammy. “What thefuckare you talking about? You two are working together? How could you get mixed up in all this?”
Her glare sharpened upon me before pointing back at him. “I could ask you the same,” she muttered.
“She’s a friend.” He stepped closer to me, protectiveness radiating off him like heat. “And you… You’re just a sell-out. What did you lure us here for, huh? Trying to get us into the fold with Eros?”
“That wasn’t me,” she hissed. “Just someone using my name.Iwas trying to keep you away. Call me a sell-out all you want, but I won’t be blamed for you showing up here and getting tangled in all of this. There are bigger things in the works, Cliff. Everything at play here is for the good of humanity—saving more lives than you can begin to imagine.”
He shook his head. “You’re the one who taught us that we don’t compromise when it comes to monsters. How the hell did they sucker you into this?”
She sighed, palming her face wearily and wiping fresh tears. “How can I explain the lengths someone will go to save their child’s life? With four others to feed on top of that, I didn’t have the luxury of being noble anymore. I can’t say I’m sorry, Cliff. Family has to come first. It always will.”
Pain flickered over Cliff’s face—a sting of rejection that set my frayed nerves alight.
“He’syour family!” I blurted. “What is wrong with you?”
Her glower sent a chill down my spine. “Not another word, bug.”
My fingers shivered with barely tethered frost at the knowledge that Jon and Cliff’s savior and mentor could dismiss them so readily. “Do you know how highly they’ve spoken of you?” I pressed. “Whether that was you beckoning them to thisplace or not, he and Jon droppedeverythingto come to your aid!”
“Sylv,” Cliff murmured, lifting a hand to usher me back. “Don’t—”
I brushed him off and pointed at Tammy. “You don’t deserve them!”
For a single moment, Tammy looked taken aback—just before she shuttered her pain away the way I’d seen Jon and Cliff do a dozen times. Except her mask was forged from anger and disgust, aimed at me like all of this was my doing.
“Eros isn’t a fan of chatty fairies—you’ll learn that soon enough,” she said. “I’d kill you on the spot if you weren’t so damn useful.”
Seething, Cliff took a threatening step toward her, but the sound of approaching footsteps drew every eye towards the lone door with the strip curtain.
Tammy sighed and gave Cliff a mournful look. She tried to touch his shoulder comfortingly, but he recoiled. She left her hand suspended for a moment before dropping it.
“I tried to keep you away,” she murmured. “Remember that. I hope it means something.”
“I thought that might be the case.” Another voice entered the room, passing through the strip door. “And if you try to work behind my back like that again, Tamara, I swear to hell and back you’ll be on your knees, praying for death.”
Two suited men with weapons holstered at their sides entered, followed by a handsome man with silver hair. Even the lines on his face sat pleasantly, like his older age had set him in his prime. The command with which he held himself left me with no doubt that this wasEros.
Cliff made a soft sound like he’d been punched—though I couldn’t understand it. Eros carried an air of intimidation, but it was nothing compared to the foes we’d faced together thus far.I flitted forward and saw with alarm that Cliff was going deathly pale, eyes wide.
“It took a great deal of effort to get you here,” Eros said, looking at no one else but Cliff as he slowly strode closer. “The patience and coordination can’t be overstated, though Tamara here apparently made it a great deal more difficult. Patience, as you well know, is not my strongest suit. But the payoff, well… At long last, here it is.”
In the blink of an eye, Cliff seized the handgun he had hidden, aiming it toward Eros. Time seemed to slow. It should have been over in less than a second—a bullet between the eyes. He’d done it a million times.
But Cliff hesitated, the steadiness of his aim wavering.
Heneverwavered.
Graham and the other guards raised their weapons toward Cliff in response, but Eros lifted a hand. “Hold,” he said calmly, regarding Cliff with self-assured fascination. “I’m sure we can talk this out.”
“Cliff!” Delilah snapped. “Take the shot! What are you waiting for?”
Horror still unraveling on Cliff’s face, he lowered the gun.
“I—I can’t,” he croaked.
I looked back to Eros, wide-eyed. Something about him, from his features to his gait, was painfully familiar. He stopped a few feet from Cliff, sizing him up.
