The weight of Hell’s deterioration, my animosity toward the pet, my concerns about Lucifer, the demons, Alexei’s injuries—it all fell away.
She may be the pet’s spark, but damn me to Heaven if she wasn’t my fuel.
Everything about her showed me a life worth wanting.
Because I did.
I wanted everything with her.
To help her through her lows, celebrate her successes, cherish her smiles, worship her lips, challenge her, and guide her through her stubbornness, to just breathe her in every day and know she was mine—only mine.
And I wasn’t sure how, after wanting and feeling this utter awe of being with her, I could ever give her up to him.
“Ronen.” Sam shook my shoulder. “Did you hear me?”
I sighed.
“No.”
“What happened this morning?”
Where the hell did I start?
Sam’s hand flashed yellow, healing the tiny puncture on Lucille’s arm.
“You’re right about their blood being poisonous. It corrupted the land where we fought them in the Eternal Forest. I found a lightless tree.”
A vial slipped from Sam’s hands.
I caught it before it shattered on the floor, jostling Lucille’s body.
“Like Cordyceps,” Sam breathed with both horror and intrigue.
At my blank expression, he elaborated.
“It’s a parasitic fungus that infects and consumes the host’s tissues, then replaces them with its own to further propagate.”
“That’s horrifying,” the hellion muttered, shifting in my arms but not leaving them.
I wouldn’t admit what that choice did to me.
“Yes. It could also explain why Hell’s melting,” Sam said.
“That’s not all of it either,” I told them, now that the hellion was awake. “You’re also right about Lucille’s blood binding the second strain, Sam.”
“Why?”
Lucille straightened, her ass digging into my groin.
Parasitic demon fungus talk or not, I wasn’t immune to her body.
I adjusted her off my erection.
“I was attacked by Ridigar this morning. He has transitioned into a demon willingly.”
Lucille jerked to her feet.
“That’s what your anxiety meant this morning? You were attacked?” She shot me a glare. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
