Embraced (The Eternal Balance #2)(62)

“That bitch is dead at our feet and you’re still infested with affection for it?”

Again, I wanted to respond. Again, sound failed me.

This enraged my mate. She pushed me away, the fire behind her eyes turning from passion to fury. “Have you forgotten?” She took a menacing step forward. “All that I’ve done for you? The things I’ve endured over the course of a millennium?”

Still, I had nothing to say. The woman still filled my view. The feeling in my gut grew stronger.

“I suffered for you. Endured years of torment by Zenak’s own hand. I watched you cavort with humans lifetime after lifetime in an attempt to make me pay for my disobedience by taking retribution on our enemy. Now we find ourselves on the verge of victory, you focus not on me, but a dead human? Explain yourself!”

“You are mine,” I said, eyes still on the girl. “As she was his.”

“That’s your answer?” Malphi raged. “That is supposed to justify your lack of action?”

“It is meant to justify nothing. My words are merely an explanation.” I lifted my head to study her. “I began a war for you, my love. The result of that action found us removed from our home. Ejected and sentenced to mediocrity for all eternity. How is it that you find yourself able to question my affections?”

Some of her rage subsided. “Your infatuation with that bitch sours me.”

“It is not infatuation. It is as unbreakable a bond as you and I share. It—” Movement on the floor captured my attention once again.

The softest sound filled the room—a single breath pulled between soft lips, followed by a faint metallic clink. The demon cuff fell to the ground. Malphi noticed at the same time I did. “No!” she screamed, and dove for Sam.



The murderous intent in her eyes freed the building force inside me. Watching Malphi drag Sam off the ground and throw her around like a ragdoll was the final push I needed.

I burst through the invisible bonds keeping me trapped and regained control over my body. I moved knowing that there was only one goal, one endgame.

Sam.

Winding my hands around a hank of the demoness’s hair, I hauled it backward. She wailed in pain, then lashed out, raking its nails across my cheek. “Bastard!”

“Let it go,” I snapped. Sam stirred, but hadn’t opened her eyes yet. The fact I could hear her breathing, though, steady and strong, was all I needed. Leaving the demoness alive was stupid. A f*cking disaster in the making. But I couldn’t kill it in cold blood. I’d lost Sam twice now. As much as I hated Azirak, it was a part of me. It always would be. Its anger was my anger, its struggles mine. A part of me feared what Malphi’s death would do to me.

“I won’t hurt you,” I told the demoness. “Just leave us alone. There will be other lives. Other chances. Wait it out and try again.”

Malphi stared at me, expression unreadable, its human eyes—Sadie’s eyes—sparking with something I didn’t quite understand. It—she—I was so f*cking confused—shifted from foot to foot, alternating between me and Sam. I thought it was over. That Malphi would turn and walk the other way.

I was wrong.

The female demon let out a horrible scream and lunged for Sam. Closer by a couple of feet, it reached her first. There was no plan behind my actions. No thought other than the threat posed to the woman I loved. My hand grasped the end table, fingers closing around the first thing they connected with. A ballpoint pen. Without hesitation, I charged Malphi, wrapping one arm around the front of its neck, then plunging the tip of the pen in with the other.

Malphi stumbled back, crashing into me. I caught the demoness before it hit the ground, cradling its head as it fell. A series of coughs followed, and the demoness tried to speak, but only blood came out. I felt the instant Sadie’s human heart stopped. Malphi’s essence exploded from the body, hovering for a moment above our heads before shooting away. Off to be reborn? Who the f*ck knew. All that mattered was that for this lifetime, Sam would be safe.

Sam stirred again, and all I wanted was to go to her. To wrap her in my arms and inhale her sweet, familiar scent. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. A heaviness had settled in my limbs and all feeling drained away. I knew what was coming, and I had no regrets. I would have gladly sacrificed myself, everything that I was or would ever be, for Samantha Merrick.

“Sammy, I love—”





Chapter Thirty


Sam


My eyelids were leaden, and despite the pressure at my throat and weightless feeling beneath my feet, I couldn’t force them open. There was a change in the room. I felt something shift, and it was that transition that enabled me to finally open my eyes.

I was alive. The demon cuff lay in two pieces on the floor to my right. The only reminder was what resembled a burn scar where it had rested against my skin.

I’d been claimed. Not by heaven or hell, but by earth. By myself. I hadn’t known what to expect, or if it would even work, but it surprised me that I didn’t feel any different. There was no power surging through my body. No otherworldly thoughts in my head. I was simply me. Sam Merrick. The same girl who always forgot to turn off the lights and never filled the gas tank until the car was on fumes. A visionless slacker with no career goals and no cash.

But I was alive. And so was Jax.