Embraced (The Eternal Balance #2)(7)
“Oh, now there’s a stone, too?” Sam cried. “Because that sounds like a great idea. What’s it do, Chase? Because I’ll wager nine of my ten fingers that it’s not just a simple rock.”
I squeezed her hand. “What’s to stop me from stealing the stone and leaving the demon?”
Chase laughed. “Impossible. That rock isn’t coming off until Malphi is dead. It’s…shall we say, the demon’s security blanket.” The top right hand corner of his lip curled upward as he started up the stairs. “And Jax?”
I glared at him, with Azi flashing a barrage of images involving my fist repeatedly pummeling his face.
“This is a limited time offer. The cuff is only removable within the first seventy-two hours.”
“Three days?” Sam squawked. “How are we supposed to find this thing in three days?”
Chase winked then opened the door. Right before he slipped through, he said, “I wouldn’t worry, Samantha. Malphi will probably find you.”
Every time Chase had mentioned Malphi’s name, Azirak reacted strangely, restless and bristling. I got the feeling it knew of the demon, and judging by its reaction we had our work cut out for us. It had been oddly quiet since Chase left. That bothered me but not as much as watching Sam from across the dance floor. She was talking to the other bartender as she slipped into her jacket. Waves of gray swirled around her head and shoulders, a storm of fear that almost swallowed her small frame. We’d told the boss that a family member had been in an accident. The sooner we went to work fixing this, the better I’d feel.
I didn’t believe in that love-at-first-sight shit, but I’d known Sam was special the instant we met. Both carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, even at that young age, we were two parts of the same whole. We’d grown up inseparable. More than friends. Sam was my lifeline, tethering me to reality. The only bright light in an existence cloaked in darkness. As a teenager, I finally found the balls to admit what she meant to me, and it’d changed everything.
My feelings for her drove the demon inside me insane. It pushed my control over the edge and left me teetering on the verge of madness. So to shield her, and everyone else I loved, I’d left her behind. Packed a bag and snuck away in the dead of night without saying good-bye. Then a few months ago, fate shoved us together again. I thought maybe I’d finally get a shot with her. I’d been wrong. The universe seemed to be working against us, but together or not, this world would be cold and dark without someone like Sam in it. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Ready?” she called over the music as she crossed the floor. “Heckle is probably our best bet at the moment. He might know exactly what this is. Maybe even be able to take it off.” She gave her wrist a slight shake. If possible, the plume of gray around her head grew even larger, and it took all my willpower not to give in to the demon. It was frantic, desperate to feed and fighting for control. Right now Sam was a succulent buffet with a neon sign that read Free Food.
“Yeah.” We wove through the crowd and slipped out the door, past a large crowd waiting to get in. I’d left the car in the lot behind the building.
Heckle was the way to go, but right now I had to be as far from Sam as possible. We needed to deal with the cuff, but in order to do that, I needed to feed. Now. The link hadn’t settled, and the extra push I was getting from her was driving me insane. Handing her the car keys, I took a long step back. “I’ll meet you back at the house.”
She looked down at my hand, then up again without reaching for the keys. “Meet me back at the house? You’re staying here?”
“No,” I said, taking another step away. I didn’t trust myself—or Azi. In addition to Chase’s impromptu visit and the fear he’d stirred up, I was still charged from being so close to her in the basement. If I allowed myself to be alone with her, I wouldn’t be able to control my actions—or the demon’s. I was a walking grenade and the pin had been pulled. “I’m going back to the house. Just not with you.”
Her expression chilled the air. She was angry, but more than that, hurt. Because of me. My words. My actions. No matter what my intentions were, I was beginning to realize that it would always be this way. Something I said, something I did—what I was—would always end up hurting her.
“You’re going to what, walk? Flap your arms and fly home? Am I missing something here?” She thrust her wrist at me. “We kind of have an issue.”
“I know. And yeah, I’m going to walk,” I snapped, feeling like an *. I threw the keys at her and she caught them, mouth falling open. “Is that a problem?”
Her surprise only lasted a second. The shock turned to anger, and she fired the keys back, twice as hard. The days of me pushing her away by being a dick were gone. She knew the game and refused to play. But her reaction was normally less volatile. “What the hell?”
The keys fell to the ground with a clatter that echoed through the alley, and all I wanted to do was scream. At her. At Heckle. At life. She didn’t deserve that because this wasn’t her fault. It was mine. And even though I knew that, it was impossible to keep my anger in check. It was happening more and more since I’d embraced the demon, little random flickers of rage that became jets of all-consuming flame. Moments where it all got away from me.