Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(31)

“I think it was the apartment of the one who attacked you on campus. Or, at least, it was staying there. I picked up more than one scent.”

Sam was pale. She backed away from the table and sank onto the bed. “How did you find that?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is, we’ve got a big problem. The one who attacked you wants you dead, Sammy. I don’t know who, and I can’t figure out why, but I know what we’re up against, and it’s not pretty.”

“What we’re up against? You mean the men who tried to throw me off the cliff? Is it the mob or something?”

I knew Sam’s breaking point, and it was obvious she was closing in on it, but I needed to tell her the truth. “They were demons. Same as the thing that broke into your apartment. The attack at Huntington, the cliff, and I’m willing to bet my right hand, all the others, too.”

“Demons,” she repeated. “You’re telling me demons are after me. Trying to kill me. That right?”

“I know this is hard to accept, but—”

“No. No. This is easy. All makes tons of sense. Demons. Demons want me dead.” She rolled her eyes and ran both hands through her hair, pausing for a moment to tug at the roots. A nervous habit. With a determined nod, she stood. “Let’s go.”

“Go? Go where?”

Her eyes were wide. “The police. These bastards tried to kill me. The cops need to know about that. You said you know where one of them lives. They can pick him up.”

“Sammy, you’re forgetting an important fact.”

She just stared at me.

“The man that attacked you wasn’t a man. It was a demon. Going to the cops won’t do anything. Something tells me the government hasn’t started issuing demon-hunting tools to the local police.”

“Forgetting for a second that I’m actually going to ask this out loud, why would a demon—I’m sorry, demons, plural—attack me?”

“I really don’t know. Most feed on pain and violence, but there’s plenty of that to go around. There’s no reason to hunt any one particular human to get it.” I hesitated. “Honestly, I’m really not sure what we’re up against. When I was at the apartment I found three other bodies.”

She paled by the minute. “Bodies—”

“They’d been there a while.”

“As in, dead? Corpses?”

“Yes.” I frowned.

“So, I have an entire demon army after me?”

Motherf*cker…

The demon in the bathroom of the dive bar said something about being a soldier. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

She squared her shoulders and said, “And you? You seem to know a hell of a lot about this shit. That thing called you Son of Cain. And your eyes…” Some of her color returned. “Next you’ll tell me you’re some kind of chosen, once-in-a-generation demon slayer? Is that right?”

I waggled my eyebrows. Inappropriate timing? Yep. But I wanted to lighten the mood. Besides, she brought it out in me. “Would you think it was sexy if I said yes?”

“Yeah. You’re a regular Buffy—or would it be Angel?”

“Angel was a *. I’d be more of a Spike. He was a true badass.” I sighed and nudged her back. “The truth is…” God. Did I really want to go through with this? Lay all my cards on the table and hope it didn’t scare the shit out of her? Once I went through that door there was no turning back.

“Jax?”

I squeezed my eyes closed and silently counted to ten, before opening them and turning to face her. I needed to see her reaction. “I’m one, too. A demon—partially, anyway.” Azirak stirred, fighting for control. “I’m cursed. I’ve got this thing living inside me. Azirak. This—”

Sam fell back against the wall and slid to the floor. The expression on her face nearly broke me in two. Fear and pain, mingling with the almost bitter taste of betrayal, filled the small room.

“This isn’t happening.” She let her head fall between her knees and covered the top of it with her arms. “I’m asleep. Having another nightmare.”

I stayed where I was even though every impulse screamed to gather her into my arms and hold her until this all went away. In another lifetime, maybe that would be possible. In this one? It was nothing more than a fantasy getting in the way of the cold, hard truth. “I wish that’s what this was. I wish I could tell you that you’ll wake up tomorrow and it’ll all be a dream, but it’s not. This is some serious shit, Sammy, and for whatever reason, you’re stuck in the middle of it.”

She uncurled, shaking her head from side to side slowly. “His eyes,” she whispered. Her face paled. “I couldn’t figure it out at the time. Why they looked so familiar.”

“Familiar? What are you talking about?”

She didn’t look up at me. “I buried the memory when we buried my parents.” Her gaze rose to meet mine. There were tears in her eyes. “It’s all real.”

“Sammy, what memory?”

“My parents. The man that killed them—”

I took a step toward her but she flinched and I froze. She couldn’t mean… “Are you saying a demon killed your parents?”