Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(45)

I could take one for sure—probably two—but three? It was possible. There was too great a risk of Sam getting hurt in the cross fire. Gritting my teeth, I remained on the ground, but stayed ready to act.

The one from the cliff chuckled. It stepped around the car and came to stand in front of me. “I owe you,” it said. “You attacked me when I was weak. Before I’d fed.”

“We could feed from her,” the third said. It stepped forward, long black coat swishing as it moved, and ran a finger along Sam’s arm, from shoulder to elbow. The demon brought the finger to its nose and inhaled. “I bet she’d be mighty tasty. Smell that fear. Just a touch of resilience and a boatload of sex. That’s my kind of meal.”

The short one snorted in disgust. It wrinkled its nose and stepped away. “She’s demon touched. She’s already been tasted. I prefer my food fresh.”

“I don’t know. Looks like she’d leave a bad taste.” the one standing behind me chuckled. “I’m not picky, though.”

The one from the cliff growled. His stance and the way the others kept looking back to him, almost as if for approval, meant he was the one in charge. “She’s not to be touched.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” the reprimanded demon griped. “She’s as good as dead. Zenak insists she’s trouble for his boy. Stupid to waste such a perfectly fine meal.”

Trouble for his boy… I’d heard of demon hierarchy, but had no idea how it worked. These demons must report to the demon that attacked Sam.

“But she’s full of such decadent emotions,” the one behind me said. “We could each take one little taste. It wouldn’t kill her. Not if we were careful.”

The short one let out a snort. “You? Careful? That’s rich.”

“This coming from the demon who plays with his food for weeks before chowing down good and proper.”

Listening to them talk about Sam seemed to wake my own demon. The thing inside stirred, spewing scene after scene of carnage. One by one they would fall by my hand. Broken, bloody, and cold. And while I hated to agree with anything it wanted, this time we were in sync. The only problem was Sam. How to get her out without her getting cut down in the cross fire.

Azirak flashed more images, growing impatient. Me bringing swift death to everything my fingers touched. Showered in their blood and grinning like a kid at the candy store, I stood over their corpses, breathing deeply as their life force slipped into the ether.

No. Not me. Azirak. The demon wanted me to hand over control. There was no trust between us, but I had enough common sense to recognize the situation for what it was. With Azirak in control, I’d have more of an edge.

Still, I was worried about Sam. The demon, sensing my hesitation, flashed an image of her face surrounded my soft light flowers. Happy.

I thought back to the way it’d pushed me to kiss her. How it spoke to her in the woods at the bottom of the cliff. It wasn’t intrigued by Sam.

It cared about her.

My hesitation dissipated. I let myself fade, giving the demon the reins. The transition was smoother than usual. Like simply stepping aside on a crowded sidewalk to make room for someone else. For the first time, I felt everything as though I was still in control. The movement beneath my feet as the demon started to react. The electric sense of excitement bubbling in my chest. Maybe because, for the first time, we wanted the same thing. We were the same instrument in a task we both believed in.

I became a vessel of destruction. And even though it was still bound by the limitations of a human body, the swath of chaos Azirak cut was nothing short of devastating. It flew across the hood of the car, mowing down first the demon that laid its hand on Sam’s arm. The enemy bared its teeth, hunched and ready to pounce, but Azirak was much too fast. A powerful uppercut to the jaw and the thing flew backward. My own body followed the momentum of the blow and we landed together in a heap. Fingers I vaguely recognized reached for an enemy throat. The skin tore easily, flecks of red exploding in every direction. The entire thing took no more than five seconds. Six at best.

Time for the next.

By the time Azirak tore through them, all three were dead, nothing more than piles of skin and gore, and Sam had fallen to her knees. Her eyes were wide and fixed on the first demon to go down. The one that had touched her.

At the sight of her, the demon relinquished control and I fell to my knees in front of her. “Sammy? Can you hear me?”

She nodded, silent. I reached across to take her hand, moving slowly because I was afraid to spook her. When my fingers wrapped around hers, she blinked and turned. “We’re okay,” she said. Her voice was shaky, and she was crying.

“We’re okay,” I confirmed, helping her off the dew-wet grass. “Let’s get you home.”





Chapter Twenty




Sam

“Are you sure you’re okay?” It was the fifth time he’d asked, and even though I kept insisting everything was fine, I wasn’t so sure. I sat curled on Kelly’s couch with a lukewarm cup of coffee. It didn’t smell the least bit inviting, but holding it was keeping my hands from shaking.

Chase had left me four messages, worried after dropping me off at the apartment last night. He apologized multiple times about the almost-kiss and begged me to return his call. I left him a voice mail to let him know I’d be staying at Kelly’s, warned him I was pissed about the information he’d kept from me about Rick, and settled down to let everything sink in.