Ties That Bind: A Muse Urban Fantasy (The Veil Series Book 5) (21 page)

I dumped my napkin on the table. “What do you want, and where’s Stefan?”

“You’re a half blood. You can open the veil so I might return. I have tried.”

I clicked my tongue. “Hate to disappoint you, but the veil is closed for good. The King of Hell got his Queen. Didn’t you get the memo?”

He sat perfectly still, as only pure demons can. “That is most…unfortunate.” He licked his lips. “Then is it safe to assume you can no longer draw your great wealth of power from the veil, daughter of mine?”

Shit.
I smiled a tight-lipped smile and drew in some of the latent heat. Nearby candles flickered.

Asmodeus smiled back. He burst from his seat—turning demon mid-flight—toppled the table, and slammed into me. We tumbled and sprawled across the floor, sending nearby diners fleeing. I twisted away from him and scrambled to my feet. But my heels hindered my escape. I slipped. He caught my leg and yanked me backward. I fell hard on my front, chin smacking the floor.
Get away. Get him out of here.
Kicking wasn’t helping. His heat crawled up my leg. Claws dug into my calf. The acrid smell of singed hair and clothing burned my nose. I twisted onto my side and looked up at the demon straight out of biblical nightmares. Crimson wings spread, he whipped up a superheated wind and prowled up my body. Screams peppered my hearing, glass smashed, people scattered, but I only had eyes for my father.

“Human,” he sneered. “A mortal, fragile, failure.”

Fire dripped from his body and sizzled through my dress. Fire. I could drain him, but I’d need to send the power somewhere, and the veil was closed. If I kept it inside, it would kill me. He’d tug it back and could snap my neck before we finished our game of fiery tug-of-war. I faced my immortal demon father, out-muscled and out-powered, puny, compared to his gorilla-like dimensions, and I did the only thing I could. I poked him in the eye. He hollered and recoiled. Heart in my throat, I twisted, kicked my three-inch heel between his legs, and lunged for the door. Like a rabid dog, Asmodeus surged after me.

I burst out onto the street. Legs pumping, head down, I pummeled the sidewalk. I didn’t need to turn to see my flame-embraced father chasing me down. The sound of his wings beat the air, and his suffocating heat nipped at my ankles. I darted across the road and headed for a park, luring my father away from the public. He was right about one thing. I was fragile. Mortal. And without the veil, I was half demon and wholly fucked.

I
veered
around a childrens’ climbing structure. A heartbeat later, metal groaned as Asmodeus vaulted over it. His wings blasted hot hair against my back, whipping up dried leaves and debris. I’d managed to get him away from the public, but now what was I supposed to do with him? I could outrun him for a while, but I needed a better plan. Fast.

Asmodeus must have launched himself skyward because he landed in a crouch in front of me. I got a face full of crimson muscle, reeled backwards, and fell on my ass.

“They told me to pursue the one-winged half blood was folly.” He growled, prowling forward on his hands and legs like an animal. “My bloodkin, my son, read my flesh and foretold how the wretched half blood would destroy it all. Valenti warned me.” The city lights slid over his slippery fangs. “He urged me to kill you. He’d have killed you himself, had I permitted it.” I scrambled backward and bumped into the slide. “He said you would be the destroyer of all things. I told him half bloods must be owned, tamed, controlled. But you…” A deep growl simmered deep inside him. “You defy control. You are disobedient. You are impossible strength in a weak human body. You are a monster.”

“From you, I take that as a compliment.” My thoughts churned. I needed a solution and fast. Fire wouldn’t stop him. If anything, it would make him stronger. He also had that nasty knack for rising from the dead because: immortal. I could drain him the way I had Akil, but I’d need to funnel all that excess power somewhere. Damn, I’d have given my one wing for the Desert Eagle. My only weapon was lies.

“Without the veil, you are as trapped as I am,” he snarled.

Behind my back, I curled my fingers around the scaffolding holding up the slide and pushed heat through my touch. “Trapped? No. This world is ripe for the picking. Few demons remain, and those who do welcome leadership.”

His chin lifted, and his eyes pinched with suspicion. He crawled closer, clawed hands fencing in my legs. Raw heat beat against my shins. “You kill those who remain.”

Teeth gritted against the heat and pain, I fought my instinct to turn demon. Not yet. Once demon, he’d fight, and he’d crush my half-blood body. “I do kill them, the weak ones.” Oh, how easily the lies came. “But there are others I’ve let live. These humans will soon forget. I am the Mother of Destruction, and I’m not finished.”

His red lips curled into a savage smile. “You lie as easily as Greed.” Boiling hot saliva streamed from his fangs onto my chest. “He taught you well. Too well.” Asmodeus’s body crowded over me. His flesh simmered. The stench of him seared my throat. Tears streamed from my eyes, but I refused to look away. Mammon had taught me many things: never to submit, to always stand tall when faced with impossible odds.

“I do not lie,” I purred. “I merely manipulate the truth.” I yanked on the scaffold pole, tore it free, and cracked it across my father’s thick skull with a resounding
thwack
. He reared up with a roar. I wedged the pole under my arm, braced it, and thrust forward as he lunged. The scaffold pole pierced his chest and lodged against something hard, hopefully his spine. He thrust his head forward and snapped his teeth together inches from my face. Enough games. I embraced my demon and let loose a roar Mammon would have been proud of. Asmodeus took a swipe at me. I thrust the scaffold pole one way and rolled the other onto my front. Wing tucked in, I twisted and ducked through the climbing frame. Asmodeus’s claws caught my ankle, but I tore free and sprinted across the playground. Metal screamed and groaned as my father plowed through the climbing frame.
If he catches me, I’m dead.

Where was the Institute when you needed them?

Asmodeus bore down on me. His bellows-like breathing, thunderous gallop, and the
whooshing
beat of his wings almost had me. My heart hammered against my ribs. Panic twitched through rational thought. Maybe I could lead him somewhere. Get him out of the city somehow. Water. I needed water. The harbor? But even if I did manage to get him there, a quick dip would just piss him off even more.

The roar of an engine momentarily drowned out the sounds of my father.
What the hell?
A car bounced over the sidewalk and barreled through the park fence. The rear end fishtailed, but the driver got it under control, put a foot down, and gunned the engine. Headlight glare washed over me.
Think fast.
I veered left. The car’s rear wheels locked up, throwing the vehicle into a sideways slide. It slammed into Asmodeus’s huge bulk, sending my demon father tumbling in a mass of fire and wings.

Dodge Charger.
I know that car.
The passenger door swung open. “Get in.” Stefan grinned. He
grinned.

I ran, threw myself inside—dismissing my demon in a blink—and clung to the seat as Stefan stamped on the throttle, lurching us forward. Asmodeus’s roar shook the windows. Something heavy snagged the Charger’s tail. I twisted and got a fabulous view of my father’s eyes blazing through the rear window. “Go-go-go!”

Stefan plowed the car through the fence, and we bounced, skidded, and slid onto the street. The engine snarled a protest. Stefan fought for control, planted his foot on the throttle, and we surged forward, weaving through traffic.

“He’s following,” I panted.

“Good.”

“What?”

“Tell me if he gets too far behind.”

Kneeling backward on the passenger seat, I glanced over my shoulder through the windshield and gulped. Stefan threaded the Dodge through Boston traffic at killer speeds. “I should drive.”

“No way.”

“You crash. Every. Damn. Time.”

He flashed me a sideways smile. “Those were extenuating circumstances.”

“These circumstances are pretty damn extenuating.”

“Muse,” he drawled. “Worry more about the Prince of Hell in our rear view mirrors and less about my mad driving skills.”

Asmodeus part flew, part bounded after us, using cars as springboards. Behind us, trailed a path of chaos. Stefan growled a curse. The car lurched violently to the side, throwing me against the door. I clung on, teeth gritted.

“We’re good…” He chuckled, wresting the car back under control and ramping up the revs.

Asmodeus bounded closer. “Speed it up, unless you want the Prince of Lust in the back seat.” Closer. “Oh, God.” Claws punched out the back window.

“Take the wheel!” Stefan shouted. I grabbed at the wheel, sprawled halfway across the front seats, while Stefan twisted, aimed the Desert Eagle through the back window, and fired.

An intersection blinked red lights ahead. The front right fender clipped a passing car. I squealed. Stefan grabbed the wheel, sliced us off to the side of the road, bumped us up the curb, and funneled the car down a sidewalk. We scattered pedestrians, miraculously avoiding them all. I couldn’t look and couldn’t look away.

We shot through the intersection, Stefan working the car like a stunt driver. “Where the hell did you learn to drive like this?”

“Ryder.”

“Figures.” No wonder I was never the first on scene.

Stefan’s eyes darted to the rear view mirror. “He still there?”

I peered through the broken rear window. Wind whipped my hair about my face. I smelled hot rubber and metal, but no burning flesh. Searching the street revealed no sign of my father. “No.”

“Damn.” Stefan stamped on the brakes and yanked the car to the side of the road. I hit the dash. The tires squealed. We rocked to a halt. The engine bubbled.

“Put your belt on.” Stefan’s eyes sparkled.

I rolled the pain out of my shoulder and dropped into the seat. “Give me that gun.”

He tossed it into my lap. “Just like old times.” Draping an arm over the back of his seat, he cocked his head, brow slightly furrowed, and arched an eyebrow. “Nice dress.”

“Gee, thanks.” I flexed my grip on the gun, happy to have the weapon back in my hand.

“You look like you’ve survived a bushfire and smell like a barbeque.”

I dipped my chin and fluttered my lashes. “You say the sweetest things.”

“So…” His wicked smile made me sure his next words would be at my expense. “You went on a date without me?”

Twisting in the seat, I checked the rear window, avoiding his smirk. “Actually I went on a date with you. I just didn’t know it wasn’t you.”

“How’d it go? D’ya get to second base?”

“Oh, you think this is funny?”

His lips twitched. “You didn’t notice the horns?”

“He looked like you, obviously.” If I weren’t already flushed, my cheeks would have been burning.

Stefan leaned closer with a devilish growl. “Nobody looks like me.”

I could have punched that smile off his face. “He was charming. We clicked. It was love at first sight.”

“Oh, well,” he chuckled and straightened behind the wheel. “If you’d like me to drop you off somewhere, maybe you two can get a room?”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek and peered outside. The traffic flowed. A few drivers gave us some well-earned sneers. “At least he didn’t have the smug-ass attitude,” I mumbled with a grin. “How’d you know to find me?”

“You left me some jumbled message about running late. I had no idea what you were talking about, and you turned your cell off, so I dropped by your place. Lacy laid into me. I’m fairly certain she hates me—”

“You’re right.” I released the magazine on the gun and checked the rounds. Etched. Good. “Although maybe
hate
is too strong a word.” I reassembled the gun.

“She thought I’d stood you up.” He still wore a smile that held back his laughter. “By then, I figured you’d fallen for a bait-and-switch. You didn’t wonder if maybe something was off with your date?”

I sighed. “Oh, c’mon, cut me some slack. I was nervous—”

“You?” His smile quirked. “Nervous of dating? Me?”

Oh hell, if we escaped my father, I was never going to live this down. “Laugh it u—”

The roof caved in. Metal screamed. So did I. The car jumped. Noise and light and ice? Stefan punched a blade of ice up through the ceiling. Hot black blood streamed down the blade.

A crimson hand swiped through the passenger window at me. I aimed the gun up and fired. “Hold on!” Stefan barked. He found a gear and lurched the Dodge forward. We sideswiped another car and sent them spinning, but the impact jarred our unwanted passenger enough to toss him from the roof. Asmodeus rolled in a tangle of wings and talons and came after us again.

“Stefan, we need a plan.”

“I have one.”

“This plan of yours looks a lot like running.”

Stefan cut across a line of traffic and plowed up the on-ramp. Evidently, we were headed out of town. “We need to keep him close.”

Gauging from the rage twisting my father’s face, I could be fairly certain he wasn’t going anywhere until he’d made half-blood mincemeat out of me. “Then what?”

“I have a welcoming party all set up.” He grinned.

I couldn’t help smiling back at him. “You get off on this crazy, huh?”

“Like I said, just like old times.”

Asmodeus lashed out with a whip of fire. I sensed it coming, mentally flung up a hook, and absorbed the heat before it could touch the car. But it wasn’t easy. Wincing, I sank back in the seat. “Okay, he’s onto us. Wherever we’re going, get there fast.”

T
he Institute’s Middlesex Fells
facility shone like a beacon in the kind of night that holds its breath. Stefan anchored up the Charger on the parking lot inside a cloud of tire smoke. We flung the doors open and abandoned the car for the safety of the building. I’d reached the entrance when the car exploded. Heat, light, and debris blasted us from behind.

“Seriously?” Stefan snarled, reeling. “My car!” He produced an ice-blade with a thick demon growl.

“Stefan.” I hung back, the safety of the Institute so close.

Asmodeus landed in a crouch. Fire licked across his crimson flesh and glowed in his eyes. He shook his wings out, raining sparks. “The Winter King,” he chuckled. “I know your mind, half blood. I know your weakness.” He thrust out a hand and twisted it into a fist.

Wildfire—my father’s—boiled in my gut, surged up my insides, and tore from my flesh. I dropped inside the agony of too much power at once.
My demon, I have to call my demon.
Panic whipped my thoughts into chaos. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.

Ice slid over my human skin and trickled down my back. Stefan’s ethereal touch sliced through the madness. With a relieved gasp, I summoned my demon. I was back in the game in time to see Asmodeus knock Stefan aside as though he was a child’s toy. My father—a heaving mountain of slick red muscle, claws, and teeth—swaggered forward.
Nobody hurts what’s mine.
Never. Again. I ran at him, claws out, ducked beneath a wide right hook, hooked my claws into his wing, and tore through the leathery membrane in one easy motion. He roared and took a swing that would have shattered my skull had it connected. But his bulk made him slow. I was already behind him, climbing up his back, punching my claws in with every reach. He swung wildly. We’d danced to this tune before, but this time, he couldn’t take to the skies, not with shredded wings. I sunk my fangs into the ridge of his left wing and crunched down on bone. His bellow rattled the earth, the air. His huge hand came around, clamped on my skull, and tore me off. He flung me away. I twisted mid-air and landed in a roll.

“Get inside!” Stefan yelled, running for me. “Dawn’s chamber. Go!”

We entered the building together, skidded through the empty foyer, and stopped outside the closed elevator doors. “You have to be kidding me.” I jabbed at the button and watched the numbers count excruciatingly slowly toward ground level.

Asmodeus slammed his way inside the building, taking out the doors and much of the wall like a wrecking ball. Rage burned in his eyes. Nothing else, no recognition. Nothing remotely reasonable.

Stefan powered up his ice-armor, turning full demon. “The stairs—” He bolted behind for the stairwell, and I followed, my father hot on my heels. This game of cat and mouse was insane. One slip, one mistake, and the Prince of Lust would kill us both.

We hammered down the steps. Booming growls and snarls tumbled down the stairs after us. “Stefan, please tell me you have a foolproof escape plan?”

“Yeah, about that. We get him to the chamber. Ryder—”

Plaster, concrete, and dust blasted us both. Something as hard and heavy as a truck slammed me against the wall. I know I cried out, although I couldn’t hear it over the ringing in my ears. I clawed and kicked, but a hand clamped around my throat, swung me around, and dangled me backward over the bannister. Chunks of debris from the partially destroyed stairwell tumbled fifteen floors down, and in moments, I’d follow.

Fire surged through me and rushed over my father’s glistening skin. His lips peeled back over dripping teeth. He leaned all of his weight into me. Blazing pain burned through my back and chest. The bannister groaned as it bent around us both. “I am Prince. You are nothing.”

Ice cracked and snarled around my father and plunged into his flesh from all sides. A dozen lances pierced his chest, shoulders, and wings, distorting his body. But Stefan’s attack didn’t last. Fire blasted outward, instantly vaporizing Stefan’s icy cage.

The bannister gave way.

My gut leaped into my throat. I fell, oddly weightless, and reached for my father. He twisted and tried to clutch at the broken rails. He missed, clawed hands scrabbling for purchase. I snatched at anything and everything—tumbling, falling—and snagged the bannister on another floor. Pain jarred down my arm and shoulder, but I curled my claws over the rail, swung my other hand up, and—

Asmodeus grabbed my ankle. His weight yanked on every damn muscle in my body. My right hand slipped free, and I dangled, the only things saving me from a rapid plunge, were the claws of my left hand currently slicing through the rail. Asmodeus flapped and bucked, twisting and writhing. Fiery agony lapped over me. I couldn’t hold on. We were going down. Together.

“Muse, take my hand!” Stefan lunged forward against the bannister and grabbed at my arm. His icy touch sizzled against my demon skin. I tried to reach up, but fire blazed in response to pain, and Stefan briefly shied away. “Shake off your demon. I can’t hold you when you’re superheated.”

“I can’t! He’ll tear me in two.”

My claws sliced through the bannister, and I fell away from Stefan’s reaching hands. He snatched at my wrist, barked a cry, and held. Teeth gritted, face twisted, he growled. “I’m. Not. Letting. You. Go.”

Jenna leaned over the rail. “Reach up, Muse.” She curled her tattoo-protected fingers around my arm and tugged with Stefan.

Below, Asmodeus clamped a hand around my thigh and heaved his weight higher. “He’ll kill you both. Let me go!” I cried.

Jenna freed her sidearm with one hand and fired beside my cheek. The gun blast momentarily deafened me, but it was worth it when my father’s grip faltered. Another shot. Again. The grip around my thigh loosened, and the roar came, and fire rolled with it. Stefan tore away from the wash of flame, but Jenna clung on, protected.

Asmodeus finally let go. Jenna heaved me over the bannister. Panting, burning, I scrambled to the edge and watched my father tumble between the stairs and hit the floor with a ground-shuddering thump.

“He has anti-elemental rounds in him, but that won’t keep him down for long.” Jenna started down the steps. “Ryder’s down there. Get moving.”

“Ugh.” My aching body felt as though all the joints were dislocated. I didn’t dare change back to human. Hell knew what mess my father had made of me. I was better off trying to heal the worst of the damage as demon.

“You okay?” Stefan started down the stairs after Jenna and reached an ice-dusted hand back for me.

“Yeah. Brilliant. Two inches taller. But great. I don’t think much of your plan though.” His hand closed around mine, sprinkling shivers up my arm.

We found Ryder waiting at the foot of the stairs, gun in hand, standing guard over my father’s unconscious body. By the rise and fall of Asmodeus’s barrel chest, I saw he still breathed. Unfortunately. Heat haze beat the air around him. “How are we going to move him to Dawn’s chamber?” It’d be like manhandling a roasted rhino.

Ryder chewed on a toothpick. “Well, if you’d have got him in the goods elevator, like I said…”

Stefan made a disgusted demon sound. “There was no way he was gonna fit in the elevator.”

I bounced my gaze between them both. “Did you guys even think this plan through?”

Ryder plucked the toothpick free and pointed it at me. “This was the best we could come up with while you were wining and dining him. You got a better idea, I’m all ears.”

“I didn’t know it was
him
.” Ryder fought back a smile. “Don’t start. Stefan’s already delighted in my screw-up.” Stefan and Ryder shared a knowing glance. “Can it.” I rolled my shoulders, working out the kinks. “We’re gonna have to drag him.”

Ryder lifted his hands, gun still palmed in one. “Too human. I’ll direct, you pull.”

Stefan, anti-elemental Jenna, and I grabbed my father’s arms and heaved. We’d got him as far as the door. when it opened, and Adam regarded us all with his usual stoic expression. “The chamber is ready.”

“Nice to see you, Adam,” I purred, in my smoothest, most sarcastic, demon timbre.

“Muse.”

Wow, it really was just like old times if Adam was back to being Adam. “Yukki not punched your ticket yet then?”

He visibly paled. “No, she waits outside. Has done since the deadline passed.”

I might have taken pleasure in that thought, but given everything that had happened, I felt terribly sad. I lifted my gaze and found Stefan’s eyes on me, his lips turned down. He had a choice. Yukki
could
be stopped. He knew I would help him, whatever he chose. He could save his demon mother or his father. But not both.

We heaved, tugged, pushed and pulled 500lbs of demon muscle and awkward limp wings through the bright white Institute corridors.

“I’ll be in the observation room.” Adam peeled away from our group down a side-corridor. “Once he’s inside, I’ll set the locks and change the codes. After that, nobody gets inside.”

“Destroy it.” I spoke up. “Destroy the controls.” Adam’s stride faltered before he could disappear out of sight. He paused, about to argue. I’d heard all his arguments before. “Take Ryder.” He was the only one I trusted to do the right thing, no matter what the cost.

Ryder didn’t hesitate and sauntered up to Adam’s side, gun holstered, thumbs tucked in his pants pockets. They gave each other a typically male glare. Ryder was no longer on the Institute payroll. He didn’t have to take Adam’s bullshit any more than the rest of us. From the glint in his eye, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Ryder’s fist accidentally met with Adam’s face at some point very soon. Adam shoved through a doorway. Ryder cast me a salute and followed.

The steel pressure door to Dawn’s chamber hung open a few meters ahead. We’d dragged my father for what felt like miles. Stefan hefted one of my father’s wings out of the way, hissing as heat played havoc with his element.

“Just a little further,” I said. “The chamber has anti-elemental symbols inside. Once he’s in, no more elemental outbursts. We fill him full of PC-Thirty-Four and lock the door. It’s over.” I had one of my father’s arms looped around my chest and leaned into it, inching his dead weight forward. Stefan stayed quiet, likely due to his father’s proximity. “Y’know, nobody will blame you, whatever you decide.”

He mustered a shallow smile. “I can’t let Yukki roam free.”

She had to die. The chances of her playing at being human were slim to none. If she didn’t want to do something, she wouldn’t. Nothing and nobody could tell her otherwise.

“Well, I know a nice place by a lake, near the White Mountains. A demon like her… Maybe she’d like a vacation?”

“Maybe.” He didn’t look convinced.

Asmodeus’s arm lashed out like a bowstring and slammed Stefan against the wall. “No!” Stefan crumpled to the floor. Asmodeus’s bulk rose up, blocking my view and my escape. His wings flapped open, sweeping Jenna back in one easy glide. My father crouched before me, eyes wide, lips parted. “You will not be the end of me, Daughter.” Fire bubbled from his skin and rippled across the floor. Jenna. Stefan. They’d suffocate and burn in these corridors. This had to end now. Only a few more feet and my father would be trapped.
Just a few more steps…

I yanked on the inferno burning inside him, opened myself to his heat, and welcomed it all. Flames peeled back and lapped at my legs, my body, my wing. I embraced it all and called more from my father’s soul. He stumbled, gasping.

“You demons…” I growled. “So convinced you’re superior. I may not be able to draw from the veil, but I can drink you down, ruin you, destroy you—” He stumbled closer to the door. Fire swirled around me—through me—alive and free. I couldn’t let my father leave this place. Ever. It had to end here, no matter what.

I planted my superheated hands against his chest and shoved. He stumbled backward inside the chamber and laughed. “It will kill you, Daughter. Your mortal body cannot contain my fire, half-blood whore. You are not worthy!” Bright sterile light flooded the room.

“The fire disagrees.” I slammed the door closed and ripped the touchpad from the wall. Asmodeus slammed against the other side, throwing me back, but the door held. For now.

“Muse,” Adam’s voice came over a speaker. “That’s not enough. We needed him unconscious to administer PC-Thirty-Four.”

“It won’t work!”
Too late now anyway.
I dropped to my knees as wildfire throbbed through me.

Jenna approached but shied away from the heat. “Muse, what’s happening?”

“Get Stefan out. Get everyone out.” Pain. Hot and wild and hungry. I could hold it back, but not for long.

She struggled to get an arm under Stefan’s and lift him. “What about you?”

“Too much power.” And no water in sight.
What I wouldn’t give for a plunge in Boston harbor.
“Go, I’ll be fine.” An easy lie. Funny, how lies are easy when the truth is too painful. “Tell Stefan…” Blue flames wrapped around my arms and lashed up my wing. “Tell him it’s okay. It’s better this way.”

“Muse…”

She was taking too long. “Get out.” Once I let go, the chaos fire would devour everything, tearing the Institute facility down around me and burying my father under fifteen floors of rubble. It would be enough. It had to be.

Ryder skidded into sight, saw me, and knew what had to be done without me having to say a word. He just knew…the way good friends do. With a simple nod, he helped Jenna lift Stefan.

I slumped forward and counted the seconds. Asmodeus beat against the door. He roared and raged, and I listened to my father’s howls with a triumphant smile on my lips. The likes of him were not meant for this world. Neither was I, the Mother of Destruction.

“Muse.” Adam crouched in front of me.

I could have laughed. Maybe I did, but the sound was lost in the bubbling flames. Of all people, Adam was the last person I wanted to see before I burned out. “Get out of here, Adam,” I growled. The floor liquefied around me.

“No. There’s time.”

“Time for what?” I snarled, lifting my head. Fire reflected in his beguiling eyes—such soft, understanding eyes for a man capable of inhuman cruelty. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but he didn’t look away. “I have to end this. I am destruction—” A sob choked my words. I knew my fate, but I didn’t want to die in that place. “I will let it go, and bury him, Adam. Go, now. I can’t hold it much longer.”