Unearthed (33 page)

“For what?”

“To tell a story.” She shook her head when he started for the door, not in the mood to hunt anymore.

He switched direction and headed straight for her, stopping himself from getting too close. “I don’t remember my first time—sex
or
kill.”

“I bet that sucks for a guy like you.”

“How many guys like me have you known?” A darkness crossed his face unlike anything she’d seen before. So dark she regretted bringing it up. “Until recently, I would’ve said not remembering that was the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me. Both were in the lower levels of hell, and no memory from there is worth keeping.” He paused. “If you’d known me then, or when I—” He slammed his lips together and looked over his shoulder towards the door.

“When you what?”

It took him some time and, evidently, some effort to speak, which didn’t bode well. “When a demon starts a new tour above the crust, he’s the full, evil cliché, minus the tail, hooves, and general ugliness. For the Fosfers, at least. My kind are strong and smart, which means a lot more of us make it to Level One than any other breed, but we have a weakness—we pick up human characteristics while we’re here. Over fifty years, we change, become more like you, some of us more than others. Me more than
any
others. I’ve always hated that.

“But this—” He motioned between them. “I don’t hate this. I might actually like it. Because I feel…better. It’s hard to explain because it’s so opposite from anything I’ve ever felt before.”

He struggled with his words, with a way to express himself, without being insulting and rude. “Thing is, I’m still a demon, and that comes with certain rules and requirements. Those requirements make some things I want impossible, and I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“I don’t either.”

This relationship—or ‘thing,’ as he liked to call it—wasn’t supposed to be. A seer and a demon bonding. You couldn’t find two more screwed-up people to stick together. Maybe that’s why it was happening—somehow they’d forged a bond built on each of their biggest weaknesses.

“Davyn, do you wish our thing had never happened?”

“No,” he said easily. “I wish it could be more. I wish I could have you, all of you. I wish being together wouldn’t hurt you, because I can’t think of a single other reason not to. But it doesn’t change anything.” He sighed, long and slow. “The end of this isn’t what I want, Keira. I need you to understand that.”

“What end? What are you—?”

Instead of answering, he disappeared.

“Are you serious?” Keira yelled at the place Davyn had just disappeared from. “You run away because you don’t want to answer a question? Chicken shit!” Then she had a moment of panic. What end? He wouldn’t dare leave her in here, would he? He could’ve done this—played with the security guard’s mind to lock her in here so he could go after Lamere alone, in some stupid protective thing. Or maybe he’d just leave her in here because he couldn’t deal with this anymore.

Wow, the novelty of a human sure wears off quick.
She tried the door again. Still locked.
Bastard
. “Davyn! Let me out!” She pounded her fists against the steel. “Help! Anybody. I need help!”

After another few minutes of yelling, the lock clicked. Without caring what she might be walking into, she shoved the door open and took off towards the parking lot.

“Hunter, wait! Keira!”

She spun around, fuming. Davyn just stood there, as if this was normal or not confusing as shit. “That wasn’t funny.”

“Good, ’cause I didn’t mean it to be.” His brows came together as he tilted his head. “I ran into a little snag.”

“What snag?” When he nodded towards her feet, she looked at her boots. Was he going to make fun of her shoes again?

“Behind you.”

Halfway through the turn she saw it: a white line running across the ground until it met another going a different direction, a burlap bag tossed to the side, next to the security guard’s body.

Oh, shit.
“It’s salt, isn’t it? He made a ring of salt after locking us inside.” Hard to call that an accident.

“Yeah,” Davyn grumbled disgustedly. “Which means you may have been right about getting out of there earlier. But since I didn’t trust him to begin with and the salt was meant for me, you’re the one who gets to be pissed off.” Who got to be mad at whom wasn’t the biggest issue right now. “But the guard and I had a nice chat, and—”

“Before you killed him.”

He paused, his jaw tight. “Turns out he’s not a big fan of demons. It’s pretty rude considering he’s never taken the time to get to know one of us. But I didn’t kill him over it. The human mind is great at blocking out things it fears and, even though demons can’t erase memories, we can encourage that, push someone to believe what he wants to believe versus what actually happened. After a little nap, the guard will think seeing us here was just a crazy dream. It is crazy, you know—a seer and a demon hanging out together.”

“And the
snag
you ran into…” What kind of idiot trusts a demon? Counts on a demon? Cares about a demon? She tasted blood. “You ran into it because you were walking
away
from the door, not towards it, not to let me out. Were you just going to leave me in there?” She took a long step over the line, careful not to break it. Then she glanced towards the exit he would’ve used. To run away. To leave her behind. “Well, I guess you were right about this being the end.”

“Don’t,” he said.

“Why not? That’s what you were going to do.”

“Lamere is a psychopath, and he’s playing with you. How can you still not understand I want to keep you safe? I
need
to. When I saw the salt, I assumed it was the psychopath not a random idiot.” He threw his hands into the air. “So shoot me for being wrong. But know I wouldn’t have left you in there for more than two minutes.”

She stepped backwards, laughing bitterly. Disappointed in herself so much more than she was in him. “Demons lie. You freely admit it.”

“I was lying.” There was humor in his tone, a dare.

“You’re on the wrong side of the line to be making jokes.”

He still hadn’t moved, standing ten feet from the line, staring at her as she slowly walked away. “Stop, Keira. Seriously.”

“You don’t need me to get out of there. Just go through hell and come back up wherever you want to be.” Far away from her.

“I can’t go back. Not now,” he said quietly before raising his voice to pissed-off, impatient volume. “Keira. It’s not a joke. I can’t go back to hell now. If I do...”

“If you do, what?”

He paused, ran a hand through his hair. “Break the line.” Why was he so nervous? She’d never seen him look this uncomfortable, and that said a lot considering how uncomfortable they’d been making each other for a while now.

“If you do, what happens? What are you afraid of? Level One’s your hometown, your alma mater. What’s down there?”

He stared at her, his eyes pleading. Why, when he could just sink through the earth and be rid of her?

“Is this the end you didn’t want, Davyn? Me telling you to go to hell before you said it to me?”

“No, that’s not what I want. Shit. Okay, fine. My tour is almost over. If I go back now, even to use the portals, my clock restarts. And when I come back up—” He looked up. “Fuck, Keira. Just break the goddamn line.”

The desperation in his voice sent a shiver through her. “What happens? Tell me.” When he didn’t answer she yelled, “Tell me what happens when you come back up!”

“I won’t be the same. Nothing about me will be the same. When a demon is re-forged, all the humanity we’ve accumulated is scraped out of us. All of it. I’ll be a demon and nothing else. And you won’t be safe.”

“Explain that.” She stayed put, unsure about…everything.

“I’ll lose all that I feel right now. I’ll see you only as a bad memory from my past tour, a mistake, a weakness I’ll want to erase. I won’t be able to stop myself because the being I am now, the one you know, won’t exist anymore. I’ll be cruel, conniving, and merciless.” He put his hand on his chest. “I won’t be like this again for another fifty years. No, that’s not right. I’ll never be like this again. Because I’m not mortal.”

And she was. “In fifty years, I’ll be wrinkly and you’ll still be gorgeous.”

“If you think I’m just in this for your ass, you’re only partially right,” he said, shaking his head, annoyed. “Even if I didn’t exist, fifty years from now, you’ll be long gone. Because you’re so fucking stubborn and will never understand how valuable you are. You’ll keep taking risks and eventually one of them will get you killed. By the time I’m capable of feeling like this again, you won’t be here to make me.”

He clenched his jaw, not wanting to say more, but she heard it anyway. Because the same illogical words were floating around her mind.

“Your memories of me…of you and me…will all be corrupted by hate.”

He nodded slowly.

She’d known something like this would happen, but he was immortal and their timing was all screwy, so she hadn’t thought about it seriously. It’s funny the things you can pretend don’t exist if you try hard enough.

There was an expiration date, and whatever they had wouldn’t matter. And even though she might see him from time to time, his new self would hate her. For fifty years, if she stayed alive that long.

She walked forward and put her boot on the line, then stopped. The second she broke the line, he’d be able to ignore her.

“Come on, hunter. Let me out already.”

“You’ve been topside for fifty years, which means your time is almost up. How long do you have left?” How long did
they
have left?

“A week.” His calm infuriated her. How could he keep this from her? Why wasn’t he fighting like usual?

“A week! One week?” she shouted, her nails digging into her palms. “Were you even going to tell me? Or was I going to wake up one morning with you gone and wake up the next with a demon hunting me?”

“I’m not going back,” he said quietly.

“You have to. If you don’t, you—”

“If I don’t go back voluntarily, I’ll get pulled all the way under. So I’ll never be able to come back.” All the way to Level Nine for an eternity of pain with no chance of escaping it. “Which means you’ll be safe, at least from me.”

She stood there like an idiot, needing a second to process. Who was she kidding? She’d need
years
to process this shit. It wasn’t about Davyn 2.0 hating her or even trying to kill her anymore. He’d spend the rest of his existence in excruciating pain in Level Nine. For her.

No way.
No way did she want that for him. “You
have
to go back.”

He shook his head. “The only thing I
have
to do is protect you, and the only thing I have to do
now
is touch you. So either get your ass over here or break the fucking line.”

She did both, swiping her boot in two different places along the line and then throwing herself at him. “I could run. Go somewhere you can’t find me.”

“I’ll find you.” He slipped his hand under her ass and picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling her into him tightly. “I know how you fight, how you think, and every weakness you have.”

“Fuck you.” She slugged him in the chest to push him away, but he didn’t budge. “I don’t have any weaknesses.”

He held her hand to his heart, spreading out her fingers one by one. “I’m your weakness, love.”

She paused, hurt more by what he’d just called her than anything else he’d ever said. Because it should’ve been strong enough to get them through everything, to give them a chance to be together. It wasn’t.

It was the reason they would destroy each other.

“Caring about someone doesn’t make you weak, Davyn.”

“I know. But if I came for you, would you cut me into pieces and toss me into the ocean? Could you do that? Because that’s what you’d have to do to stay alive. That’s what you
should
do.”

“I can hide,” she whispered, her lip shaking too much for normal speech.

“Won’t work. Hey.” He tipped her chin up until she made eye contact. “Believe me, I wouldn’t do it if there was any other way. Hiding won’t work. I always find who I’m looking for. Fast.”

“Bullshit. You haven’t found Lamere yet.”

He grimaced at the insult, but only momentarily. “That bastard is the only one who’s taken more than forty-eight hours to find. I’m not blaming you, but it’s all your fault.”

“Screw you,” she snapped, wiggling out of his grip enough to get her feet on the ground. Too many emotions bounced around in her head. Her mind was going in too many directions, desperately looking for a way to convince Davyn he was wrong and how to hurt him for being such a moron.

“Immortals stop noticing the little things, because we know we’ll see them a billion more times. I don’t ignore anything anymore. I see everything now, feel everything, because I want to remember all of it with you so badly. If I leave now and come up for a new tour, I won’t remember any of it. But if I decide, if I stay with you until I’m dragged down, I might be able to keep those memories.”

“Why remember something you’ll never have again? Someone you gave everything up for and will never even fucking see again?”

“Oh, my beautiful, little narcissist,” he said, smiling. “It’s not entirely about you. This
thing
we have is something not even the Devil can change. He can force me to forget you, scrape all the good out of me and replace it with pain and hate, keep me in a pit until time ends, but he can’t undo this. He can’t control how I feel about you right now.
You
are my freedom. For the first time in my existence, I’m free.”

And the
last
time, if he did this.

He pushed the hair out of her face. “So the way I see it, we have about two weeks left. Not sure how I’ll feel in that second week—”

“You mean the week the Devil drags you under for an eternity of pain?
That
week?”

“My eternity, my choice. Nine is where my existence began. I doubt it’s changed much.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll give me the best two weeks of all my lives.”