28. What if I’m Not the Hero #2
‘We both know you won’t kill me.’ She’s talking to Micah, but she whispers it into my ear, as if it’s an endearment to a lover. My skin crawls with the need to get away from her.
Ashrael is getting impatient, his claws scraping against the invisible barrier over and over, searching for any weakness that will release him from the spell holding him captive.
I glance at Nahaz, and he’s slicked with sweat over dark skin and muscle.
I think I see fear flicker in his dark eyes, no flash of his white teeth to be seen.
If I were functioning properly and didn’t have a razor-sharp blade at my throat, I would smirk at him.
‘Pretty sure he will,’ I manage to get out.
The knife moves swiftly to my ribs as Selene laughs. ‘I’m having so much fun. Aren’t you having fun?’
‘Enough games, undead one,’ Ashrael grinds out, the full force of his hunger turned toward Nahaz. ‘Give me what I desire now, or I will take your life as well. You live by my pleasure alone.’
Selene ignores the Daemon, but Nahaz suddenly looks nervous. He glances down hurriedly to check his pentagram. It’s still an iridescent red, like blood on the ground. Beads of sweat roll faster down his ebony skin.
‘Evie,’ Selene croons. ‘Evie, run.’
I almost shatter like a porcelain vase as my dead mother’s voice comes out of the Vampire’s mouth.
The last words mom ever spoke to me, as her life ebbed away and her eyes went blank.
I don’t remember much, apart from the sound of my screams as I watched her limp body fall to the ground, but I remember those words as if they’re carved into my soul.
‘He never told you, did he?’ Selene drops the blade and sighs, false pity in her words.
Micah goes still as death, his eyes steady on mine, giving me strength and courage, reassuring me without words.
‘I killed your parents.’ It’s a taunting melody that has me unable to breathe through the pain assailing me.
The silence is deafening. It feels as if my world is falling apart all over again, and then rage pours through me. A scream of frustration and pain and anger rises from the depths of my soul, and I twist halfway toward her, despite the knife that’s inches from my stomach.
She murdered my parents. Drank their blood and left them in a pool of it.
She would have killed me if Micah hadn’t arrived.
I always wondered who it was, but I never asked.
Would he have told me? Is that why he was there that night?
Not by chance, but because he knew Selena was in his city.
All I ever knew was that it was a rogue Vampire, and he dealt with it.
I mistakenly, naively assumed that meant he’d killed the Vamp responsible.
Micah starts to move, and Selene drags the knife across my ribs through my t-shirt. The pain slices through me, and I bite my lip to keep from crying out. I won’t give her the satisfaction.
I’m going to be the one who kills her. And I will enjoy it.
‘He may have saved you, the poor orphan girl. But he didn’t kill me for taking their lives. He never told you what happened, did he? He couldn’t do it. He made me what I am, and the guilt of it eats away at him.’ She’s almost crooning now, smug with her assured victory.
‘At least you’re not delusional enough to think he still loves you,’ I snap out. I will not crumble at her revelations. I will not do what she wants and hate Micah. First, we get out of this alive. Then we can talk about it.
Selene hisses, and the blade moves a fraction away from my ribs. I kick backwards with my boot as hard as I can, but her dress gets in the way, and she grabs my hair, yanking my head back painfully.
‘The Daemon is correct,’ Micah says, eyes fixed on me, blatantly ignoring Selene. ‘Time for this to end. And this time, Selene, I will not let you live. I never make the same mistake twice.’
She flinches behind me at the truth that resonates through the cold underground room. ‘Well, as you say, Micah, we have Ashrael. So I will give you one more chance. I promise to let your pet human go if you surrender.’
‘I won’t let you kill him,’ I say. They’re empty words, but I mean them with every fiber of my being.
I stare at Micah, at his perfect face, his sharp jaw, those midnight eyes that fill with stars when he’s happy, tracing every feature with my eyes, desperate to imprint it onto my memory.
And it hits me as hard as the hyper-rail.
I would sacrifice my life for his, because I still love him. I never stopped.
‘Your word means nothing,’ Micah tells her as I reel internally.
‘A few Witch deaths at the hands of Vampires was all it took for me to get the information I needed.’ He turns to Nahaz.
‘I’ll give you one chance, Necromancer, to save your own life.
’ His voice is like a glacial mountain range, an avalanche about to roar down and crush everything in its wake.
I have no idea what he means by that. But the New Orleans Vamps must have come through on how to reverse the spell for raising a Daemon.
Nahaz ignores him, starting to draw more symbols in the air.
They light up like blue fire and then fade away.
As he begins speaking an incantation, Ashrael presses against the barrier, his wings curving around his body, claws trailing shadows.
From the naked hunger on his face and the way his eyes glow, I know this is about to get really bad, really fast.
Micah only winks at me.
‘I brought backup,’ he says with a smirk, and then all hell breaks loose.