13. Fuck Angels, Fuck Hellions #2
My hand found the rotted old mess of a heart inside the demon’s chest, squeezing it tight, making the beast arch back and stiffen, its cry cracking apart like an avalanche. I braced my foot on a root, balancing on its hip, and then climbed higher, wrapping one arm around it’s bony neck.
“You will pay ,” the demon screamed.
“You will vanish into nothing and be forgotten,” I answered, and then I pulled as hard as I could, tearing the heart from the demon’s chest, and its skull from the knotted roots of its neck.
It rocked violently from side to side in its death throes, tossing me to the ground.
I landed hard on my back, my borrowed strength leaving me in a sudden woosh .
The chattering skull of the demon went silent in the crook of my elbow.
My left hand was coated in black sludge, an acid-yellow dust coating my fingers that had crushed a heart.
I stared up at the gray and purple evening sky and shivered, a pound of pain catching up to my brain after the wild animal rush of the attack. Everything was quiet, a sudden pause for breath after the hurricane of the attack.
And then a glow approached, the angel Azariah shining in the dark, stopping at my feet and turning his open hands to the remains of the demon, turning them to black and orange embers and then soft gray ash that floated away from the town.
“God bless!” Someone from behind the gate cried, and then subdued cheers went up, calls to the priests, cries of gratitude.
I blew out a slow breath and tossed the skull in Azariah’s direction, rolling to my side with a groan and a wince.
“Do you need—?” Azariah started.
“No.” I bit out, which was a lie. I did need to feed. I’d used almost everything I had in the fight. But more than that, I needed to get back behind that gate.
I stood slowly, keeping my eyes down as I headed back the way I’d come, toward the church gate. Kais had Zach up from the ground, still pale and scratched, but looking more alert.
“You good, Daisy?” Kais asked, frowning.
“Peachy keen. No, don’t touch me. I dunno what this hell gunk does, I’m just gonna go wash it off,” I said, waving my clean hand toward Kais before he reached for me.
“Deyva,” Stavros breathed as I passed him.
“Not now, Stav,” I answered. I felt strangely raw, my eyes tracking the shadows around me as I headed quickly for the gate. I was supposed to be hiding out, laying low, taking advantage of the goodness of this town to keep myself safe. Instead, I’d run horns first out into the battle.
And when Kimaris found out I took down a demon general to protect human men? Shit was going to get real. For me and for these humans.
I climbed back over the gate, careful not to touch anything with my dirty arm.
“Deyva, wait.” Stavros’ footsteps were beating against the ground to catch up with me.
“I’m fine. I’m just gonna wash up in the locker room,” I said.
But he didn’t slow down. He grabbed my shoulder and I flinched, more out of habit than pain, but Stavros just spun me to face him. My body hurt, my heart hurt, my fucking head hurt, and I didn’t want to deal with whatever it was he needed to say. Except he didn’t speak at all.
There was anger in the tangle of his brow, and terror in the whites of his eyes.
His hand grabbed my face and his other arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me roughly to his chest. I gasped as his mouth landed over mine, searching hungrily, devouring me, a groan vibrating in his chest as he kissed me over and over again.
I wasn’t human and I shouldn’t have been so breathless, so weak-kneed.
My heart shouldn’t have beat so hard. I would blame the battle if anyone asked, not the desperately sweet flavor of relief on Stavros’ tongue and the way he almost pushed his life to me, as if he knew how to feed me without me simply taking.
“You could’ve been killed, Deyva,” Stavros mumbled against my lips, his nose nudging against mine, head turning just enough to scratch his cheek against mine as he moved to suck on my lobe.
“Probably not, but you definitely would’ve been,” I said, leaning into him, shivering as he huffed against my neck. “If I had been, the town would’ve been relieved. You wouldn’t have to play sacrificial lamb anymore.”
Ew, you sound insecure and human , I thought for a brief moment. Then Stavros reared back, face stricken and pale as he met my eyes. A slow flood of shame ran down his face and I tried to pull away, but he only squeezed harder around my waist.
“Fuck. Fuck, Deyva, I’m a coward,” he said, pulling me closer, pressing a long kiss to my cheek. “There’s literally nowhere else in this world, or the one before the Rising, that I would rather be than lying around on that miniscule fucking couch with you. Or bending you over an altar.”
And like the completely basic human I was starting to resemble, I smiled a little at the warmth in his voice and the way it flavored the air between us.
“Come on,” he said, and it wasn’t the church he pulled me towards, but the front door of the priest house.