Chapter 44
K yla expected Dylan to be his usual possessive arsehole self when seeing the two demons again. However, much to her surprise, he shook both of their hands and greeted them both with a smile, albeit a tight lipped one.
When Sam pulled up seconds later, she jumped out of her car without even switching it off and launched herself at Kyla, giving her a hug so tight, she all but squeezed all the air from her body.
“I’m so glad you’re ok,” Sam said, finally stepping back. “Do you feel ok?”
Kyla nodded and smiled at her friend. “Better than ever.” She motioned with her head towards the cottage. “Come on, let’s get this sorted.”
Lily and Malcolm had prepared a table full of coffee, tea, biscuits, cakes, and of course a specially made crisp sandwich just for Kyla.
Giving her grandparents a kiss each on the cheek, Kyla took a seat next to her gran, waiting for the others to find their seats around the large table. Sam sat down on Kyla’s left, Balthazar then sitting next to Sam. Azazel took his seat opposite his brother, leaving Dylan to sit opposite Kyla and on the right of Malcolm, who sat opposite his wife.
The empty space between Dylan and Azazel spoke volumes to everyone present. Kyla clicked her fingers to Oscar and pointed at the chair. He jumped up without hesitation, sitting between the two men like some kind of referee. Every few seconds, he would give Azazel the side eye, as if sizing him up.
“Please,” Lily said, gesturing at the display of food. “Help yourselves. We have lots to discuss.”
“That’s your dog?” Sam asked Kyla, staring at the handsome face looking at her from across the table.
Kyla nodded. “Oscar,” she replied, flickering her eyes across to Dylan with a smirk. “He’s my familiar.”
Sam lifted an eyebrow. “Your what?”
Kyla grinned and then recalled her story from the day before when Oscar had appeared to her, along with her gran’s explanation of what familiars are.
“That’s so cool,” Sam said, looking at Oscar again. “He won’t attack me or anything, will he?”
Kyla frowned, confusion swirling through her eyes. “What? No. Why do you ask?”
“Dogs tend to not like werewolves much. Specifically, females who don’t have full access to their powers yet.”
Kyla frowned. “Why? Dogs are descended from wolves. I don’t get it.”
“They’re fine with alphas, or those who are destined to be next in line,” she said, nodding her head towards Dylan. “But females that aren’t quite human but aren’t quite wolf they see as a threat, we’re an unknown quantity.”
“How are you not quite human but not quite wolf?”
“We don’t have access to our full powers until we’re a mum. I can’t shift, I don’t have super speed, a better sense of smell or super strength either. I heal quickly, see better, and have enhanced hearing.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Not quite human, not quite wolf.”
Kyla picked up her crisp sandwich and bit into it. As if that broke some kind of seal on the others, everyone reached for food and drink, filling their plates and cups in a comfortable silence.
“Surely then,” Kyla said, finishing her mouthful of crisp sandwich. “We just need to get you pregnant and then boom, you’re all wolfy, right?”
Sam gave Kyla a small smile. “Not quite that simple.”
“Why?”
“Right,” Malcolm said, clapping his hands together. “Sorry, Sam, but I think we have more pressing matters to discuss than your potential babies.”
Kyla raised an eyebrow and looked at her grandad. When he refused to meet her eye contact, she kept quiet, not wanting to press the matter any further. It was clearly a discussion for another day. Or perhaps for her and Dylan later on.
“Yes, of course,” Sam said, picking up her cup of tea. “Sorry, Malcolm.”
He nodded his head once and shared a brief look with Lily, a wordless exchange passing between the two.
“Azazel, Balthazar,” Lily said, turning her attention to them. “I think it’s time for you both to explain what happened just before Lucifer left yesterday.”
Azazel stared across at his brother, not wanting to take the lead on this one. Balthazar glared back at him, cursing him mentally for leaving him to pick up the short straw.
“You heard Lucifer speak about demi-souls,” Balthazar said, his voice quiet. “And obviously the spell I cast for our vacation this year.”
Malcolm narrowed his eyes at the demon, not needing reminding of his transgression.
Balthazar cleared his throat. “Once we recognise our demi-souls, we have to approach them with the truth and ask for their acceptance of our souls. We do this by presenting them with a red rose. They take the rose and are shown all of our...” he took a breath “...all of our wrongdoings. They can choose to accept us, warts and all, or they can reject us.”
“What happens if you’re rejected?” Dylan asked.
Balthazar hesitated for a second before he replied, “We die.”
Kyla’s jaw dropped. “What? Are you serious?”
Balthazar nodded. “In Lucifer’s eyes, if not even our other half wants us, then why would anything else want us?”
She let out a low whistle and shook her head. “That was a risky game you pulled doing that. You knew that though, when you cast the words? That you’d either have your demi-soul or die?” Turning to her gran and grandad, she asked, “Did this happen for you guys? Did you have to give Gran a red rose?”
Malcolm nodded. “Yes, I did. But your gran and I had a good foundation behind us before I even approached the subject. I was very lucky with my timings. Lucifer was otherwise engaged which meant he wasn’t really paying attention to me and what I was up to. If your gran had had the ritual sprung upon her within the first few weeks of meeting, well, I don’t think you’d exist, Marmalade.”
Lily rolled her eyes and tutted at him. “You don’t know that. Stop being so dramatic and trying to scare the poor girl.”
“I still remember the hesitance before you accepted,” Malcolm said. “It was the longest seven seconds of my life.”
Lily sighed. “Are you ever going to let those seven seconds go?”
Malcolm flashed her a toothy grin. “Never.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Kyla said, glancing over at Azazel. “Lucifer gave two red roses. One for you, and one for Balthazar, right?”
Azazel nodded.
“So that means Balthazar has met his?”
Sam coughed and tentatively raised her hand. “That would be me.”
Kyla widened her eyes as her best friend’s words rattled around her head. “What? How long have you known that?”
“Only a couple of days. With everything that happened yesterday, I obviously didn’t get chance to tell you. Plus, it’s all so new with me and him, I just wanted time to process it all before I tried to make you understand the connection we have.”
Kyla sat up straight and leaned forwards. “Like he’s a magnet and you’re a helpless paperclip?”
Sam tipped her head back and laughed. A couple of seconds passed before she met Kyla’s eyes and nodded. “Exactly like that.”
Kyla let out a sigh and looked across at Azazel. “So what you’re telling me is that if I reject you, you die?”
Azazel nodded.
“Wow, no pressure or anything then,” she said, letting out a long breath.
“Ultimately,” Azazel said, biting down on a strawberry cupcake. “You hold the power as to whether you think I have a right to live any longer. If there’s something in my past you can’t deal with, that could swing your choice the wrong way. Or the right way, whatever your perspective on that is.”
Kyla shook her head. “I can’t do that. I can’t have that power of someone’s life.”
“But you do,” Dylan said. “And you need to do what feels right for you. If you don’t feel comfortable having that power, then there’s only one choice, isn’t there?”
Kyla couldn’t ignore the sadness swirling around in his chocolate eyes. She could only guess at the pain he must have been hiding in order to say those words. “But, if I see all of his wrongdoings, and think he doesn’t deserve to live any longer, that he needs stopping from being a menace to society, then there’s only one option, isn’t there?”
Lily placed a hand on Kyla’s forearm with a gentle touch. “Your grandad had some very dark secrets that I discovered when I took that rose, dear. If his soul is redeemable, so will his be,” she said, motioning her head towards Azazel.
Kyla wet her lips with her tongue. Covering her gran’s hand with her own, she then said, “It’s not just that, Gran. It’s that if I accept, what that then means from there.” She glanced at Dylan and then back at her gran. “It makes everything much more complicated.”
“Can I just say,” Azazel said, holding his hand up as he grabbed a biscuit with the other. “That neither option is good for us. We either die or become human and lose all our powers.”
Sam sucked in a sharp breath. “What?” She looked at Balthazar, her eyes filling with tears. “Is that true?”
Balthazar nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“Why? Why would you want to give up eternal life and all your power just to live a few decades of nothing and then die?”
Azazel clapped his hands together. “Thank you!” He took a bite of the biscuit and looked over at Lily. “Amazing biscuits, Lily.” Glancing back at Sam, he said, “That’s exactly what I said but that buffoon couldn’t see past his idealistic views of romance.”
“No, no, no,” Kyla said. She looked at her grandad. “You still have all your powers, right?”
Malcolm nodded. “I know where you’re going with this, Kyla, but the deal I cut with Lucifer in order to keep my powers was a one off. He won’t grant them two the same.”
“How do you know? You never know unless you ask, right? You taught me that.”
Malcolm pursed his lips and let out a sigh. “Kyla, just trust me on this one, ok?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What did you do? What was your deal?”
Lily, still with her hand on Kyla’s forearm, patted her granddaughter and said, “That doesn’t matter. What matters is now. These two don’t want either option they are left with so what can we do?”
Kyla looked over at Azazel. “What’s the lesser of two evils for you? Death? Or living as a human?”
“Death,” he replied, with no hesitation. “I would rather die than live life in any other way than what I am doing now.”
Kyla’s heart skipped several beats. The thought of Azazel being no more, and being no more at her will, sat uneasy in her chest.
“And you?” she said, looking at Balthazar.
“I’m happy to live as a human.”
“Well, you’re sorted,” she said, looking at Sam. “It’s just me left with the shit decision. Again.”
She put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands as she raced through options in her mind. The glaringly obvious thing to her was that she couldn’t force Azazel to live a life he didn’t want. How would that be fair to him just to save her own conscience? If he wanted to die, it’s not like he would hate her for doing it—he wanted it. Therefore, it would just be her own peace to make with his decision.
But it wasn’t just that.
He was her demi-soul. Was death really preferable to him than being with her? A small whisper in the back of her mind told her she had her answer to her mess with choosing between Dylan and Azazel. However, even though he willingly wanted death, she didn’t like it.
She wanted him alive.
She needed him alive.
“Kyla,” Lily said, rubbing a hand over her granddaughter’s back. “Are you ok?”
Kyla sucked in a deep breath and looked up, straight at Azazel. Her decision was made. She held out her left hand, palm up, and motioned with her fingers for him to pass something. “Give me the damn rose.”
Azazel froze. He hadn’t been expecting that. A fizz of adrenaline shot through his veins. Was this it? His death? Would it hurt or would he go peacefully? Would Lucifer take his soul, or would he just float around in nothingness for all eternity?
“Kyla...” Dylan said, his voice all but a hiss. “What are you doing?”
She met Dylan’s eyes, nothing but determination rolling off her in waves. “I can’t live with this going around and around in my head until frickin’ June, Dylan. I want it over with now. Short, sharp, done. That’s it.”
Balthazar glanced at Azazel, a wry smile playing on his lips. “I told you you’d met your match, didn’t I?”
Azazel took a gulp of his tea, reached over for a chocolate cupcake, peeled the wrapper off and stuffed it in his mouth in one go.
As everyone watched him chew, in silence, Kyla knew her decision already. She had this.
Finishing his mouthful, Azazel stood up, his chair scraping back against the kitchen floor. Pulling a thorny red rose from his back pocket, he held it between his thumb and forefinger. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “Don’t second guess me. Give it here.”
“Very well.” He glanced at Balthazar and smiled. “See you on the other side, brother. It’s been a pleasure.”