Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“Come on, Satapti. Let’s have a little fun. I give you permission to set this whole fucking hell hole up in flames.”
Her spine locks and her chin rises as she tilts her regal neck up. Fuck me, she’s majestic.
“Fun, it is.” As one, we stalk up the stairs, a protective bubble surrounding us thanks to Sage’s mumbled words.
“What are we supposed to call you, anyway?” I call out as the professor is looking less and less confident in his chances of winning this one.
“Professor Haught.”
He sneers, but it’s just pretense. He’s posturing, trying to give off more self-assuredness than he truly owns.
I can smell his fear and it’s fucking delicious.
Such a shame that someone who should be held to higher standards by his lineage—part anthros, part angel—turned out to be a big piece of shit as far as kyn are concerned.
“It’s fucking laughable,” I say with no humor in my voice. Sage and I don’t rush our step, but for every one we take, he backs up two. “Your rotting insides are showing on your anthros skin.” It’s not, but soon will be when I fucking kill him.
No. I have to remember, he’s not my kill.
“I mean, I thought you were hot until you became a creeper. You lost points for that. Like, all of them.”
We’re almost at the top of the stairs when I turn to Sage and frown. “You thought he was hot?” I don’t realize I’m growling until she rises on her tippy toes and kisses my mouth.
“Yeah, but you’re magnificent.” I narrow my eyes, refusing to fall for it.
“Multiples just turned to one. Maybe.” I grin and she gasps, because denying her orgasms won’t go over well with her.
Just as she’s about to hit me with a comeback, we hear the professor high-tailing it for the third floor.
“Time to play, Satapti.” I kiss her, hard, slipping a bit of tongue in there before letting her go. “Let’s find your Danika.”
We’re done playing and Sage’s protection spell is forgotten as she rushes up the stairs with me.
We run at the same pace, looking inside every apartment door, each of them left unlocked.
They’re all empty, just vessels for nefarious souls that my brothers are going to collect and take away. We may even have to call our lackeys.
The nephilim is in the third apartment up on the fourth floor, hiding inside a closet with wooden slats in the doors. It’s so fucking cliché it makes me sigh in disappointment.
“Really? You couldn’t find anything more original?” He doesn’t answer, and when I throw open the double doors, I see him cowering in the corner in the fetal position.
"Something's not right.” Sage can feel the shift and so can I.
At the exact moment I hear a swish from behind us, I step behind Sage, putting myself between her and the danger that’s about to fuck me up.
My body instantly turns into my demon form, but the damage is already done, and not just a little. When I turn around, I see both a harpy and another nephilim holding an angel’s sword with blood streaking the blade.
My blood.
On angel steel.
Well, this is going to fucking suck.
Looking down at my abdomen, the slice is deep and it’s wide, my blood seeping out in rivulets. My only saving grace is that I changed out of my anthros form, giving me more time to stand and fight.
The scream beside me takes everyone by surprise as Sage transforms into a ball of fucking fury, all white and bright and ready to fucking destroy. Her arms shoot out and lightning bolts hit their mark, not to mention my neverending supply of arrows aimed at our assailants without pause.
From the corner of my eye, I see the asshole we originally came here to kill trying to grab my chosen. By the time I swing around, he’s got a knife pushed into her kidney and all reason flies out of my head.
Grabbing him by the hair, I slam him against the nearest wall, making a hole big enough for my pumpkin head to fit through.
“You, motherfucker, are going to die.” My mouth doesn’t move, but my words are clear.
“If you kill me, you won’t get your answers.” At this point, I’ll take my chances with other sources. He can’t be the only one involved. After all, there were other species attacking us.
Reaching back into my quiver, I pull out an arrow, and instead of using my bow, I bend his neck at an awkward angle and bring down the tip against his skin.
My goal is to pierce him, over and over again, just for thinking he could harm my Sage, a-fucking-gain.
The fact he actually succeeded in touching her, in making her bleed, makes me mental.
“No!” Sage’s hand slaps against my wrist just as the arrow punctures the professor’s throat, causing not nearly enough pain or damage.
“What the fuck, Sage?”
“He’s mine! You promised!”
Using every ounce of control I possess, I fight the overwhelming urge to dig the arrow so deep into his flesh that it’ll burn him from the inside. Nephilim are deathly allergic to lamb’s blood but I don’t have that shit on me. Thankfully, they can die just like any other anthros, so that’s a plus.
“He stabbed you.” My words are spoken slowly with ravenous hatred.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fucking fine. I’m not fucking fine, Sage.”
“Please, Zelos.” Not relenting a single inch, I close my eyes at the sound of my given name on her lips and curse my love for her because it’s going to make what I’m about to do so much worse.
“I’m sorry.” Just as I plunge my arrow into his throat, pushing it all the way down until it punctures right through the middle of his heart, I hear the commotion behind me. I don’t have to look, I know it’s my brothers.
“Hack! Nooooo!”
When life escapes him and his breath is no more, my body gives up and turns from demon to anthros, collapsing to the floor and lying beside the piece of shit that made our lives miserable.
The gaping hole in my abdomen is difficult to ignore, but the pain isn’t from that.
It’s from my betrayal and my lack of control.
“I’m sorry,” I repeat, my eyes focused only on Sage’s beautiful face, and the last thing I see when my eyes can no longer stay open are the twin rivers of tears falling over her cheeks and mouth. “I’m sorry.”