Caleb
“ M e?” I said with derision. “If they’d wanted me, they’ve had me—for goddamn near my whole life. Those bastards remind me frequently how much of my life they own.”
“Then why did they only put you within reach of me now ? This is not the first time I’ve been within spitting range of the university—or the first time other agents have attempted to capture me in recent history. Yet this time, they left a powerful incubus at my doorstep just as I’m about to make contact with a cambion on the brink of starvation? A cambion, I might add, who has been strictly controlled her entire life and required an enormous supply of energy to awaken her demonic nature and save her from dying? When I sent you from the building, I stayed to draw them away, but the larger team left almost immediately; only a small detail remained following me. That’s because it wasn’t me they were after.” She pointed to Magda, then back to me. “It was the two of you.”
I felt something like panic invading from Magda and had to stifle my urge to comfort her. Was Carmilla right? Jax had confessed that he’d known about me being a cambion… but Harry seemed pretty set on getting to Carmilla. He hadn’t even given one shit about my report of a civilian being in trouble.
“No, we’re missing something here. I wish I didn’t have the know-how about that place that I do, but…”
I looked over at Magda on the bed, afraid to admit the truth, but she studied me with soft, concerned eyes, no doubt feeling the anguish this was causing me.
“You seem to know an awful lot about the organization—even that my last name was Knight, the name given to those of us adopted by the Church. Now, I’ve played a lot of mind games with demons over the years, and I’m only listening to you now this much because what you said backs up what some of what Jax told me… But I’ve been trapped in this organization because I’m good at one thing, and one thing only, and that’s killing the people they tell me to kill.”
Magda’s eyes widened, but she didn’t look away from me.
“If they set this all up... there’s a good possibility that they plan to use me exactly for that.”
“,” Magda said, looking as if she might cry again, “if that’s what they plan to use you for… then is that what they need me for too?”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Carmilla interrupted. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“The special investigator didn’t know a thing about Magda. He didn’t even care that I’d seen another woman there. He was only interested in you?—”
“There are always secrets and plans in motion,” Carmilla said dismissively. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from dealing with the organization over the years, it’s that whatever you think is true probably isn’t.”
I had to give her that one. Nothing there was what it seemed; ever. Unless it was pain. That was always real, unfortunately.
“We will have time to puzzle this out later,” she continued. “For now, we have to get somewhere safe—somewhere they won’t be able to track us.”
“Where?” asked Magda. She’d slipped back into her leggings and was facing away from us as she pulled her bra and tank top on underneath my dress shirt, but then paused for a long moment as if she’d frozen. “If these people are as powerful as you two say, then running from them won’t keep us safe for long, will it? If they’ve really been planning for and me to meet under such specific circumstances, then…”
“Then they’ve been planning it for a very long time,” said Carmilla with a nod. “Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of. They starved you; they contained him, and while not keeping him celibate, they ensured he would never trigger his own awakening—until now. They made me believe I’d won the demonic lottery, finding the two of you and arranging your meeting.”
Despite fearing what it meant that the organization had an interest in the two of us, together, I couldn’t help but watch the way Magda moved; in the way she worried with her hair and ran her deft fingers through the damp strands. I longed to touch her. To kick the doctor out, rip Magda out of her clothes and say, “To hell with it all,” and spend however long my last few hours of freedom were losing myself to the feeling of being inside of her… She was like a hunger I couldn’t sate; a thirst I couldn’t quench. I forced my gaze away, only to find the doctor watching me out of the corner of her eye.
I can’t let them get to her. Ever.
I pulled the key fob I’d stolen from the garage out of my pocket. “Listen, take this—the car doesn’t have GPS or Bluetooth, the windows are tinted, and the plates are digital, so they’ll change every fifteen minutes. Take Magda and get out of here. The two of you have a chance, but they’re going to come looking for me. Demon or not, I’ve never known the organization to lose track of a single agent. I’m a risk to you both so long as we’re together.”
Carmilla placed her hand over the keys but didn’t pull away from me. “, you’re the sweetest demon I’ve ever met—but you’re also incredibly na?ve for someone who hunts people for a living.”
Shame flashed through me. “I didn’t do it because I wanted to,” I snapped. “I had no choice. The organization would have killed me if I refused.”
“I don’t do this because I have a choice either,” said Carmilla, her gaze sad. She replaced her glasses; in control of the situation again, and placed a hand on my arm. “So, believe me when I tell you that there is no way that I am letting either you or Sleeping Beauty here go back there…” She tilted her head enough to let me see that she’d wrapped her tail around Magda, who looked like she was about to pass out. “Or out of my sight until I know what those fuckers want from you both .”
My knees went weak, and I stumbled to the floor. “You’re… siphoning our energy now ?”
“I’ve been pulling it from both of you—I’m feeling extremely powerful right now, so I suggest you just settle for a while.”
“Please—you don’t understand what they’ll do if they?—”
“,” said Carmilla, “you two being low on energy will make you harder to track. I will take care of the situation.”
“Carmilla!” I tried once more, but my vision was darkening at the edges.
She leaned in close to my face, her eyes glowing a deep, vivacious red. “I’ve been alive for more years than you could possibly imagine, child. I’ve fought these monsters on two different continents and in several countries. I’ve got more reasons than you could ever know for taking them down, so you’re just going to have to trust when I say I can handle myself… And in the meantime, please remember this: You’re not the only killer demon the organization ever created.”