Paramour for the Devil

by Savannah Hill

  “Why didn’t you call me?” The torrent of anxiety dissolved into a warm solace.

  “I didn’t want to be a total mess when I talked to you.” Dropping her tear-stained face to her knees, she muttered into them. “I don’t want you to see me like this…” She broke into shaking sobs. “I thought I was a stronger person, but I can’t even breathe sometimes. This loss, it just hurts…so…much.”

  Damian enfolded her with comforting arms. “It’ll be all right, beautiful. I’m here now. Why aren’t you with your family at the castle?”

  “I usually handle bad things better when I’m by myself.” She cried into his embrace. “But you feel so good…”

  “Did you go to the funeral today?” The fact she’d been completely alone with her grief deeply concerned him.

  “I showed up, yeah. I left right after the service. Everyone was so blind with sadness.” Her features scrunched in agony. “Thank you for fixing my car. I didn’t have to rely on anyone to drive me back here when I was ready to leave.”

  “I don’t like that you’ve been alone this whole time, baby. Have you talked to anyone?”

  “Talking about it only makes me cry harder. I just want it to stop hurting so deeply.”

  “Have you been eating?” Curled up in his arms, she felt somehow smaller than the last time he’d held her.

  Her head shook. “It doesn’t help the pain go away, it just makes me feel sick.” She began to sob again. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I don’t want to bother you with this.”

  “I’m supposed to help you through things like this.” He grabbed a thick pillow and set it next to her, guiding her onto her side so her head sank into it as she whimpered. Taking her tiny hand into his, he ran his thumb over her clammy palm.

  “My hands are all gross right now; you don’t have to touch them.”

  “Tell me about what you’re going through, Haley.” Damian massaged her jittering fingers, hoping his steady grip would soothe her nerves a bit.

  “I’ve just been replaying every interaction over and over in my mind. He’d gradually been more distant, but he always seemed happy to me. I can’t imagine him taking his own life. It feels so surreal. I wanted to tell him about you and me.” She grimaced, gasping in an attempt to control her sobs. “Now it’s too late, I’ll never get the chance to tell him anything ever again. He won’t be there to walk Ginger down the aisle at her wedding; I know that’s tearing her to pieces. And he’ll never be able to walk me down… the…” She mewled in mournful sorrow. “I didn’t say a real good-bye. The last time I saw him, I rushed out of his office to go see you and only spoke to him through emails after that…and now it’s all over. He didn’t even leave a note, just shot himself at the dining table in his apartment.” Her cries shook her frail body as she brought her knees closer to her chest. “He must have felt so lonely…”

  The deep rub of his fingers on her palms seemed to set her tears at bay, and she relaxed for a moment.

  “You’re going to make it through this, baby. The pain will get a little easier to handle with every day that passes. I need you to start eating again, though, OK?”

  She nodded on the cushy pillow, sniffling. “I’m so grateful you’re here. I didn’t know how much I needed you, I guess. We’re so new… I didn’t want to scare you away.”

  “I’ll always be here for you.” Damian gathered her into a consoling embrace, overwhelmed with relief to be holding her again.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  “You two have become the most unreliable sons of bitches since you started screwing those Hawthorne girls, I swear to God. I didn’t authorize you to leave your mission, get your pussy-whipped ass back to Nebraska.” Damian listened coldly to Victor’s rant on the other end of the line. “Thanks to your self-righteous plan to rehabilitate your assigned target, you ended up giving Eli the perfect opportunity to fake his own death and disappear. Tell me, what was the last assignment you actually completed for me, Damian? I sure as hell didn’t authorize you to join Stephen on his mission to the Pit, I sent you on a totally separate assignment to Wyoming that you fucking bailed on.”

  “We’re not leaving Seattle right now.” The djinn were taken care of before Noah had even gotten there, and Stephen would have been killed if he hadn’t gone with him. Damian didn’t agree with the questionable way his boss was running things, but was in no mood to argue with him.

  “The bastard isn’t even dead! Our clairvoyants said he dressed up a homeless guy in one of his Armani suits and shot him in the face. Your girlfriend’s crying over a hobo’s grave, Damian. Get back to fucking work. You and Andrews need to get your shit togeth—”

  He hung up the phone with a rigid jaw, putting it away as Haley came down the staircase in the same machine-driven way she’d been moving since he came home the night before. She had put on a light yellow sundress, and he was glad to see she’d chosen the color, though the breezy dress didn’t match her lifeless demeanor.

  “Do you want to get out of the house today?” He suggested as she approached him. “I was thinking we could go to the library or something, I know you like the one downtown.”

  “I have some questions.” Her overly thin voice gave Damian an uneasy feeling.

  “OK.” He gestured to the couch, following after her with a steadily increasing heartbeat. “What’s going on?”

  Haley sat down, keeping her back awkwardly straight. “I’ve been turning things over in my mind again and again.” She paused, lowering her face to rub her forehead. “I’m supposed to be psychic, but I think I’ve missed some things I should have noticed before.”

  His ears began ringing with panic, pulsing in time with the thumping in his chest as he tried to guess which direction she was heading.

  “Why were you at my uncle’s office? The night that I showed up with Neil.”

  Fuck. His heart seemed to stop cold for a second as he tried to recall what excuse Eli had given her that night to explain his presence. At a loss, all he could remember was fucking her against the wall in the stairwell. The longer he looked at her in silence, the more troubled she became.

  “Damian,” she breathed.

  He knew he looked guilty. The dumbstruck expression on his face was evidence enough he was hiding something. His mouth had gone dry, and he cleared his throat, shifting away from her pained expression.

  “His pocket square…on the front of his jacket, was all rumpled.” Her voice quivered with fearful emotion. “Something like that would have driven him crazy, and I caught it, but I didn’t really think about it at the time. I was too focused on the fact that you were there. I can’t even think of what he said was the reason for your visit.”

  “Haley.” Damian started slowly. “Maybe it’s better for you to preserve his memory and try to move on with your life instead of digging into his past, it will only cause you more unnecessary pain.”

  She inhaled sharply, touching her fingers to her mouth as tears dripped from her shining eyes. “You were there to kill him. Neil and I interrupted you. He was the assignment you couldn’t tell me about.” Flinching at the confirmation of her suspicions, Haley sprang up from the couch, stumbling over the armchair in her haste. “You killed him.”

  “No.” He put his hands up defensively, staying seated so he wouldn’t overwhelm her. “Haley, I didn’t, I promise.”

  “I know he didn’t kill himself.” She shook her head emotionally. “Whatever mess he was in, I just know he couldn’t have done it. He wouldn’t do that to us. Were you really in Nebraska?”

  “Yes. Noah and I weren’t anywhere near California. We started to drive back when Ginger called—”

  “What about the first mission? The classified one?” Haley sent herself into hysterics. “Was he the one you were hunting?”

  Damian halted, not wanting to tell her the truth. He hated seeing the light in her eyes dimmed to darkness because of her asshole uncle. “I’m so sorry, angel.”

  “Don’t.” Haley put her hand up. �
��Please,” she panted desperately. “I can’t handle pet names.” She shook her head with a shattered look. “Was he your target?”

  Beaten down, he gave a short nod in reply. “I didn’t kill him. He said he would stop…” His voice trailed off, and Haley watched him in horrified silence, waiting for him to continue.

  “Stop what?”

  Slumping a little, he gave up on deceiving her any longer. “Killing people.” Once he’d said the words, the weighty truth lifted off his shoulders. “We came to an agreement. For you… fuck, Haley, I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, but it felt better than the alternative.”

  “You lied to me so many times.” She clutched at her chest with a rattling hand.

  “I know.” He bent forward with his elbows on his knees, hanging his head low between his shoulders.

  “Not…actual lies…but…” Haley’s gaze darted wildly. “Did he really kill people?”

  “Is this how you want to remember him, Haley?” Damian gave her a look of misery.

  “I just want you to be honest with me.” She took hyperventilating breaths, still grasping her chest. “You’re keeping things from me,” she accused with a throaty voice, tears running down her cheeks. “This was an enormous secret.”

  He was still withholding crucial information from her. Eli was alive. “You’re right, baby, I need to tell you—”

  “Please don’t call me that. I can’t trust you.”

  Her words struck him hard in the stomach, and he lowered his head to his hands in guilt. “I’m so sorry, Haley, I didn’t know what to do… I fucked up.”

  Every light bulb in the room glowed brightly with her powers, and Haley jumped with a start as they each popped and sparked, burning out simultaneously.

  “I need to calm down.” Haley swayed on weak legs, tightly clutching her chest with a panic-stricken expression, and Damian rushed to her side.

  “Are you OK? Lie down, I’ll get you a glass of wa—”

  “I need to be somewhere else.”

  He tried to take her unsteady arm, but she brushed him away, staggering backward.

  “I can’t breathe. I need air.”

  “You’re not driving like this. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

  “No…” Haley shook her head vehemently. “I need to be alone. I want you to leave me alone.” She flew toward the front door and burst outside.

  “Haley, wait!” He tried to grab her, but she shut the door on him, holding the lock closed with a glowing, fiery light spreading over the knob. “No fucking way.” He tore through the house to the interior door at the garage, and found a glittering light on the knob there too. “Fuck!” Slamming his shoulder into the door, he felt it crack a little and went to ram it again, but the shiny gold started to fade as its source got further away. Clasping the still glowing handle with a searing pain in his palm, he threw the broken door open.

  Pounding the button on the wall to open the automatic garage door, he ran toward the moving panels, hitting the cement and rolling under them. Scanning the large, landscaped property from his driveway, there was no sign of her, but he still sensed her thoughts nearby, and pushed past the invisible wall around her mind’s eye to see that she was sprinting through a thicket of trees at the West edge of his property. He broke into a run toward the familiar surroundings.

  When he reached her, she was panting heavily in the grove, waiting for him with a defeated look of apology. She drew her weighted shoulders into a shrug of misery. “I’m a mess right now.”

  Damian let out an erratic breath, slowing a bit, and softly collided with her, throwing his arms around her. “Baby, I never wanted t—” His sentence was cut off by a sudden pain ripping through his throat, and he reached for the center of it, feeling a hot fountain bubbling over his fingers. His legs gave out, and he fell to his knees in front of her, taking a breath, but finding only blood in his lungs. Though he could see Haley screaming, he heard only static, tumbling involuntarily to the grass. Lack of oxygen would be an issue for him after just a few minutes. He would go comatose long before his body was able to heal itself. Haley clutched the profusely bleeding gunshot wound in his throat, shining her healing light, and he grabbed her arm. “No, angel. You need to RUN.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” Her screaming words were clear as crystal through the white noise as the comforting warmth of her powers worked through his esophagus.

  “Hi, Damian.”

  Looking toward the voice, he caught sight of his sickly demented brother, Mordecai, who smilingly gave him a punishing kick between his legs just before the world faded into a black hole of darkness.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Haley crawled protectively in front of Damian’s deathly cold body, and narrowed her eyes at the heavily muscled form hulking toward her. Gathering all she could from her weakened body, she brought the air around them to crackle with golden electricity.

  The man’s sinister features weren’t fazed as he powered right through the sparking shocks and snatched her up from the ground. Desperate to keep Damian safe, she pressed a ray of heat into the dark man’s neck, scorching his tanned skin. With an otherworldly snarl, he wrenched her to the ground, and she scrambled to Damian’s side.

  “Baby, are you still with me?” She found nothing but hollow darkness in his mind, and rustled through his front pockets, retrieving a silver knife similar to the one he’d given her. Swinging the blade open, she acted on utter impulse, launching forward at the demonic being, sinking the silver into his broad chest.

  He laughed heartily at her as she dislodged the weapon from his breastbone. “Brother got himself a hellcat, didn’t he?” Aiming for his eyes like Damian had taught her, she thrust the knife forward, and he leaned back effortlessly to avoid the blade. “Easy, bitch! You get me in the face with that thing, and I’ll carve off your fucking cheeks and make you eat them.”

  Struggling to ignore the terrifying threat, Haley pinpointed to a laser focus, silencing everything except his eerie thoughts, and skirted his grab for her, landing the knife-point smoothly, all the way through his jewel-colored green eye, pushing it in as far back as it would go. Somewhere behind her, an impossible familiar voice screamed her name, and she spun toward it.

  Eli ran toward her. “What are you doing, dear?”

  Awestruck by the sight of her beloved father figure, she felt the overwhelming weight of her grief pushing her toward him with stumbling steps. “Uncle Eli?”

  “Come with me, darling.” He beckoned warmly. “Mordecai here will take care of that monster for us.”

  “M-monster? But Damian said you were the monster.” She feebly gave him a wary gaze.

  “Honey, he works for Raden. I had to fake my own death to throw him off our trail so I could get you away from him.” When he took her under his arm, Haley felt safely secure, and hot tears streamed liberally down her face at his comforting presence. “Come, I’ll explain everything in the car.”

  She looked back at Mordecai as he wrapped his shirt around his head to cover his mangled eye. He had the same build and eye color as her boyfriend, and it registered for the first time that he was Damian’s brother. “I can’t leave him.” She jerked free from Eli’s hovering arm around her. “I don’t think I can believe you.” Involuntary tears brimmed in her eyes, blinding her as she looked at her dear uncle in the dreamlike moment.

  He shook his head in disappointment. “Choosing the devil over your own flesh and blood? Mordecai, let my niece see who her lover really is.”

  Viciously glaring at her with his remaining eye, Mordecai projected an image into her head, showing her a memory of Damian, sitting beside him at the wretched metal table in Raden’s chambers, a naked blonde girl in his lap, calmly discussing her capture with their uncle Raden.

  “She’ll be working at the Seattle office in a few weeks. I convinced her to let me hire the security company, even taught her a few fighting skills to give the demons a little sport. She’s terrified of th
e streets. I’ll get her to go with me to an empty parking lot somewhere…”

  “No…” Haley shook away the horrifying vision. “Stop!” It isn’t true. It can’t be true… Unsure what to believe anymore, she dropped to Damian’s side on the soft grass, leaning into his peacefully blank face, and checked the wound at his throat, feeling a stab of hope when she found it completely closed. “Wake up. Please, wake up.”

  “Come on, dear.” Eli lifted her by her shoulders. “He isn’t worth it. Get in the car.”

  “No.” She shook him off, clutching Damian’s hand to her chest, grateful to find his body temperature had warmed. “Please wake up. Please.”

  “Let’s go, dearest, come on.” He grabbed hold of her from behind. “Mordecai will make sure he gets what he deserves.”

  “I don’t know who to trust.” Haley tried in vain to wrench free from Eli’s strong grip. “I need to hear his explanation.” As he dragged her off of Damian’s unmoving form, she grasped onto the blood-soaked collar, violently shaking him. “Wake up, baby! Please!”

  Damian’s eyes drifted open at the jarring motion, and he shot up.

  “Hello, Brother.” Mordecai brutally struck him between the shoulder blades with a metal baseball bat.

  “Wait!” Haley shuddered at the sharp jolt in Damian’s body.

  “I just mind-fucked your hellcat here and showed her what you’re really up to.” Mordecai twirled the bat whimsically before swinging again, connecting with the side of his neck, and Damian crumpled to the grass. “Now, I’m gonna beat you close to death with this thing and drag your broken bones to Marybelle’s table.”

  “You shouldn’t have to watch this, darling. Come with me.” Eli coaxed her along, squeezing her shoulders tightly.

  “He’s dangerous, Haley. Don’t fucking go with him.” Damian wrested himself to his feet, this time swiftly maneuvering around the swinging bat.

  “Keep spouting your lies, Damian.” Eli shook his head. “She already knows you’re working for Raden.”