I wasn’t. I was already damned. The mark left on my immortal soul from this moment, this decision, was irrelevant. You reap what you sow.
Backing out of the room, I closed my eyes as the sound on the monitor changed its rhythm, slowing to a constant beep. My shoulders slumped. Instantly the pettiness and cruelty of what I’d done weighed on me.
Perhaps something of the Elioud remained after all. Or perhaps it was just my true nature. I never claimed to be a righteous woman.
Apollyon met me in the hallway outside the hospital room as nurses and doctors rushed inside.
“Feel better?” The Devil took my hand, leading me toward a seemingly normal set of elevators that would lead us back to Hell rather than the lobby.
“Not really, no.” I slipped from his grip and clasped my hands together in front of me.
With a ding, the metal doors slid open. Apollyon stepped inside the elevator, leaning against the back mirrored wall as he waited for me to join him.
“This too shall pass.” The Devil pointed to the panel on the wall of the elevator. “Lower level.”
Rolling my eyes at the cliché, I pressed the button marked LL. After the expected small jolt of the motor and counterweights kicking in, we made our descent. Another ding signified we’d reached our destination. The doors slid open to the bustling office floor of the Department of Soul Acquisitions.
Just another day at the office.
Apollyon and I parted ways at the elevator, him going right when I went left toward my office. Rubbing the spot on my palm where I bore the Devil’s mark, I wondered if what he’d said was true. Would it pass, the remnants of my conscience? Would working case after case wear me down like a river rock until nothing mattered and I became immune to the atrocities neatly listed inside the manila folders piled on my desk?
Opening the blinds on the windows overlooking the current of souls streaming past, I swore I caught a glimpse of my aunt. There was a small pang of something – guilt, sadness… Thomas… I couldn’t say exactly what it was. The feeling was over before it ever really began.
Would the D.S.A. change who I was, any more than the experiences leading up to this already had? I grabbed a file off my desk.
There was only one way to find out.
THE END
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The Jax Rhoades Duology
Payable On Death – Part One https://www.books2read.com/u/3J7oEm
The Maurin Kincaide Series
The Morrigna https://www.books2read.com/u/317jM4
Witch Hunt https://www.books2read.com/u/4DadOb
Wolfsbane https://www.books2read.com/u/4DadOb
Blood Bath https://www.books2read.com/u/bzwXE3
Mistletoe Meltdown https://www.books2read.com/u/3JY7vb
Ill Fated https://www.books2read.com/u/bPjPxm
The Box Set – Books 1–3 https://www.books2read.com/u/mdKjx5
Darkness Hunts coming 2017
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