Andre’s eyes softened. “Soulmate, he does not have the power to do so himself, and no creature on this planet has both the balls and the ability to face me down.”
He came forward, and I backed up. At the action, he frowned. It wasn’t often that I moved away from him.
The softness fled from his eyes, and something hard and scary entered them. Something a whole lot like determination.
“You insist on protecting me, but you won’t let me protect you,” I said.
“This is not protecting me,” he said, indicating the space between us. “This is destroying us from the inside out. You think you do me any favors by staying away?” he asked, his voice dropping dangerously low.
“Of course I do.”
“No, my love,” he shook his head. “You’re putting distance and apathy between us.”
“Andre, I need to protect you while I try to get myself out of this situation. And if I can’t …”
“If you can’t, then you’re planning on resigning yourself to an eternity by the devil’s side instead of mine,” he answered for me.
Had that been my plan?
He nodded to himself. “I suppose you think that I’m going to be hurt enough to leave you here alone with your guilt and despair.”
“Stop it,” I whispered. He knew me too well.
He took a step closer, our chests brushing, and cupped the side of my face. “I am not some fair weather lover,” he said. “You gave me your body, and you gave me your heart.” His eyes gleamed as he spoke, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he was trying to captivate me.
“What’s more,” he tipped up my head. “I gave you mine.”
He shook me gently. “We do this, over and over and over. You push me away when you need me the most. You fight my overprotectiveness—and I get that it’s an issue. I’m working on it.” He flashed me a rueful smile. “But this cycle? It ends tonight. Right now. This time, you and I are going to do things differently.”
“But the devil—”
“The devil has wanted my soul and all those connected to me for a very long time, and I’m still here. He’s had seven hundred years to claim it, yet he hasn’t. Don’t be fooled by any pretty lies he’s spun, soulmate.”
Damnit, he had a point.
“The worst has already happened,” he continued. “You’re trapped in hell for half of every day, and it’s breaking you.”
I opened my mouth, but he spoke over me.
“It is,” he said. “I can see it on your face, I watched it play out on the news, I can hear it in your voice, I can even smell it in your lies and your guilt. The person we need to worry about most is you.”
He took my hands in his. “Now, this is what’s going to happen: You are going to stop running from me and stop protecting me. You’re going to yell at me when I infuriate you and I’m going to rage. And then we’re going to make up and continue on because that’s what soulmates do. We’re going to figure this out together. And so long as you love me, you are going to greedily—selfishly—accept my love. Even if that means putting me in the devil’s line of fire.”
I pinched my eyes shut. I wanted to protect him—desperately so. But I was also trying to protect my heart from something so powerful that if I lost it, I might never recover.
Before I could object, his lips were on mine.
It wasn’t a question whether or not I was going to kiss him back. My mouth moved against his, and he pulled me against him, clutching me tightly. I almost cried out my relief. I had resigned myself to not having him so long as I was the devil’s, and I’d felt the ache of his absence every hour since.
Clearly our bond wasn’t everything; it hadn’t stopped either of us from trying to protect the other. My bones ached from his absence inside of me. Having him at my side was a close alternative.
“I’m not giving you up, soulmate,” he said when the kiss ended. He still held me in his arms. “I will never give up on you. I’m just hoping that one of these days you’ll realize that I am more stubborn than you are.”
For the first time that night, I smiled, and the action caused him to smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did so.
A strange lightness took root in my chest and it bubbled up my throat. I tilted my head back in Andre’s arms and laughed for the first time since I’d been taken. Had I ever wondered why people fell in love? This was why.
“Ah, that laugh. Soulmate, it makes me believe all things are possible.”
Andre and I were so wrapped up in each other, neither of us registered the heartbeat until it was too late. One moment it wasn’t there, the next it was.
A hand fisted in my hair, jerking my head back. A metal blade pressed against my neck. It happened so fast that I hadn’t realized that someone wanted to slit my throat until after the knife sliced across my skin.
“For my son,” the man hissed, and then he was gone, along with that heartbeat of his.
Had I been in any position to think on it, I would’ve recognized that voice as Byron Jennings’. But I only had eyes for Andre. His shocked expression must’ve mirrored my own.