“Why?” I whispered. It was the same question I’d asked during Samhain. Why had the devil taken an unusual interest in me.
The smell of brimstone rose, and fire seemed to dance at the back of his eyes. I thought he was going to hurt me, but instead he pulled my face closer to his, close enough that I could tell he didn’t have pores—and why would he? He wasn’t human.
“Fate, consort,” he said. “You are fated to be mine.”
I gasped, sucking in frigid air.
“Gabrielle.” Panic laced Andre’s normally steady voice. I felt his feather-light touch against my cheek. The trail of his fingertips was too soft; he touched me as though I were breakable. Or already broken.
My eyes fluttered open, and I found myself cradled in Andre’s arms. His dark eyes stared back down at me, wide with fear and worry. Blood smeared his face and soaked his shirt. I breathed in the metallic tang of it. It was everywhere.
He let out a shaky breath. A bloody tear snaked down his eye, and he used his shoulder to wipe it away. Still carefully clutching me, he bent down, placing an ear against my chest.
“Andre?” I reached out and touched his face, disoriented.
He drew his head away from my chest, his expression slightly less panicked.
“I’m here. We were in an accident, and you were badly injured.” Again, the feather-light touch, this time to push away a stray strand of hair. I noticed how his hand shook. The gesture reminded me that my own body had shook moments before …
The devil. Fate. Hell.
Oh boy, I was screwed.
I squirmed in Andre’s arms, ignoring the searing pain as I jostled my injuries.
Andre’s grip tightened. “Try not to move. You’re still badly hurt.”
My eyes darted about, my breathing coming in quick, misty bursts.
“It’s okay Gabrielle, you’re okay.” Andre’s voice pulled my attention back to him.
“I’m not, Andre.” I began to tremble all over again. “I’m not.”
“What has you so spooked, soulmate?”
“He took me,” I said, my eyes darting over Andre’s face.
“Who?”
“The devil.”
Andre froze. “You mean while you were unconscious?”
“Yes.”
“Has he ever done that before?”
“Never.” Not while I’d been unconscious. The devil was growing bolder and my own situation more dire.
A muscle ticked in Andre’s jaw, and his muscles tensed beneath me. “It’s getting worse.”
“I know.” I pushed myself up, swatting Andre’s arms away when he tried to stop me. “Ugh, I feel like hell,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with my palms. I only managed to smear blood and grit around. “And considering that I’ve practically visited the place, that’s saying something.”
“We spun out, and you cracked your head open,” he said. “I was so scared that …” He trailed off, unwilling to finish that thought.
My eyes lifted and I took in the crumpled remains of the car. It looked like a third of the car had been lopped off. The third I’d been sitting in.
My gaze snapped back to Andre, who was also covered in blood. “Are you okay?” I asked. My eyes scoured over him. His skin was paler than it should be. “How much blood did you lose?”
“Don’t concern yourself with me.”
“You’re not the only one who’s allowed to go into panic mode,” I said, running my hands over his arms.
“I do not panic,” he said, affronted.
Ignoring him, I trailed my hands over his back. It was soaked. I’m sure if I looked, it’d be crimson colored.
I cursed. “Andre—”
“The wounds have already healed,” he said, gently removing my hand from his back. “We need to get moving if we don’t want to explain to the mortal police how we survived that crash uninjured.”
My gaze moved up. It seemed we’d already attracted plenty of attention. Lights had turned on in some of the nearby buildings, and faces peered down at us. No one, however, had decided to weather the storm. Judging by the very faint sound of sirens, even the ambulances were having a hard time of it.
“What about the car?”
Andre smiled. “The car won’t nark on us either.”
I rolled my eyes. “Andre …”
His lips wavered, then spread into a cheeky grin. “I’ll take care of it. Right now, let me worry about you.”
Andre stood up and helped me to my feet. I teetered, feeling off balance. Next to me Andre swore and scooped me up, pinning me against his chest.
“I can walk,” I insisted.
“I know you can, soulmate.”
I didn’t press the issue any more than that, mostly because I still felt like a pi?ata that had been beaten within an inch of its life. Andre whispered soothingly to me in Romanian.
I rubbed my head. “That’s the second time tonight I got hit in the head. I think I’ve killed off all of my brain cells.”
The murmuring stopped, and I felt Andre’s soft lips brush against my temple. Then it began up again. “It seems there’s a growing list of dead men walking.”
Andre glanced beyond me into the darkness, his eyes searching. I could see the menace drawn across his features. Andre was a string pulled too taut. He would snap soon, and it wouldn’t be pretty for whoever or whatever came in his way. “I will find out who did this, and I will relish their agonized screams.”
“You’re not going to find him,” I said, locking my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering.
“Him?”
“Or it—I don’t know the Underworld’s gender rules. The thing that attacked us was a demon. Argipifex,” I said.
“How do you know the demon’s name?” Andre asked, his boots crunching in the snow.
“The devil told me.”
“The devil told you,” he repeated.
I pushed my lips together and nodded.
Andre worked his jaw, but managed to push down his emotions. “Did he hurt you?” Andre asked, his eyes glinting. He looked unreal, my vengeful, raven-haired king, ready to do battle with hell itself on this snowy night.