“No one will be able to touch you here—unless you are planning another one of your grand escapes. I know you are fond of them when danger is nigh, soulmate.”
I ignored the barb. Squeezing my scalp, I said, “Andre, we can’t just do this … I’m sick.”
He stared down at my chest, his gaze far away. When his eyes finally found mine again, they were tormented. “Please. Let me pretend, soulmate. I can control everything else, but not that. Not that.”
He looked so lost, and damn me, but I would do anything to wipe that expression from his face. I was going to agree to this, like the sucker I was. That meant getting dolled up, chatting with people, standing by Andre’s side for an evening.
“Alright,” I said, as though I really had a say in the whole thing, “let’s have our celebration. Question: will my friends get eaten if I invite them?” I smiled as I said it.
His lips twitched. “Soulmate, I’m more concerned about my subjects falling victim to your friends—Oliver in particular.” The sly devil winked, making me laugh.
“Ah, Dios, that laugh.” Andre’s eyes smoldered as he watched me, and my laugh dried up.
He leaned in, taking my mouth fiercely. His passion was like a damn breaking open. I could feel it pouring down on me. Had I been foolish enough to think that intimacy would curb our lust for each other?
It hadn’t. It had merely raised the stakes.
I left Andre when another call came in and my soulmate started making threats anew. There was nothing like hearing your soulmate promise to eviscerate someone to really curb the passion.
I headed down the hallway, pulling out my phone and texting Oliver and Leanne about the celebration.
Once I was done, I threaded my fingers over my head. Restlessness tore through me.
I made a beeline for the back of the mansion, where an expansive balcony overlooked Andre’s backyard.
Reaching the back door, I stepped outside into the chilly night. I didn’t stop moving until I’d reached the very edge, my hands palming the railing. The wind lifted my hair and twisted it in a thousand different directions. I embraced the chaos.
In the garden beneath me, the shadows moved. I startled at the movement, the peace I’d felt a moment ago now shattered.
The darkness seemed to ooze and roll, climbing the sides of the building, heading straight for me. I backed up, but I could not turn away.
I watched as the darkness gathered itself, condensing into a shadowy figure. Then I heard the laugh I had come to know, to dread.
The devil’s form grew more substantial with each passing moment until, at some point, he had the appearance of a flesh and blood human.
I couldn’t look away, even as I continued to back away from him; I could not summon my body to turn its back on something so dangerous.
“Oh no, no, no, Gabrielle. Do not think about leaving. I just arrived.”
My upper lip involuntarily curled, as repulsion warred with cold, clammy terror.
The devil came to a stop in front of me and straightened the charcoal suit he wore.
He scrutinized me, taking in the subtle lines of sickness. “Not doing so good?” He shook his head, feigning sadness. A smile tugged the corners of his lips.
“You killed her.”
He smirked, his strange eyes watching me with excitement. “Take it as a hard-learned lesson: I will kill each and every person you care about until you give me what I want.”
Physically I might be sick, but I was not weak. My courage rose within me, causing my skin to flare with light. “My list of loved ones is short, Pluto. You’d better pick your battles because once they run out, you’ll have nothing to blackmail me with.”
“There she is. Ah, consort, you have fire to match my own.”
“Go to hell.”
Deliberately I turned my back on him.
“Not without you,” I thought I heard him say.
My spine stiffened, but I didn’t pause, even as his voice resonated behind me. “Gabrielle, the sands of your life are running out. Eat, drink, be merry—you have a day. Then you are mine.”
Chapter 28
I woke with a gasp. Sweat beaded along my skin, chilling my already cold skin. It had dampened the sheets while I slept, like even the most unconscious parts of me feared what would happen …
Tonight.
Bile rose at my encounter with the devil the night before. I put a hand to my face. I’d have to be near that for an eternity.
An eternity.
I couldn’t keep down my rising sickness. I threw off my covers and ran across Andre’s room and into to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time. I leaned over the porcelain rim and vomited up blood and bile.
“Soulmate?”
A shirtless Andre stood in the doorway to the bathroom. His eyes darted from me to the toilet, then back.
I flushed down the evidence of my sickness and pushed myself up on shaky legs, but halfway there, they buckled.
Andre was next to me in an instant, wrapping me in his arms. He pressed my face into his chest, cradling it gently. And that was about when I lost it.
I began to cry heavy, gut-wrenching sobs. It was all falling apart. What was life for if it could be snatched away so quickly? Why was it so ghastly?
Andre held me, rocking us and rubbing my back while he whispered things in languages I didn’t understand.
He still had no clue what deal I’d made with the devil. We’d both been so busy; it was just one of many things that got shelved for later. Not that it mattered. Even if I wasn’t walking to my death later tonight, I’d still be doomed. The blood he’d given me only a week ago had been changing me at an accelerated rate, killing me in the process.
Andre trembled as he held me, and I took some strange comfort from the fact that he was just as scared as I was. At least we had camaraderie.