Heart of a Demon (The Dark Angel Wars 1)

The loss of so many innocent lives nearly brought me to my knees. There was no way they’d be able to survive a fight with the Nephilim.

I pressed a hand to my chest and sucked in a breath. “She’s killing innocents to force you to give me up, isn’t she?”

Gabe nodded with a solemn frown. “That’s why Luke didn’t want you in those meetings. He knew it would kill you to find out.”

“And what about you?” Gabe had been keeping it a secret from me too, but here he was, breaking the silence out of the blue. “Why did you tell me all this?”

He bit his bottom lip and shook his head. “Because we’re partners, and I hate this rift between us. I can’t stand another minute of you looking at me the way you’ve looked at me these past couple weeks. That, and I don’t want you escaping into the woods anytime soon because of your curiosity, and getting into trouble again.”

It was slightly satisfying to know that my silent treatment had paid off, but at the same time I felt a little guilty. Luke and Gabe were just trying to protect me. They knew this massive guilt currently eating away at my stomach would intensify the moment I knew about the humans the goddess was sending to the slaughter. They were right.

I looked back at the humans still standing partly in the shadow of the pines. It was then that I realized I knew two more of them. Dirk and Stephen were there, too, in their customary cut off flannels and jeans. Dirk tilted his head and licked his lips when we locked eyes. The memory of his hands groping my body played in my head. I couldn’t help grimacing.

Gabe grabbed my shoulder. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Remember that giant bruise I got on my face when you were healing in the shack?”

He nodded.

“Those are the jerks responsible.” I pointed Stephen and Dirk out to him.

He reached for his sword and stepped forward with anger burning in his eyes.

“Those are two humans I’d be happy to dispatch.”

I pulled on his arm to stop him. There were still four other humans out there, and I didn’t want Sarah hurt if I could help it. This wasn’t the time or place.

“Not tonight.”

Dropping the sword back into the sheath, he grabbed my hand again.

“Tell me I did the right thing, showing you this. And tell me you won’t do anything stupid.”

I smiled at him. That wasn’t a promise I could make, especially now that I knew the body count was stacking so high. But, if there was one thing I’d learned living with Granny, it was that I could lie through my teeth.

“You did the right thing, Gabe. Thank you.”

His green eyes shone with hope, which made it even harder to keep my face from giving me away.

“Answer just one more question for me,” I said as we turned toward the manor. “Why me? Does a human sacrifice really give her so much power?”

He groaned and ran a hand over his head. “I was really hoping you wouldn’t ask me that…”

I stopped walking and tilted my head at him. “Why?”

“Because that’s the part I didn’t want to tell you.”

He’d already started confessing, he might as well get it all over with. “What is it?”

Heavy silence accompanied us for a few moments while he gathered his thoughts. Although I wanted to press him for answers, I waited patiently. He’d have to tell me everything eventually.

“Luke’s been doing some research.” He stopped to pull a foxtail from the overgrown weeds by the stables, and slowly chewed on the stalk before continuing. “He thinks that Margaret Thatcher is getting a little too uncomfortable for the demon. It’s impossible for her to possess you, because you’re Nephilim. And demons can’t just jump bodies at random.”

I nodded along. It all made sense. Margaret’s body hardly looked human anymore. She could hardly enter civilization, the way she looked now.

Gabe spit out the foxtail with a sour look and gazed at the ground, shuffling his feet. “So, he thinks the goddess is planning to rejuvenate her human host with your sacrificial blood.”

That sounded like your basic late night horror movie plot to me.