Zayne nodded. “He doesn’t seek humans out. They tend to find their way to him, wanting or needing something that they’d give up anything for, including their soul. Messed-up thing is that most humans want utterly inconsequential things. They give up a part of their soul for a promotion, or to be with someone who probably doesn’t even deserve them.”
“Just a part?” I asked. “I thought they gave up their whole soul?”
“No, just a small part of it.”
“And...you think that’s okay?” I asked.
“I think that when humans use their free will and jeopardize where they end up when they die, that’s on them. We do everything we can to keep them safe from demons who break the rules, and you know there are rules. There must be a balance of good and evil,” Zayne said as we neared the bridge that led back into the city. “Cayman follows those rules.”
I knew there were rules and that the balance of good and evil stemmed from the concept of free will.
“I don’t know what to think about all that,” I admitted, staring at his shadowy profile.
Zayne was quiet for a long moment. “You know, I was a lot like you for, Hell, my entire life. I saw things in black and white. No gray—except for Layla.” He was staring straight ahead as he spoke. “I used to think that the Warden part of who she was canceled out the part of her that was a demon. I would even tell her that, when she was younger and would come to me, worried about what she was, upset that the clan never would accept her or worried that something was wrong with her. I always stressed to her that she was part-Warden and that was all that mattered. I was wrong.”
I kept my mouth shut, listening to him as some instinctual sense told me this was something he didn’t talk about a lot.
“I should’ve told her to accept the part of her that was demon, and I should’ve accepted it, because what she showed me...what I was a little late in realizing...was that what you are at birth does not define who you become.” His jaw tightened. “Did you know until today that demons could love?”
“No,” I whispered. “I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know that until I met Roth. He’s one of the most powerful demons you will ever come across, and he is still deadly when provoked. But the fact that he is capable of the kind of love he feels for Layla tells me that what we’ve been taught isn’t necessarily the truth at the end of the day.”
Fiddling with the strap of my seat belt, I still had no idea what to say. Agreeing with him went against everything I’d ever been taught, too, but he was right about Roth loving Layla. I’d seen that with my own eyes, heard it in the way he spoke to her.
What if we were inherently wrong about some demons? And if that was the case, how would one even begin to decipher how to proceed with them? Were some of them out there, trying to live their best life, and were Wardens supposed to just ignore them? How would Wardens even tell?
Zayne seemed to sense my thoughts. “Not many demons are like the ones you just met, and it’s fairly easy to tell which ones are.”
“How?”
“You can usually tell by one simple fact.” Zayne grinned at me. “They don’t try to kill you on sight.”
* * *
Zayne and I were patrolling and it involved a lot of...walking.
A lot of walking.
And it wasn’t particularly the easiest thing with my eyesight. I wished it was dusk, which was the best time of day for me to see. If it was, I’d be able to actually check out the city. The sidewalks were lit well enough for me to walk without stumbling, but my depth perception was off and I was having a hard time not walking into people while trying to decipher if the people on the busy sidewalks were all alive or if some of them were dead, or if they were demons.
We’d returned to the condo Zayne was staying in, grabbed a quick bite to eat at a diner down the street and then I held up my end of the bargain.
I patrolled with Zayne, keeping an eye out for the mysterious being that was slaughtering Wardens and demons alike.
We’d been at it for at least two hours, and so far, all we’d seen was a handful of Fiends who’d hightailed their butts in the opposite direction the moment they saw Zayne.
“Is that normal?” I asked as we neared an entrance to a subway. “The Fiends running the moment they see you?”
“Yep. They don’t ever engage.” Zayne led me down the subway stairs. My heart skipped a beat. Steps were the worst in poor lighting. I clasped the railing, taking my steps cautiously. “I leave them alone. Some of the other Wardens don’t, but like I said before, they’re relatively harmless.”
A part of me was relieved to hear that, because a lot of the Fiends I’d seen tonight had looked young, like teenagers, and I wasn’t sure if that was their true age or not.
“I have another question,” I said as I made it down the stairs without dying and we reached the dank, musty-smelling platform.
Zayne sighed. “Of course you do.”
I’d been peppering him with questions all evening, and I knew I was at the height of annoying, but now I had a more serious question for him. “So, does your moving out and being all independent have to do with Layla?”
He walked ahead of me. “Why do you care?”
“Because I do.” I hurried to catch up to him. “And because the fact that you live by yourself is odd and, hey, if you’d answered the question before, I wouldn’t be continuing to ask it.”
Zayne’s exhale was loud as he stopped under the glare of a fluorescent light. “I just needed space, Trinity. After my father died, and after things with...with Layla, I turned down taking over the clan, because I needed space.”
For a moment I was shocked that he was actually answering the question. “What happened with Layla?”
He looked away. “It’s a long and convoluted story, but the gist of it is that the clan turned on Layla. Not all of them, but enough. After watching her grow from a little girl to a young woman, knowing what she was and wasn’t capable of, they assumed the worst about her and nearly killed her. My father led the charge against her,” he said, and I felt my stomach twist. “And it was my fault.”
“How was it your fault? What—?” I stopped, squinting, and stared at the space behind Zayne. “Um, my eyes may be messing with me, but...”
We were about five feet from the stairs, and the dark space between us and the steps was...shimmering and vibrating. The breath I’d been holding expelled harshly, forming puffs of small, misty white clouds. Icy wind barreled down the tunnel, blowing my hair straight back.
“What the Hell?” I muttered.
Zayne turned, backing me up. “Damn.”
“What?” I asked, peering around him, and then the low hum of warning exploded into pressure at the base of my neck.
The shape took form within seconds. A manlike creature, standing nearly seven feet tall. Muscles rippled under shiny, onyx-colored skin. Two thick horns jutted from the top of his head, curving inward. The points were sharp, and I had no doubt that if this creature head butted someone, he’d impale them.
Pupils shaped like a feline’s were set among irises the color of blood. Then it smiled, flashing two razor-sharp-looking fangs.
A Hellion.
Created by pain and misery, these creatures did not walk the earth. I’d read about them in one of the massive books Misha and I had studied. They existed in the bowels of Hell, there to torture the souls of the damned. They were forbidden to be topside, and yet one stood in front of the steps leading up to the world—to where people were strolling about.
But that wasn’t the most disturbing thing about it.
“It’s naked. Like really naked,” I said, reaching for my blades.
“I can see that.”
“Like I can’t unsee this, Zayne. It’s really supernaked,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t focus. Oh my God. Everything is just dangling out there for the world to see.”
“Would you stop pointing it out, please and thank you?”
“But why is it naked? Is there no clothing in Hell?” I thought that was a valid question.
“Maybe it wanted to impress you.”
I gagged. “I’m going to puke.”
“Try not to do it on me.”
Zayne shot forward then, shifting as he ran at the Hellion. He was in full Warden form as he slammed into the creature. The Hellion roared, knocking him to the side. He hit the wall with a grunt. Chunks of cement gave way under his impact.
I cursed, starting toward Zayne as he picked himself up. Relieved to see that he was okay, I spun on the Hellion.
Adrenaline kicked my senses alive as the Hellion eyed me. It tilted its head, sniffing the air through bull-shaped nostrils. Ignoring the fact that it was very, totally naked, I cocked back my arm, prepared to let one of my blades go, when the Hellion simply vanished. A second later, I felt its breath on my neck. I spun around. Two puncture holes bled, due to Zayne’s claws piercing his heavily muscled stomach.
I swung on the Hellion with my iron blade. It popped out of existence and reappeared a few steps to my left. Dropping down, I went for the legs of the creature, cringing because, yeah, it was naked. Before my kick could connect, the Hellion vanished again.
“Dammit!” I shouted, annoyed.
The sound of its deep, throaty chuckle alerted me to where the Hellion now stood. Jumping to my feet, I aimed the blade for the midsection—
Moving disturbingly fast, it caught my arm and then it had its hand around my throat, lifting me clear off the ground. Its body vibrated, and then a man stood before me, almost too beautiful to look at. The horns were still there, as were the fangs, but he looked as if he’d stepped out of a calendar of naked hot dudes.
Naked hot dudes with horns.
It sniffed the air again and growled. “He said it would be easy to find you. I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
“Who?” I gasped.
The dark-haired Hellion smiled, flashing fangs that did not remotely look human as he drew me forward, toward his mouth. “The one who is making your Protector bleed.”