The Demon's Song - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,72

by the way she had looked at him. “Release me, demon. Give me death. I beg you. I beg you.”

She had longed for soulless death over what Belial was doing to her. And in that moment, Phenex realized that something deep within him had changed. He could not do as she asked and simply kill her. And he could not walk away.

It was…wrong.

When he looked at Uriel, the archangel’s gaze had softened. “Celestine is greatly healed. Again and again, she sends her thanks. And she wonders, as do I, why you are still here. You’re not like the others, Phenex. You never were. Only guilty of feeling too much, not too little. The door remains open…you can come home.”

He’d known Uriel would say it, known the words would bring only confusion and pain. How could he go back? He didn’t belong just because he had rediscovered his conscience. He didn’t belong anywhere anymore.

And where is my home supposed to be? he wanted to ask. I’m not what I was. Not even now.

But when Phenex spun around, the furious question on his lips, Uriel was gone.

Chapter Nineteen

He waited for her, as he always did, at the ER entrance.

Sofia would start to walk out, and all of a sudden, Phenex would just be there, appearing out of nowhere and falling into step beside her as though it was the most natural thing in the world. He was what she looked forward to when she was bone-tired, when she was ready to leave the insanity and go somewhere quiet.

She kept thinking she’d gotten dependent on his being there too fast, that she liked it too much. One of the earliest things he’d said to her, no strings, was played on a loop somewhere at the back of her mind. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself, sort of like having sex with him. Amazing, crazy, mind-bending sex. She was even starting to wish he would bite her, though he’d been as good as his word on that. No fangs.

That was another bad decision waiting to happen. Her opinion hadn’t changed on the whole vampire thing, despite the fact that the ones she now knew were very nice. But the thought of having him inside her, and at the same time having his teeth in her…

“How was your day?” Phenex asked, oblivious to the nurses ogling him as they left. A couple of Sofia’s friends flashed her the thumbs-up. She grinned, then ducked her head so Phenex couldn’t see. The man had a big enough ego.

“Fine. Busy shift,” she said.

“Noticed that,” Phenex replied, then proceeded to do something very odd. He whipped his head to the left, grabbed something that was either imaginary or invisible, and punched air with his other hand. It was over in a heartbeat, and then he was walking calmly along again, though looking a lot more smug.

“Do I want to know?”

“It’s just hospitals and their hangers-on. Grumpy old bastard needs to move along. He’s probably been dead for a good week. He wasn’t expecting that one, though. Landed right on his ass.”

“I was right. I don’t want to know,” Sofia said.

The routine was always the same. They’d walk together to the parking lot, look for a place without cameras and with a good amount of shadow. Then Sofia would wrap her arms around his neck, giving him what would look to the casual observer like a hug—until Phenex unfurled his wings and launched them into the sky.

It was cool. But she wished it were cool enough to erase her longing for her car, her apartment, her life…but it wasn’t. She’d spent her break on the phone with Amy, who’d just gotten back into town. She wanted to go for coffee. She wanted to see her, damn it. Being underground was slowly making her want to crawl out of her skin, and Phenex didn’t seem to see. Or maybe he just didn’t want to.

Either way, something had to give. She’d heard nothing about Belial, or more demons, or anything. Just silence.

It was infuriating.

They walked in silence while Sofia struggled to work up the nerve to ask Phenex something she’d been mulling for a couple of days now.

There was no time like the present, she told herself. So she took a deep breath, crossed her fingers, and dove in.

“So I was thinking,” she said. “I’ve got the next couple of days off.”

He smirked. “I know. I have plans. But go ahead.”

“Oh. Um…yeah,” Sofia said, delighted and flattered and more than a