her. A stone crunched in the alley behind him. He whirled around and thrust his hands outward, releasing a flurry of daggers.
Lucifer yanked Kayley in front of him, using her as a shield. One of the daggers drove deep into her heart. Her mouth went slack, her eyes widened and filled with confusion as she stared down at the handle of the blade. Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she crumpled to the ground.
The devil laughed. “How do you think Morrigan will feel about you when she learns you killed her sister?”
He didn’t care. Not as long as she lived.
No surprise that Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. The angel was a master at slipping away whenever things got too dangerous.
“Will you save her, I wonder?” Giving him a jaunty salute, Lucifer disappeared.
When Maccus held out his hand, all his blades returned to him. He didn’t spare Kayley’s body another glance.
Blood bubbled from the wound in Morrigan’s chest. He must have pushed her off balance just enough that the blade missed her heart. But she was in bad shape.
Her face was stark white, her eyes wide open. Had she seen what he’d done?
“I’ve got you.” He spied his jacket a couple of feet away, grabbed it, and laid it over her. “I have to get you home.”
His hands were shaking. His hands never shook. He held them out in front of him, not recognizing them.
Morrigan’s breathing was weak. The rattling in her chest worried him. She might be stronger than most humans, but she wasn’t immortal.
He lifted her as carefully as he could, but she still cried out. He expected her to pass out, but she was still awake and aware.
“I’ll take care of you,” he promised. Maybe she’d hate him for what he’d done, but so long as she lived, he could handle her hate.
The deep, dark presence inside him shifted again. He had to save her. She was the only one who could keep him from becoming a monster.
…
Morrigan had dealt with pain before, but nothing like this. Breathing was like sucking fire into her lungs. The wound burned. The fire migrated to her blood and now pumped through her entire body. It was as if she was burning alive from the inside out.
The blade had likely been dipped in poison. That was Lucifer’s way.
Her sister was dead. Or was she? It was hard to pick fact from fiction. Her mind drifted from memories of happier days to ones of fire and Hell, to the scene that had unfolded in the alleyway.
Buildings whizzed by so quickly her stomach churned. She closed her eyes and swallowed heavily.
“Look at me,” a deep male voice demanded. Even though her eyes were heavy, she forced them open. She knew that voice, didn’t she?
“Where…” She swallowed heavily, tasting something metallic and bitter.
“I’m taking you home.”
Home? She hadn’t had one of those in a long time, maybe never. Her body was heavy and warm. Leather creaked, and she caught a scent that cut through the sulfur and the overpowering smell of blood.
Maccus.
She turned her head slightly so she could see him. His face was set in a scowl—nothing unusual there. His smiles were rarer than blue diamonds.
“Hurt,” she managed to get out.
If anything, his features hardened even more. “Lucifer caught you with his knife.”
She’d left Maccus’s side. Why had she done that? Her sister…her sister had been pleading with her.
She licked her dry lips. “Kayley?”
He didn’t answer, which she supposed was an answer in and of itself. What had happened? She couldn’t put it all together.
The burning in her veins was getting worse. In spite of her resolve to be brave, tears trickled down her cheeks.
“Hold on.” He put on a final burst of speed. The night breeze brushed her face. The sounds of the city were muted in the background. They stopped moving. There was the ding of a bell.