right now, and quite frankly, so do I. I don’t have the time to train up another Demon to take his place. Not to mention you saw the Shift. Do you really think that if she saw you on your knees bleeding out, she would’ve stopped there? We’d all be dead by now.”
“Then how am I supposed to tell her now?” I ask with a baffled look at the ugly Demon.
“She will be calmer now. Perhaps,” she says, avoiding my gaze.
“What you really mean is that you won’t be there, so you’ll be safe from her wrath,” I drawl.
“You and she are lovers. She is less likely to Shift and kill you if you are by yourself.”
“How thoughtful of you,” I mutter. “What did he shoot me with anyway?” I ask after a beat.
“A dart made from the poison of a briar plant,” she says.
“Oh,” I say and give her a horrified look. “He’s killing Demons.”
“They shouldn’t be breaking lockdown then, should they?” she says and disappears.
“Fuck,” I mutter again. The briar plant is something that grows down in the marshes. Only the Swamp Demons are immune to it. It is lethal to every other fucker, including me it seems. There is no known cure for it.
“Great,” I sigh and rub my hand over my face.
I have no choice but to tell Annabelle. I will be dead by the time night falls over her residence if I don’t. I just hope that I can convince her to keep Darius alive. Something tells me that it isn’t going to be an easy task and my strength is waning.
“Igor?” I call out softly. He will hear me wherever he is and come to me.
“Sir?” he asks a moment later. His eyes go wide when he sees the wound.
“I have to go to the residence. Call me if you need me.”
He nods, his eyes not leaving the bleeding hole in my side. “I’ll hold down the fort,” he says. “And I won’t say a word,” he adds before I can threaten him not to.
“Thanks,” I say and stand up.
Igor disappears and I walk slowly to the ledge of the roof. I look down. Taking a deep breath, I Shift and flap my wings. I take off, but stumble slightly in the air.
I keep going, knowing that if I fall from the sky now, I’ll be done for. I’m hanging onto the Shift for dear life. I only make it to the ground outside the residence before I Shift in midair against my will. I fall from the sky to the snow-covered ground, landing in a painful heap before I black out.
I come to with hushed voices whispering over me.
“You tell her.”
“Fuck that. You tell her.”
“Pah, ask the therapist to tell her. She’s less likely to kill him.”
I crack my eyes open and blink. I’m indoors on a bed, the pain in my side making me want to vomit.
Elijah and Killian are standing over me, debating on who gets to tell Annabelle about me, it seems.
“You’re awake,” Killian states. “Good. You can tell her.”
“I planned on it. Just didn’t make it,” I rasp, my mouth bone dry. “Where is she?”
“Not sure,” Elijah mutters. “Around somewhere. What the fuck happened to you?”
“Darius,” I growl and try to sit up.
The pain radiates through my torso as the nausea sweeps its way across me. I groan and lie back down.
“Briar thorns?” Elijah asks.
“Yeah.”
“Fucking asshole,” he mutters.
“Make that two fucking assholes. Roberta knows about this,” I inform them.
“Shit,” Killian laughs. “Annabelle is going to have a field day with this.”
“She can’t kill him, or her. She needs them both.”
Killian growls knowing that I’m right, but not wanting to concede.
“We need to find her. We can’t help you,” he states.
“Awesome. Get on that, would you. I’d like to tell her at least once that I love her before I’m eradicated,” I grit out.
Killian breathes in deeply and says, “No need. She’s here.”
In the next second, she swoops into the room with her hair on fire. Like, literally. I’ve never seen anything like it before and probably never will again if she can’t help me.
“WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?” she roars storming over to us.
Elijah scoots around to the other side of the bed to stand next to Killian. I, unfortunately, have nowhere to go.
“Who told you?” I ask, needing to know so that I can kill them if I survive. I wanted her calm and rational, not on fire and ready to annihilate everything that moves.
“No one,” she spits out.