hotter. Every moment he spent in this room naked made my temperature rise with ire.
Annabeth raked me up and down. “So, this is the Dominus you wish to protect.”
Azazel was wearing his jeans, but his torso was still bare and bleeding freely now. I glanced at the bowl on the dresser filled with thick, dark fluid. Blood. Azazel’s blood.
Her gaze flicked to Azazel. “You have two minutes. Get rid of her and get back on that bed.”
Azazel gripped my elbow and tried to steer me out of the room.
I shrugged him off. “No.”
His face was pale, but his eyes flashed dangerously. “You need to go. Now,” he bit out. “Dammit, Fee. We need the amulet.”
“Fuck the amulet. If this is the price, I don’t want it.” I locked eyes with Annabeth. “I invoke clause 136 and assert my claim.”
Her top lip curled, turning her beautiful face into something ugly and frightening. “Jasper!” She scanned the room. “You bastard. Show yourself.”
The specter. She was calling him, but he didn’t come.
She stubbed her cigarette out in an ornate ashtray on her dresser and focused on Azazel. “You told me you didn’t have a soulmate, Azazel.”
Azazel frowned. “I don’t.”
“Nice try,” she said to me. “The prior claim clause can only be activated by a soulmate.”
I took a deep breath because once I did this, there was no going back. Once I did this, he’d know the truth.
I grabbed hold of my top and yanked it down, stretching the neck of my T-shirt to showcase the mark. His mark.
“I am his fucking soulmate.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Annabeth’s expression smoothed out like glass at the sight of the mark. She stood taller and looked down her nose at me before transferring her epically cool gaze to Azazel.
“The deal is off,” she said. “Take your useless blood and your pointless seed and get out of my house.”
But Azazel was staring at the mark on my chest. He reached out reverently to touch it. My skin heated beneath his fingers, and the mark grew darker.
I wanted to say something, anything, but my mouth was the Sahara, and my heart was beating in my throat.
“Fucking get out!” Annabeth screamed.
Azazel didn’t even flinch. He wrapped his arm around my waist and steered me from the room. We made it to the foyer before the specter, Jasper, blocked our path.
“We had a deal.” He glared at me. “We. Had. A. Deal.”
Shit. The necklace. I pulled out of Azazel’s embrace. “I have to do something.” Before he could stop me, I ran back upstairs and into the bitch’s room.
She turned to me in surprise, and I grabbed hold of the amulet around her neck and tugged hard.
Her scream of shock was accompanied by a crack like lightning. The chain broke and fell to the ground. The house shook in its foundations, and then laughter filled the air. Cruel and malevolent.
Annabeth stared at me in horror. “What have you done? You stupid, stupid—” Her head twisted to the side with a sharp crack. And then she crumpled to the ground.
“I’m hungry, demon,” Jasper said. “Hurry and leave before I forget your aid.”
Oh, fuck. Oh, fucking hell. I turned and ran.
Azazel barely made it off Rue Mort before needing to be supported by Nox and me. He was weak, hurt. She’d had him for almost two hours with all those torture devices. How many more wounds did he have?
Nox had thrown his jacket over Azazel to hide his fucked-up state, but even then, we caught a few odd looks from human passersby.
“So wasted,” Nox said loudly, and garnered a few knowing glances.
It hit me that they didn’t notice his horns. Funny the shit the human mind would gloss over.
“What happened?” Azazel asked. “What was that sound like lightning?”
I filled him in on the specter, and we made our way down the regular street. The fog was gone, the air was crisp and clear, and so was my head. Shitting hell, what had I just done?
“I think I might have fucked up.” I bit the insides of my cheeks.
“It doesn’t matter,” Azazel said.
I looked across at him. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Why would you let her … Urgh.” The image of her on top of him, using him, made me want to resurrect the bitch and kill her myself. “Nothing is worth that.”
“Your life is.” He was silent for a long beat. “Why didn’t you tell me about the mark?” he asked softly.
“I was scared. I didn’t know you. I wasn’t ready.” So many reasons