Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,102

mass, hid the wound on his chest, but I knew exactly where the fatal stake had struck him. I knew—

His chest moved.

It rose and fell with a shallow breath, and my heart just about leapt up my throat to do a dance number on the asphalt.

“Omen?” I threw myself to his side. His body shuddered, and the carbonized layer coating his form cracked and began flaking off like mine had.

My fire hadn’t burned him. Of course not. It never had before—he was a being that thrived on fire. The flames I’d poured down had melted the toxic metals from his body and absorbed right into the gap of his wound. Had—had they—

My hand shot to that spot in the middle of his chest. The remains of his shirt disintegrated, and my palm rested against a solid plane of hellhound-shifter flesh, only a white blotch of a scar showing where he’d taken the wound.

Naturally, that was when he opened his eyes.

For a second, Omen blinked at me as if he needed to clear his vision. A faint furrow creased his forehead. Then a thin smile crossed his lips. “Can’t resist the opportunity to cop a feel even in the middle of an apocalypse, huh, Disaster?”

“You fucking bastard!” I said, which wasn’t really fair, since I doubted he’d wanted to get himself killed. But he probably figured out I didn’t really mean the insult from the enthusiasm with which I threw my arms around him right afterward.

Omen let out a hoarse chuckle, lifting one arm to return the embrace. Another hand squeezed my shoulder. A third rested on my back, and a fourth brushed over my hair. My other three lovers knelt around us, welcoming me and their commander back.

“Are you all right?” Snap asked, a question that might have been for either of us or most likely both.

For my reply, I lifted my head from Omen’s shoulder to pull my devourer into a kiss. Then Thorn’s broad arms were tugging me to my feet as the hellhound shifter heaved onto his. Vivi leapt to my side, looping her arm around mine, and I hugged her just as hard as I had my lovers.

“You came a long way to watch me burn down the world,” I said.

A startled laugh spilled out of her. “It was an epic performance, but I don’t think I want any repeat showings.”

“Good, because neither do I.” The fire inside me felt subdued in a brand-new way, like the vast calm of the ocean after a monster of a storm.

I had been going to end the world… but I hadn’t. And now that I’d walked up to the brink and taken a good hard look at it before stepping back, I couldn’t imagine ever allowing myself to be pushed even close to over it. That vast calm was mine now. I was a phoenix reborn as something better, even if it hadn’t worked quite the way anyone had predicted.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Vivi said.

I hugged her even tighter. “Me too. Thank you for helping talk me down.”

“Any time, bestie. All you’ve got to do is say the word.”

It seemed that was true. I’d been awfully worried about how she’d react if she found out what I was, but she’d seen the worst of me tonight, and she was still here. Maybe it was time to stop worrying.

About Vivi, anyway. Omen’s gaze slid past us to the crowd of shadowkind, slightly thinned by my recent torching but still a whole lot larger than our little cluster. Larger and taking some tentatively threatening steps toward us now that the torching was over.

“I’m getting better by the moment,” the hellhound shifter said to Snap, “but I’m not sure how long this lot will allow that to last, though. I don’t suppose our equines and imp came through with their part in the plan?”

“We haven’t seen—” Ruse started.

“Ruby!” one of the larger minions bellowed, raising an axe, and just then a clatter of racing hoofbeats echoed down the road.

Gisele and Bow led the charge, Gisele gone full unicorn and Bow showing off his centaur form. Antic perched on Gisele’s gleaming back, brandishing her tiny fist in the air.

And with them came dozens more shadowkind, rippling out of the shadows into the physical world and careening toward us in a wave.

They rushed through the crowd of minions, most of them small enough to skirt between the beefy legs, the equines jostling to make room as need be. Before the Highest’s lackeys could