Rae,” Leon said. “Now.”
I backed away, stumbling and nearly falling on the ruins of the security door, my shoes crunching on broken glass. The cold air outside smacked reality into me as I jogged toward the trunk, trying not to stare at the torn, broken body lying on the concrete, or the second corpse splattered against the side of the market.
What the hell just happened? How could Jeremiah be that strong? How?
I climbed into the truck, clutching my head in my hands, and jumped when only seconds later, Leon was getting into the driver seat. The tires screeched as he backed out and he slammed on the gas as he hit the road, pushing the truck to its limit. He avoided Main Street to take the long way home that curved along the bay.
“What happened?” I gasped, trying not to scream — or cry — or keep replaying the gore I’d just witnessed again and again. “Leon, how…how —”
“Jeremiah gave himself over to the God,” he said grimly. The words didn’t make sense, but they tightened that knot of anxiety inside me until I thought I might vomit. “That strength isn’t his. It’s God’s.”
I really wanted those chips and cookies.
But Thomas’s screams, and the decapitated body of the nameless man, lingered in my mind and curdled in my stomach until it was all I could do to hold down the little I’d eaten that day. Just as haunting was the memory of the cold, pale fog in Jeremiah’s eyes, the black liquid seeping from his mouth. It was as if something was rotting him from the inside out.
Jeremiah’s reward for the sacrifices he’d made was supernatural strength that his mortal body could barely contain.
“A human isn’t meant to have strength like that,” Leon said. “Mortal bodies begin to break down from the effort of maintaining it, so Jeremiah won’t survive like that forever. But that doesn’t make it any less of a problem.”
“Who was the second sacrifice?” I was pacing in the house, unable to sit down, afraid that if I didn’t keep myself distracted, I’d break down entirely. I’d seen Leon kill monsters before, but never humans. Watching humans die was something else entirely, even though it was for my own protection.
I could watch horror films all day and love them. I could revel in gore when I knew it was fake. But this was real. Far too real.
“The sacrifice must have been Victoria,” Leon said. He was in the bathroom, washing the blood splatter from his hairline. It was only at my prompting that he was bothering. He didn’t really seem to notice when he was spattered with gore. “One of the Hadleigh children is destined for death. Considering Jeremiah is walking around with the God’s favor, I’d say he made quick work of his sister.” He shrugged and turned off the water. “The only thing left on his list is you. You’ll get his full attention now.” He frowned, prodding curiously at his tattooed arms. They couldn’t be seen through the ink, but I’d heard him grumbling that Jeremiah had bruised him.
I could hear sirens faintly in the distance. When I’d briefly scrolled Facebook earlier in an attempt to distract myself, it hadn’t taken long to see someone post that Food Mart was on fire.
Would they find the bodies? Would there be security footage of what happened? Maybe if the police could just see what Jeremiah had done, maybe…
No. The police couldn’t help me. It was me and Leon — and somewhere out there, Juniper and Zane were still out for vengeance against the Libiri. The bloodbath wasn’t over.
It was only just beginning.
Emerging from the bathroom, Leon snatched me up and carried me to the couch, settling me onto his lap in front of the TV. He tugged my thumb from my lip — the nail of which I’d absolutely destroyed by chewing on — and held both my hands secured in one of his.
“Look at me.” He tipped my chin up, running his thumb over my pouting lower lip. “A man like Jeremiah isn’t allowed to spend this much time on your mind. Who do you belong to?” I pouted a little more, and his hand moved from my face to my breast, teasing gently over the piercing there. “Who do you belong to, baby girl?”
“You,” I said softly, and despite the anxiety pressing down on my lungs until I couldn’t breathe, I smiled when he kissed my forehead.
“You’re mine, and I don’t let what’s mine