Pure & Sinful (Pure Souls) - By Killian McRae Page 0,60
down the middle.
“Is this all a joke to you?” he bellowed, drawing Marc and Riona’s gazes back from the mug’s trajectory and its final resting place. “What part of ‘damned for all eternity and serving the dark side as its demon minion’ don’t you get? Yes, someone like Asmodeus is about as hard as they come. You still kicked his ass back to Hell, Riona. Barely. If you’d been ‘distracted’ a minute more, who knows though? You both have got to get a hold of yourselves before things go too far. I refuse to stand by and watch another person I care for get killed for something as silly as love.”
Now it was Riona’s turn to spring. “Jesus H. Christ, I am not in love with the priest here. I don’t know where the hell you and Ramiel get these ideas.”
“Ramiel?” Marc blinked violently several times. “You’re talking to Ramiel about us?”
Dee didn’t miss that dangerous two-lettered word. “Us?”
The witch slashed her hand through the air like a confused ninja using flies for target practice. “No, there is no us. Marc and I are not a thing. It only came up because Ramiel kept hinting that I have some destined love that’s supposed to shake the cosmos, or start an apocalypse, or melt the polar ice caps, or something. I think he was warning me not to be distracted,” she whipped in Marc’s direction, “by screwing you.”
“Why do I feel like you’re trying to make this my fault?” the priest shot back. “I backed off. I tried to stop. You’re the one who decided to act like a kitty that wanted to climb my tree.”
The witch blanched. “How dare you?”
By this time, even the transient who’d been having a three-way conversation with himself had paused and was watching the trio with utter confusion. Dee, noticing their audience, leaned in over the remaining half of the table and pushed the red-faced Riona back into her seat. Her attempt to resist stood no chance against Dee’s demigod strength.
Narrowing his gaze on the reticent couple, he yelled through a whisper, “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. You’re both on the hook if something happens; Marc for obvious reasons, and you because you would never subject someone to Hell, if given the choice. That’s it, I don’t see another solution. You two are not allowed to be alone anymore.”
“Seriously?” Riona barked.
Marc said nothing, but Dee knew his friend well enough to recognize sadness in his eyes.
“Chaperoned visits only from now on, preferably with Ramiel or me,” Dee confirmed. “It’s as much for your own good, as well as for our mission. I know I’m pretty damned talented, but I can’t fight evil on my own.”
“You’re right.” Brow furrowed, Marc nodded solemnly. “You’re right, indeed.”
But Riona didn’t like the looks of that bandwagon. “Oh. My. God. I am an adult and perfectly capable of putting a kibosh on my own behavior. I do not need to be chaperoned like this is some goddamn reenactment of Victorian courtship.”
Marc turned to Riona, taking her hands in his. The witch dashed a look at him in confusion, trying to figure out from his expression why he would do something so traitorous to their claims. It was when the saccharine words began to fall from his lips that she understood.
“My child, we all fall prey to Satan’s snares from time to time, and acquiesce our better judgment to the darkness. There is no sin in being human, the only sin is failing to strive for purity when we realize the error of our ways.”
She ripped her hand away as if Marc’s palms were a hot stovetop. “Don’t you fucking pull the compassionate clergy routine on me, Father. I am not one of your parishioners, and if I recall correctly, your error was about to make a beeline straight for my purity.”
Dee couldn’t stop the harrumph that escaped his throat. Riona was many wonderful things, but sexually pure was not one. While they had never discussed her history of conquests, he knew she was the conquering type by instinct. Like the old saying goes, takes one to know one.
Not to mention that she’d been introduced to the world of magic by her demon-in-glamour ex.
As the fire of Riona’s stare turned to Dee, the demigod saw the situation quickly getting out of control. He had to sum this up with no possibilities of misinterpretation, and pronto.
“Fine, you don’t want to be watched over like a horny pair of teenagers? Then