I had already guessed that, but I was still surprised. His actions were so...undemon-like.
“I could’ve refused,” he added.
“Why didn’t you?”
“If I had, then Cayman would’ve died. He’s a demon broker, Angel Face. Their life is bound to their word.”
I stared at his profile. Again, so very undemon-like.
“Anyway, I want Bambi back, and you’re going to help me get her.” He pulled into a parking space.
I blinked. “How am I supposed to help?”
Roth smiled at me, and a chill swept along my neck. “You’re going to use your special Trueborn badassery and take that coven out.”
14
My grace came alive like a spark giving way to flame.
Now that was definitely a very demon-like thing to request, but still, I was shocked. I stared at Roth, dumbfounded and sure I must have heard him wrong.
Did he seriously just ask me to kill not just one but an entire coven of people? Bad people. Bad people who’d betrayed us, but come on. He couldn’t be serious.
He let out a laugh that would’ve been charming if it hadn’t come after him demanding that I kill an entire coven of witches. “You should see your face.”
“I don’t need to see it to know it has WTF written all over it,” I told him.
Roth leaned toward me. I tensed, and I thought he noticed based on the way his smile grew. “It’s almost like you forgot who I am.”
“I haven’t.” The muscles in my back became rigid.
“You sure about that?” One dark eyebrow rose. “A lot of people forget what I am—who I am, in the core of my very being.”
“Is that so?” I murmured.
He nodded. “They mistake my love for Layla as a kernel of goodness that will take root inside me like a seed, eventually blossoming into a flower of purity and light.”
“I didn’t think that for one second.”
“But a lot do, probably even Stony,” Roth replied. “As do a lot of other demons. Faye and her coven think that. Do you know how I know that?”
“A super secret, extra special demon ability?”
He laughed, and the hair on my arms rose, because the sound settled over me like smoke and ash. “Because they had to believe I’m a demon changed into something soft and good to even briefly consider betraying me like they did.”
“Oh,” I murmured. Was his...skin getting thinner?
“But I’m going to let you in on a little secret, my half-angel friend, because you also don’t truly understand who I am.” His finger landed on the tip of my nose. I flinched, not having seen him move his hand. “Every cell and molecule of who I am desires, needs and covets Layla. Humans call that love. I call it obsession. Same thing, I suppose, but I am a demon, Trinity. I’m brutally selfish and there are very few things I truly care about. While I may randomly commit acts of perceived kindness, I do them only so that Layla is happy. Because when she’s not happy, it makes me want to do really, really bad things to whatever or whoever has upset her.”
All of that was kind of romantic. Also super disturbing.
I pulled away from his hand. “Okay. Thanks for the sharefest, but—”
“But at the end of the day, I’m the Crown Prince of Hell. You do not want to mess with me.”
My jaw locked as I felt the grace flare within me. “And at the end of the day, I’m still a Trueborn who can reduce you to a pile of ash, so you don’t want to mess with me.”
“True, but something else I know?” He leaned back and draped an arm over the steering wheel. “You might have a whole lot of angelic blood kicking around in you, but you’re as far from holy as I am.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded, ignoring the spark of power deep in my stomach.
He stared at me. “Angels were forbidden to do the nasty with humans a long, long time ago, by you know who.” He pointed at the roof of his car, referencing God. “You might have been created to help fight some big bad that’s decided to have a playdate with Earth, but just in case you begin to go the route all Wardens have and think you’re somehow above a demon, don’t forget where you came from. You were created out of an act of pure sin.”
“No offense, but Wardens are sort of above demons on the whole good-versus-evil scale.”