he murmured. “I didn’t think you could heal me, but you do. You’ve…you’ve saved all of us.”
“This was my original purpose,” I admitted. “To love and to heal.”
“Thank God for you,” he said with a kiss to my forehead. “Maybe He sent us to you, intentionally or not, but,” his arms came around me, crushing me to him, “either way, we’re never letting you go.”
31
Forgiveness
Deyva
“Kais, what the fuck?” Zach snapped, his hand gesturing to my red and intricately patterned ass.
“Dey, you were seriously going to go back there?” Stavros whispered. He was sitting on the lid of the toilet as Zach and Kais filled up the rest of the small bathroom, their chests puffing.
“Zach, I’m electing not to heal them. It’s fine,” I said, and Zach only shot me a sharp glare. Yep, still in that doghouse too. Speaking of, I reached a hand out of the shower to Stavros who only stared blankly at it. “Stavros, I’m so sorry.”
“But you came back,” he said, frowning.
I shrugged. “Az rescued me.”
“Az?” Zach squawked.
“He saw her leave,” Kais said. “Came and woke me up. Swore he could bring her back.”
“And you didn’t fucking think we should know about it?!” Stavros shouted, face turning red.
“I did, if there was anything we needed to do about it. Thankfully, Az handled it. He knew what he was doing and I trusted him on that.”
“Deyva,” Zach said softly, brows drawing together. “You really wouldn’t have come back on your own?”
“I…” God, the air in the bathroom was thick with the rotten, meaty flavor of betrayal and I wanted to gag a little, but I didn’t think that would help the situation. I was the betrayer in the scenario. “If I’d...it’s just that…” I sighed, shoulders sagging. “No. I was determined to go.”
Stavros made a strangled moaning sound and Zach fell back against the wall, face crumpling.
“She thought she could talk Hell out of attacking Bethel any further.”
“The whole thing with the hellhound was a warning, at best. A threat. I figured if I could keep Kimaris and King Belial busy for like, the next sixty years or so torturing me, you’d all…” Be at peace by the time Hell remembered it wanted its revenge against my men.
“We won that battle,” Stavros said.
“Yeah, but it was only hellbats! You didn’t see it, but there was an entire army out there,” I said.
“Five,” Kais said.
All three of us turned to stare at him and I shut the water off with a quick snap. “What?”
“There are five, now four, armies surrounding Bethel. Az reported that last night too,” Kais said. “And the four haven’t retreated.”
My mouth hung open, water dripping off me into the tub. Part of me couldn’t help thinking that if I’d maybe left a week ago—but no, I’d marked these men long before I’d really even touched them.
They had marked me too. That was why I came back. Well, that and I’d had a bunch of ribs broken and Az hadn’t given me a choice.
“How much time do we have?” I whispered. It wasn’t just my ass that had to heal. I was stronger than a human, but I’d been pushing all my strength at everyone else for the past week, and I had some catching up to do if we had four armies to take on. Oh God, four armies.
“Even if every single volunteer was really ready—” Zach stopped short and shook his head.
“Azariah is no slouch,” I said, blinking as Stavros leaned forward, grabbing the towel and passing it to me, his eyes taking a furtive look over my body. “He probably needs to power up after blowing it on those pain beasts though.”
“We’ve got eyes on them, and they’re not moving,” Kais said. “Azariah isn’t the only one who needs to catch his breath. When something changes, we want to be ready.”
Zach nodded and then he and Stavros both watched as Kais crossed the small space, stepping in front of me in my little towel, cupping my face and lifting it to his. He pressed his lips fully to mine, arms wrapping around my shoulders to hold me in a firm embrace.
“We are going to survive, Daisy,” he whispered, our breath mingling. “You’re ours now.” He stepped back, smile faint but shining in his dark eyes, even as he glanced down at Stavros and arched an eyebrow. “Kiss and make up, yeah? We’ve got shit to do.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, saluting Kais' deliciously tight ass as he spun and marched out, and then