Sins of the Innocent - Jamie McGuire Page 0,37

were all soaked from rain and sea.

I looked back at Levi. “Don’t kill anyone. Promise me.”

Levi winked. “I will do my very best, love.”

Paolo cackled, a frightening sound even through the rope gag across his mouth. “They’re coming for you,” he said, his words muffled. “And then for her.” His accent had changed, his voice low and hoarse.

I’d heard the voice of a demon before, but the sound coming from Paolo’s throat was more than one voice and so different from human that it was unnerving.

“Silence, Nybbas,” Levi barked, unfazed.

Once Levi called the demon out by name and commanded him, he recoiled and cried out.

Levi winked at me. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this.”

I forced a small smile. “I believe you … Levi.”

His eyes fluttered, and then his entire body tensed, his back arched. “No … no!” His voice bellowed, filling the entire house. “I said no!” He didn’t sound like himself as he commanded whatever was attempting to take over his body. He strained, the veins in his neck and forehead bulging.

“Levi?” I cried.

He grunted and crouched over, breathing hard, still struggling. I reached out to him, but he held out his hand, signaling for me to stay away.

He fell to his knees, and then he was still.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded.

“What was that?” I asked, horrified. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Levi gripped his knee with a free hand and then stood, seeming fatigued. “They tried to shell me.”

My eyebrows pulled in. “Which one?”

“All of them.”

Paolo laughed again, his body trembling in delight. His fingers curved in like a primate, his back was bent, and his shoulders hunched. He was soaked in his own sweat, his hair dripping as if he’d been out in the rain.

Levi approached him. “Silence, demon.”

As Paolo continued to laugh, Levi bent his elbow high in the air, and then letting go, his fist met Paolo’s face. Blood spattered as his nose exploded with the blow, and his head fell backward, his body limp.

“Will they try it again?” I asked, worried.

Levi rolled his shoulders back and blew out a cleansing breath, offering a comforting smile. “Even as one, they aren’t strong enough.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded and smiled, trying not to look as unsettled as I felt.

“Good to know.”

“They’re here,” Levi said. “Your family is docking the Katherine. Let’s move.”

I nodded and pulled open the door, pointing my gun at the dozens of shells standing in the pouring rain. I cocked my weapon and pointed it at the woman standing in the middle, her eyes like large obsidian marbles, her skin pale and thin as paper. A human would become very sick after being shelled, and they would never be quite the same after. I scanned their faces, knowing each innocent life would be forever changed because of me and this enduring bid for power.

“Step back, demon,” I commanded, cocking my gun.

The rain pelted my face and eyes, causing me to squint. The demons would use our compassion against us, many times forcing the death of a shell, but I wouldn’t allow that.

She bared her teeth, her white nightgown translucent, highlighted intermittently by the beam of the lighthouse. I imagined how horrified, how cold and ill, she would be when the demon left her.

“Leave her!” I said.

She twitched, the dark spirit inside of her struggling to keep hold.

A shell attacked Levi, and he easily struck down a man twice his size. With limbs sprawled out in every direction, the man’s body slid along the ground and stopped in a shallow puddle.

“Last chance,” Levi said to the creatures standing before us.

My hair swelled with rainwater and formed droplets at the tips, sticking to my jawline. Within the first two minutes, I was as soaked as the woman before me. I wiped the water falling from my lashes and into my eyes, and just as my focus was broken, the woman sprinted toward me, followed by the dozens of shells around her.

I threw punches and kicks, ducking from their grip, but they were many. They succumbed to the blows I dealt, but they were as strong as Claire and Bex. Soon, they piled on top of me—punching, biting, scratching, and pulling at my hair and skin.

I fell to my knees, my palms flat against the grass and mud, feeling the weight of more than a dozen rabid humans on my back. Seconds later, they were gone. Levi was tossing them across the yard, three or four at a time.

I fought my way to my feet. The adrenaline