He smiled.
“You son of a bitch,” I whispered. “You’re the one who killed her.”
“It’s true. I thought the light one needed a bit of persuasion to join me.”
Sam let out a roar I was pretty sure burst my eardrum and shoved me aside so hard I fell onto the ground. He leapt into the air, shifting, his body contorting and changing faster than I’d ever seen before.
Pieces of clothing fluttered down onto the ground around us as he shot forward, gunning for the man who just admitted murder.
“Get in the car,” I told Kimber and then prepared to shift, preparing for a battle that would only end in my death and realizing maybe death wouldn’t be as bad as being rejected and cursed.
Lucifer lifted his hands and shot out the white-hot power, aiming it right at Sam who was so far gone with grief and rage he just kept barreling toward it.
Just as it was about to overcome him, something happened. It seemed to bounce off him and fling back at Lucifer. The devil was unprepared for the unexpected, and it knocked him down, flat on his back.
What the hell?
I looked behind me where Kimber was standing, feet apart, wind blowing her hair around her in fiery waves as she held out her hands, focusing on what was going on. She somehow threw the power back at Lucifer.
Lucifer was going to make her pay for that.
Sam pounced on the surprised man, getting in one great swipe of his claws and lifting his arm back to take another swipe when he was thrown off, bouncing off the ground with a crack and then lying still.
I wasn’t sure who to run to, who needed protection more, so I settled for a spot somewhere in the middle of Kimber and Sam.
Lucifer got to his feet, blood dripping off his chin. The left side of his face was practically skinless, with deep gouges marring the skin. “It seems I underestimated you,” he said, not sounding as angry as I thought, which only worried me more.
I watched as his face healed itself, the skin knitting back together and smoothing out in seconds as if nothing happened to him at all. Sam got to his feet, crouching low and preparing to attack again.
“He’s never going to join you,” I yelled. “You just admitted to killing the woman he loves. He’s no good to you now anyway. Without the Mindbond he’s going to slowly go insane and die.”
Behind me Kimber made a sound. I really wished she would just get in the car.
“I see,” Lucifer said, staring at Sam. “What if I told you she wasn’t dead?”
Everything around us stopped. The air became so still I began to wonder if Lucifer’s statement didn’t suck it all out of this place.
“Are you saying Heven isn’t dead?” I asked, flat.
Sam began to pace the ground, back and forth, back and forth.
“That’s exactly what I am saying. I couldn’t very well kill her until I understood the full impact it would have on my recruit.”
Sam let out a sharp growl that pierced the dark sky.
“How do we know you aren’t just saying this? That this isn’t some kind of trap?” I demanded.
“Why, it’s simple.” Lucifer replied. “I’ll show you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sam
He lied. He spoke only lies. He only tried to give me hope so I would join him, so I would give in to the darkness within me and become just like him. The proof of her death was undeniable; it reverberated inside the walls of my body, trying to find a place to settle, trying to find a place to latch on and kill me too.
His blood shined bright on my claws. It was the blood of a killer, the blood of the man who twisted my soul, who was responsible for making me part animal, part man and now he was responsible for taking away the one thing in this world that I loved most.
I almost welcomed insanity. I welcomed the idea of slipping away inside my mind, of not really having to think, remember. But before I could completely lose myself, give up and let go, I had to do some more damage.
I was done listening. I wanted more blood.
I was about to attack when his words broke through my broken thoughts. “I’ll show you.”
Show me what?
He dropped his hands by his sides and spread his fingers wide. Then, slowly, oh so excruciatingly slow, did he lift them. When they were at his shoulder level a sound off to my right filled the air.
It was a sucking sound. The sound of something being pulled out of a place that wanted to hold on to whatever was trying to escape.
We all looked that way. We all stood and stared at the only thing there: the black sludge river.
Something was rising up out of it, something round and covered in the black, insistent goo. It lifted higher and higher until it cleared the surface of the water and floated there. Globs of the black junk slowly dripped away, sliding back into the river, leaving behind a large, clear bubble.
Piece by piece the contents of the bubble began to reveal itself to us.
Piece by piece my mind began to realign. Thoughts began to clear and recognition began to dawn.
I saw the familiar cascade of white-blond hair and the hint of pale skin.
I saw a slim body unfold and eyes blink open, looking past their cage and seeking me out, landing on me and spearing me to the very core.
Heven.
A low whine ripped from my mouth as I watched the bubble, now completely devoid of the black sludge, float toward us. It was just out of reach, high enough that I couldn’t touch if I tried, and it came to a stop next to the man controlling it.
Lucifer.
Heven hadn’t been taken and “killed” by Beelzebub. It had been someone far worse.
She fell forward, hands splaying against the bubble, looking down at me. I could see her mouth moving, her chest heaving as she screamed something over and over again. “Sam!”
She was calling my name.
She wasn’t dead.
She was alive.
I shifted, my animal form melting away to my human one, all my limbs trembling with the need to touch her, to feel her. Images from the past few hours were like an onslaught to my newly awakened brain and pulled at my attention, trying to taunt me with what I had done.
I pushed it all away.
All I could see, all I wanted to see in this moment was her.
I ran toward the bubble, rushed forward so I could somehow pull her down.
“Ah—Ah,” the devil cautioned, holding out his hand and halting my progress. “Now you have proof. You can see with your own eyes that she is not dead. She is very much alive.”
“Let her go,” I said, my voice sounding strange to my ears. I was aware of Riley coming closer to stand just behind me, covering my back.