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Maybe the otherworldly sex had gone to my head, making me stupid enough to believe I could rely on this random-ass demon who’d come into my life. But what did I really have left to lose? A place with the Shadow Stalkers? Reality was, most of the dudes on the team would rejoice the day I finally left. Even if I left, something told me Aidan still wouldn’t leave me alone. His level of masochism was just that self-destructive.
More so, if what Nova said was true and I could harness more power through him, if he were to ever get out of line, I’d just destroy him.
I’ll take the utmost pleasure out of it, too.
“Lady?”
I turned to look at my friend as we boarded the plane back home. “Do you believe in God and angels?” I asked.
My question had clearly taken Aidan by surprise because his mouth opened and closed for several seconds, at a loss with how to respond. “What brought this about?”
“Just curious,” I lied.
He hummed before nodding. “I believe the forces of good are out there, but I don’t really know if God and all that exists.”
“Do you ever wonder if we’re on the wrong side of things, or maybe we unfairly made these so-called demons into the bad guys?”
One of Aidan’s brows rose with interest and he crossed his arms, biceps bulging with strength. “Do you mean to say that taking innocent lives doesn’t make you the bad guy?”
“No, obviously not. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we can’t just assume every demon is bad because a few gave them a bad name. That’d be the same as me concluding you were a horrible person because you’re a man.”
Laughing loudly, Aidan shook his head. “But you did.”
“I never said I was right to do it.”
Aidan’s eyes danced across my face with suspicion, and he stepped closer. “I don’t know what this is all about, but you’d be smart to assume all demons are bad. I’ve never once, not in all the time I’ve been a Shadow Stalker, seen a demon do anything good.”
“What if you met one willing to fight their own kind?” I asked, moving forward with the line as we filed one by one into a corridor so we could board a death box that went into the air. “What if one offered to partner with you to fight their own kind?”
The South African offered me a confused glance, but he visibly contemplated his answer. “Are you worried that the side of you that’s demon will take over one day? Is that what this is all about, Lady?”
He would think that, seeing how I’d never thought about demons as anything other than enemies. But Nova was different.
He hadn’t killed me. Okay, yeah, it was clear he planned to use me, but what he offered was a way to kill stronger demons. It was mutually beneficial. I’d be stupid to think either one of us cared about what happened to the other. At the end of the day, it was a business transaction—a forbidden partnership, but one where I could do more damage, and I’d be stupid to turn it away.
“What makes you think I’m so different than the demons we fight?”
My friend’s eyes captured mine before he took hold of my hand. “Because you’re doing it to rid the world of evil. That’s why you’re different.”
“But what if my vengeance is self-interested? What if it’s not for the world? Wouldn’t that make me exactly like every horrible villain out there, even if what I did benefitted the masses?”
We were led to our seats, and as I buckled myself in, Aidan sighed loudly and nodded. “I guess you’re not wrong. I hadn’t really thought about it, but it would be silly to assume there weren’t exceptions. It’s a dark road though, to trust a demon. One you’re not likely to come out of unscathed.”
“You could say that about being a Shadow Stalker. We can’t be confident what we’re doing is on the right side of things,” I argued, feeling the weight of my words hanging in the air.
Who could really say what he and I did was on the right side of history? I was far from a goodly little thing. On the daily, I hunted down men and demons. I snuffed them out without any questions asked, and in the most gruesome way possible. The only thing I was confident about were the sins they committed. But I’d also committed just as many sins. What made me different?
Shit.
The hand wrapped around mine squeezed. “I can promise that what you’re doing is saving more lives than the ones you take. Maybe that’s not enough, but I have to believe that what we’re doing is the right thing to do.”
I swallowed my argument and nodded instead. I’d hoped his answer might give me clarity about how to address the issue with Nova, but it only made me more confused.
And as if summoning the demon with my thoughts, the plane bled away to a stormy sky and I was suddenly on a boat overlooking the ocean. The water sloshed against the sides as I gripped the handrail, taken off kilter.
“I fucking hate boats,” I groaned.
Nova’s beautiful body met my sideways glance, and a flash of lightning made his presence stand out against an expanse of dark water. “Because of what your fosterfatherdid to you, I imagine?”
