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Rift didn’t hold back on the cavalry, but it’d be a lie to say I wasn’t damn excited to have an opportunity to take down an army.
Aidan evaded one asshole aiming for his heart and stabbed right into the demon’s neck. He’d hit the jugular if the fountain of blood was anything to go by, and after narrowly dodging a shower in it, my friend cut into two demon’s legs and kicked another right in the chest.
I didn’t want to acknowledge how good it felt to be fighting beside him again, so I just bashed the brains out of one of the demons going after my companion and made quick work of the rest. Skipping, I thwacked one and kicked another, grunting a happy little tune. Then I cut a wide circle with my long sword and disemboweled the ones stupid enough to close in on me. Smile on my face, I sunk my blades into some while brutally bashing the rest.
It was Lady’s playground tonight. I’d never felt so in my element killing all these bastard demons, and it felt right with Aidan by my side, doing his part to make sure they were all dead-dead.
Double tap, bitches.
After I’d delivered swift justice to all seventeen demon-jerks, Aidan swiftly did his post-kill demon duties, spreading the soul-binding powder gratuitously on each body. The saucy demon slayer walked around the space with his fingers pinched together, looking like that one meme of the salty chef. Even spared a minute to brush back all the silky dark hair that’d fallen into his face.
In the moonlight and covered in blood, it was tough to ignore how handsome this motherfucker was. I’d never say so, because Aidan didn’t need any more people telling him he was gorgeous, but I wasn’t blind either.
Wasting no time, I hurried over to the storm shaft I knew was concealed in this particular alley with Aidan trailing after me. Hesitating, I climbed into it with a look in his direction. “Stay here.”
“I’m coming with you,” he argued.
“Aidan,” I growled.
The Shadow Stalker pushed me into the underground tunnel a little rougher than I was used to from him and the shaft door clunked shut loudly, leaving the two of us in total darkness. Thankfully, demon night vision made it easy to see where I was going when there wasn’t any light to be found.
Still, my thoughts were elsewhere. Something about the way Aidan touched me felt different. I eyed my friend, concerned, but his usual smile beamed back at me and I swallowed down the foreign sensation hitting my chest.
I couldn’t be distracted. I had a reason for being here tonight, and with Aidan suddenly showing up out of fucking nowhere, everything changed. It was time to get to this bastard’s heart and end this nightmare night.
Navigating the tunnels with Aidan in tow, I searched for the feeling of dark power. When I found it, I rushed over to a box in the corner of a cut out underground room. Knelt down, I went to grab the box, but Aidan called out to me.
“I underestimated a half human, hmm?” The voice was unnaturally low and ominous, nothing like the Aidan I knew.
Turning around, suddenly on guard, I tried to figure out the shift in his tone, but Aidan didn’t wait. He walked over, grabbed me by the arm, and led me away from the one thing I was supposed to do. Then, without so much as another word, Aidan took my face in his hands and our lips were suddenly merged like we were lovers and not in the midst of all this doom and gloom bullshit business.
It took me a second, the soft yield of his mouth giving me an odd sensation in my stomach, but I finally got my head together and pushed the offensive bastard away. “What the fuck, Aidan?”
The gleam in my friend’s eyes wasn’t normal, and for a second, I stared without any idea why the new sheen unsettled me so much. But then his hands were around my throat, cutting off all ability to breathe, and I was lifted off the floor.
Kicking the wall, I tried to dislodge his hold on me, already a few feet above the ground. My memories of suffocation proved correct, because it was literally the worst feeling in the world, but I wasn’t helpless anymore.
Never again.
My nails cut into my friend’s flesh along his bare, muscle-strained arms, and he hissed. Then Aidan’s eyes glimmered, warping like luminous liquid before the color bled to red.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but one thing was painfully clear, this wasn’t the friend whom I’d left behind. This was someone else. The reality of what that meant hit like a blow to the chest. It’d feel like I were already suffocating even if his hands weren’t around my throat when my head went straight to what this embodiment of my friend and his memories meant.
They’d gotten to the one person I held dear. Somehow, they’d gotten to him, and it hurt far more than anything else ever could. Be it demon possession or otherwise, in order to know what this one knew, Aidan couldn’t still be alive. They’d stolen his memories—his everything—and I’d never hated anyone as much as I did this demon who tried brazenly to overpower me by the throat.
But before I could truly fight back, a sharp, jagged blade entered my chest, the pain causing me to cry out. I struggled to lock down my voice, but the Aidan imposter twisted the long blade and no pain in my life would ever compare.
15
The Day I Died
BLOOD POURED FROM MY WOUND, and the hand around my throat squeezed tighter before the imposter dipped his fingers into the endless flow from my chest. Agony didn’t come close to what I felt both physically and emotionally. It was the first time pain overpowered my rage. I was paralyzed by it. I watched as my captor licked my blood from his hand, almost as if my taste was orgasmic the second it spread over his tongue.
“You taste exactly like your sister. This power is truly incredible.”
Sister?
Jaw clenched, I narrowed my eyes on him, fighting the debilitating anguish, and then drove a dagger into his jugular without the least bit of hesitation. His gurgled cry was like music to my ears as I was dropped to the floor. Groaning low in my throat, I clutched the long dagger still imbedded painfully into my chest, but no amount of pain would matter when only one thing stood in the way of my assured victory.
