Page 78 of Soul Redeemed

The scent of blood carried on the air and watered her mouth. Thais screwed her eyes shut, trying not to focus on it too much, but all she could see was red, that coppery flavor coating her tongue as she fed from the blonde in her mind. And the baby.

What? No. Oh, Gods, no.

“Hey, Ava.” The female’s voice arrived too close, and when she swung around the blonde’s eyes saucered. “Wait. Who are you?” Frowning, she stepped back, clutching the baby.

“Shhh.” Thais edged closer, panic burrowing into her bones while she desperately concentrated on the Nephilim female’s face as a mask.

“You’re not Ava. You’re not Ava!” As the female twisted away from her, as if to run for help, Thais panicked.

She grabbed the blonde’s arm, and as she spun to break free, Thais locked gazes with her, forcing an enchantment upon the girl. The charm settled over her in the heavy blink of her lids, and before she could drop the baby, Thais snatched her up, while helping the female fall to the floor.

The infant screeched a wail, and Thais searched through the dim light of the room rushing toward the bed, setting the baby gently against the sheets. The frustration tamped down the urge to feed, and at the sound of boots tromping toward the bedroom, she sought the shadows, hiding on the other side of the armoire.

“Forget it. It’s no big deal, Xander.”

The keen hearing Thais had acquired alongside her already acute senses identified the speaker as Ava. She hunkered back into the darkness while they approached.

“Look, don’t tell Calix I made a major dick of myself.”

“I don’t have to tell Calix that. He already knows you’re a dick.” The chuckle that followed, along with the footsteps, came to a halt just outside the room, and Thais eyed the silhouette of one set of shoes through the crack below the door. “Avalon?”

The light bled into the room and Ava gasped a breath, falling beside the blonde. “Calla?” She shook the female, and at the pause that followed, Thais braced herself to rush out of her hiding spot. I can’t do this. I can’t take her back there.

Oliver had given her a glimpse of the Sang, though, hanging from the ceiling like bats, just before she’d flashed to the Wrath mansion, an alternative that skated down her spine like claws.

It’d been a reminder for her to return with the girl.

Ava scrambled to her feet and scooped up the baby before Thais had the chance to make herself known. She glanced around the room. “Who’s there?”

A second wave of panic swept through Thais as she watched, desperate for the moment that Ava would set the baby down.

Not the baby. Can’t take the baby. Put the baby down. Please.

She sensed it would only be a matter of time before the demons’d burst in on the scene. No doubt, Ava was on the verge of summoning them.

She couldn’t steal her away with that baby, though. She wouldn’t. Who knew what the hell those sick bastards had in mind? And after the gut-wrenching sensation she’d felt just moments ago, she wouldn’t risk having the child near herself, either.

Put her down. Put her down.

A flash of black streaked through the room, and in the next breath, Ava and the baby disappeared into thin air.

Thais gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, Gods!”

The demon. The gorilla-faced bastard had nabbed the wrong one!

She closed her eyes to get the fuck out of the place before someone could find her, but cold steel gripped her throat.

Her eyes widened on opening, as the Fallen angel from before held her up by her neck. Her hands flew to the gauntlets he wore as she wheezed a breath.

“Gotcha.” The menace in his tone cast chills down her spine. Behind him, two large brawny males, including Calix, filtered into the room.

“Calla!” The largest of the three knelt beside the blonde, and a sinking feeling hit the pit of Thais’s stomach. “Avalon! Where is Avalon?” His head whipped back and forth, searching through the darkness for what she presumed was the infant the female had been carrying.

When his gaze landed on hers, the murderous expression in his eyes told Thais she wouldn’t be leaving the manor alive.

36

“What the fuck is this?” Oliver’s voice raked down Ava’s spine, and she hissed from the corner of the familiar cell, as she sat crouched with the wailing baby in her arms. “A baby?”