A world without Sunny was a world he no longer wanted to be a part of. The demon in him roared to life, unleashed, and when the demon world called out to him, for the first time in his memory he didn’t bother trying to resist it. Instead, he breathed in its darkness and let it consume both Sunny and himself.
The room tilted. When it righted again he was in a different place and a different world. And this world, oddly enough, felt much more like…home.
Bright yellow eyes approached them from out of the shadows, and with a snarl Blake tracked their progress, prepared to protect Sunny with his own life. She wasn’t dead yet.
The yellow eyes had a face, then the face had a body. Clad neck to toe all in black, the demon halted a few paces away from them. Blake, even in his demon rage, hesitated before it. Heat curled around him.
“So this is the demon slayer,” it mused, its attention focused completely on Sunny and disregarding Blake as something unworthy of interest.
Too late, Blake realized what he’d done. This might feel like home to him, but he’d brought Sunny to the one place that would be unlikely to welcome her.
It extended one hand to her and Blake bit out a warning. “Touch her and you’ll die.”
Its eyes went to Blake as if seeing him for the first time. Then, it laughed at him. “I’m not going to harm her,” it said. “I’m wondering what it’s worth to heal her.”
“Anything,” Blake said, not daring to hope but unable to hold a flare of it back.
The demon seemed even more amused by that. “Is it worth giving up your sister?”
Cassie was there, shrouded in darkness. The blank, empty look on her face, her once-violet eyes now a steady, yellow glow, tore an even deeper hole in Blake’s soul. The demon stroked her cheek. “You can’t have them both,” it said to him. “Choose one.”
Sunny’s weight grew heavier in his arms, the dampness of her blood seeping into his clothes and chilling his flesh, and Blake knew he was losing her.
But he was losing Cass too, and he’d loved Cass his whole life. One woman was his future, the other his past. The demon in him, the part of him that refused to compromise when it came to something he wanted, rebelled. “I’m taking them both.”
Cass’ face was no longer empty. She looked at him, violet banishing the yellow, and her voice was soft when she spoke. “I’m not ready to go back, Blake. I don’t know if I ever will be.”
And then Blake understood. The demon didn’t hold her. She was here by her own choice, because the mortal world had become too much for her. In her own way she was as damaged as Sunny, and she’d chosen this place to heal. Just as he’d sought it out when he realized Sunny was dying.
The difference was, Sunny couldn’t survive here. Cass could.
Blake looked at his sister, loving her and offering her whatever strength he could and silently begged for her understanding. Then he held Sunny out to the demon.
“I choose this one,” he said. “I’ll pay any price.”
The demon grinned.
“The debt won’t be yours,” it assured him. “The debt will be all hers. And I think I would like to have the demon slayer in my debt. I would like that very much.” It ignored Blake again as it stepped in close and laid its hand on her still body.
Color and warmth slowly flowed back into her face and the soft fall of her hair brushed against Blake’s forearm as she shifted her head to one side. Then suddenly it was light, not darkness, surrounding them, calling Blake back to the mortal world.
“Tell her I gave her life,” the demon called after him. It laughed again, softly this time, but with a delight that made Blake shiver in spite of the heat it expelled. “And tell her I gave her a small gift to go with it.”
Blake found himself back in the underground room of the hotel with Sunny still in his arms. And when she opened her eyes to look up at him, they shone with a warm yellow light.
* * * * *
Michelle didn’t remember much of what happened over the next few days other than that she’d spent much of them asleep in a hospital bed with Blake refusing to leave her side.
Trevor Black’s career in the movie industry was over. That much she knew, thanks to her captain. And after her partner’s disgraceful behavior, he’d been demoted to beat cop duty. But it was Blake’s silence, and the way he studied her when he thought she wasn’t looking, that kept her from wanting to celebrate.
As she lay in her bed watching Blake pace, small bits of information began to trickle in, filling in the blanks, until she had a clear picture of what had happened to her in the demon world. Even though she’d been given her life back, her destiny was in the hands of a monster she didn’t know, and whose motives she didn’t trust.
But as long as Blake had her back, the good in them both would trump any evil. As far as she was concerned they were now in this together and she wouldn’t want it any other way.
She focused all her attention on him as he scanned her monitors. God, she was so amazed. She could actually hear the pounding of his heart from this distance. What other powers had the
