Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“Yep.”
“Of course, at a moment of shame and weakness, the devil arrived to strike a bargain.”
“Yeah. He’s a real asshole.”
Starlight is not getting it, even when I outright say it. The devil has cast a very strong glamor over him that makes it impossible for him to see what is happening directly before his own eyes.
“And you’ve never asked his name?”
“He refuses to give it.”
“When you know a demon’s name, you have power over them.”
“Uh huh.”
I give him a quizzical look to see if he’s connecting any dots. Nope. Nothing.
“It’s almost like you’ve made a deal with an actual devil.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “It is.”
I give up. I cannot possibly be more clear. Starlight cannot see what is happening to him, and I cannot make him see it.
“Who killed your team?” I ask the question, because I suspect I already know the answer.
“I did,” he says, admitting freely. He has entered confession mode now, and though I am but part angel, I may be the first one ever to have heard his sins. “I caught them doing something unspeakable to a group of female prisoners we were holding as a means of manipulating their husbands. They were wives and mothers and…” He stops talking and clenches his teeth. “I don’t regret what I did. Neither did the military, in the end. They got rid of me, but I never saw a day in prison.”
“Pity.”
He gives me a sharp look.
“If you had done a day in prison, you might have assuaged your guilt, and not had to have built this one, which seems to be entirely for you.”
“For you, you mean.”
“No, Starlight. Nothing about this place has been made with me in mind. This is a house containing your particular horrors, and nobody else’s.”
He gives me another one of those very sharp looks that make me tingle with excitement. He wants to blame me for this. This would be so much easier if it was a trick I was playing on him. I could make it all go away if it was my fault. But it’s not.
“How do I stop the blood?”
“You can start by letting whoever is left alive among the guards go,” I suggest. “It’s not perfect, but I imagine it would be a start toward assuaging your guilt.”
“Fine,” he sighs. “Stay there. I’ll set them free.”
“Put some pants on!” I shout after him
Does it matter if I sit in this kitchen? No. Of course not. But I stay because he has asked me to, and helping him feel as though I am somewhat allied with him will eventually pay off one way or another.
“You are playing a cruel game on your faithful servant,” I tell the unseen devil, who I know is lurking, watching, amused at the outcome of his little tricks. “It makes allying with you much less appealing, I hope you realize. Let the man have a damn shower.”
There is a light chuckle that sounds as though it belongs to someone who is retreating.
“That better have fucking worked. They all fucking deserved to die.” Starlight returns, not looking at me, goes straight to the sink and runs the tap. He’s fully dressed again, which is good, because I think being let out of prison by a blood-soaked sheriff in his underwear is an additional trauma his guards do not need. He lets out a whoop of glee when the water runs clear, simple water, nothing special, no bleeding of conscience.
“Let’s get cleaned up, angel.” He strides over to me, clasps me around the waist, and throws me over his shoulder. He carries me off in perfect male triumph, not bothering to give either one of us a chance to get completely naked before he drags us both into the hot flow of the shower.
“Keith! What the fuck!”
I laugh, not caring one whit about the state of my clothes, or the fact that I am covered in blood for that matter. There are worse things to find oneself covered in.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use my name before,” Starlight laughs. His clothing is getting absolutely ruined. I can only assume he shed his weapons before he got in… no. He didn’t. He unwraps his gun belt and sets it down outside the shower as the pair of us attempt to scramble out of our increasingly soaked clothes.
Starlight has never looked as sexy as he does with his hair soaked to his chest, his shirt open all the way to the navel, his pants open but sticking to his surprisingly jacked thighs as he tries to get himself out of yet another unnecessary predicament of his own creation.
My more institutional attire comes off much more easily, the pants basically falling off of their own accord, the top lifting over my head. I am naked and free besides the stone collar which continues to weigh me down and mute my powers.