Keenan reached out to his Prime again. The bastard’s stronger than I gave him credit for. Look, I know why you don’t call on the flames of hell in front of outsiders, I get why you won’t publicly confirm you possess that ability—hell, we’re in this situation with Gavril because people worry you possess it—but we need Enoch dead.
Don’t worry, Keenan, I won’t let your mate die, was Knox’s only response. Translation: he’d call on the flames if it seemed to be the only way to kill Enoch, but he’d give Khloé the chance to kill the fucker with the blade first.
Keenan ground his teeth. He understood, he did, but—
His heart jumped as Thea suddenly appeared behind Khloé, much as she had earlier at the stadium. This time, though, she held a jagged piece of glass to his mate’s throat. Fuck, he’d thought she was dead. His demon rumbled a growl, slinking closer to the surface.
“Oh, I really wouldn’t move if I were you,” Thea told her.
Everyone went still, raring to act but hesitant to risk that Thea would slice his mate’s throat. And Keenan knew the little bitch would happily do it and then teleport away. He guessed the only reason she hadn’t already done it was that she’d rather hand his mate over to Enoch—someone who’d make her suffer both in life and in death. Hell, Thea would probably teleport herself, Enoch, Khloé, and Lane—wherever the kid was hiding—out of there. Shit.
Khloé didn’t look in the slightest bit nervous. In fact, she seemed more exasperated than anything else. “Can’t you see we’re busy here, Thea?”
Stay still, Keenan told his mate. We’ll make our move once she gives us an opening.
Enoch let out a darkly satisfied chuckle. “Bring her to me,” he told Thea.
Thea smiled, but then that smile faltered and she blinked hard. Her hand slowly and mechanically moved away from Khloé’s throat. She’d seized Thea’s mind, he realized.
His imp instantly spun and gripped her attacker by the head. Blue/amber flickers of electric fire hissed and snapped beneath the imp’s palms. Thea’s eyes rolled back in her head, and then she slumped to the ground, convulsing with the shockwaves of electric fire that coursed through her body. Finally, she went still. Dead.
Thank. Fuck.
While her inner demon all but laughed in delight, Khloé looked at Enoch and felt her mouth curve. “Seems like you’ve lost your last ally. How very sad for you.”
With a growl of rage, the Lazarus demon fired more death orbs at her grandmother’s shield. They seemed stronger, darker … as if powered by his fury. Khloé gasped when a crack formed in Jolene’s shield. And another crack. And another. Fuck. She hadn’t thought he’d ever be able to penetrate the shield. But then, Jolene’s shield had never taken such a beating from him before.
Khloé pulled the blade out of her boot but didn’t throw it. She had to get the timing just right. Keenan, I need you to distract Enoch from slamming up another forcefield so I can stab him with this blade. I’ll probably only get one chance.
Make your move, and then I’ll make mine, said Keenan.
Khloé lifted her trembling hand and let out a surge of electric fire that surrounded Enoch’s forcefield. With a mere gesture of her hand, the construction severed, and Keenan tossed a hellfire orb at Enoch’s side, making him flinch and curse. It was the distraction she needed.
Her heart hammering in her chest, she hurled the blade fast. It found its home right in his fucking eye, sinking all the way through to his brain … but not before he tossed another death orb at Khloé. It sailed through the air just as Jolene’s shield cracked again and—oh God—went down. The orb smacked Khloé’s face and poured up her nose and into her mouth.
Motherfucker. She fell to her knees, coughing and heaving, just as Enoch burst into a cloud of ashes. This time, the ashes didn’t fly away. They floated to the floor.
Unable to catch her breath, she tried sucking in air, but it was as if her airways were blocked. Her body jerked as Ciaran slapped her back. His power rushed inside her and seemed to blow air into her lungs. The force within her reached to meld with his power, but it couldn’t. It wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t strong enough.
The death essence powered the infection in her body, and she could almost feel the protective shields around her organs begin to crumble. Panicked, her demon went absolutely fucking ballistic.
Warm hands cradled her face just as her vision swam. “Baby?” Keenan’s voice was thick with fear. “Fuck, you’re going to be fine. You are.”
No, she wasn’t. “Keenan,” she rasped. The world began to spin and fade as the darkness came to swallow her. Then she passed out.
*
Sitting on a chair in his crowded bedroom, Keenan stared at the woman lying on the bed. Despair stabbed his gut and sliced through his heart, the emotion so strong and consuming it was like a living entity inside him. It threatened to drown him, to wipe away every bit of his sanity.