Ispend the next twenty-four hours in misery. I still can’t keep anything down and I’m so tired, I don’t bother to leave the motel room. Thankfully, I don’t have to. Grace paid through the end of the week, so at least I don’t have to be worried about being kicked out.
Another price she paid on my behalf.
It doesn’t matter if she said she was doing it for herself, if she went accepted Azazel’s bargain because she was looking for answers about her mother. She never would have had access to the demon in the first place if not for me. If anything horrible happens to her…The fact she just lostseven years…
Everyone is making sacrifices for me. Malachi. Rylan. Wolf. Now Grace, who’s little more than a stranger. Meanwhile, I’m huddled here on a motel bed, waiting to be rescued. Again. It’s enough to make me want to scream.
I feel the change in the air before Azazel materializes in front of me. It’s a strange sort of static electricity, like right before a lightning storm. One moment the room is mundane and ordinary, and the next shadows reign supreme despite the relative early hour.
I won’t say Azazel’s less scary after all these interactions, but I don’t have the energy to cower right now. I just blink up at him as he towers over me. “Took you long enough.” Even my voice sounds wrong. Weak and thready.
He frowns. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Just special, I guess.”
He frowns harder and leans down to coast his hand over my body. He doesn’t touch me, keeping a careful few inches of distance between us, but it still feels too intimate. Especially when he hovers over my midsection and huffs out a laugh. “I suppose that would do it. You’re cooking quite the little beast in there, aren’t you?”
“Don’t call them a little beast.” The words rush out before I can think. I might have more than a little resentment about the pregnancy, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let this demon talk about the…baby…like that.
“If you insist.” His dark brows draw together, eyes lighting almost red for a moment. “Ah, I see. That would do it.”
“What are you talking about?” I don’t like this. I’m prone and feel particularly helpless, and he hasn’t moved his hand away from my stomach. “Back off.”
“Your shields are abysmal.”
“I’m aware,” I grit out. I can’t sit up because he still hasn’t moved and I don’t want to risk accidentally touching him, but I don’t like this. Not a single bit. “Get away from me. I mean it.” I try to inject as much authority into my voice as possible. I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t listen. I don’t know what Icando.
“I’m feeling generous after meeting my quota so I’ll help you out for free.” He presses a single finger against my lower stomach in the gap between my T-shirt and my jeans. It’s such a tiny touch. A single fingertip. It still goes through me like a giant bell tolling. The room gives a sickening spin and then another and another, before finally settling back into place.
“What the fuck? I told you—” I stop short. I feel different. Lighter. Like I can draw a full breath for the first time in over a week. I’d attributed that claustrophobic feeling to worry about my men, but it was the pregnancy all along? I narrow my eyes at the demon standing over me. “What did you do?”
“Supplemental shield. It won’t stop the beast from growing or gaining the necessary sustenance to survive, but it will stop the constant drain of power.” He considers. “Think of it as a funnel rather than a waterfall. Better for both of you, I imagine.”
“Do you have a lot of experience with seraph pregnancies and the resulting vampire-hybrid babies?” I manage.
“You’d be surprised.”
“Can you—”
“You already got this for free. Don’t press your luck asking for more.” He straightens abruptly. “I’ll retrieve your vampires once it reaches full dark. Where do you want them?” He makes a show of looking around. “This place is hardly secure and your father will be searching for them.”
I finally sit up. He’s still too close, his shadows taking up too much space and making him seem larger than his human form. It’s disconcerting in the extreme. “You took seven years of Grace’s life and you can’t even guarantee that you won’t leave a trail for them to follow?”
He sighs. “You continue to press me. It’s irritating.”
A few weeks ago, having a ridiculously powerful and scary demon exasperated with me would be enough for common sense to take over and silence me. No longer. I lift my chin. “Then maybe you should make better deals. You’re supposed to be so powerful. My father is just a vampire. What’s that compared to a demon?”
Azazel sighs again, louder. “Fine.” He produces a card from somewhere and passes it over. It looks nearly identical to the one from earlier, except it has an address on it. “That’s a one-way ticket, so don’t use it until you’re ready to go.”
“Go,” I repeat.
He doesn’t roll his eyes, but it looks like he wants to. “Yes,go. When you’re prepared to leave, hold it to your chest and concentrate. Anything you’re carrying will be transported with you.”
A sliver of cold works its way through me. Teleportation. Obviously, I knew Azazel could do it since he seems to come and go as he pleases, but to allow someone else to do it independently of him? The thought makes me shudder. It seems risky. Surely there are a thousand things that could go wrong while I’m a disembodied version of myself, winging from one location to another. If that’s even how teleportation works. I honestly have no idea.
Riskier than trying to call a cab and leaving a trail for someone to follow if they know where to look?
No. Not riskier than that.